International players have definitely made a great impact on the NBA in recent years. Who thinks the Mavs wouldn't be drastically different without Nowitzki? How bout if Peja or Vlade weren't on the Kings? Pau Gasol is turning into an all-star with the Grizzlies. Let's assume Yao Ming is the best player on the Rockets either now on in the near future, that makes 4 of current 8 Western Conference playoff teams with international players as their key guy. Look in the future with the Jazz possibly getting back into the playoff picture next year. Kirilenko is obviously the best Jazz player. That makes 5 of 8 Western Conference teams led by international players. The Eastern Conference coincidentally is lacking in talented international players.
Do you guys think that Steve is getting his All Star votes from China and other Chinese Americans who see him play along side Yao thoughout the season. If he isn't worthy of an All Star spot, then who is putting him there every year?
he was voted in by the fans before yao ever got here. hes a popular player around the nation....just not on this board it seems.
He was averaging 20+ points a game that year though and highlighted on ESPN nightly. Don't get me wrong, I think Steve is a really good player, but he may be getting votes from China for the All Star team.
A great article from Feigan. Who would have thought it possible? OK, he gets 1 or 2 good ones a year. With this and the TE he's exhausted his tank for the year.
I've said it all along. This is a PLAYERS league, not a coaches or media league. The players know who the best players are.
Goodness. So you haven't noticed that just about every opposing announcer team on NBA league pass is critical of Francis ? Or the the national announcers generally are as well? Argue that Francis is a good player all you want... but don't take limited evidence and construct it so that it supposedly represents the whole of opinion. That's 1. disingenous, 2. illogical, and 3. only hurts your credibility.
I'm looking for Steve and Yao to really take off in the second half. They both showed alot of confidence in each other, and played with a sense of togetherness out there on the court tonight. This leads me to believe that Steve Francis has turned the corner, and is ready to accept his role, and lead this team from the top of Yao's shoulders, all the way to the finish line. Go Stevie Franchise!!
surely you've noticed that they all just parrot each other. this could be because all see the same thing and it's right. more likely, they all just go off the popular sentiment of the time and say what they say based on what they hear on national broadcasts or read before a game. invariably, every game starts with telling us steve is struggling under jvg and then we mention the super bowl incident. then we hear how tall yao ming really is in person (this is apparently a revelation). then we hear that we're trying to run the offense through ming. then we hear how ming needs to get more aggressive. which of course leads to mentioning that jvg brought in ewing to toughen yao up. and then the cherry on top is they all mention that they can't believe how many teams jim jackson has been on. it's like they're all reading from the same script. and i can't really blame them. they can't follow us like we do. they see us when we play them and then another game or two. it would be like me announcing a toronto game or something. i'd probably just say whatever i heard sportscenter or newspapers say. just like last year. at the beginning, every game started with how good mobley and francis were and how you had to watch out for them. then it started to be how good ming was. then it was why don't we feed ming. the popular sentiment of the time got parroted throughout the LP world, even if not much had really changed throughout the season. that's why i have a hard time taking anything away from LP announcers. now guys at espn who actually follow and write about the nba i give a little more credence, but LP announcers are limited by how much they actually see. and that was my rant against the copycat world of league pass.
"But Steve has got to understand, he can be a playmaker.Does their offense suit Steve? I don't think so. He can adjust. It takes times." " - Sam Cassel A max contract point guard who can't make plays? Cassel is right, Francis' skill set doesn't fit his position as well as this team. Francis has to adjust, which takes time if he's able to. Before he does that the fans will keep criticizing him. Hope what he did in the Lakers game continues. BTW, Baron Davis is Francis' buddy.
"But the players I consider All-Stars are the ones that, as we go through the season and we prepare to play that team, a lot of our preparation is `How are we going to stop this guy?' When we play Houston, there's no question that Stevie is maybe the No. 1 thing -- him and Yao -- but really him more than anyone else we feel we have to stop to have an opportunity to win." That was said by Flip Saunders who isn't Steve's buddy. You have a coach of one of the top team in the league saying his is more worried about stopping Steve than Yao. The most telling thing about what JVG has done to Steve is that even at the ASG, he was hesitant to shoot. You had KG yelling for Steve to shoot after he set him up for an open three pointer. As much as everyone has become infatuated with Yao they must understand that he is not nearly good enough to carry us to wins over Sacramento, Dallas, LA, Minnesota, or San Antonio. If the Rockets want a chance at beating any of those teams in a playoff series, Steve is going to have to be big part of that.
...and then you've got other major, "unbiased" personnel that have mentioned how well the Rockets play with the ball going inside first (McGrady) and how they don't play well with a perimeter-based game. Your argument's garbage because you selectively accept evidence. You're putting the cart before the horse: evidence is not valid merely if it supports your position. And mainly, the statistics bear your inaccuracy out. When Yao plays well, the team generally wins. When he plays poorly, it generally loses. There is no comparable correllation with Francis' statistics, despite a wide degree of variance in his actual performance. No credibility.
Do they "borrow" a bit? Yes. But, imo, the Celtics announcers are pretty much "the pick of the litter" on the Yao/Steve issue. They generally wait a while before attacking all out... but by the end of the game, they're invariably yelling at our idiot guards for not passing the ball to the post sufficiently. Sure, there's a measure of parroting involved. But that doesn't remove the fact that the opinion exists in the media - and doesn't mean that it's not accurate.
Don't forget Mark Cuban that says the Rockets were a lot harder for the Mavs to play BEFORE Yao. He says Yao actually slows us down and makes it easier for them to match up. And actually, the Rockets haven't beaten Dallas since Yao came to the team - in fact, I don't think we've even been closer than 15 points to them.. The year before that, we split with them.
How can the Celtics annoucers complain the most about the guards not passing to Yao when the Rockets are 3-1 against the Celtics since Yao's been here, and the one game they lost, JVG pulled Yao out of the game because of lack of aggressiveness. Creditabilty??
And there are also announcers that note that sometimes the Rockets play better without Yao in the lineup. Our rotations are quicker and we are a much better running team. There's more room for penetration.
there're evidences that support both sides. no conclusion can be made as to Yao or Steve who's the man in the Rockets. let's stop arguing for now and wait and see.
that depends on the tempo of the game. If it is a fast moving game, where the opposing front court is athletic, and the backcourt runs alot, the rockets should have steve taking charge, but in a game where dominance in the middle determines the winner, yao should take charge.
