While I know practically nothing about Cuttino's pre-Rocket career, I know a little of Steve's. Steve has not always had everything handed to him. I know he gained national recognition during his play at Maryland, but that was just for one year. Before that he spent two years playing at Junior Colleges, where he did not have screaming fans surrounding him all the time, and in fact was ignored like many JuCo players who are seen as not being able to run with the big boys. I attended every home game during his season at San Jacinto college, and Steve wasn't even the starting point guard for some of that year. Until about midway through the season, he was viewed as about the 3rd best junior college point guard (behind Roy De La Cruz, who was the Raven's starting point guard). If you have ever been to a San Jacinto Ravens game, you would know that their coach, Scott Gernander, is one of the toughest and meanest coaches there is. The guy rides his players like no one I have ever seen. Francis took the starting spot away from the "best" PG in that league, and all the while he did it while his coach was all over his ass constantly. Francis had his fair share of dissing of his game before his year at Maryland. And while Cuttino may have had more adversity and disrespect, Francis has not played his whole career with screaming fans everywhere, he earned them. (NOTE: I realize that I strayed off the point in this thread, but I love reminiscing about the time when I could watch Francis play 10 feet away from me many times during a season. I apologize for all the unnecessary info.) ------------------ "Any event, once it has occurred, can be made to appear inevitable by a competent historian." Lee Simonson [This message has been edited by RunninRaven (edited March 20, 2001).]
hey 4chuckie -- i challenge you to point out anyone who is a regular or even infrequent poster who actually would rather see Steve get all kinds of stats and the Rockets miss the playoffs. Get real. ------------------
Mobley is already good at getting players to overplay him. If you watch Cuttino, dribbling, dribbling, crossing hands, swaying, wagging his head from side to side.....the important thing to notice is his eyes. Where is he looking? I have noticed that Cuttino uses his eyes as disguise as well, and it is very effective. Between glances at his opponents feet (sizing up momentum of the player, and wether or not he is balanced and ready) and glances up at the rim and the floor around, you get several different looks as to what Cat may do. Is he looking up? Maybe he's getting ready to shoot.....better straighten up to contest....BAM, see ya. Now granted, the good defensive player does not watch a players' eyes or head, but his mid-section. After all, you can't fake with your mid-section (not without looking foolish anyway). But instictively, you get the big picture by Cat's body language. If you watch him close, on highlights, in games, etc. you wil realize just what a tough job it is for guys to stay with Cat off the isolation. ------------------ There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." [This message has been edited by HOOP-T (edited March 20, 2001).]
crash... I hear ya. I've been saying the same thing...you can love them both and criticize them both. However, I don't think people dog Mobley to build up Francis. Not at all. I think they exaggerate Francis to build up Francis. And I don't think all criticisms of Francis are to build up Mobley. My criticism of Francis are because he makes a lot of mistakes that rarely get talked about, and I want to talk about them. What is frustrating for me is to mention mistakes and shortcomings of our PG (our most important position on this offense), and get responses about "quit dis-ing our boy", "hp, why do you hate Francis". I guess I criticize Francis because I want more from him and don't see this great improvement everyone is talking about (except his turnaround J), rather I see the whole team helping him play better than last year. Really, that's how I feel. Francis best month ever (stat-wise) was last January, and the NBA stiffled him after that (while Cuttino shot 48% from the field to close out the season onced the NBA clamped down on Francis, that is a fact, and did anyone mention Cat's improvement much). After Steve's coming out party last January, they doubled him all over the court. They can't do that anymore, not because his passing is so much better, but because we are more comfortable as a team in our system and we have two other guys to burn you if you double Steve. That's why his playmaking numbers are up, imo. The team is better; everyone's numbers are up. Hell, has anyone noticed we are shooting around 47% as a team since our run. How much is Mo' and Cuttino helping Francis get wide open looks and scoring easier than last year, and vice versa. How much is a team with more time to learn a new system helping the PG get more people involved and get wide-open looks for himself? imo, I think it is clear that Cuttino has improved more as a dominating scorer relative to how much Francis has brought more improved team ball to the table, all stats aside. If Francis really has improved his playmaking (rather than the system improving), his assists number would be up much more than they are, which he could have down simply by bringing an improved fastbreak to camp, and using the 24-High pick more than he did early. But most importantly crash, why do we have to read this titles about "Ego", "Cuttino Sucks", "Nice heave Cuttino", and "Jack". Give us "Mobley realists" a break if we like to explain why we think he is better than Francis on several counts, even though we love Francis and think he can become a cool-hand luke superstar PG, despite his show-off attitude and mistake-prone dribbling. [This message has been edited by heypartner (edited March 20, 2001).]
I wasn't really talking about organized ball, since Francis played so little. My point was his hops made him a city league hero early on, while Mobley was disrespected in the leagues.
i find it funny in comparing players with egos from yesteryear and players today. Noone had a bigger ego than Isaiah Thomas. Michael Jordan didn't like that.That's one reason he was left off the original Dream Team if you remember. Isaiah had the game to back his cockiness up as well. Even further back than him was a little guard named Calvin Murphy whose ego was as big as the Transco Towers. Calvin was a very fiesty guard. I'm sure none of you have forgotten about Chuck's ego. I think that you just overlook it since he played for Houston later in his career when he was adored by fans. Cat is just confident and I don't see anything wrong with that. Most guards in the league can't stay with him and will say that Cat and Steve are "The Truth" on the court. ------------------
JR- Look back for a thread titled something like "Can Stevie average a triple double" it was on here recently. Kind of off topic but people were discussing wheter he could average a triple double for a season. My point is there are people on here that are very interested in Cat getting his big numbers. Also look back to any game for everyone bashing Cat after one of his bad games. Cat gets bashed the way CB4 use to. The reason both of them was bashed is easy. They took shots away from the icons (Dream & Stevie) and were effective at scoring. Just wait until the next bad shooting game Cat has and I guarantee there will be 2-3 threads about Cats bad game. I would guess they are the same folks who claims Stevie doesn't have the same assists as some other PGs because noone on the team can hit an opener jumper.
