I see a fastbreak. Actually, out of all the on court complaints I've seen on this BBS since I've been posting, the one I thought was the most unfair was that he can't run a fastbreak. First of all, neither coach Francis has played for so far in the NBA has been known to have a fast breaking team. Rudy's teams never fastbreaked until Clyde Drexler got to town. And we know Jeff Van Gundy isn't exactly a fast paced up and down offense coach either. Secondly, fast breaking is a team effort. And this is the biggest problem I had with the complaint. A fastbreak isn't always initiated by the point guard. If you watch the Kings play or the Mavericks play, no matter who gets the rebound, they are always looking to get the ball up the court. When Walt Willams played with Francis, and then James Posey, those guys always looked to run the court, and their hustle usually resulted in a fast break. When I watched the game last night, Grant Hill, Mobley, Howard, and Francis were always looking to run. And it usually resulted in success. I know they were playing against our scrubs, but someone else posted in another Magic thread that the team had 19 fastbreak points in another game. I think a lot of people are going to be surprised with Orlando's up tempos style this season.
Actually, I thought they were a running team on Francis' rookie year after Barkley went down. Thats why the brought in Shandon Anderson, to push the ball down the court with Francis catching half of the alley hoops. Hell, if you watch the NBA Foundation and/or NBA Dunks/Ankle Breaker DVDs, you will see alot of running that Francis did, but it was during his rookie/sophmore season.
Every team of the past 20+ years to win the championship has been a dominant half-court team. Some of those teams have also been dominant fast-breaking teams, but no fast-break only team wins. Certainly Orlando will fast break more than Houston did last season - what exactly can they do in the half-court? But don't expect them to become the Dallas Mavericks or Kings.
Steve is successfully fastbreaking against the league's scrubs. You might want to wait until the actual season starts before making a "See Steve can fastbreak" thread.
How many simple "3 on 1" fastbreaks did Francis and Cat routinely screwup? Too many. Whatever it was, bad instincts or low iq, they could not run a successful fastbreak when it wasn't a "1 on 1".
Of course, you prefaced this by saying, "Everytime I see Magic highlights..." It'll be interesting to see the first Orlando game and how much fastbreaking really does occur. In the last game they had 22 fast break points, but NBA.com doesn't have FB points in the boxscores for the other games. I think that while it may be unfair to say that Steve is incapable of running a fastbreak, it's obvious that his strength is finishing on the break and taking his man off the dribble in the halfcourt.
You hit it dha. Steve can finish but his passing and poor decision making show their ugly faces when he is running the fastbreak.
Exactly. The knock on Francis wasn't always that he never ran up and down the court. The knock was that when he was the one RUNNING the fast break, he would often screw up the 3 on 2 or 2 on 1 fastbreaks that should result in points. He would routinely neglect to move the ball up the middle of the court where he can pass to either wing. You can point to the lack of running tendency in Rudy and Van Gundy's teams if you wish, but they weren't the only coaches Francis has had in his basketball career. I guarantee you some of the fastbreak bonehead mistakes Francis was lambasted for were properly coached at SOME point in his life. Personally, if the Magic want to be a successful fast break team, I think Grant Hill needs to stay healthy. He is a good one to give the ball in situations like that.
Looks like they are really gelling. 109 points against the Heat and only 13 turnovers. Howard looks like the real deal.
I wish them all the luck in the world, and playing in the Leastern conference is going to be beneficial for Steve and Cat. As for the point of the thread, if Steve turns into a pass happy fast breaking PG, I will be astounded. He consistently ran a 2 on 1 or 3 on 1 break where he never gave up the ball and got called for charging. However, I do think that Steve needs a less structured environment to succeed and Orlando is a much better fit for him. JVG is too rigid...heck, I still think Dunleavy would have been a better choice. DD
I'd rather see Francis run a 1 on 3 fastbreak than see Spoon execute a 1 on 3 turnaround jumper. Spoonboom.
Wow! Check out the scoring by the Magic in their game against Miami Steve: 22 pts Cat: 19 pts Turkoglu: 18 pts. Howard: 14 pts. Hill: 14 pts. Battie: 10 pts. Miami had good scoring, too, but I've got a feeling that the Magic are gonna move up in the power rankings very quickly. I really really really really really don't want to lose to them -- droxford
orlando will be my 2nd favorite team this year.I have always said that our fast break mess up wernt just the pg fault.when j kidd gets the ball he had k m and r j bustiung there butt to run the floor and they also got in a lane where there sopacing was right to catch the ball are get the re.we had bad spacing on our fast breaks alot .
I have watched just about every game that Francis and Mobley ever played in the pros, and damn it i'm not about to stop now. Orlando will be my 2nd favorite too. I ordered that NBA League Pass last week and am ready to support 2 teams this year. I found this magic info board, if anyone is interested. They're really optimistic about their new team. http://s3.invisionfree.com/orlandomagic/index.php?showforum=1
You are flat out wrong. I am a Rockets guru with tapes from the pre-Clyde days. They did push a lot. Dream was their half-court set, but fast breaking, even with mediocre fast break players, was still a huge part of Rudy's 1992 - 1994 teams. Otis Thorpe throwing touch down passes. Kenny Smith pushing, though he wasn't great at it. Mad max running. Mario Elie and Robert Horry finishing. Copyright 1994 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company The Houston Chronicle May 27, 1994, Friday, 2 STAR Edition SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 1 LENGTH: 923 words HEADLINE: Rockets a team for all seasons; Playoff ride shows ability to use variety of styles BYLINE: EDDIE SEFKO; Staff DATELINE: SALT LAKE CITY
