Steve's a point guard who led this team to 45 wins in his second season with no all-star big man in a conference dominated by big and 43 wins last year with an overrated rookie. Yeah he's done nothing. That statement is stupid, pure and simple. Not only that he is currently in the process of changing his game to meet you ungrateful fans expectations, the team was in first place last night until losing to the defending champs. And you still b**** and moan. The last year the rockets were in the playoffs they were 41 and 41 so this team has already had two better seasons than that one under Steve, but oh, everything's looking downhill from that great team
Well, the only way SF will make the playoff is if he rides on Yao's coattails. Playoff first please, then you can talk about championship.
OK... so what if Yao had one bad game. Maybe he's got the friggin flu. SF, Cat, and Yao will do just fine. We need to cut our TO's, and get better shots on offense. Only time and repetition will perfect JVG's offensive scheme (if he has one ). We did play a hell of a defensive team. It's been awhile since both Yao and SF had horrid games. It happens. Lets get over this loss... or just quit talking about how crappy Yao and SF are because that is simply not true.
I agree with Juugie and I think pretty soon JVG will see what time it is and call fewer plays for Yao or wait until he has a favorable matchup. Yao can be an excellent role player for a championship team that already has other primary offensive options. He's never, ever, ever going to dominate more than a handful of games a season. Let's get the expectations down that we can build a franchise around him and put him a Divac, Smits type role where he can consistently contribute on defense, passing, the boards, and 10-15 points per game from putbacks and little open jumpers. I thought I would never say this, but Cuttino and Steve are orders of magnitude more consistent than Yao, and a lot harder to stop consistently.
If Yao could only be a Divac or Smits, there goes Rockets' Championship dream. Steve and Cat were not enough for a playoff, not mentioning Championship. Also, I disagree Steve is hard to stop this year. Cat may be.
a lot harder to stop consistently?!? francis?!? have you not seen a single game all season? francis has been consistent alright, he's been consistently shooting like crap, consistently turning over the ball, consistently getting burnt by mediocre PGs, and consistently sucking a$$. yao ming hasn't been lighting kids up either, but this is yao's 2nd season, as opposed to francis' 5th. it just seems that francis is regressing.
I agree with you; it is probably a bit of an overstatement to say Steve's been consistent. But he might be if we weren't trying to get Yao involved so much. Steve actually hasn't played that well this season. Cuttino has though. Maybe there's something there.
Good post. Juugie...we're sorry if we've made you mad because we're so mean to Mr. Francis. It's obvious that you think Steve is ALL-NBA but Yao is holding him back with his 'horrible' play. Maybe someday we will trade Yao for an awesome physical post presences like Vin Baker or someone else you'd like...but for now we're stuck with that loser that can't dominate a two time MVP in his prime and the toughest Defensive team in the league...Damn he must suck. BTW, your trade proposals show exactly the type of player you like...good numbers, no defense(except for the ridiculous Oneal/Artest trade that Indy would never do)...probably why you like Mr. Francis so much.
The two improvements Yao can make are to gain more muscle and improve his stamina. When his upper body becomes stronger, he can lean onto his defender and use his hook shot more effectively. When his stamina improves, he can play more aggressively. I believe he has heart, just does not have the energy to show it. Yao won't be able to improve his quickness and jumping ability. He will never be as good as Shaq or Duncan in their primes.
You can't drive when you have two big men already in the paint. This team completely changed philosophies at the all star break last year. It went from Steve being the focal point to Yao being the focal point. Up until that point, Steve was averaging 22.7 ppg and the Rockets were the seventh seed in the west. After switching to Yao being the focal point of the offense, the Rockets went from the 7th seed to the 9th seed. So Yao actually led us to the lottery last year. And if the West stays this tough, we may be on the outside looking in again. You people are blind. Name the last dominant center that came into the league averaging 13 points and 8 rebounds a game? Shaq - 23/14 Duncan - 21/12 Kareem - 28/15 Hakeem - 21/12 So when you guys are so cetain Yao will develop into one of the best ever, what are you basing this on? Certainly not history or stats. Because you like him? Because he's tall? You can think whatever you want about my conclusions that Yao will be only a slightly above average center, but at least I base my opinion on history and statistical fact - not emotion. If Yao were playing for Phoenix, everyone here would be calling him overrated and average. But because he plays for our team, he's one of the greatest ever. I don't think so. Don't just call names and make little comments, give me some facts to back up your claims to Yao being on track to be one of the all time greats.
An excellent post. I'll agree on your mentioning it is good we didn't trade Cat; he has adapted well to JVG's system. I don't think Steve's regressed in a sense of skill, but I do think there is a part of him that's fighting the changes. I keep mentioning how often I see JVG exhorting his players to run, run, run! and how Steve looks him off....not gonna give that guy the satisfaction. Please note, everyone, that I think STeve is a phenomenal talent. But he is stubborn and childish. Granted, he felt that Rudy was his perfect coach, he gave Steve a lot of rope to hang himself with. But it also suited Steve's freelancing style. I still say our star player should be one of the forwards and we should have another distributor. But Steve's getting voted in as an All-Star precludes a bold move on the part of management.
Bull****. This whole thread was done out of emotion. Look, I don't know where you got that from. Yes, I know that we have many Yao-only fans here. But I didn't say that Yao was one of the best ever neither did MManal neither did Severe Rockets Fan or half a dozen other people in this thread. 22 points and 20 rebounds against one of the league's best defenders in Ben Wallace is enough proof to me that Yao is a top 5 center in the league and not to be shopped around, especially for tools like Dampier, lol.
I'm still waiting for a response to my last post in this thread. Do you watch the games? By your initial post and lack of response to my reply I wonder if you do. I'm not sure why you think so many of us believe Yao will be one of hte best ever. I'd love for that to happen, but I'm not sure and I think most of the posters are not sure. On the other hand most of us do believe he will become a much better player and one of the best players in the league. Your quote about basing 'your opinion on history and statistical fact - not emotion'. Is one of the funniest things I've read. Reread your initial post and say that with a straight face.
Stop hating. Statistically, the centers you mentioned remained the same for their whole career. And there were 1st option from the beginning, taking ~20 shots night in and night out. Yao is different. He already jumped from 13-8 to 17-10 this year with only 12 shots per game. Ask yourself how much Shaq can average with 12 shots/game? You are as bitter as Yao-only Steve haters.
Juugie, why do you continually act like if Yao doesn’t become one of the greatest centers to ever play the game and dominate like Shaq and Hakeem that he’s a disappointment that should be traded. I don’t know how to get this through to you, but he doesn’t need to be a dominant center! None of the players you listed are ever going to become one of the greatest in their positions. Yeah, Yao isn’t going to be like Shaq, but you can bet your ass neither will Stoudamire, Randolph, and sure as hell not Dampier.
It's only his fault if he only shoots 12 times a game - he certainly gets the ball enough. And what's the excuse about the rebounding numbers? And please don't tell me his teammates are mean and little Stevie takes them from him.
I'm bored so I'll reply to your garbage. First, The Rockets did not "focus" the offense on Yao last year, either the first half or the second. Yao didn't lead the Rox anywhere, it was and is still Steve's team. That will change in time, but has not yet changed. The fact that the Rockets went from the 7 seed to the 9 seed in the 2nd half (assuming what you say is true, I won' t bother checking) runs paralell to a thousand statistics in which the Rockets probably declined. It would be a complete fallacy to say that any one of them actually "caused" the Rox to miss the playoffs. Your attempt to pin the blame on Yao is incorrect. Yao is completely distinguishable from every player that has ever entered the NBA because nobody has his skill set, background, etc. Nobody knows whether and how long it will take him to reach elite status. Yao is not overrated or average. He is a very good 2nd year center. Period. It is ridiculous to state otherwise. He doesn't suck like you suggest, and he should not be discarded easily. He has shown improvement, and there is no reason to think that he will not continue to improve. If 20/10 or 22/12 is his peak, then we'll have to decide if he has lived up to his potential. Finally, as I said earlier - the steps you propose guarantee mediocrity for the next 10 years. We'd be first round fodder, too good to not make the playoffs, too bad to get beyond the first round, perpetually stuck with a low first round draft pick. SF is a wonderful player and I'm glad to have him. He defense has improved somewhat this year. Other than that, however, i cannot identify any criticial skill that his has significantly improved upon since joining the league: passing - still adequate at best dribbling - still dribbles side to side too much, playground ball, not decisive, effective NBA ball. shooting - a good, not great shooter. decision making - no improvement whatsoever turnovers - still a turnover machine. some of this is the fault of the Rox organization. I still believe that Francis needs to be put in a better position to succeed - the SG position. They need to turn him into a scorer, not a playmaker. but until that happens, he bear the obligation of improving his game, and that has not happened. I'm not willing to give up on him yet, but there's more reason to give up on him than Yao. Steve has has more years, and bears more responsibility to improve as the highest paid player on the team.
Well, if he's not going to be a dominant center, pull his arse out of the paint and let our perimeter people get our scoring averages up. PS. If he's not going to be a dominant center, then the Rockets never should have passed up two lottery picks and Odom to draft him.
