Can someone please explain this to me because I don't get it. Yes, part of it is Steve Francis's inability to finish the 3 on 1 fast break, but this is a problem that extends to the team as a whole. This is obviouly something that JVG is trying to get them to do because you constantly see him yelling at the players to push the ball up the court. Since I doubt that Francis will be traded any time soon I think the quickest way to solve this problem is to replace Moochie with Wilks. The short amount of time that Wilks has played he seemed to excel at pushing the ball up the court. Does anyone else have any ideas?
I don't have problem with that. I have problem with team assists. This team will always rank at the bottom in that category. In order for the team to be potent offensively, they need to have higher team assists.
Don't be so sure. The mental midget. Dribble dribble dribble turnover dribble dribble offensive foul (turnover)... Hell, now I'd take Steve to NY, Dyess' expiring contract to GS, NVE to Houston. At least we'd have a player with some sense of the game. This is getting ridiculous.
I've seen Jeff waving, yelling to get our guards to push the ball up court a lot ... It just now dawns on me ... if our guards can not remember and do this simple little thing on their own ... how do we expect them to learn more complex things?
The Rockets fast break is nonexistant. I think it may be due to our big men doing a poor job of boxing out and getting the outlet pass out. When the big men don't box out, Francis and Cat go to the rack to get the rebound. They don't trust the big men to get the rebound as evidenced a couple games back when Cat took the ball away from Yao and subsequently turned it over. If the big men boxed out properly and swept the glass, it would allow the guards to get out on the break. And if our big men took on a different attitude about Steve and Cat rebounding the ball and told them to get their behind out of the interior and get ready for the outlet pass, we may be able to start a fastbreak. Now finishing a fast break, well, that's another story. Classic break: Rebound and outlet pass to the wing (either small forward or big guard). The wing in turn throws it to the middle at halfcourt where the PG is in full stride. He runs down the middle of the floor with the small forward and the big guard running up the wings. Then the PG makes the right decision on what to do with the basketball. Part of the problem with Steve's decision making on the break is there are so few times when we actually get a 2 on 1 or 3 on 1 break going that he's shocked to look up and see he has the numbers. The rest of the problem is him and Cat are always piled in the lane defending and trying to get the rebound instead of Cato and fumblin bumblin tippin Yao grabbing the board. Cato is a monster and is very active. But both him and Yao do an absolutely terrible job of getting rebounding position. Between the 2 of them, they should be gettin 30 boards a night all by themselves. Especially when they are in together. How many front lines are bigger than those 2? But neither one of them box out consistently and get the board in a fashion to throw an outlet pass. And then when they do, Steve and Cat are standing there beside them waiting for the handoff instead of the outlet pass. This is one part of their game that I don't know if JVG is addressing. Steve is a great rebounding PG. But we don't need rebounds from the PG. We need them from Yao, Cato, and MoT. We need assists and low TO's from our PG along with the 20+ ppg he is capable of putting up. Same thing on offense. The other PG's go off on Steve because he is stuck down in the lane trying to get an offensive rebound. Then he is playing catch up for the next 20 seconds. Advantage goes to the opposition.
For a proper fast break to work, the ball ALWAYS needs to be in the hand of the player the is closest to the bucket and has an open lane to the bucket. This player is the point man on the fast break. No matter if he's a point guard or a center or forward. You can't always expect the point guard to be in this position because that's just not how the game flows sometimes. What I see Steve doing is holding the ball for too long. He needs to outlet the ball quicker. A lot of times I feel he needs to give up the ball bEFORE half court. But what he LOVES being the one to dribble past half court. Besides isn't he the point guard?! But by the time he's at the free throw line, he's teammate is stopped under the bucket with a defender guarding both him and Steve. Right then Steve can't pass the ball, because the passing lane is closed. Steve can do a pull-up jumper, but his momentum is taking him to the bucket. All he is forced to do is go up for a contested lay-up. An UGLY fastbreak!!! What Steve should have done, is to outlet the ball before crossing half court to his teammate who is closer to the bucket. As his teammate is attack the bucket, the defender is forced to slide over to guard Steve's teammate. Then Steve's teammate can make a easy pass back to Steve because the passing lanes are open and look for Steve to make a high flying dunk!!! It seems to me the Steve is more than willing to pass, but it's the timing of the pass the Steve doesn't have a good feel for. Steve got too much of the old school mentality that the point guard ALWAYS has to bring the ball across half court.
I agree with the previous post regarding dribbling past half court. Steve and Cat don't seem to get that the ball moves up on the break faster if you pass the ball.
I agree with you. Steve is down low on defense trying to gobble up rebounds. So, if he is gonna do that, then his role has to be defined as such and someone needs to rotate to the top and be the "point" on the break. That's why I think Mobley may be better as the point guard. But the roles need to be defined. If Steve is gonna rebound, he's gotta throw the outlet pass and let Mobley or JJ lead the break. And if Steve wants to run the break, then he is gonna have to rotate out top as soon as the shot goes up instead of diving for the basket for the rebound and he has to depend on Yao, Cato, and Mo to get the bucket. See, I understand Steve's dilemma. He's trying to do too much. He knows them guys ain't boxing out and other teams are eating us up on the offensive glass. And he probably feels that Cat and JJ are not as capable ball handlers as he is. So, basically for us to get the fast break to work, I think we need 3 things: 1. A clear definition of who is gonna rebound and who is gonna take the outlet pass and who is gonna lead the break. It can't be the same player doing all 3. 2. A committment from Yao and Cato to box out their opponent (specifically Yao) and throw the outlet pass QUICK. 3. A committment from the outlet receiver to get the ball to the "point" in the middle of the floor. 2.
