Perhaps I'm misinterpreting what "performance" you're referring to... but I think the reason we're not tearing our hair out over Blaylock's numbers is because our PG contributed significantly. In years past, this would not have been the case-- at least, not to the level that Francis played at.
Matts Bro... Some fine points you derive in your post there. Let me add a few more. 1. Stevie is a Rookie. His shooting touch went down through the game as the doubling became more appearant. He will learn to adjust better to doublings. 2. Same goes with the turnovers. Anytime your a premier player in this league, merciless doublings lead to huge TO nights. Let me give you some TO numbers of some premiere players around the league Hill 3.4 Iverson 3.4 Kidd 3.5 Zo 3.4 Malone 3.4 Payton 3.0 Garnett 3.6 Shaq 3.0 Duncan 3.4 Francis averages about 4 TO's a game. None of these guys are rookies either. And Steve rarely puts up 20 shots a night. Im willing to bet that he puts up fewer shots than most of these guys. 3. Why demean what Stevie did with the Assists and Rebounds. He also had 2 steals and a block. Theres no questioning that the Rox are not one of the strongest personell teams right now. But when was the last time you saw a rookie point guard grab 17 boards? 7 offensive? Its not like he was the only one. Pig Miller grabbed 7 offensive boards too. 4. Yeah he shot only 35 percent. Which in itself isnt anygood. But for a long stretch at the end of the 3rd and through most of the 4th, he quit shooting. Didn't shoot until the end of the game. I think he realized his shot wasn't going down, and only started to shoot when no one else on the Rox could get decent shots off. Lets not forget how many Rox are injured.
Brian - I see your point. But you are not suggesting that it is OK to lose the game and accept a big performance out of the opposing PG provided our PG gives a significant contribution. Are you? Dreamshake - A far as shooting percentage is concerned, you note that his percentage went down through the game as the double teams became more apparent. Are you implying that he was forcing ill-advised shots against double teams? I'm fairly certain that double teams don't require you to shoot the ball and if the doubles were becoming more apparent... Perhaps the issue of forcing shots should be explored. Additionally, I was not demeaning his performance regarding assists or rebounds. 14 and 17 is great. However, regarding the latter, most teams don't rely upon their guards to average high numbers of rebounds and this has more to do with the defensive ramifications involved than their ability to do so. Perhaps this is team strategy issue rather than individual resposibility, but I have yet to see a transitional plan employed which would allow our guards to crash the boards and still provide for good defensive coverage at the other end. It is this area that I believe allowed Mookie to get the numbers he did. -Paul. [This message has been edited by Paul Maloney (edited January 28, 2000).]
Paul: No, definitely not! The difference is that Francis is the focal point of the offense. He made a lot of mistakes last night, but at game's end he had very good numbers overall. Compare that to when Matt played for Houston-- his role was to distribute the ball, knock down perimeter shots, and stay out of Hakeem/Charles/Glide's way. Naturally, his numbers weren't going to match those of Francis. And when people looked at the box scores after a Rocket loss with Matt at the point, they didn't see 17 rebounds or 20+ points (albeit on 20 shots). They saw markedly inferior stats compared to those of the opposing PG. And that's where the "Burned By The Opposing PG" posts came from. Not fair, obviously, but understandable, I think. You know, we're actually agreeing on all but one key point (and again, this might be a misinterpretation on my part)-- Francis' performance. Matt was never in a position to cover up (not the phrase I want to use here) his mistakes (the other PG's scoring, etc) with scoring etc as Francis is. That's the simple reason why he was roasted over the coals after losses. IMHO.
When Gary Payton leads his team in rebounds, nobody says he is slacking off on the defensive end. GP does call out his big guys for not doing their job (e.g., Vin) when it happens though. At least Stevie isn't blaming the rest of the guys for the loss.
sir scarvajal - Gary Payton is an interesting example to use. Perhaps (and this is pure speculation) the reason is that when Payton leads his team in rebounds he isn't slacking off at the defensive end. Payton has led (or tied for the lead) his team in rebounds in 6 games this year - His Total Rebs. in those games: 11,10,10,9,9,8. In those games his team has a winning record of 4-2. Interestingly, (and granted this is a small sample size) in games this year when Francis has led the Rockets (or tied for the lead) in rebounds - games of 17 and 10 Total - the Rockets are 0-2. -Paul. [This message has been edited by Paul Maloney (edited January 28, 2000).]
Paul, it will be interesting to see with more games like that by Stevie if indeed we as a team are less successful. While it probably is a little unfair to compare Stevie with Payton (who I think he is by far the most dominant guard in the league), or Kidd for that matter, I wonder how that PG rebound principle works with Kidd as well. I suspect when either Kidd or Payton's defensive rebounds are up there, their teams are successful. Like you said, when they are on offensive side, that could show bad things-either they are not getting back or the rest of the guys are throwing up a lot of bricks-both of which lead to loses. Just curious, how has Kidd's team fared when he us rebounding well? Still, I think the fact we are comparing Stevie to these guys in his rookie year says a ton about his talent and quite a lot about his current level of play.
sir scarvajal - Kidd's numbers: 8 games led (or tied) team for rebounds: Totals: 14,13,13,12,10,9,8,7 Team Record: 6-2. By the way, here's an interesting comparison of rebounding averages for these 3. While both Payton and Kidd both average more rebounds than Francis, they rely far less on offensive boards than he does: Payton: 6.2 Total / 1.1 Offensive Kidd: 7.1 Total / 1.7 Offensive Francis: 5.1 Total / 2.3 Offensive -Paul. [This message has been edited by Paul Maloney (edited January 28, 2000).]
Paul, Your are correct in your analysis of Francis' offensive rebounds. Every game I have gone to, he has gone for ORs and got burned on the other end if he did not get the rebound, which is more times than not. To get the 7 ORs, I bet Francis had to go after 15 O boards and one has to wonder how many times he got burned last night. I hope this is just a rookie mistake he grows out of. But it is very impressive that Francis got 17 rebounds.
Even if he went for zero O-rebounds, Stevie would have had the triple double. None of us would discount the contributions of 10 defensive rebounds from the PG spot.
TheFreak: Good point. This is just stupid how bullard and williams have to start. I just hate looking at that.
... or maybe if he shot better than 7-20 from the field, he would have less OR attempts since Steve tends to follow his misses I wonder if Rudy breaks down the efficiency of Steve going after his misses. If his defender sprints to the other end whenever Steve goes in for a OR attempt, whoever gets the rebound will have the numbers. This will have to be one of the lessons Steve will hopefully learn in his rookie year. You know it is kind of scary that this is Steve's rookie year. Steve is going to get better and better and better
I agree with all of you - Stevie had a great game, but PM is right, as a PG, his responsibility when a shot goes up by his teammates, is first and foremost to get back on defense, it's not to crash the boards. With this said though, once again Defense is a team thing, and depending on the play, and where Steve is at when the shot goes up, the other guards are just as responsible. If Steve is under the boards or in the lane, he can go for the board, and one of the others needs to get back - if Steve drives, someone else should always rotate to the top. However, if Steve is at the top of the key and the furthest one back, he should not be running in to get the boards (which I have seen him do, and he did get burned on this last night). By the stats, it's hard to know exactly where he was when the shots went up, but I think alot of his O rebounds came because he had just driven and was in the lane anyway, so that's OK - it's then up to Mobley and Anderson to balance the floor. So don't judge it by the stats alone.
Not only does Steve Francis fail to evince numerous tactical faculties requisite in the modern NBA backcourt, but in addition -- and not to be dismissed without due consideration -- I harbor no small degree of doubt that he possesses any proximate siblings as analytically nimble or as sublimely erudite as our Paul.
Or maybe its that when Payton and Kidd Rebound its for a team that wins roughtly 60 percent of their games as apposed to Francis and the Rox who win roughly 35 percent of the time.
18 points (6/12 FG, 4/6 3pt, 2-2 FT), 11 assists, 2 turnovers, and 1 Road Win. Mookie Blaylock's nice game seems to have been overlooked in the less than stellar (7/20 FG, 10-15 FT, 5 TOs, 1 Home Loss) triple-double excitement. -Paul.
Mookie isn't in the Rockets' future plans. He had a great game, but when you're talking Rockets future..... I mean, for that matter I doubt he's even in the Warriors' future. 17 rebounds and 14 assists from a point guard, I would say, is something to talk about, even if he made some bad rookie mistakes late.
Will - I am not even certain if Steve has any siblings (I believe he does), however, it may well behoove you to withhold your dismissal of them in such a cursory manner, lest you be proven wrong. -Paul. [This message has been edited by Paul Maloney (edited January 29, 2000).]
