Can We Win a Title With Francis as the Point Guard??

good God you're kidding right?! 5 seconds to go the length of the floor b/c jvg has wasted all of our timeouts and steve is supposed to beat his man off the dribble?


that's one thing i'm becoming increasingly annoyed with: jvg calling timeouts every time the other team strings 2 baskets together. there have been at least 3 times this year the rockets had no timeouts in the closing seconds of a game. 2 of them didn't matter that much b/c we were too far down to comeback at that point (like 6 or 7 down with 30 seconds left) but last night was ridiculous. the game had been close all night and we didn't have to waste any timeouts late trying to comeback quickly and yet here we are with 5 seconds left and no timeouts to move to halfcourt? ridiculous on jvg's part to not manage timeouts better than this.

 

and with JVG... Therin lies the offensive problem...

Look up "pass" in the directions for basketball. It tends to save a lot of time dribbling up the court...

I think we agree that JVG is probaly somewhere around old man Musselman in the ranks of offensive genius.

 

Uh, there's a difference in kind between running the length of the floor and jacking up a shot to beat the buzzer and taking somebody off the dribble one on one on an iso in the halfcourt.

 

You shouldn't do #2... But he still was off a dribble against Raul freakin' Lopez and "traveled"...

 

I meant #1 Whoops, guess I should have passed..

 

How is this?? This sort of thing has been going on for the previous four years! Coaching cannot be the blame for his stupidity anymore. The bottom line is, it happened before and the blame was placed at Rudy T's feet. If it persists further, management will have no other choice but to rid themselves of their "stupidity".

 

I think we should send Francis to train in a remote area of China with Tom Thibodeau for a summer. He could then return as the enlightened one, Shaolin Stevie.

Get the street game out of your blood, man!

 

Why waste the time when we can get better just by trading him.

 

They didn't seem to affect John Stockton's game.

 

based on how well raul lopez and carlos arroyo have played this year, i'd say it's because of the utah system. that system will always make pg's look good.

 

Exactly. You can't teach stupid dogs new tricks.

 

A "wanna only hate and doesnt see other opinions other fan"

 

This is just wrong. First, one of the team's biggest offensive problems is the inability to run a decent fast break. Part of this is due to the fact that Steve feels its absolutely necessary to rebound all the time when it isn't, but that's not the main problem - Kidd rebounds well too and has no problem runnign the fast break. The problem is Steve doesn't understand the concept of getting the outlet pass, pushing the ball up the middle of the floor with intensity, yet keeping his eyes open and head up. He doesn't understand that the rock moves faster with the pass than with the dribble or that you have to have amde up your mind what you're going to do before you jump in the air. This is a traditional PG's role and one that still exists in the NBA.

Second, a true traditional PG should be able to play just as effectively, if not more so, against a zone. Why? The one thing zone defenses notoriously do is leave little open areas where uncontested shots can be had. A good PG will recognize this, recognize where his teammates feel most comfortable and get them the ball in an efficient scoring opportunity. That aside, 70% of the time our opponent is playing us man to man and Steve isn't any good there either.

Steve Nash makes it work, as does Jason Kidd, Jason Williams, Payton, Baron Davis, etc.

The answer is Steve is not a traditional, true PG. That is a person whose first instinct is to find an open teammate for an easy bucket. Steve doesn't do this intuitively and that is the problem.

 

Interestingly, The Utah Jazz somehow figure out a way of drafting SMART PGs. Maybe we should consult them on this issue in the future.

IMHO - Steve cares. He wants to win. He is athletic. But he needs blood tranfussion - to get out the stupidity and unintelligence in him for a smart one. His ONLY problem is his head. Everything else is fine. IMO, Steve will do very well at the 2-guard position but he is a luxury we may be able to do without. He is not an elite play and will mostly likely never be - he has reached his ceiling. But I like him as a person, I care about him but I will not hold it against the Rox organization if they want to sever the marriage.

 

Precisely my view of Francis. His style of play is so deeply ingrained by now that it would be nigh on impossible for him to change into a real PG. The problem here is that he's now playing for a coach who's offensive schemes need someone who can play the role of the traditional PG. That ain't Steve Francis.

 

Assistant coach! Yeah that 's what I want to say to JVG. If Nelson can have that Harris to help him built the offense, why not the Rockets? We all know JVG 's smart on D, give him a help-hand on O pls!

 

If Yao Ming learns to play like a seven-footer, rather than a 6-1 guard, the Rockets can win a title with anyone at the point (except Moochie Norris).

 

No. As the off-guard yes.

 

Interesting thread and I definately agree Francis isn't a point guard in the traditional sense and his skills don't seem to relate to that position. Moving Francis to the 2 seems like a better option provided we can find somebody else to play the 1.

Howabout this as an idea get somebody else to play the 1, move Francis to the 2 and move Mobley to the 3?

 

Strange but true fact: Utah Jazz PG Raul Lopez turns the ball over more frequently than Francis.

So is he smarter or just less skillful?