Until he sacks it up, and holds himself and his teammates accountable for the disappointment of a season, we are going nowhere. Francis must do what he can to make sure that both he and his teammates work their @sses off to improve their game during the offseason. This especially means you, Eddie Griffin. We can't do much via free agency or trade, therefore the only means of improvement is from within the roster we already have. The only way we wil improve is if the guys who return next year, step up their games that far exceed this season's lull.
Can't make Eddie Jones a leader type. Even though he's a good player and plays hard, doesn't mean he can force his will on his teammates. The word Franchis is used too loosely. Throw Francis in the same category as all the other"Franchise" players who can't ven make it into the playoffs.
I'll give you that. We don't have a real veteran/leader to knock heads in the clubhouse. Francis/Mobley really need to come down on the guys, get serious. I was hoping that Rice would have an inlfuence like this... If a go to guy is supposed to be the leader, then how do you explain Sprewell, Houston, Ray Allen, etc. I would argue they are the go to guys, but not leaders. They are also some of the top NBA players. So maybe Steve does go to the 2 and we get a new PG? I really don't want to see Mobley go though.
\ I think Spree is very much a leader, therefore negating (IMO) the need for Houston to be vocal. I don't think Allen will ever be able to be a go-to guy for a contender. As for roster shakeup, I wouldn't mind sliding Mobley to the bench as a 6th man. I just don't know who the hell we can get at PG... I'm not a huge Mobley fan, but I respect his defensive effort, as well as the fact that the Rockets wouldn't get fair trade value IMO for him.
You are still in denial. Leaders take the props, win Player of the Week, Player of the Month, MVP etc etc when their team wins so they have to take all the blame when their team loses too. If you deny that Francis should take the blame, then you must not think that he is our leader. You see how people said Kobe isn't a leader when he played without Shaq and couldn't lead his team to victory. When Minny loses in the 1st round again, everyone will say that Garnett isn't a great leader. No sensible people will say that Hudson, Joe Smith etc don't produce. When Kings fail to win the ring this season, people will start talking about how Webber is not a clutch performer. No one will put the blame on Bobby Jackson or other role players. That's the harsh reality of being a leader. If you can't take that, you shouldn't accept being a leader in the 1st place. And yeah better than Moochie doesn't make Francis a great point guard. Every guard in the NBA is better than Moochie.
It's not just about getting into the playoffs over one and the other. You really couldn't see how Marbury became more of a leader and changed his game this season from last season or his Nets days? Oh what could I help you?
Dallas and Sacramento are multi-headed teams to me, no clear leader. In Dallas you have Dirk, Nash and Finley. (Nash?) In Sac it's a tossup between Webber and Bibby. Seems like these type of teams never make it all the way. What would make Francis a better leader to you? What does he have to do? More assist, better defense? Is his position in the offense the real problem to you? Elaborate. Does making the playoffs make you a leader? Is there only one leader at the end of the year, whoever gets the ring?
Marbury has about the same points/assist #'s (21/8) in Phoenix as he did in Jersey (23/8), I just think he has much better talent and coaching now. It also helps that he is in his 7th season. I recall Phoenix being rather streaky this season also. Doesn't some of that blame fall on Marbury? Or it wasn't all his fault either? They did win when it counts, I'm not arguing that. Francis isn't perfect, but can't you see the improvement in his game also, how much he has been trying to fit into the new offense with Yao? "Oh what could I help you?"
That's the look of elation on a player who people labeled as someone who was selfish and could never lead a team to the playoffs.
I tend to agree with you. Francis can be an explosive player; however from my limited perspective he hasn't shown much improvement since his rookie year. 99-00: 18.0 ppg, 6.6 ast, 5.3 rbs, 4.0 TOs, 44.5 FG% in 36.1 minutes 02-03: 21.1 ppg, 6.1 ast, 6.2 rbs, 3.7 TOs, 43.5 FG% in 41.0 minutes Granted 21 from 18 is nice jump, but I should hope he finds a way to score a few more points if he's playing an extra 5 minutes per game. Other than that, the rest of his numbers are pretty similar. I know stats don't tell the whole story, but I get pretty much the same impression from watching Steve now as I did his rookie year. He still seems like an ultra-athletic guard with all the talent and potential in the world yet often is disorganized and inconsistent. I still like Francis; my main knock on him though is just a general lack of improvement.
Sonny, no wonder. You don't even know what leadership is. I think you're too much into the "numbers" game. It's not about the numbers. It's not about more assists or more points. We are not playing a stats game here. Ever heard something called INTANGIBLE? You really couldn't see Marbury improved as a better floor leader and not just got better teammates and coaching? You really couldn't see how Jason Kidd "make his teammates better"? Or some bad examples e.g. SAR who put up 20/10 every night but is hardly leader? Or Glenn Robinson? Have you ever tried to lead a team doing a project or something like that in school? Have you ever wondered why some teams worked so well together but some argued and couldn't do a damn thing all day long? Or have you ever been a captain in a sports team? It's really hard to explain how to become a great leader (maybe we all need to read some those books ). One thing I think is that you have to set a good example. How can you expect your teammates play D if you are lazy on D yourself? How can you expect to pass the ball unselfishly and move without the ball all the time if you don't? You have to earn your teammates' respect. And you have to be a good communicator and have to unite your team. You have to be mature and cool-headed. You can't get angry and take yourself out of the game so easily like Francis did against Jazz. And then especially as a PG, you have to recognize your teammates' comfort zone and know when and where to give them the ball and just generally make your teammates better. You also need to make good decisions especially in crunch time, not just throw up some miracle shots, trying to do too much yourself. You have to take the responsibility especially when your team is struggling and you have to get your teammates feed off your energy and do what you can to raise the team's morale. Well it's just something off my head. Francis if he really wants to be a leader of this team better quickly mature into be one or we need to find someone who does lead. I actually think that Yao can be a pretty great leader himself too if he ever masters the English language.
why, because you say it is? b/c it's easy to be lazy and not actually have to assign blame to those who deserve it most? why should steve/cuttino/yao have to share in the blame of losing when we have the worst starting forward combo in the league? or have no real backcourt backups? these are the types of things that hold teams back from being great. not steve, cuttino, and yao. sure they may have weaknesses and faults but they bring far more to the team than they take away and if the other players were more like them in this respect we wouldn't be worrying about missing the playoffs. so you know what, i'm gonna be ****ing revolutionary and blame eddie and mo tay and glen and james and moochie and tmo for missing the playoffs. the people who actually suck.
You tell Steve to quit dominating the bal ans GIVE YAO THE DAMNED BALL. He does and then you say well, you're the leader so you should have done something. ALl of the people here saying that would have had a heart attack if Steve had told Yao to get his soft arse out of the paint and so that he oculd get to the rim. But that's what Phoenix did for Starbury. They put everyone on the perimeter and said our offense revolves around Starbury getting to the hole and passing to open teammates. They never told Starbury to quit shooting and pass the ball to Amare every time. And it's amazinf that even though we post Yao 75 percent of the time when he in the game and Phoenix hardly ever starts a set wit Amare in the post that the two players have similar numbers. This goes on all of you who wanted Yao to be the focus of the offense. Ever since we have featured him, none of his numbers have gone up and one number of wins has gone down. Put the blame where it belongs - on thoise who decided to run the offense through Yao. He was not ready.
Enough of these infantile and baseless statements. Provide your proof to the claim you made above. Otherwise shut you stinking trap up.
since the first chicago game, ming has averaged 14.6 points. he averaged like 12.5 before that. take out the first 7 games where he did essentially nothing, and he averaged 14 up to that point. so he added a whopping .6 to his total after being more featured. and his rebounding went from like 8 to 8.5. as for wins. we were 23-18. since we have 18-21. not too good. fact is, he wasn't ready to carry the load but we made steve give it to him anyway while we lost.
Well since I don't watch the Suns, except 4 times per year. No I can not see his "vast" improvement. Let me know how great he is when they get knocked the fu*& out in the first round, just like Houston would have, at least he got there huh? Don't preach about numbers. You give Francis no credit for anything he has done. Four years ago people had lots of doubts about Kidd also. You got me there Tony Robbins, I'm a NBA Live coach. I've never been a captain, except on halloween once. I know Francis isn't the next MJ/Bird/Magic but he is a top tier NBA player and it takes a little time to get to the level of a Jason Kidd. He hasn't been recognized as a great NBA leader until the Nets made it to the Finals last season, when Kidd turned the team around. As a member of Dallas and the Suns he was on mediocre teams with the same abilities as NJ, Kidd made the difference last year. How long did that take him? It was his 8th season. You guys are nuts with your unrealistic expectations... Steve Francis - the 2002-2003 NBA Scapegoat of the Year.
be careful what you wish for... October, November, December, and January (45 games) 27.2 minutes/game 12.8 points/game 8 rebounds/game 1.95 blocks/game 69% field goal percentage on 302 shot attempts record: 25-20 February, March, and April (35 games) 31.4 minutes/game 14.3 points/game 8.2 rebounds/game 1.45 blocks/game 48% field goal percentage on 386 shot attempts record: 16-19 So basically, in four more minutes per game, Yao averaged a whopping 1.5 more points and .2 more rebounds while getting 82 more shot attempts in 10 less games...
The only thing I don't like about Yao getting the ball too often, is his propensity to shoot that damn turnaround jumper. You are 7 ft 6, go TOWARDS THE BASKET, not away from it.
Provide comprehensive statistics. Please stop feeding me these half baked nonsense. Complete stats as in; 1. PPg, Rpg, Bpg etc. 2. Strength of schedule 3. Team mates stats in wins and loss. (especially assist and assist to turnover ratio) 4. Home games V Road games And other miscellanous stats that point towards Juugie's ridiculous claim. List every possible and conceivable stat you can lay your hand on. Your assignment is not due until the end of this month. So good luck. Even after it was clear that the team needed to run through Yao ALL THE DAMN TIME (ready or not) our players (Mobley and Francis) were still struggling with defering to a rookie foreigner. Our team experienced countless bouts with inconsistency. No one can grow properly under an inconsistent system - it deters or delays positive growth. I await your findings.
Yao Ming will never improve! Without a NBA Big Mans Coach. Plese Rockets get Yao Ming and Moses Malone together and you will be amaised when he learns positioning, dunking and a hook shot.
