Kobe? 2nd best shooting guard of all time? Please. MJ is #1, period. I won't rank the rest of these players, except to say that they are/were better than Kobe and why: Jerry West - as clutch as Kobe and actually won a Finals MVP George Gervin - 4 scoring titles, 3 in a row Allen Iverson - carried 11 guys named Aaron McKie to the NBA Finals Tracey McGrady - outperforms Kobe, without Shaq's help Kobe is great, but let's see him do one stinking thing without Shaq. Remember, Shaq made Penny Hardaway look pretty damn good, too. Also, Dr. J was a small forward.
Excellent points in the whole post but I quoted the essence. Case in point. In the second half, 2 on 1 fastbreak with Mo T on the wing. Francis gets the Kings' defender (Christie IIRC) to commit and then tries to use his athleticism to score and get fouled. The pro-Steve fans were glued to the edge of their seats waiting for a display of athleticism...a high-flying jam...an unbelievable, mid-air body contorting And1 shot. A posterizing, SC high-light... What did we get? Francis misses the shot trying for something spectacular...Mo T was wide open for a pass...the Kings get the rebound. Simply dropping the ball off to Taylor for an easy basket was what the Bibby's or Hinrich's or Bobby Jackson's or most players with average athleticism would have done. I've said it before and I'll say it again. For all of his wonderful physical attributes (and "heart"), Steve Francis makes the game harder than it really is. IOW, he is an inefficient basketball player. Francis is more athletic than the Kings starting 5 combined. But they get more wide open looks at the basket. They are all shooters, Steve is a scorer. A subtle but important difference.
Kobe may not be number 2 on my list but he's certainly up there. I think McGrady outperforms Kobe statswise because he is the number one option on his team, Kobe has to share the ball with Shaq, and even then their numbers are pretty close. As for Iverson, in that 2001 season he was unbelievable, he did everything that year except win the championship, however look at him before that and now in the 2003-2004 season. I really don't think Kobe gets the credit he deserves. He's never been the number one option on his team. People never say that Shaq wouldn't have won the championship without Kobe. Anyways where would Steve rank among shooting guards?
very true. remember when tracy mcgrady talked about making it to the second round when the magic were up 3-1 in the first round last year. we have NOT made the playoffs yet and we do have a very tough schedule. we would need a meltdown to miss out but we might be in one right now.
true: mission near accomplished, not completely.....but it is all relative and you take what the league gives you...(see SA first championship or Jordanless Bulls). BUT....we can all agree that the chemistry does not work. I am willing to give it one more year with the current cast and see what happens--only if we make the playoffs this year. But, if this team acts the same or places the same next year and does not compete in the second round time to implode
NY, Mission is not accomplished. The mission, not just now, but ever, is winning big. Not making the playoffs, not improvement followed by regression, but the ability to consistently improve. The Rockets, if nothing else, have shown that they are as infuriating as any team in the league with their extreme inconsistency. Win 5, Lose 3? Or, how about Lose 4, Win 2, Lose 3..? Is that progress? No...we have known ever since Yao got here about the potential of this team. Eddie Griffin could be the next Robert Horry. Yao could be the next Olajuwon. Francis could be the second coming of Zeke Thomas. But of all that potential, all that's come close to materializing is Yao's place as the next great center and JJ being a solid, reliable starter at SF. Everyone else is still up in the air, exactly as they were when the season began: A: SFrancis has had his worst year statiscally, has not answered any questions about his ability to lead or compliment Yao, and our improved record seems to be almost in spite of him. The fact that our defense is our strength and offense our liability is almost completely contradictory to his style. He is often terrible on defense, and his once-unstoppable scoring has dropped off dramatically while Yao and MoT have become the focus of a strictly half-court offense. Steve clearly needs the freedom he had before to succeed. Unfortunately, it won't be with this team, but I wish him the best anyway. B: Cat, like Francis, has seen his numbers suffer some, but he has fit in around Yao much more seamlessly than Francis. With the right backcourt mate at PG, he could be very effective working the two-man game with Yao. Still, he has not improved significantly in any area other than outside shooting. C: Power Forward and backup PG, our biggest worries coming out of camp, are still our biggest problems. MoT has shown his value as a reserve, but he is no starter, and he often excels in place of Yao, not along side him. Cato has tried, but he is a center playing out of position. Would love to have him off the bench to spell Yao, though. MJackson can barely walk, his jumpshot is worse than Steve's, and he only plays 8-10 mpg anyway. So, if you consider the state of our team a success right now I would have to say we just have a vastly different opinion of the words "mission accomplished." Yes, we have become a defense-oriented playoff team, which in and of itself is tremendous progress. But this team, as presently constructed, has plateaued at its current state. I think most would agree on that. Hopefully, management will too after our short postseason run and build a team for next year around Yao that can do some serious damage. My little dream: Yao/Spoon Kurt Thomas/MoT JJ/AGriffin RAllen/Piatkowski ESnow/BBarry KThom = Cato + filler Ray = Steve Snow = Cat BBarry = Trade exception It can be done.
If the Rockets collapse, you will all have your wish, Francis will probably go. So you should root for that. Honestly, Francis isn't playing as poorly as many here claim. I'm sorry, he's trying to do a lot of things that no point guard in this league is capable of doing. You can't fault someone for sacraficing their game for the benefit of the team in the long run. Van Gundy doesn't question Steve at all - because clearly he still believes in him. I'm sorry, but this is what I really dislike about Houston when I lived there. In NY, they cruicify their players every night, but they NEVER ask them to be traded. They are loyal to the end. Patrick Ewing, John Starks, no matter what. They accept the trades, but they don't beg for them. I remember when people wanted to trade Olajuwon - even to L.A. and thank goodness that didn't happen. Steve's a great player. Live with it. You can criticize his game, call what he does stupid. But you know what, Houston is so lucky to have Steve Francis in so many ways. I think it would be a huge mistake to trade a way a player who wants to win so badly and is so talented that they screw up trying too hard. You know what, his game against Sacramento was great. 6 assists - two turnovers. That's what you measure a point guard by. I saw him repeatedly pass the ball to this teammates who did JACK with the ball. What separates Houston from the Lakers, and what I love about the franchise is that unlike the lakers, houston didn't get to the playoffs and then trade away it's players for the best it could get it's hands on. I can't believe how people can praise Francis for years and then turn their back on him once a better player is on the team. One word: Fair-weathered!
Hey BlowSpursBlow: Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady AND EVEN GEORGE GERVIN didn't have anybody else on their teams with whom they needed to share the ball. You say Tracy McGrady grady does what he does without somebody like Shaq, and I agree, except to add that players like T-Mac, AI and the Ice Man get one-name status because they never had to share the limelight. Why don't you consider the fact that Kobe scored what he did last year as top-dog SG numbers considering that he played with Shaq?
A fair-weathred fan is someone that starts rooting for the team only when they are winning, i.e. FAIR weather. Thoes type of fans don't stick around when things are going bad. Loyal fans stick around when things are going bad (Bad weathered).
Let's see, every time Steve has a supposedly "bad game" certain people demand he gets traded, and when he plays well people quiet down. Sounds pretty fair-weathered to me.
Uh, no. People quiet down on criticizing Francis because he's DOING what he SHOULD be doing. What? Are we supposed to applaud when he does bad...game after game? You got your definition all mixed up. One should reward players when they do good, consistently. If they are consistently bad, you criticize. The reason that fans quiet down is because they are taking a "wait and see" attitude in regards to Francis. Because he has to prove that he can perform consistently before we give him the benefit of the doubt. I mean, it's not like we are talking about Yao. Who has short slumps, but has been consistenly good. Francis has long slumps, and is inconsistently good.
Hey Mr.-My-handle-bears-no-resemblance-to-the-team-I-like, First of all, Gervin played alongside very capable scorers back in his day - guys like Artis Gilmore (career 59.9% FG shooter), Larry Kenon (a 20 point scorer for a couple of seasons), and Mike Mitchell (a several-time 20 point scorer). Second of all, my whole point about Kobe is that he hasn't done anything without Shaq. I remember NBA observer types saying some pretty nice things about Penny Hardaway once upon a time. Things weren't the same for him after Shaq went to LA. I also remember Scottie Pippen's ZERO NBA finals appearances since parting company with Michael Jordan. Trust me, if Kobe was that good, he would have won one of those NBA Finals MVP awards during that three-peat. Also, my team is 2-0 in the Finals, and yours is 2-2. And unlike your team, ours beat a defending champion to get the ring. Good luck with that whole "disputing fact" thing.
I swear everyone hates Stevie now. I mean the Rockets would be complete idoits not to even attempt to switch him to 2guard and just trade him away. What can we get for him? Honestly? When do stars ever get traded for stars? At best, we will get some role players and maybe a draft pick 1st off, I know Stevie is having a TERRIBLE year. He isn't doing many things right at all, but he's still learning the new system. Also, yeah 4 years=no playoffs, but who did he have on his team? A washed up Hakeem? Who else? Injured 3 rebound power foward in Mo' Taylor? Not much at all, and they were playing in the West. 2nd, Yao Ming will probably be pissed if they traded Stevie. I mean he enjoys playing with him and get along great on and off the court. Im pretty sure Yao's best friend on the team is Stevie. I mean Rockets will make the playoffs, and if he performs good in the playoffs, ya'll will jump back on the bandwagon and love him. Bad playoffs, you want his thoart. Take it for what its worth, and its strictly my opinion.
