What is the difference? Everyone one does not want us to draft Jay Williams becuase we have a point guard. BUT They want the ball out of our point guard's hands because he plays better without it IT seems the point forward things is way to work around Francis insistance that he be KNOWN as a point guard even thought he would do NONE of the POINT GUARD DUTIES Is that about right? Every time i hear POINT FORWARD it irks me. I mean if Stevie is not going to do what Point Guards do . . WHY NOT GO GET A POINT GUARD and move Steve to the two Rocket River
Several reasons- Making Steve a 2 means your lineup becomes small. We already have a very good 2 guard. We do not have a very good small forward. Bruising your star player's ego=bad. A point forward (like Odom, whom I assume you're referring to) would not mean Steve is just a pseudo-PG; it just means he doesn't have to handle the PG duties 100% of the time. Think of it like Moochie coming into the game, except you don't become ridiculously small, and you don't dribble-dribble-dribble. Steve still brings it up the court part of the time even when Moochie is in the game.
I was just thinking that this is a perfect team for Rodney McCray in his prime. Just run the floor, pass, play great D, rebound, and not be called on the score.
How about a point center? Only we geezers remember that Wilt Chamberlain led the league in assists one year, in his older years, when he decided to focus on assists. Could it happen again? Ming mania. Is there any cure?
Good point glynch. Not only did he lead the league for the season, but he had a game with what has to be the most amazing line I've ever seen: 22 points, 25 rebounds, and 21 assists -- a Triple Twenty!! Walton and Kareem were very good passers as well. Especially with Walton, the half-court offense came through the center. He really was a "point center" in his prime. One of the reasons I'm looking forward to Yao is the possibility of showing the "youngsters" how a really good passing center can run a half-court offense from the high post for a set of athletic teammates. Just imagine the cuts to the basket and the pick & rolls that would be possible with Yao at the high post. If the opponents stop a Francis or Mobley drive to the basket, they just pass back out to Yao. From that position, he could see and hit any open man on the court for a jumper. And Yao's own 12-15 foot jumper would be unstoppable. Even more so from 8-10 feet if he just takes a couple steps in when his man moves over to try to block the shot on a teammate's drive.
GocartMozart, Really insightful post for a new guy! Hang around, you'll like this place, it's fun. We all get to act like experts. In fact, BBS is really in charge of the Rockets; we tell Les what to do. I hear that he spends hours a day reading our posts!
No he wouldn't. He'd be the 3rd pick at best; knowing what we know now, probably a bit lower than that. It takes a special breed to be a point forward - i.e. Pippen, Grant Hill, and Magic Johnson. The thread between all of these teams is that the team in question did not have a great point guard to run the offense. Houston does in Francis, and he needs/wants the ball in his hands. Thus....why take it away from your franchise?
O.K. I know you knew someone would bring this up so it might as well be me. Magic was no point forward he was a point guard. There is nothing special about Quitten and Lamar's strengths are exactly what would make him a good point forward if someone chose to do that. Two teams with great point guards that were not the teams primary distributer that come to my mind are: 80's version of the Celtics, Dennis Johnson was an outstanding point guard but the offense ran thru Bird which is why he avg'd over 6 assists a game for his career. 2002 Kings had Mike Bibby but once he got the ball across the 8 second line he stopped being the point guard and just became a guard. The offense was usually run thru Webber and Divacs. They avg'd about 9 assists a game between them and Bibby only avg'd 5. Douge Christie even avg'd about as many assists as Bibby. The Kings offense thrives on having other people that can distribute the ball as well as Bibby, wouldn't you agree? Our own Rodney McCray was considered a point forward when he was on the floor with John Lucas. I think we can all agree that Lucas was a point guard with Hall of Fame talent and he ran the team extreemly well but we still allowed some of the offense to run thru McCray and even Robert Reid and Ralph Sampson who were all extreamly good passers. Last year Rudy T allowed a Walt Wizard to direct the offense on several occassions freeing up Francis and Mobely. In fact I will argue that our offense was at its best at times when Walt was running the show during long stretches of the game. I guess the point I am trying to make is that Lamar Odom does have the skills to be a point forwar and a great point guard does not supercede the need or usefullness of a point forward type of player. Francis has never been good at running the break but he does have the skills and athletisism to be as good of a finisher as there is in the game. I happen to agree with Cat on this...put him and Steve on the wings and let Lamar (or someone with his skills) bring the ball up court and DAMN! Look out. People are so worried about Lamar's ability to shoot the three but his shot from behind the arc is not that bad. Last year with his injury he shot .190 from behind the arc, but his previous two years he avg'd .339 combined with a high of .390 his first year. That is not bad at all. One of our all time favorite 3 pt shooters, Mad Max avg'd less than 33 % for his career with the Rockets and his best year was 33.7 %. Lamar has the Right Stuff and would be an exellent fit with Steve and Cat. He could still be a point forward with out stepping on Steve's point guard toes. Given the option I think Steve would just as soon be the one finishing the break with his good buddy Cat as the other option. I am all for drafting Ming with the first pick but if we could string something together for Lamar using the 15th pick and KT and someone else to make it work salery wise then I am all for it. Like You I don't know if that would be enough to close the deal but if it is then great. Getting Lamar and only having to nurse one player thru his rookie year would be awesome. If we could add both Ming and Odom this off season then it would be a be one of our all time greatest off seasons.