I think Stevie defending PnR pretty good, but one on one, he just got abused by the Lowry who. His defense is guessing and taking risks.
you guys making fun of the comment do realize that bill and clyde basically said the same thing, only to funnel the guy towards your help. the basket does sound funny
I did see it, which is why I mentioned the fact we didn't have an appropriate interior defensive presence. Novak and Luther and Landry are all subpar defensive players (hopefully Landry improves in time). And there's only so much Chuck can do defensively without a player with size next to him. That said, there's a reason JVG preached last year that perimeter players have to take primary responsibility for containing their guy. Someone in this thread suggested that Steve was playing team defense by funneling his guy towards the basket. That's laughable, considering who else was on the court. That's the only point I was making there. My concern with Steve right now is how he's going to fit in on the team. We don't need a guy who'll carry us on offense. Look, if we're relying on Steve to carry our offense, we're in big trouble. He needs to learn how to contribute within the flow of our offense. He had a nice individual game yesterday, but everything he did came off of isolation plays. He wasn't effective in transition, or in catch and shoot, or cutting to the basket, or shooting off screens. He's capable of doing some of that stuff, but I haven't seen much of it so far this preseason. And if Steve can't be effective within our offense, then the only way he's going to earn playing time is by proving he's a better defensive player than Luther Head. Head isn't good defensively, at all, but Steve doesn't look much better. That's kind of disappointing, since I remember him being pretty good defensively for us in 04/05. But he's older, and his body is less responsive.
a) he hasn't played that much and b) why would you say this team doesn't need that type of player. who drives to the basket on this team besides steve. no one's arguing that steve isn't going to need to get his points in the flow (and honestly he hasn't) but there was no flow last night, and it was perfect game to do what he does best. again, if it was so bad, why didn't adelman put a stop to it?
im still laughing at whoever said francis was our best help defending guard. francis isnt the best defensive ANYTHING. in fact, he may be our WORST defensive guard. rafer's defense is underrated. he IS a good help defender. he always gets clean swipes at people coming in the lane or gets the occasional steal from the person he's guarding. at least brooks and head can stay with their man on D. francis is just terrible defensively. he's not quick enough to stay in front of players and he cant contest shots well. he IS the matador
Mike is pretty good at penetrating. Actually, I think he's a better one on one player than Steve, because I have more confidence in his pull up jumper and he's less turnover-prone (Steve must lead the league amongst guards in offensive fouls per 40 minutes). Steve's penetration is a useful skill, don't get me wrong. But if he's going to push ahead of Head in the rotation, I think he'll have to show more than that. Right now, my guess is Adelman will favor Luther Head over him. I guess he just wanted to see what Steve was capable of when playing in his comfort zone. I don't think he'd have let that go on very long in a real game.
I prefer a guard that forces the other guard to play on both ends Personally. . .I want a WIN at every position and therefore you win the game If SF cancels out Lowry [similar points assist etc] it is a win the problem last year was T-Mac and Yao may have won their battles - individually but not enough to make up for the other losses So If Rafer matched Deron Williams. . . . we win Even as bad a defense he, sf, mj or anyone plays if they balance them out on the other end . . .we win Rocket River
It definitely sounds like Clyde Drexler is starting to impact the quality of conversation around here, and not in a good way. I don't think there was a single 5-minute stretch last night when Clyde didn't say something so inanely stupid that made me want to throw something at the TV.
Are we talking about Steve Novak or Steve Francis? Either one's defense, or lack thereof was bad last night. Actually bad would be an understatement.
i think adelman used last night to guage exactly how francis plays. last night showed exactly that francis needs the ball to do well, and that's not a good thing in this offense. adelman now realizes francis was only an allstar because he could play with the ball like a kitty. he's still behind luther on the depth chart.
your logic fails. look at the detroit pistons when they won the championship. the lakers had them beat in every position, but the piston's teamwork was much better and they won. the two most important positions on a team are PG and C. its much better having a top 5 PG than a top 5 SG.
True. Like everyone else, I'd like to see some better defensive effort...but it's a very long season, and I'm willing to bet we'll need him at some point.
Agree about the last point. But I don't think he used much of the shot clock on most of those drives last night. Yeah, a couple of ticks to set his man up, but it wasn't as bad as it used to be: x-over, pull-back, x-over, pull back, x-over, first step, pull back, oh 1 second left? shoot! Or dribble off of foot...
you guys are bashing steve francis for his defense, but off the bench with hayes and mutombo, francis can do that. also, luther's defense against that spanish rookie was horrible too. either way, francis is out of shape still, and is getting old, while lowry is young and quick, and didn't play much last season, and is ready. difference between rafer and steve is, rafer, once his opponent passes him, he tries to steal the ball. it'll work once in a while, but most of the time, it wont. then it leaves one big man with a point guard and his own man. steve won't try to steal the ball, but instead block it from behind, or move to center. it's your preference on what kind of defense you want, against your opponent. also,remember, francis defense may be alittle bad, but he'll get you those rebounds. something that james and rafer don't focus on. plus, rafer and james are more familiar with the players. rafer knows how to play with head, hayes, yao, tracy, etc. james knows how to play with yao, tracy. stevie doesn't even know how to play with tracy, just yao. be patient, be mad at stevie if he players, and if he still sucks in mid-season.
I know the reason why steve did not play good defense last night....... IT'S PRESEASON ps: Being at the game, I noticed that steve had a grimace on his face in the 4th-ot and kept looking at his foot, so either he had a hurt foot or he had another migraine(Please no!!).
It's like they could stop Steve on the other end. He was having a picnic at the rim and he made some nice passes. Of course, we can use a guy with his skills. Just wait till the end of the season and we're having trouble getting points in the paint outside of our stars. Steve's and Bonzi's game will get us those points in the paint that we need. I didn't want to start a new thread on this....but, the bigger concern was our team transition defense? It seems like the team was letting guys get easy layups and unconetested shots on transition. Talk about matador. If Adelman wants to not let d go by the wayside as he claims, he better work on this some more.
Correction above: "It's NOT like they could stop Steve on the other end." Sorry, don't have an edit function.
