Steve Francis Turnover/assist ratio, Unbeleivable! Last amongs pg

The Rockets are simply horrible at protecting the ball. Period. Shoot, I figure if we get less than 18 turnovers in a game, it's GREAT.

Sad, but true. Our biggest problems are turnovers and lack of a running game (fast break points).

 

I think Steve is a great player, but not a great point guard. I'm in favor of moving him to the 2 and trading for a point guard.

 

Small ball isn't going to cut it in the West. The reason Steve isn't getting a lot of assists is because his teamates can't hit a freak'n shot if their life depended on it. Once Jim, Cato, Bokie, Mo, and Cat start hitting their shots, Steve's assists will go up.

Prime example: Steve had a season high of 9 assists vs. the Clippers. In this game, the Rockets shot 49% from the field and 42% from the three point range. Many of Steve's kick outs after a nice drive are to players sitting on the three point line. If they are hitting their shots, we play well; if they aren't, we suck.

During our nice winning streak, he was avg. about 6.5-7.5 assists per game. We were also one of the best shooting teams at that time. Either JVG has to stick shooters in the starting line up and hope that our team defense sticks together, or we just wait this bad shooting out.

Oh, and the turnovers just suck.

 

Everybody misses shots. It's the duty of the point guard to continue to give his teammates opportunities. One of Francis' problems is that when things are going bad, he tries to take over. He doesnt trust his teammates when they are in a slump, so it just gets worst. He doesn't trust anyone on the fast break besides Cat. A point guard shouldn't try to involve his teammates for the 1st quarter and then give up on them when they are cold.

 

He should not be a PG. It is so obvious.

 

I'm a Steve Francis advocate, but one has to seperate assists and tunrovers from one another. They are almost unrelated. Steve needs to cut down his turnovers because they force the whole team to work twice as hard to make up those lost points. The game doesn't have to be this diffcult. But his T.O.'s make it difficult.

 

His assist/TO ratio has always been the bane of his game. But it's at least in part due to the inability of his teammates (so far this year) to knock down open jumpers. As people have mentioned, if he gives up the ball early (say he dumps it into Yao) in a possession, as some people want him to do, he doesn't get an assist from that. These factors are somewhat out of his control, but what is under his control is the turnovers.

Steve is 4th in the league in TO/game. There are 2 components to Assist/TO ratio. If he just cut down on the bonehead TO (i.e. dribbling off the foot, drive into 4 guys and blindly throw the ball away), the assist/TO ratio would go up.

I'd be happy with increasing the ratio by cutting down the TO.

 

why do people keep using the excuse that "his teammates miss shots"??? doesn't every point guard have "teammates that miss shots"??? the "point" is to get your teammates the ball in the most advantageous position for them to score. and if they miss, to keep trying. every point guard...correction...every good point guard knows this.

 

First of all, I agree that it's easy to use the "teammates are missing" as a crutch, but come on. It's not like the Rockets are even average at FG%. They're #21 in the league, behind such offensive juggernauts as Minnesota (89ppg) and New York (86ppg). That's not good. So I would argue that the low FG% DOES contribute to a diminishing in assist #'s.

Second of all, if you were reacting to my post, you missed the whole point.

 

Was about to post the same exact thing. People who use the "his teammates are missing shots" excuse never considered maybe, just maybe it's because their point guard don't pass them the ball in the right position (don't pass it when you are open underneath for an easy score or pass it to when time is running down in the clock after 50 dribbles).

 

I see it differently. The low fg% can be caused by our point guard's inability to get the ball to the right player at the right time in the right place. Actually Jackson, Mobley and Taylor are all average to good shooters.

 

OH, and because we can't hit a freakin shot, thats why people can so easily collapse on Yao, and because we can't hit a freakin shot, thats why Yao doesn't average 5 assists a game which he can easily, cat, bury that shot, mo, stop blowing those layups, cato, get the hell out of the way!

 

Take the ball out of the man's hands. Take him out of his misery. Could you imagine this is coming in a situation where we play only half court basketball and no fast breaks. We could not do any worse if Mobes was asked to handle some more.

 

If you really want to nail Steve for not playing like a traditional PG, then give him the traditional PG role which is run the offense through him. Get yao out of the low block and let Steve direct every one on where to go, what to do, etc.

Since that is not the offense that we run, you can't make a string arguement that he should pass and only shoot when he ablsolutely has to.

This offense is built around the two best players on the team scoring - regardless of position. It is basically the same offense Rudy was running. JVG wants Yao and Steve to get shots and let the other guys feed off of them.

I totally agree that Steve needs to cut his turnovers WAY down. You have to fault him for his turnovers but not necessarily for the lack of assists.

BTW - it is EVERY player's responsibility to share the ball and NO ONE on the team is doing a good job of it right now.

 

Lurking Jazz fan here.

I think a lot of it has to do with the way the Rockets run their offense. There is a lot of 1 on 1 play.

The only Rocket game I have seen this year is against the Jazz, but based on previous years and the one game I have seen this year The Rockets don't pick and roll very much. There isn't much drive and dish penetration. If Francis or another guard goes into the lane the will shoot or draw a foul almost every time it seems to me.

The Rockets as a team are 27th in the league in assists

 

Juug, you could not be serious. Before you continue, study the games of Kidd, Magic, Stockton, Thomas, Marlbury, Parker and then try to see if Francis can ever be a traditional pg. It is a mute point at this point. In all the moves the team made this year, not getting a serious pg, like even Strickland or Mark Jackson was a serious error. Right now we have a glut of forwards and no real pg. They better make a move fast of it is all over. I would even take Tierre Brown at this point.

 

I suppose Damon Jones is the best point guard in the league, maybe we should trade francis for him???