[Video] Francis, James, & Alston's Highlights Vs Panathinaikos

Thanks a million!

 

thanks a bunch. now maybe james haters can actually see what he can do. he can penetrate, shoot, and dish. im not convinced francis can hit that 3 point shots consistently. he looks awkward when he shoots it and his passing is a step too slow.

 

Agreed on MJ. During the regular season, Rafer will revert back to form. MJ's ability to attack when his defender relaxes and his defensive pressure on the opposing PG put him several notches above Rafer. He had two great drive and dish passes to Yao yesterday. When Rafer drives, all defenses have to do is bait him into shooting because about the only thing he can finish is an uncontested layup. MJ can score in traffic.

SF will find himself eventually. While the free flow motion offense doesn't play to his strengths, Adelman will put in plays that take advantage of what he can do. Plus he can finish on the break.

 

nice, but if you're trying to compare the three guards you should also include highlights of them passing/dishing

 

Thanks batkins.

didn't see the game but it seems like from the highlight that Adelman tried different combinations of the three players during the game. Expected seeing as how McGrady and Head weren't playing but interesting anyways.

 

Rafer on PG and Francis with MJ are definetely reliever at the PG position and will slide to SG. Lots of traffice from the bench on the second squad! Man! Big time player s in one team rotation!! I love it!

 

if its the fancy passes you are interested in, I normally include the real good ones in with the highlight reel.

thats why they are normally 7-9 minutes, I dont just include shots made.

 

We really dont overlap much, you provide the higher quality footage of great/spectacular plays that people like to use in mixes, and that helps keep people from bothering me for higher quality stuff, which of course saves me time explaining why I release at the quality level I do.

like I said in another thread, more footage is better for everyone, if you have the bandwidth and you want, you can get the HQ versions, if you just want to see what happened and just want to be able to see it clearly, then you got that.
Combine that with the interviews and other footage that HillTopper posts, and you effectively have the best resource for Rockets video coverage on the internet.

Everyone wins

 

Steve did have a sweet dish to Scola as Scola was cutting down the middle of the lane for an easy bucket. I want to see more of that from Steve. In many more instances, he has screwed up the offensive flow. For instance:

• On one occasion, he cut to the right corner and received a pass from the big at the elbow. He had a lane baseline for a split second, didn't take it, he held the ball. So the big that passed him the ball came over and set a highside pick for him, then the big slipped the pick and was open going towards the hoop. Steve held the ball. He held it until all 9 other guys were just standing in place, waiting for him to do someting. So he jacks up a three that misses badly. (But!! He didn't dribble it, bless his heart.)
  
  
• On another occasion, Steve had it at the top of the key. He does his fake drive right crossover, crossover back left through his legs and come to a stop, juking his man. He ends up in the same place. So he then starts the motion for a pullup, but hesitates mid-stroke and pulls back, as if he thought better of it, "No, that would be me playing one-on-five. Don't do it. What play are we running again?" So he pulls it back down, looks to pass, but sees noone is open because noone else knew what on earth he had in mind, so they're just standing around, having no idea what play he was running. So he settles and jacks it up from there anyway, misses badly.
  
  
• Even on a couple of breaks, he hasn't looked very in-synch. On one break, we get a turnover. Rafer gets the ball on the right side of the floor. Steve is running slightly ahead of him, but down the center of the court. Rafer, the ballhandler, has two guys with him on the break, so he wants to get to the middle of the floor and let his two guys run the wings, but can't because Francis is racing down the middle of the floor. Francis races until he's under the basket, with Rafer right behind him, then Francis veers right, down the baseline. I forget exactly how the break ended. I think Rafer passed to the guy running the left wing, who got fouled on his attempt. But I do remember, immediately after the whistle, Rafer went right up to Francis and pointed to the middle of the floor, likely correcting him, telling him where he should or shouldn't have been positioned on the break. Francis nods his head.<br/>
  
  • (aside) Speaking of that, I noticed this a lot of times in the first two games, players going up to Francis after plays and giving him corrective pointers. Heck, I think I remember even Chuck Hayes was giving him instructions at one point. (Speaking of Chuck, I'm starting to see that he is a very underrated passer, nice court sense, but that's another topic.)
  
  
• In the Panathtidakskasskbaklavasouvlaki game, in one instance there was a mixup or something between Scola and Francis, and afterwards I saw Francis talking to Scola, correcting him, and I thought, "Noooo!!! Luis, don't listen to him!! He's probably telling you the wrong things! Telling you to go the the wrong spot!!! He's the last person you want giving the you pointers on the offensive system!!"

I don't know. I've got a close eye on Steve watching to see how well he can fit into the offense, given his past difficulties in doing so (fitting into a structured, team offense). Remember the first game of the Laker playoff series when Steve dribbled it up past halfcourt on the right side, then passed the ball crosscourt to Jim Jackson on the left side, only the ball ended up in the stands because Jim Jackson had no idea, and had no reason to expect, that the pass would or should be coming to him, as he was just crossing halfcourt himself and in no position to make any kind of play? That's the kind of Steve that will not fit into a team oriented system, especially one like Adelman's, where quick reads and court awareness are arguably more crucial than in Van Gundy's. Steve was at his best that series during broken plays, and when he didn't have to make any reads and just attacked.

I really hope he gets it. Until then, he should be brought in as a gunner. Remove as much decision making responsibility from him as possible. Unleash him as a scorer, and a scorer only, when needed, when our other guys are stinking it up, when noone else has it that night, etc.

 

this was always steve's problem. man still has hops though, gotta give him that

 

great post rockmanslim.

 

In a limited amount of games last year, he shot a decent percentage.

 

he passed maybe twice in that video...

 

I rewatched/analized the last game, especially all our guards and try to figure out why they are doing what they are doing and noticed this play. I didnt notice that the baseline was open but I did notice when the big(Scola) set the pick. He didnt really have an uncontested path to the hoop but if he had recieved the pass on time (as soon as he turned around for it) he would have had an easy jumper before the defense could close in. It seems Stevie cant predict what his teamate is going to do, hopefully this gets better as they play together. He seems to play real well with Yao but his recognition definetely is lacking right now with the rest of the Rockets. Also, Steve needs to understand that if he has the ball and there is movement he needs to hit the cutters with a pass. If no one is moving, he needs to be the one moving to draw the defense so he can hit whoever is open.

The problem there is he shouldnt have hesitated. I think that has to do more with his fear of not "playing the right way". Shoot the ball Steve!!! Its just basketball. Every decision you make wont be the wrong one! You got it right some of the time.

I want to see if hes capable of running the pick and roll with either Mcgrady or one of our bigs. If he can do that then I would be certain that his current struggles are temporary. If he cant, well a gunner he should be.

One thing I noticed about Rafer is that he is drawing the defense towards him by attacking the basket and beautifully dishing it off to the open man for the easy bucket. I really hope he has worked on his finishing because not all the teams will react the same way, at least not the ones who have scouted him properly.

 

another great post by rockmanslim. during a play stoppage i saw francis talking to a huddled group of teammates on the floor. i too was wondering what could he possibly be saying. francis is really the last person you should listen to

 

And another useless post by yourself. Steve Francis is a vocal leader. He showed that when he was here the first time. That is also the same thing we lacked last year. T-Mac and Yao are both quiet guys so you won't get that from them. He motivates his teammates and I'm sure thats what he was doing the past game. We are going to need players like this to keep everybody motivated. If there is going to be a leader on this team, then Steve fills that void.

Yes, Francis have had his share of horrible decisions but he's also been very clutch in the past and won games. I remember many games when he was with us and he hit HUGE shots to either tie or win a game. The difference between then and now, he doesn't have to carry the team on his back anymore.