Almost as good as Moochie is. . You are talking about the best point guard in the NBA. Show the guy some *** damn respect.. M*A*S*H
Now that OT was mistakenly let go, we can probably play Wink more at the 2 spot. Ironically he reminds you of AI but AI was dishing out big time tonight.
I've been a little disappointed with Steve's play the last 2 games. He seems to be breaking off from the offense and going it alone a little too much. Granted, the lineups have been juggled around a lot so it's hard to develop continuity, but I would still like to see him run the offense a little better. Bring it up faster, and get into the play quicker, he's holding the ball too long. I'm probably over-reacting, but I hope that Steve doesn't have the mentality to look for his shot more while thinking that his teammates can rely on the offense and ball-movement for their shots. Like I said, I'm probably over-reacting, it's just preseason for crying out loud. I hope I'm totally off-base.
All I can say is when our team has a total 9 assists for the game with 3 of them coming from our PG, we are in serious need of a game attitude adjustment. I didn't get to see last nights game, so judging from the lack of assists I can only assume it was more boring Rocket-iso-ball.
You assume correctly. Last night, I saw one bad decision after another. I don't mind if Steve doesn't match the assist ouput of Stockton or Kidd, but if he's gonna stay in the 5-6 range consistently, Mobley is going to have to pass the ball more. It won't be enough for Mobley to be comparable with other shooting guards - he'll have to be better to make up for the assists that Francis is not creating.
In the past 2 games: 40 FG Attempts 5 Assists Not acceptable for a PG and supposed leader of the team. He is not making his teammates or team any better. He dribbles until he finds his shot as if he is the only player on the team. If he needs that many shots and he is not going to distribute the ball, RUDY MUST move him to the 2 and get a PG that has a clue of how to run the position!
Take a look. Its sad isn't it! He needs to be a 2 just as he was in college. You do not need 20 shots per night from your PG and you damn sure need more than 2.5 assists. You can get 2.5 assists by dribbling the ball off your foot and it gets put in for a basket... OOOPS.. that is how he got them!
Francis fast breaking skill are terrible. He missed many oppourtunities last night to pass the ball to an open teamate for an easy score. Francis dribbles the ball off his foot, charges into a player...he does everything but make the simple easy pass to another wide open teammate thats name IS NOT Mobley. This crap is just too obvious to ignore. Maybe he's just stupid. Maybe he's just selfish. Maybe its both.
God knows I love Steve, but he is not playing the pg spot. The Rocks have two scoring guards on the floor, along with Cat. At Maryland, it was the same thing. When pg Terrell Stokes wasn't in, or some frosh named Juan Dixon, Steve often ran the point and it looked oddly similar to the Rocks offense. Steve would dribble dribble dribble till he could drive and score or maybe kick it out. But often, it was a heave to beat the shot clock and that's no way to run an offense. And that killed them in the Sweet 16 game vs St. John's when Stokes got in early foul trouble. Steve played 1 on 5 and Maryland went down in flames. I think Steve can be an excellent true pg. He has all the tools and talents. The simple threat of his scoring ability will open up a lot of opportunities for others to have an easy shot. Once he gets others involved an amazing thing happens. The opposing team can't focus just on Steve, so he gets easier shots himself. Plus, when a player is involved on offense, he usually plays harder on D. Steve is a great player, but he can do so much more for the team. Steve need to check Isiah's bio. Once he decided to incorporate everyone and not try to do it all himself, Bingo, Back to Back champs.
From another post- A point guard- Involves other players, gets them going, knows where they like the ball, reads mismatches, sees the entire floor, makes the good pass, gets assists, and scores when the door is open.
My same sentiment. I think a lot of fans feel this way. As one of the poster here said, Rocs need to present a better product. Individually we are talented and reasonably have a shot at going all the way, but it should start with Franchise. He should start making the whole package greater than its individual parts. We may not be able to compare Francis to either Kidd or Stockton but the result should be the same and that is as a point guard he must make the team function as a TEAM.
Steve just needs to get a healthy crew around him and get some PT so they can gel as a team. Too many revolving doors right now. We need stability.
of course this topic is beat to death right after one horrible performance. hell he was bashed after a 30 point 10 assist night so i'm not surprised. his first 2 games he had 10 and 9 assists. he was moving the ball around well and the offense looked smooth. his 2 worst games were the last 2 with a brand new big man whose practiced twice with them. hmm, coincidence. probably not. i love yao, i think the offense should run through yao when he gets acclimated but he is very lost on occasion out there. take a look at the first quarter last night, not bad huh, again with people steve is comforable with. the worst run, most iso'ed quarters are when ming is playing. my bet is that this playcalling is from rudy for steve and cat to run their pet moves and have ming post-up when available. they're not gonna pull out the big sets when ming isn't sure what to do. this will be a big week for practice and it wouldn't surprise me to see things ironed out a bit more for the opener. in the meanwhile after one bad, yes very bad, preseason game, it's ridiculous to bash him and ignore the positive. if this same stuff is hapenning 10 games from now feel free to call this post up and i'll eat crow but it seems to me the only problems have been the lack of adjustment time for steve and yao together. they'll get it straight.
He's had some awesome scoring games and a very few awesome assist games in his NBA career. When his comfort zone is iso and shooting the ball himself, it really doesn't matter what he says in interviews until he learns to trust the other players. Posters have always been saying the other teammates hurt or are suck so he can't trust them. This is apples and oranges and I hate the Jazz, but I've never really heard of anyone on the Jazz being all-star material except Malone, but I don't think Stockton gets all of his assists off of Malone, see what happened to that Shandon Anderson fellow when he came here? He was known as a slasher and defender, but he didn't get a whole lot of slashing points for some strange reason when he was a Rocket... Who's good that played last year with Andre Miller? He involved his teammates and they were mostly a bunch of lower echelon no names. I'm just frustrated that SF gets stuck or Rudy lets him get stuck in the same boring routine. He's not good enough to beat most NBA teams in a one on five game after 48 minutes and he's only going to have those type of skills for a few years, and after point in his career that he's useless if he can't involve his teammates. The way he's playing now means SF will have a relative short career because his effectiveness depends on his speed and standing start acceleration. No one can depend on that into their 30's.
Make it simple No player will be just like another. Each one has a game unique to themselves. Francis could stand to improve but that can be said about all players. The fact is that Francis and Mobley make up one of the best backcourts in the league. This is said by players and analysts alike. Why do we bash. Francis is an allstar considered to be one of the best but thats not good enough he should be more like other point guards.
Francis reminds me those Chinse NT guards, but in a different way. Those Chinese NT gurads were just not capable of passing the balls to Yao Ming when he was open or he was in a good scoring position or guarded by a week defender. Francis is capable of doing everthing, but, he just unwillingly pass the ball to any player who is in better position. What is he thingking: Les paid me a lot of money, I have to show I deserve it. Yao ming's coming might endanger my leader position. How come I did not get those media attentions as Yao does.. Francis is such a talent, he just needs to be more ... to make the game not that ugly.
