Do me a favor and don't be suggesting what I'm a firm believer in. Nowhere have I suggested Cat be traded and nowhere have I suggested he be benched other than to be a 6th man. I also showed where Cat ranked 21st out of 29 starting shooting guards in shooting %, you can call that average if you want but I'll call it 21st out of 29. For an offense that doesn't run the fast break and doesn't run plays, Steve has way too many turnovers. Even Moochie who is a far less talented player has a better assist/to ratio than Steve but Mooch isn't a scoring guard playing point guard. Moochie is at 2.71/1 and Steve is at 1.62/1. I don't know a lot about Jason Williams but I seem to read a lot that he's a scoring guard and doesn't really play point a whole lot. Ideally I'd like to see a playmaking point with Steve at the two and Cat as the 6th man.
I disagree. I think that jason Williams has single-handedly turned Carlos Boozer into a lottery pick. With Williams, he's a college super star. Without him, he's Donnel Harvey. Williams has incredible passing instincts once he penetrades. You know how some guards penetrate, and then look like idiots once they get cut off? Williams doesn't do this often. He almost always is able to kick the ball back out, or give Boozer an easy dunk.
Well, one person, at least... thinks Steve has a case for MVP : http://espn.go.com/nba/columns/may/1340694.html
"He makes everyone around him better," marveled Celtics coach Jim O'Brien. That dumbass coach Jim O'Brien. What does HE know? Steve is a scorer, he doesn't make his teammates better.
BTW, Cato is averaging 0.6 turnovers in 25.6 minutes. More than accepteable. You guys should seriously stop blaming everything on Cato. Future, cap-situation, losses, Francis' assists. It's getting ridiculous. The guy's pouring his heart out, and playing great. The Rockets gave him the money. Would you say no to more money than you should get?
Who does he make better? I agree the Rockets win more with him, because he's easily the most productive player on the Rockets, and maybe the NBA. However, I don't know who he makes better, individually.
I think Francis makes Mobley better, he seems to shoot a lot better with Francis setting the table for him. Whereas if Mobley is in the game without Francis he tries to do too much and usually fails. I think he makes Cato a better player, as Cato seems to respond better on both ends of the floor if Steve gives him a couple of those OOP dunks. I think he makes Walt Williams better as Walt can set up and just shoot the 3 off a Francis penetration. DD
I can't imagine how anyone could suggest Francis doesn't make players around him better. Even if he isn't a high assist guy, the very fact of his presence on the floor alters the defense of the other team. Great players impact directly the play of the guys around them because the other team is forced to adjust to prevent the great player from making great plays. That, invariably, makes everyone else better by default. On the turnovers, I was watching the game the other night and thought Francis probably gets at least one "hustle" turnover ever game. Against Boston, I saw two times he ran to grab a steal, they credited him with the play but also with the turnover. Also, remember that if player throws a pass at another player and the second guy doesn't catch it the turnover goes to the passer, not the guy who was supposed to catch it. If the player catches it and then drops it out of bounds, that is a posession turnover to him. But if he just bobbles the pass, it is given to the guy who threw him the ball.
I think it's that Francis doesn't make people better with his passing. It's obvious that his scoring ability takes the pressure off of others and lets them work with more freedom.
The scary thing is that Francis shows up as the league leader in turnovers despite only playing in 35 games. That means that he has enough turnovers to 'qualify' for the lead. If you check the leaders in assists and points, Francis is nowhere to be found because he doesn't have enough to qualify due to the lack of games played.
We should add a dis incentive clause to his next contract on the turnover thing. Maybe then he'd think about improving it instead of staying among the league leaders. It'd be more acceptable if he had more assists and/or steals but there are no mitigating factors that show up in stats, other than we are a .500 lottery team with him and a .100 lottery team without him.
