Murphy's main beat is being the Chronicle's NBA beat writer. Of course, the NBA is not playing right now, so I doubt the Chronicle is going to pay him to take the summer off. He also covers a lot of college basketball, goes to all the final fours, etc. He's covered the Rocky Mountain revue. Last season, he went to a lot of the NBA playoff games, including the Dallas playoff games, LA/Sacramento, etc.
Building the team around Ming puts a huge amount of pressure on a 22 year old kid who has to over come poor conditioning, a culture shock, language difficulties, political problems and being a rookie. We really don't know what Ming will do next year, nor do we know if he will ever be good enough to be a franchise player. I think he was a great pick and a fantastic prospect, but lets allow him to be aculturated to the NBA before annointing him the cornerstone or building around him. If he turns into a 20/10/3 guy, then yea, lets do it, but not now. As for Francis at the 2, NO chance. Francis insists on playing point, and besides Mobley would not be happy off the bench. As for the sf spot, we need to keep Eddie away from there. He is a 4, not a 3 and we are wasting him and stunting his development if we play him at the 3. If Nachbar is so "mature" then he can handle the 3 duties with Rice. Taylor at the 3? That fat man can't play the 3.
Fascinating stuff. CD compared Ming to Walton a couple of months ago which really got me pumped b/c I really see the similarities in thier games (passing, touch, etc.). I hope its true but you never know until you see him. We should give Ming a couple of yrs. before we cast Francis aside and make it Ming's team. On some of the other points. Griffin CANNOT play the SF spot. With that comment you can tell that the writer was a general NBA guy and didn't really sea the Rocks all that much. He doesn't have the laterial quikness and I think we all know that. Francis is not a freaking SG. He's a terrific playmaker and the team is better when he's handling the ball. Besides (and I love Francis and all but) he is not a good defensive player, especially against bigger SG's. When we played small ball, Francis would get killed by SG's and not just the good ones either. Wells, Hardaway, Ron Mercer, they all took the 6'3 Francis into the low post and abused him. And finally, yes Mobes is instant offense but we don't have another SG so he has to start.
In Murphy's defense, I rmemeber Griff logging a lot of time at the 3 last year...And I remember being among many who complained about it...Wasn't there even a debate for a while about whether he'd be a 3, 4, or 5? If my recollection is accurate, why can we then dismiss Murphy's assessment of the team simply because he hasn't concluded that Griffin's time at the 3 is done...Isn't that supposition? Stylez...Excellent point re: Francis' defense at the 2, but another question might be..did he show demonstrably better defense at the 1, or weren't there a lot of nights where we were 'killed' by opposing pg's too?
You remember wrong. Griff logged the vast majority of his time at the 4 with some spot duty at the 5.
he remember right. griffin also played 3. and there was adebate about wich position he should play, 3,4 or 5, and the discusion was between 3 and 4
Your wrong. Even when the Rockets started Griff and KT together it was KT that played the 3. The only debate as to what position Griff should play was on this board. Griff played the vast majority of his minutes at the 4 not the 3.
So far, there are valid excuses for Mobley's assists numbers. Same for Francis' assists/turnover ratio (No one in the post, no spot up shooters off screens). But you know what? There are no more excuses. There are MORE than enough options for Francis to average 8 assists and NOT be in the top 5 in turnovers, AND there are enough options for Cat to be able to average 3+ assists per game. No more excuses. Look how many scorers: Ming Taylor KT Rice Nachbar Mobley Francis Then to a lesser extent: Griffin and Mooch We have tons of scoring. In fact, I EASILY see us being top 4 in scoring in the league. What's important is that Francis and Mobley make good use of Yao's skills, as well as Rice and Nachbar's.
as far as why they see cat going back to being a 6th man: they see steve as a 2. they think he should be moved to the 2 and thus cat sits at the start of games. this will not happen. after all-star break cat averaged almost 25 ppg, 5th in the league. about steve at the 2: maybe he is better off as a 2, but ya know what? he wants to be a point. and i would like to keep our franchise happy. its not like he is hurting us at the point. should the offence start with yao?: yes! the game was meant to be played from the inside out! our guards will get better looks to score if yao gives them the ball out of the post. yao is also almost unstoppable near the basket, or in the high post with a turnaround jumper.
Look ,I love Mobley's heart and his desire just like I love Francis' athleticism and toughness. But the bottom line is that - from a purely basketball X's and O's perspective - they both have demonstrated very poor decision making over the last 2 years. Unltil Mobley learns the meaning of shot selection I totally agree with Murphy's assessment of him. He will be more effective as a 6th man "come in and take over" player a la Vinnie Johnson with the championship Pistons teams. If he can average 21 a game playing against starting SGs, imagine what he could do against backups. As for Francis, from what I have seen so far, he IS better suited to play the SG offensively, but his height would make a liability defensively. Plus, he apparently wants to play PG. Being a playmaker is a hard thing to learn. Knowing when and how to involve others is an art and he hasn't shown me that ability yet. Maybe he is one of those special players than can continue to develop even after they hit superstar status - like the Dream did when he learned how to pass. The biggest thing Francis has to learn is the meaning of "medium range' and how he can use it to his advantage. He is an unstoppable player but he is going to continue to be injury prone until he stops trying to reign dunks down on everyone. I think Murphy's column, whether it be an oped piece or not, is right on the money.
I don't get why are some people so scared of making these kinds changes to the team (Cat as a 6th man, Steve as a 2). If you don't dare to try new things, how are you going to get better as a team? Who gives a crap if Cat's numbers will be down a little and he won't be happy because he ego will be a hurt. As long as its for the good of the whole team right? What does it hurt in trying? Shouldn't your team come first? If players like Stevie or Cat gets upset because they don't get to start or they were force to switch positions for the good of the team, I don't want selfish players like that on my team!
originally posted by ChenZhen I understand your comments about making moves for the good of the team and all but being specific w/ Mobley and Francis is something I don't understand. Does anyone honestly believe that a Moochie & Francis STARTING backcourt would help the team? Does anyone remeber small ball when Mocch would dominate the ball and Francis would virtually dissapear on offense except for maybe a jacked up shot w/ the shot clock running down? Mobes is one of the few NBA players that could go all day and all night before he gets winded so why bench him? The Rocks won 45 games the year before last w/ a young Steve and Cat running the backcourt. Hell, the only reason they sucked last yr. was b/c Francis was hurt for a quarter of the season and their SF's and C's sucked. Francis is the best playmaker on the team and relegating him to standing around the arc while Mooch dribbles around WILL NOT make the Rocks better.
naah dude, I assume that's what it means based on the context...but I'm not 100 percent sure man...sounds reasonable though...
Stylez, I totally agree with you....There's no way I would want Moochie to start, ever...he's a backup PG at best. My point was that if we do happen to draft or sign a legit point guard who distributes the ball, I will not object moving Steve to the two and moving Cat to the bench, IF it makes our team any better, that's all. That was just a response to many here who were trying to shoot down this artical because they believe that moving Cat to the bench and moving Steve to the two is so outrageous.
