Thats a very astute observation for someone who would have been 9yrs old when Spree joined The Warriors in 1992, he played there for five years ...did you ever see him play ?
Yep I was thinking 30 PPG, but it still proves my point. Early in the season Steve was getting 25-30 PPG, which translated to wins. BTW, Isiah averaged 28.8 PPG in the 4 victories in the '90 Finals...and Isiah holds the Pistons franchise record for points in an NBA Finals game w/ 43 in the '88 Finals.
Do you think Isiah needed to score 30+ pts to win rings if he had a big man who could score alongside him? Do you think he would win only 2 rings if he had that big man? BTW, comparing Steve at this stage of career to Isiah is frankly laughable. Isiah was twice the floor leader Steve is. Isiah knew to get his teammates involved and scored points when he needed to. Not to mention that Steve would probably never be the defender Isiah was.
No, Steve is not the floor leader that Isiah was, but he has similar scoring ability. Steve is a better rebounder though. I could see him putting together a "Fat" Lever type of all-round game with Isiahs scoring ability. That'll still be "franchise-type" production IMO. I think Yao will be a great scorer, but ALSO a great passer/ assist man. In the near future, his passing could more than make up for any of Steve's short-comings in that department. I'm not trying to say Steve is the next Isiah, just that ISO-plays have a big place in Finals history. And I don't think iso offense will completely disappear, because of zone D. It's not exactly college zones. Plus quite a few teams implement iso's successfully, just not as the core strategy. As I said, without that ingredient outside of the "tri" from MJ's talent, the "tri" gets them zero rings. ...And I would hope you wouldn't tell me today's defenses would stop him, because it doesn't stop guys like Kobe or T-Mac from scoring off the iso.
My response was to the original poster who said "40 ppg for the playoffs"...they did not say "finals". My figures are correct for the 1990 playoffs. In either case, the 40 ppg is a gross overstatement. Perhaps they needed the overstatement to bolster a weak point about ISO offense.
I did say the Finals. ...and please don't hesitate to correct me when I make a mistake. Everyone makes them.
By the way, "ISO" Isiah averaged 8.2 assists with only 3.3 TO's in the '90 playoffs. Your point is weak and you know it. At this point, you are arguing to save face. You have aready admitted that the Rockets can't win the championship with primarily an ISO oriented offense...just let it die. Even the clown that started this ridiculous "Rudy has forgotten Francis" thread has that much sense. Or perhaps you need to be shown that the Rockets have won 2 in a row with Francis giving the ball up the ball early in the clock and taking only 17 & 13 shots?
2 games = BIG sample! You still haven't shown how my point is weak. ...Instead you start blabbing about my motivation to give my opinion. Who says you can't get assists off an iso anyway? ...draw the D and kick it out. BTW, I could care less what the person who started this thread does.
MJ didn't win his 1st ring until Phil Jackson, Tex Winter and his triangle offense arrived. And you must not watch T-Mac play. He scored most of his pts off loads of screens, not off ISO. Also MJ, Kobe and T-Mac can post up smaller players. Francis couldn't.
Bird - slow, unathletic, exceptional passer, not a great 1on1 player but a great shooter, elevated his team. Magic - great passer, could score when needed, great in the open court, elevated his team. Hakeem - never won the championship until he trusted his teammates enough to pass out of double and triple teams. Jordan - averaged just over 23 shots per game but has a career 50% FG%, averaged 5.4 apg with 2.8 TO's/g for career even though the focus of the triangle offense. Unless you think Francis currently equals those players, there is no reason for him to take more shots in ISO situations. Game, set, match.
It isnt' working now. When we ran the iso offense earlier and focused it on Cat and SF we were so much better then we are now. Yao should get touches, but not be the only focus on O. How can you deny that we weren't better earlier this season with SF being our main go-to guy then we are now?
You are just putting words in my mouth. I never said that. Yao is a great player. He should get the ball a lot, but now like almost every play. Francis may average more shot attempts in the last 10 game with Yao, but Yao gets the ball soooo much. Half the time he can't get a shot off or passes it back out. In the last 10 games, when have we consistently run plays for SF? He was 8-13 last night. How come we didn't run more plays for him. He could have had a huge night. We won the game, but we scored only 83 points. 83 points usually won't win us games.
During Steve's first year, Barkley missed 60 games and Dream was hurt a lot, and Francis had hardly anyone.In SF's second year, we had 45 wins. That was the most wins EVER for a team that did not making the playoffs. Last year, SF missed a ton of games. This year we started off on fire, now we are heading towards lotto land cause he has averaged just 14 attempts in the last 10 games. He needs more shots. People say SF shoots to much, but he shoots less then a ton of PGs. Other PGS attempts per game: Stephon Marbury- 20 Gary Payton- 19 Francis 16 Kidd- 15.8 16 shots a game is too little for a Franchise player and the team's best scorer. Now that Yao is the go-to-guy, our offense has been hurt. Francis was 8-13 last night! We won big, but we just scored 83 points. Most nights that won't be enough to win. In a game when a superstar is hitting everything, why doesn't he get 20-25 attempts?
I have no idea what you mean. Steve Francis touches the ball everytime down the court. The majority of plays involve Francis with some kind of pick by either Yao or Eddie. Francis has the option on every play to come off the screen and shoot, play one on one and take the mid range jumper or take the ball to the hole. He's the one who makes the decisions. If he wanted to take more shots, he could. It's up to him. And I guarantee you that if he did take 20-25 shots, his FG% would be a lot lower because he would be forcing things that aren't there. Taking 15 shots within the offense is a lot better than 25 where you start jacking things up just to pad your stats.
Francis has the ball every play, but the plays that are run are all for other players, like Cat, Yao, and Eddie.
Just because they run the play for Yao does not mean that's a green light to shoot. He always looks pass first and will oftentimes give it back if he gets double-teamed. And what kind of plays are the Rockets supposed to design for Steve?
Isos. No one can guard Steve one on one when he was isolated. We never run those for him anymore. It's amazing how you people will say that Francis has the green light to shoot and that now he always looks to pass first, while before you guys all said that he was a selfish ball hog.
ISO's? Ok. Ive found the Steve Only fan. ISO's are exactlywhat we don't need. You know why? Because every other player will be standing around doing nothing. If you think a championship team should be running ISO's for its PG, I don't know what else to say to you. The PG's role is to distribute the ball and create opportunities for others. If youre a scorer, you'll also find your shots within the offense like Payton. ISO's? Unbelievable.
