Well, let me tell you one thing. If themoandfroshow was right, that means Steve had about 2 or 3 turnovers. The reason I say that is I am SURE one of his TO's was complete BS...that double dribble call. Remember it? Yeah, that one. The one where Steve had a sick, exasperated look on his face after they called him for the no-no in the first. Usually, I would never be mad over 1 call in 1 game. But my eyes followed Steve closely. Even though he passed the ball to Walt Williams and got it back within, say, one second, then dribbled again, they called the double dribble. Even Bill and Calvin made jokes about Steve, like, "You can't do that, Steve! (chuckle)" HE DIDN'T! Watch the replay. I swear. The competance of the referees is miniscule.
Yes, I have never thought he had the instincts of a good PG. He wants to be a human highlight reel; he is a showtimer who, in my opinion, may never become the player most people on this board think he already is. He appears to be very immature for his age and stage, but time will tell. Great players make average players on their teams look better. Great players take teams to the playoffs. Really great players win championships. Once the Rockets establish a strong frontcourt we will all see how great Francis is or isn't.
Give Francis 1 more year at the point. If his turnover to assist ratio doesn't improve, draft TJ Ford, move Mobley to the bench, or trade him!
Oh brother, Andre Miller has 4 more assists per game based on the difference in style. Have you not noticed the cavs have a ton of good jump shooters like person, langdon,mihm and murray. Thus, miller has an easier time racking up assists as he drives and dishes to pure shooters only. They suck because they lack a big time go to guy to complement him. In houston, Steve runs the ISO offense that we use and that in itself makes it less conducive to assists, because the lack of movement. Also, steve lacks the jump shooting threats andre has unless you count Mr. Inconsistency, Walt Williams himself. But the primary reason his assists are lower is the difference in systems. I would be willing to bet if steve played in a cleveland system he would have very similar assist numbers to miller. However, face the fact that Miller doesn't have the scoring power of steve so it explains why he focuses on assists more anyway. Also, why does it matter why we label positions on the floor. I want the best player personally and Steve is that, it doesn't matter to me if he is considered a pg, sg or combo guard for christsakes. This is not fantasy baseball where rankings for positions matter. Finally, if we had been healthy this year and doing well like last year would we be sitting here pondering trading Steve Francis. I just think we should be building around him, not trading him. The two most important positions in basketball are C and Pg. We have the Pg and Griffin could easily be the versatile pf/c we need. Instead of proposing all these deals trading our best player why don't we just take a little more time for evaluation because ripping a player because the team has a bad record due to a massive rash of injuries isn't exactly fair in my opinion.
Roc and Miggidy, Your posts only make sense if I suggested trading hi for crap and/or picks. I honestly think we could put together a good package for Duncan, if that means losing Steve than so be it.
I might agree with you about C. But PG if anything, is the least important position in the NBA. Look at the stellar list of PG's who have won titles the last decade. The best PG who has won a title over the last 10 years is a backup PG by the name of Sam Cassell. What does that tell you about the role of a PG? SG/SF is the most important position, mainly because they tend to have the best overall skills of any other position. This versatility means they can rebound, shoot, drive, and post-up at times. These days, PGs are role players for championship teams.
DV- obviously you don't watch the Cavs because langdon gets no run . Miller is just a player that knows when and who to get the ball too and more times than not steve doesn't. Have you seen Miller run the pick and roll as opposed to Francis? The two can run the same play and get different results. Thomas comes and sets a good pick for steve and instead of him using and either shooting the short jumper, he'll let the pick clear ,dribble between his legs and take a more difficult shot instead of the simple one. Miller runs the pnr like you suppose to as does Davis in Charlotte. I guess he has a wealth of jump shooters also and he was missing the leading scorer for more than half the season and was still getting 8 dimes and kept his team around .500. I'm not going to sit here and say the system doesn't contribute to Steve's avg pg play because it does, but it could be that Rudy doesn't really trust him to have more than 1 option on a play. He may not come out and publically say it, but the way he handcuffs Steve is almost an insult. Also, look at how Steve pushes the ball as opposed to Miller or Davis. Its not this high stride skipping Steve likes to do , Miller and Davis push and run under control in the middle of the floor not on the side. I still like Francis game and think he has a lot of improvement to do, but to say Miller has weapons and Davis has weapons are the only reason why they avg more asst is an insult. Neither one of those guys have a 20pt scorer in the backcourt with them either (except Mashburn).
oh my goodness! you hit the nail on the head. why can't people just give dre miller his props?! the systems that are run by the respective teams are built AROUND the players they have! dre miller is 10X the pure point guard that steve is. steve is a better shooter than dre, and a "slightly" better scorer than dre. that said, dre is responsible for his team's scoring more than steve. there really is no comparison. andre is a better point guard. the question becomes do we need a great point guard? well, duh. yes, we do. i'd much rather have a high scoring 2 guard (cat) and a distributing, team-oriented point guard (miller) than a high-scoring 2 and 1 guard, who don't make their teammates better.
I know langdon gets no run, leebigez, but my point clevelands team is built around miller and a lot of jumpshooters. I don't deny that andre miller is a very good pg, but I think the numbers definitely are skewed because of the difference in the rockets styles. Yes, I have seen the cavs and miller play and I definitely would stick with francis to run my team. He simply is the better player. Now if its miller for mobley, that I would probably do unless it makes steve bolt.
