I hear what your saying but all im saying is when talking about a 4 year lottery team I would rather not trust a guy like Feigen who is in the inside of all that looking out. You know what I mean?
Feigen took over for Eddie Sefko right after the second championship. He has covered them since the mid-90's. Maybe it's just me, but I prefer the opinion a guy who has spent the last 6 or 7 years of his life writing about the team over a columnist from the New Jersey Star Ledger. Besides, D'Alessandro hasn't written a damn thing about the Rockets. Like most from the east coast, he mostly ignores them unless discussing Yao Ming or the fact that they just hired a New Yorker as their coach. Given the fact that he probably doesn't see the Rockets play but twice each year - once in New Jersey and once in the Gah-dun against the Knicks, I am far less inclined to take his word over Feigen's.
I don't understand what you mean. Let's examine D'Alessandro's points: 1. Let's look at Feigen's last statement: Ok. What's the difference. They're saying the same thing. 2. Van Gundy is known for his hard nosed defensive teams. Feigen agreed with the need to improve the defense: Feigen didn't mention Griffin but we all know his defense sucks and lets the offensive player continually back him down. Griffin relies solely on his shot blocking ability to make up for his deficiencies. Cat is average. James Posey is good but overrated. Yao is decent but 90% of the centers in the league cant score at all. 3. Feigen: Here, Feigen is much more accurate. By March, Yao was dead. He couldnt really do anything. However, there were several times during Yao's hot stretch when the guards could not find him. This is a fact. Remember Yao's dunk against the Lakers. How often did that happen? How many times did the guards setup their teammates for easy scores. Steve and Cat's idea of passing is giving someone the ball 15 feet away from the basket and let them go one on one. Face it. Neither Steve or Cat have the court vision to find open teammates near the basket. How often did they penetrate and try to take on 4 defenders in the paint resulting in a missed or blocked shot. When they ran the pick and roll, Cat would take the shot 90% of the time. This is a fact. 4. Here's the problem. The Rockets best scorer plays point guard. The point guard's job is to direct the offense, get teammates involved, and run the break. The ability to score can be a plus, but it can never be a priority for a point guard. The real issue is not Steve Francis. The issue is whether we can bring in a better PG than Francis and if Francis would be a better SG than Mobley. Feigen doesn't say anything about Mobley which is curious. Feigen mentions how: Ok. Examine the 3 above. Which players took most of the shots on the Rockets. Which players dribbled the ball all the time, running down the shot clock and then forcing up a 15 footer with a defender's hand in their face. Which players committed the most turnovers. Question: Which 3 players are responsible for running the break? Hmmm The PG, the SG and the SF? And we all know James Posey can run the break so which of the other 2 guards can't? 5. Jonathon Feigen doesn't mention Mobley which is a copout. 6. Boy, D'Alessandro was sure wrong here: http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=60027 This whole idea that Jonathon Feigen's article is clearly superior is ridiculous. Feigen did the analysis then copped out when it came time to name names.
...yeah, and no article is complete without public shaming and assignment of the blame. (on francis and cuttino now that Rudy's gone, of course)
Uh, the Mavs iso, but use it to create passes and opportunities for other players. The Rockets iso for the sake of the iso, and then jack-up contested shots. There's a difference. Also, running the fast-break requires two things. One, defense (opponents' missed shots create fast-break opportunities). Two, a guard/team that actually knows how to execute a fast break without a turnover. Mr. Clutch and leebigez also make good points about assist to turnover ratio and the execution of the pick and roll. The rest of FEIGEN's article is pretty accurate...
Timm, Kobe is a shooting guard that averages 30ppg last year. Do you expect him to have low turnovers? I think not. If Francis could average 30ppg, think we'd be able to live with his 6 assist per game at a 3.7 turnover average rate. Maybe Francis IS a shooting guard in disguise. And Kidd averages 9.4 assits for his career (8.9 last year). He's able to off-set his high turn-over average with a high assist average.
If you're going to disect the Rockets and distinguish "rumor" from "reality", how can you you not critique the entire team. Yao was tired and couldnt be the man. True. EG is a bad post up player. True. Francis? Well, We all know a PG who averages 6+ assists is fine. On a per minute basis, that would place him 23rd right behind Kevin Ollie. Look at this statement: Uh, excuse me. Poor shooting? Hmmm. Cat and Steve shot about 43% from the field and took the most shots. Yao shot 49%, Posey shot 44%. Who is he Feigen referring to? Low possession team? Uh, excuse me. Which 2 players committed the most turnovers on the team. Which 2 players handled the ball the majority of possessions? This is great analysis. Francis, with one of the worst Assist/TO ratios in the league will simply "mature out of habit". That's unbelievabley insightful. Holy cow. That's great stuff. Then he weaves in the criticisms we already know like dribbling too much and inability to run the break. Uh, excuse me. When Van Gundy looks at the film, which players are dribbling too much and which players aren't able to run a fast break?
RIET: It's about how many inches of space they have to fill. I'm sure Feigen would love to give his own personal dissertation on the team, but the paper has limited space. It may not have even been his choice how much space he had to fill.
Its funny how everyone understands the offense when Rice Posey and Mobley are having good shooting nights.
I never believed that. I always feared they would fall back to their old bad habits, and they usually did.
The article points that out, Steve doesn't trust his teamates when they don't start off shooting well which is a problem.
Great article. Probably I liked it so much because I already agreed and didn't need to be convinced. It is nice to see that someone with good credentials agree with what you believe. As soon as I read the article, I knew this would happen. I knew people were not going to like it at all because it ran against the current of the BBS truisms. But, it is nice to then look at this thread and see that many of the posters I most respect also praised the article.
A per minute basis? Well that's cool. On a per minute basis, Cato is one of the NBA's top shotblockers and rebounders and should be starting ahead of Yao. That and five dollars will get you a tall mocha latte. The Rockets as a team shot 44%. Cat and Steve shot 43.5% last season. So that miniscule half of a percentage point difference between them and the mean is dragging down the teams FG % and needs to be highlighted? That would only work mathematically if Francis and Mobley took, oh, maybe 100 shots for every shot taken by the rest of the team. Myth dispelled. Criticisms we already know? last week when Dave D'Alessandro threw up a bunch of generic suggestions that people post here all the time like "play better defense" "have yao be the man", etc, you took me to task for downplaying the value of the piece and the fact that he became a celebrated figure here overnight.
Well, let's see who averaged the most assists per 48 minutes. John Stockton J. Williams Mark Jackson J. Tinsley Jason Kidd Steve Nash Gary Payton S. Marbury Yes. That's really deceptive. If someone can average the same amount of assists in 30 minutes as someone else in 40 minutes I would say theyre a much more efficient player. I mean heck. John Stockton, who the heck is he? He averaged more assists in 28 minutes than Francis did in 41. What is the one common denominator of that list? The majority of them are pass first, shoot second PG's. If it's true that Van Gundy would prefer that type of player, what are the films going to tell him? Hmm. When 2 of yours players take 40% of the shots, and they shoot 43.5%, what a shock that the team as a whole makes 44% of their FG's. To say the team does not shoot well and then not mention the fact that it was Steve and Cat taking most of them is ludicorus. If youre going to say the Rockets are a poor shooting team, shouldn't you look at those 2 first? But maybe that's just far too logical. As opposed to the insightful, Steve will just "mature" out of his turnovers. My issue is Feigen details the problems but then doesn't explain who's responsible for them or why they happen. Why are we a poor shooting team? Could it be because the 2 players most responsible for handling the ball aren't good passers? How can we improve our FG%? How about getting some easy fast break points. Oh, wait. Who's responsible for that?
So you honestly think Kevin Ollie and Steve Francis have about the same skill level as a point guard? Ok. THere's a reason why Kevin Ollie doesn't actually PLAY 48 minutes, but who cares about that when you can bash. You need to brush up on your math skills RIET, If Francis and Mobley took 50 % of all the shots,(now, this figure is WAY too high), then the rest of team, for the average to be 44%, could not have shot more than 44.5%, a whopping ONE PERCENT difference. Like I said, that, 50% of all hte shots figure is WAY too high, so the difference between Francis and Mobley and the rest of the teams FG% is certainly less than that. So if Francis/Mobley and the Rest of the Team shoot the nearly the same FG%, remind me why they need to be singled out for being bad shooters? I thought we were a poor shooting team because Mobley and Francis took all the shots, now its cause they don't pass well enough? Maybe its because we have players who can't shoot worth a damn like Eddie Griffin and Moochie Norris and a 7-6 inch center who won't dunk the ball.
You need to brush up on your reading skills. I said 40%. This is a fact. So if youre going to point out the fact the Rockets can't shoot, isn't it logical to also identify the players who take the most shots? Steve Francis is a good PG and 6 assists per game is good for a poor shooting team. Well hell, he and Mobley are taking the shots and they're also responsible for running the offense. So if youre going to make an excuse that 6 assist per game is good because we can't shoot, why not point to the fact they're the ones jacking up the shots. Hmmm. Let's see. 2 guards take 40% of the shots and make 43.5%. They can't setup teammates for easy scores. They can't run the fast break for easy scores. Holy cow, we have one of the worst FG% in the league. How did that happen? It must be because of our 7'6" center who made nearly 50% of his FG's and our PF that rarely shoots the ball.
RIET, I know you said 40%. I used 50% (which is a more generous standard for your side of the argument, statistically) so that the numbers would work out evenly, I said I was using 50% as an example. At 40%, the difference between francis and Mobley and the Rest of the team becomes even LESS pronounced. This is a fact. If Steve, Mobley and the Rest of the Team are all averaging 43 or 44% what difference does it make if they jack up too many shots? They're not going to score any more points if the Rest of the Team gets more shots, and, Yao, with a plummeting FG% that went from 59% to 49% (which means that he was shooting well below 50% for that stretch in order to drag it down) between December and April, wasn't hitting jack after the all star break most nights anyway. Look, it's obvious that you have certain opinions that are not going to be changed, but your critiques of the article are incredibly flimsy, especially given your past defense of that vapid article from the Newark paper.
Shooting percentage isn't tallied by just shooting the ball wide open. It's shooting the ball usually with someone in your face AND some wide-open shots. So, getting the ball, in a bad situation (iso) is part of the problem. It's Francis's job to get the supporting players the best possible shot. If Francis passes the ball to a teammate, and puts that supporting player in an iso situation (with the shot clock running down), then it's not that supporting players fault for rushing the shot. Francis is the leader/ball handler/decision maker on the team. He has the most responsibility for distribution. EG, MoT, TMo, Moch, Cato...if those guys can't hit their OPEN shots time and time again. Well, that would be an problem. Then you trade them and get better players. But... I hope your not saying that. I think the issue here is that there's a system problem. An offensive philosophy that has to be undone (Rudy). Those changes alone should help SF's turnovers. As long as he buys into the system.
Why do you hope I'm not saying that? It's true: EG cannot hit an open shot, Taylor can, Morris? don't know or care, Moochie cannot, Cato cannot outside of 5 feet I agree wholeheartedly that there was a system problem. In fact I started a real big long thread about it a few months back and got into huge arguments with theFreak about how Rudy's system sucked.
