I have never been among those who were set to evaluate the progress this team made by virtue of the number of wins they accumulated, but rather, given their age and other factors, I was convinced that their true measure of progress would be evident through the questions this team answered along the way. Questions about how they play, as opposed to how well they play; I thought it was a bit early to break it down to that final judgement. Unfortunately, we seem to have measured even worse by my counting than we did the other way; we just barely missed the playoffs in terms of wins and losses, but we made even less progress as a team in terms of developlment. Here are some of the key questions we had going into the season, and how well we fared in answering them: 1) Is Steve Francis A Point Guard, or A Shooting Guard In A Point Guard's Body? Answer: Still not sure...He has shown vague signs of improvement at times; at others he has seemed like he actually wants to be a shooting guard more than ever. There is no doubt he has the physical capabilites, and the defensive nightmare that could very well be the outcome of Steve shifting to the 2 spot is enough to make you want to try the pg thing out longer, but the fact that we are, at most, a very little furhter alnog in answering this question is, to me, a sign of very little progress in this deprtment over the season. WHo here is a lot more convinced of their answer in a positive sense now then they were at the beginning of the season? That yey another season has gone by, and this remains at best an as yet to be answered question speaks volumes to the lack of progress we made this year, off the record books. 2) Are We Going To Get Rid Of The Iso Offense, and Install A Newer, Team Oriented One? Answer: Uh...dunno. Again...Another seeming season of vague attempts at change, with even vaguer results. Yes, we tried ( sometime) to incorporate Yao on the fly, but is was sporadic at best, and even when we did it was still in a very simple and easy to defend way...Probably the worst thing about our simple iso offense the last couple of years was that it demanded so little of the defense guarding it in terms of mental effort and communication; two staples of defense. All it required was a set pattern of switches, and the key or point defender to try and stay on man, or call 1 switch...That's it. While on the other hand, unlike in the Hakeem years, the iso offensive focus ( ie Mobley or Francis) did not have established position of entry, therefore it made it nigh impossible for the accompanying offensive players to have established positions for receiving uninterrupted passing lanes off of the ball penetration; ie the guys on our side had to put out more mental effort than the defenders, an amazing situation considering that offense is supposed to be the actor, defense the reactor...We take away the greatest ability the offense has; the advantage of making the opponent have to work harder than you to stop you. Of course, our guys usually quit trying and just planted wherever they were, making them easier to seal off from the penetration, and the penetrators rarely looked to dish off of the penetration unless absolutely necessary; (chicken and egg question here.)..so the whole thing became moot. The Hakeem based offense was simple, if hard, to defend, but it was even simpler to run, and as such we maintained the offensive advantage. In terms of Yao this year we had a mixed bag...and we still stayed very simple. When he got it there was basically one set play; the passer ( usually Francis) would curl towards the baseline and scrape his defender off of Yao, opening himself up for the dump ( give and go)...that was it. Otherwise when we did use Yao it was with an odd combination of the new and the old; We would just dumo it in and clear out, but unlike with hakeem the other players had no idea where to go to keep the pass out lanes open, and Yao had little idea where they would be, so the whole thing would be deliberate and slow, unless Yao simply beat his man. When the help came, we got into trouble because we had no plan to beat it...once again we became the reactors instead of the actors....Bad coaching, pure and simple. So this question too remans unanswered....Yes, once again there are signs of some efforts to imrpove, but there always are. We have spent another season, another, what, 1/6 th of the time a good team spends together, and we have little to show for it in terms of clarifying this central question. A very bad sign... 3) Can Cuttino and Steve Play Together For A Contender? Again...as yet to be determined, but starting to look more an more like a negative. They really do compliment each other in some ways, but more importantly they also have a lot of the same weaknesses, and don't cover up for each other's deficiencies, making them easy to exploit. Worse still, one of the shared weaknesses is that, when operating at their best, they are bot pretty exclusionary players; ie. they are not terribly effective at getting others involved, but are both better at doing it alone. Cuttino showed a marked improvement on the defensive end towards the end of the year, and Steve had games where he played team oriented ball, but in the end the sum of our parts was at best as good as the parts individually; we recieved virtually nothing from the usual benefit of playing as a team and making each other better, and this responsibility rests mostly on the shoulders of the two men who are supposed to be the ones who get that going: the guards. Whether it is a matter of moving one or both, or shifting Cat to 6th man I will not seek to address here...You can, if you want. I am merely stating that, at best, this question remains no more answered than it was a full year ago, and at worse the answer has shown itself to be a no. 4) Can We Learn To Play Defense? By far the most positive sign this year was that, although still porous at times, especially in some key games late, we really showed progress here. Whether it was the result of Yao being in the mind of the less aggressive opponents, or the more aggressive guards knowing that Yao or Cato would be there behind them, we played much, much better defense than we did a year ago. That is progress. We did regress as the season wore on, but still, overall, a step forward in this area. 5) Does This Team Have A Leader? Remains to be seen. I think it has become pretty clear that, if we do have one, it's Yao. Steve desperately wants to be one, and has some of the qualities, but his selfish play, laissez-faire defense, sometimes mindless turnovers, and shortcomings down the stretch when we needed him most pretty much lead you to conclude that if he's leading you, you ain't going too far. Smae goes for pretty much every other player on the roster...The fact that Glen Rice, a career malcontent whose departure has been welcomed in most locker rooms where he's played became one of our most resonant and effective voices of responsibility speaks volumes for the state of leadership on this team. Yao has potential...he has certainly impressed those who have met him or seen him play with his intelligence, grace, honesty, dignity, and quiet strength. He is also learning the language, the culture, and the game...and he is among our youngest players. He could very well be our best bet as a leader; right now Steve wears that title by process of elimination coupled with his incredible physical ability more than out of merit, and Yao could easily surpass Steve enough to assume it for those reasons alone. But again, when a 2o something kid straight out of another culture with possible communication gaps is you best bet as a leader right now, you're in pretty deep. On the whole we remain stuck in a rut with these central questions...aside from the defense, we have spent nearly a whole year trying to answer them, and have seen our quest bear little fruit. We now, because of Yao, have a whole new set of questions to ask, and he may have us a little more optimistic about answering them, and some of these, but all in all the progress we have made this year, when it comes to how we've played, as opposed to how well, has been even more wanting than the traditional method of measuement; wins and losses. Most of our wins came by virtue of one of our great talents taking over a game...with the odd great team ball game thrown in there for good measure, and many were the result of the other team's failures rather than out strengths...Not a very good sign of progress.
IMO Steve Francis is the key to all these questions. He is the leader now and will be the leader for a few more years (if he is not traded) until Ming gets dominant and better with English. SF is already a great scorer, if he can master some PG skills and play good defense, all the questions are answered. I still believe he has the heart and ability to adjust his game, just need proper guidance.
1. Not sure either. But he is improving. Still...going to #2. 2. WE BETTER. God. The iso offense does not work anymore. And we have Yao Ming now. We need some shooters. And just make it better. Please. Simple stuff. Doesn't have to be complicated. 3. Cuttino and Steve CAN play together for a contender. But they need to have better attitudes and stop being all cocky and arrogant. They also need to stop ballhogging and be good team players. I hope the coach can make that happen. Best thing would be to get rid of Mobley though for something good in return. 4. WE BETTER. We have YAO MING and KELVIN CATO...yet our defense still sucks. It's mainly the perimeter players' faults. The best defense I saw was against Philly. But that was because the 76ers weren't making shots. Our defense needs to be improved. Needs to be more communication and chemistry and intensity. 5. Yes. Our leaders are Francis, Mobley, and Rice. Great leaders, eh?
The problem, as I see it, is that we have been saying that, or a varyation thereof, for a while now, with little progress evident. Still, I just re-read the SLAM! article, and am all jazzed again...
re:3...Have you seen any signs of movement in thie positive direction? Enough to suggest we'll get there before 2014?
Here's my thoughts to MacBeth's questions: 1. SF is definitively a shooting guard and he definitively wants to be one, and he'll be more naturall as a shooting guard. This team needs a PG that actually makes plays like Jason Kidd. 2. I hope our team come up with a good system that focuses on playing team ball. ISO is fine once a while, we need a system to fall back on once every shot is not going in. Good passing lead to easy scores and more wins. It's so simple 3. Cat & SF can't play together for a contender. They don't compliment each other at all for what they shown. Cat need to spell Steve from the bench. 4. We can definitively play defense. It seems that some of the Rox plays defense occasionally, they just don't put out a whole game effort. ie. Griffin, SF, Mo 5. This team doesn't have a leader as of now. I don't believe that Steve is ever going to step up and be a true leader. Once Yao improves his language, he has many leadership qualities that his teammates don't have. (unselfishness, team-oriented, level headed all the time, don't complain, takes responsibility for loss, compliments teammate for what they done well, give credits to teammates, humble and willing to learn, takes over in clutch time, don't brag about personal great performance like some of the guys do, SMART, great personality,etc)
This need to be discussed among the coaches and Steve himself. If he is willing to play as a PG, the coaches has to help him improving his passing and his ability to call the play which involve his team mates. That also means his scoring stat will be down and we have to be patient with him. However, If he wish to continue to be free in taking shots by himself, he should move to SG and really improve on defense. Either way, The rocket and him MUST have/made decision before the next season. I think that the rocket NEED to get rid of the ISO offense if they want to keep Yao. I mean, Yao is a team player. His strongest point is not the ISO. He can develop into a good ISO dominating type player but I do not think that he will be great in that department. How long the rocket is willing to wait? Why don't they use his strong point and help with his weakness? This also goes with Steve's question above. To me Steve may be better at SG. Also, Basketball is a team sport, I have never believe in ISO. It is ugly and if you do not have consistant dominating players, the team will not win. What will happen if your dominating player got injured or not playing well? : You loose. I am new to the rocket team. However, after watching them this season, i do not think so. They are almost the same player. As you said, they have the same weakness. Both of them are good players but I do not think that both together in a team will make the team to be a contender. They may be able to get into the playoff, though but i do not think the team will win the championship. Just my prediction! The rocket need better coaches on defense. Also, I have never seen them play a real zone defense. They should add that into their strategies too. It may become handy in some games.
I have a question as well. With Rice comming off the books after next season, he is a commodity for those teams looking too free up space in the 2004 season. Would it be possible to trade Rice in the offseason for a draft pick- a low first round draft pick. And then be able to give that pick to memphis and be allowed to keep our lottery pick?
In order to get just a draft pick, we would have to trade Rice to a team that already has cap room. If you've got cap room, you don't need to bring in a player to create cap room next year. The pick would also have to be within two positions of our own in order to satisfy the trade demands with Memphis, if I'm not mistaken. So I don't believe there's any chance of that happening.
Check your own posts and see how many "... but needs to...", that shows that a lot of "ifs" have to happen for us even to become half decent good. IMO, Francis will NEVER be a great point guard. He just doesn't have the natural born court vision and the so called "sixth sence". He will make a great shooting guard. Make him what he's. Francis and Mobley CANNOT play together. 4 years now. If that "have better attitude, stop being cocky and ballhogging" has to happen, it would already have happened now. What is the sign of improvement? You count on them suddenly become that for us to become a good team? It's like counting on the weather to be windy tomorrow so that you can go water-skiing. It CAN happen but NOT necessarily WILL happen.
The HUGE problem with moving Francis to the sg is that, unless we get an Alvin Williams type of pg who can defend other team's sgs, Steve will get absolutely torched by the sgs of this league. You can say he doesn't defend anybody as is, but that would be significantly worse...Imagine Kobe, T-Mac, Carter, et al taking on Steve...Not pretty.
what i meant was you didnt even try to answer your own questions, even if it would be 1 man's opinion at best.
I don't think you got my point; the fact that these were the questions we were asking last year, and that there are no evident answers a year later is my point. That, in terms of progress by my standards, we have made some with number 4, but little or none with the rest, and certainly not enough to justify the year as a developmental one.
