Anyone that is a basketball fan and lives in Dallas has had to listen to all of the talk about who’s team is the Mavericks? Dirks or Finley’s? When Dirk first joined the Mavs as a rookie there was no question that the Mavericks were Michael Finley’s team. After Dirks sophomore year with the Mavericks people were starting to notice that he just might be a special player. By Dirk’s third year the debate was on. It wasn’t until after the Mavericks first run through the play-offs that almost everyone agreed that the Mavericks were now Dirks team. Of course Michael Finley was always more than willing and just too happy to let the Mavericks be Dirks team. Finley is always happy to defer to Dirk. Fast forward to the year 2002 and the Houston Rockets draft Yao Ming. Prior to that Rudy T had made it clear that the Houston Rockets was Steve Francis team. Steve even has the nick name Franchise that he seems to cherish. The Rockets organization seemed all to happy to usher out the Hakeem Olajuwan era in order to start the Steve Francis era. But with Yao Ming coming on board Steve did not give the public appearance that he was all too thrilled with the idea of the big guy coming aboard even though the Rockets sorely needed another center. Why? To Steve’s credit, once Yao Ming got to town, he said all of the right things and appeared to genuinely like Yao Ming. Everyone can count me in as someone that believes the friendship between Steve Francis and Yao Ming is very real. However, on the court it seemed as if Steve would often ignore Yao Ming when he appeared to have an obvious mis-match in the low post. Granted Yao Ming appeared to run out of fuel at the end of the season but even prior to that there were many times that Steve would ignore Yao Ming in the post so he could take what appeared to be a much harder shot. We are now at the start of Yao Ming…year 2 and he seems to just score with almost no effort. He is hitting almost 70% of his shots through the first two games and it appears that no other low post player can stop him. He is leading the Rockets in both field goal percentage and scoring through the first 2 games putting in 19 points a game. You would think that those numbers would merit him as the 1st or at least 2nd option on the team but a quick review of number of shots shows that Yao Ming is not even the 3rd option. Yao Ming takes the 4th most shots of any of the Rockets through the first 2 games. Steve is 1st at 27 a game followed by Cat at 25, Jim Jackson at 22 and then Yao Ming at 18 shots through two games. I suspect that those numbers will change in Yao’s favor as the season goes on but there is no question that Yao Ming should be the first option and should take the bulk of the shots. All of this brings me back to the Dirk Nowitzki / Michael Finley syndrome. Who’s team should this be? Steve Francis or Yao Ming. Because of Michael Finley’s passive personality this was a very easy transition in Dallas but here in Houston it may be a different story. As was already pointed out, Rudy T basically anointed the Rockets as Steve Francis team the second he stepped in the door. Steve loves being the 1st and last option on the floor. He loves his nick name…Stevie Franchise. I really could care less who is perceived as the leader of the team but on the floor the offense should always be run with the intent of getting Yao Ming the ball first. Yao Ming is the best player on the floor and I can’t help but wonder if Steve is just a little insecure. When Dream was on the team no one would have ever considered ignoring him on offense for almost all of the 4th quarter during a close game. If they did they might find the backside of his hand. In my opinion it is time for this to become Yao Ming’s team and time for Steve to accept it.
First off, Steve said he don't go by "franchise" because he haven't led this team to the playoffs but they just gave him that nickname and he also said "if they want to call me Franchise, fine but he won't take on that nickname until he gets this team to the playoffs". He said it in some magazine I can't recall the name though but I think it's Sports Illustrated.
Well the difference is Finley is not a PG, Nash is. It is Nash that decide whom will be given the ball to shoot. Honestly, Francis changed his style a lot in this two games. And he DID want to pass the ball to Yao many times. It was his passing skill and bad habit failed him to do so. For Mobley, it is a different story. He still think he should be an All Star.
By the way, to be fair, Yao has his own problems too. Aggressiveness, rebouding, pick & roll defend, etc. OmegaSupreme start a great thread talking about it. We all want Yao to improve and be a great player like he did in Asian games.
I read that thread and found that it was BS. The problem was not Yao Ming tonight. Not be a long shot. If the guards had performed as well as Yao Ming then the game would have been a blow out and the Rockets would be 2 and 0 right now.
Yao cannot expect the ball from Francis or Mobley or Jackson or whoever unless he consistently is agressive and consitently positions himself close to the basket on the low block. If he doesnt, there is no point to giving Yao the ball and our guards know this. This should be Yao's team, but he is not stepping up his game enough to warrant this.
This is Yao's team, and it's time we trade Mobley. Why Mobley? Because Mobley takes more shots than a role player should, and its noteven in the flow of the offense. Aside from this, it would send a CLEAR message to Steve Francis that it's a new era, and Yao Ming is the man now. JJ and Pike are great entry passers. What we need is to trade Mobley for a SF who is great at entry passing, and we'll be set. I'd be ecstatic to see Mobley's shots go to MoT and Yao.
It is a problem of both Yao and the guards. When the opponent want to front Yao, they will be able to front Yao. Short and quicker guys can easily get to the front of Yao. Shaq also get fronted some time, but Lakers have the lob passes and Shaq is very good at it, so teams think twice before they decide to front Shaq. Yao and our guards havenot developed this lob pass, they should work on it. Also to be honest, I think our guards are subpar at passing. Once bounce pass they(don't remember whom) made to Yao in the 4th quarter was way too low for a 7'5, and one lob pass in the 2nd quarter was too high even for a 7'10. Guards didn't pass the ball to Yao enough today because a lot of passes required accuracy and they were not confident with themselves.
To be fair Yao was in foul trouble versus Denver, he was getting the ball almost every possesion while he was on the floor. But I agree with you anyways Yao needs to be the #1 option, he gives the Rockets the best chance to win.
This is entirely BS. Nobody said Yao is perfect, we are talking about the 1st option for the Rockets. We all know Yao needs improvement in many areas, but he is the best option on the floor. With his team leading points and field goal percentage, how can he doesn't warrant ball is beyond me. When a team lose a game, everyone should share the blame, includes Yao. But Yao was the best player in both games, on the other hand, Francis performed as bad as Norris tonight. The guy is the PG of the team, he is supposed to lead the offense, find the best option and deliever the ball there. What did he do? take a look at his stats, FG: 6-16 AS: 4 TO: 6 You will lose most of your games if your PG has that kind of stats line. --daoshi
Uh, crash, your formula is faulty. You didn't even take into account the fact that Yao only played 20 minutes in the first game. total shots/total minutes Cat: 25/81=.31 shots per minute Steve: 27/80= .34 spm Yao: 19/57= .33 spm Jim: 22/67= .33 spm
This is a total BS statement. Yao stepped up and for christ sake did you watch the freaking game! There were tons of times that Yao did have perfect positioned only to be ignored by the man with the ball, usually Steve, Mooch or Cat, for a much more difficult shot by a guard. You can not blame Yao Ming for the erant ally oop passesl, the dribble off of the knees, the no look passes off of a defenders head etc....etc...etc... And BTW, Yao Ming is 7'6" tall! If a 6'9" defender decides to front him then make the stupid bastered pay by passing the damn ball over his head. The lob entry pass over the defender was not uncommon in the NBA once upon a time. Don't blame Yao Ming because our guards do not posses the skill to pull it off.
Through 2 games: Cat - 40% F/G shooting Jim Jackson - 32% F/G shooting Steve - 40% F/G shooting Yao Ming - 68% F/G shootin I think you stat for shots per minute does a good job of illustrating that Yao Ming is definitely not the primary option...at least in our two point guards minds. Yao Ming has been consistanty unstoppable while the rest have been streaky at best. My only fault on Yao Ming is that he does not get pissed at the guards and start demanding the ball from them like Shaq does or Dream would have.
This is a stupid statement. There were plenty of times he was open but the guards just panicked. How many times did the Rockets throw the ball over someone's head or out of bounds or at someone's feet. The guards' lack quality decision making skills, have 0 court vision, and cannot pass to save their life. Bad passing and poor decisions = turnovers which is exactly what happened tonight. And unlike last year, Yao is much more aggressive going to the hold once he gets the ball in the low post. When your #1 player is shooting 68% from the field, he's not getting enough touches.
Yao was really tired... Mobley did make a nice pass to Yao..but Yao couldn't catch it...wasn't expecting it to go there.. I agree with Sane though. Trade Mobley for a good small forward...who is that?
Yao did not remotelyl look tired to me. He missed that pass because his momentum was going one way and Cats pass was going another. Not Yao Mings fault at all.
I think that the player the rockets should DREAM to get is Brent Barry: add him to this team and they're a top5 team in the NBA.
"Mobley did make a nice pass to Yao..but Yao couldn't catch it...wasn't expecting it to go there.." Are you talking about the one where Mobley threw it so far off that Yao had to go out of bounds to try to get it?
