As your watching the game ask yourself....do you want a 10+ assist guy like Payton tonight...or a Francis type 25+ PPG playing point on your team.... Debates can be made for both sides...Payton has the unbelievable defense, good scoring, assists, and heart Francis bring to the table scoring, rebounding, heart as well, and a weak amount of assists for a PG.... Obviously at Payton's age, right now I would rather have GP over Stevie....but take Stevie now and GP 5 years ago....I think GP is better---NO CONTEST I think if Francis cant start playin like a real PG with better looks for his teammates and 10+ assists per night...it would be in the best interest for the Rockets and their playoff hopes to make STEVE FRANCIS A SHOOTING GUARD!!!
Well Payton has alot better scoring options than Francis has. I personaly think Francis the better player, but Payton has the better team.
Only rashard lewis is a true scorer on that team! We have Cuttino, Rice, MoT, KT etc...You consider Radmonovich better that Eddie?? Or Djorbank better than Cato?? Francis has the shooters to kick out to...Nachbar, Rice, Mobely He has the guys to throw the ball in to post up...KT, MoT, even Yao He can throw the alley-op up for Cato, Mobely, Yao Arent those weapons ten times better that was GP has??
Payton is a 10 year veteran. And yes Payton has better options to go to, Lewis, Mason, Barry, and others guys you didn't mention.
"Only rashard lewis is a true scorer on that team! We have Cuttino, Rice, MoT, KT etc...You consider Radmonovich better that Eddie?? Or Djorbank better than Cato?? Francis has the shooters to kick out to...Nachbar, Rice, Mobely He has the guys to throw the ball in to post up...KT, MoT, even Yao He can throw the alley-op up for Cato, Mobely, Yao Arent those weapons ten times better that was GP has??" Sonics are full of shooters, dang the whole team can shot it all the way out to the 3 point line. Only scoring option Francis really has is Mobley. KT sucks, Yao is not ready, Griffin is still young, MoT is not playing, Cato was never a scorer, and Moochie, lets just say he can't shoot.
KT does not suck....if we were smart enough to use some post up players we have...we would actually rack up some points
Didn't Griffin go off for about 20 points tonight? Other then KT who is still injured, who are our post guys? An inexperienced Yao Ming? Cato?
The sonics play better team ball and get alot of wide open shots. Thats something the Rockets need to learn....
Yao is good enough to post up...he should get the ball more down low...but the rocks backourt think the 7'6" guy is inviceable KT is a good player...he will be fine averaging 15, 7 if he gets the ball and dont forget MoT...hes a great insider postup presence...and is a tremendous asset to any team but the rocks who dont know how to use him
the only reason the sonics get more points is because their players are not busy standing and watching their point guard making moves or waiting for one of their backcourt players to jack up a shot so they can hustle for a rebound!!!
And one reason they get good shots is that they have a TRUE PG, not someone who dribbles the air out of the ball all the time and misses open cutters and spot up shooters so he can show his flash every play. The Rockets have been a terrible offensive team ever since Francis became PG. He just can't run an offense and get the right people the ball. The guy has NO court vision whatsoever. He's definitely a 2. Francis is just not developing PG skills. He's not in Payton's league. Payton is a 10X better defender than Francis and much better passer.
Exactly. People want to move him to 2-guard and say he isn't a great PG, and then say "Look Payton is 10x the PG Francis is", well duh, Payton has nearly 10 years of experience over Francis. In fact Payton's first few years in the league I remember Payton getting the reputation of being a ball-hogging hot dog that took bad shots and tried to make crazy @ss off-the-backboard passes, but in about his 4th or 5th year in the league everything started clicking and he started putting it together. People act like Payton has played like this his entire career, he hasn't.
How many times was Steve blocked tonight taking stupid shots? They made James look like freaking Mutombo.
Yes, Steve made some dumb plays and the fact that Payton had 18 assists makes everyone wonder why Steve can't do that. First off, everyone for Seattle was on fire. Who was hitting for the Rox other than Griffin? Cut Steve some slack, he was still one assist shy of a tripple double. Steve cannot be the ONLY offense for the Rockets AND be an assist man. 33 pts, 9 ass, 11 reb.
Seattle is capable fo shooting 70% for a game, youre lucky they started out so slow, it couldve been an absolute thrashing instead of a blowout. And yes, it was a blowout, Seattle plays tommorow and they were cutting back on the speed they were playing at, or else it may have been a 30 point victory. And for the person that said Gary Payton hasnt always been this good, they are right, but hes been this good since about the midway point of year 2. Although his outside scoring is better now, his defense was better then. Hes just a Hall of Famer, thats all.
And five turnovers.... but seriously, Steve and Mobley played extremely well tonite. The Rockets have been impressive. Now that Yao Ming guy didn't do too much tonite, but look, the goal is to get better, to improve. That doesn't happen overnight. Chemistry is distilled over years, not games. Comparing Payton to Francis is ridiculous because one's been a vetern for so long, the other is still working on his game. Payton didn't tear it up in his 4th season, it was later that he became the glove. Steve and Mobley will learn when to pass and all that good stuff once they realize they can't win by themselves. But for the meantime, with the numbers they are putting up...who cares, let them play at this level and become superstars.
Brent Barry is a better shooter than anyone on our team. Him, along with Lewis and Radmanovic are threats from the outside. Payton relies on these guys a lot to get his assists. Mobley would give Francis many more assists if he would just shoot as soon as he receives a pass from Steve. Instead, he dribbles around and wastes the assist opportunity.
All I'll say is that I'm very impressed with the way Seattle plays ... completely unselfish with extremely sound ball movement. Of course, a lot of that has to do with Payton, but overall, every Sonic looks to kick to an open man. When the Sonics were torching the Rox in the 3rd quarter, it seemed like every shot was wide open. A big part of being a successful team is getting players to recognize and accept their roles ... a guy like Barry is a perfect example. He's the type of role player that can separate playoff contenders from pretenders. The Rockets players haven't fully established their roles yet, which leads to confusion in their halfcourt game.
