Yeah. You hit the key point, FranciseBlade. I doubt that JVG did design several plays for stevie. Being a NBA coach, JVG should feel shame he can't exert his star players (both Francis and Yao) full ability&potential! It's unfair to only reflect Stevie himself for his shot/points or whatever. JVG should and must hold that liability! I'm really sad to see Stevie's confidence slipping little by little going along the games. What the hell did JVG do with Steive! What JVG did to Steve is right similar to what Larry Smith had done to Yao Ming last season. Poor stevie, I look forward to seeing him turn around...
I agree with you. JVG should design some plays for him, not only to get his confidence back, but also for long run. He is such a good offense weapon. We definitely need his offense power. One of the reasons of his shooting slump is he takes a lot of tough shots. JVG should let JJ handle ball more, Steve should also move without ball better and take good shots. I am not suggesting moving him to 2, just mixes a little bit. He is not a traditional PG, I doubt he will ever be. So we need everybody moves ball well and creates shots for everybody.
I don't understand JVG. The team has trouble scoring - everyone in the NBA knows it. Then we ask our best scorer to not score. They've had zone defense for a few years now, and Steve was still a 20ppg scorer against them. The problem is fans and media that are constantly downing him, constantly calling him stupid and selfish. So now he's going out of his way to prove them wrong. He needs to take AI's advice from the ASG and not even worry about what people say. You're not going to make them happy anyway. Play your game. If JVG doesn't like it, let him trade you. But don't let him take away your game. I hate seeing these guards like Nash and Bibby that Steve used to roast now getting a chance to just freestroke against him while the Rat tries to turn Steve into Charlie Ward. Screw the rat, play your game.
I'm sorry but I don't buy that argument. Shaq is the biggest body in the league, didn't stop Kobe from penetrating (not saying they are equal, just an example). Hell, he even found a way to do it to a white hoe. I think the reason is two fold: 1. Steve's not getting the calls 2. He's losing confidence, how many times have we seen him double/triple clutch the ball If he gets his confidence back he'll do well.
maybe when SF goes in for a layup, he should try to just, dare i say it, lay it up? he tries too hard to draw a foul first so he triple pumps. all that does is bide time for the defender to come up and block the shot cleanly thus no foul.
The Lakers play in a system called the triangle offense. In this system, Shaq gets the ball a lot, but not just on traditional run down the court and post up. There is a lot of movement in the offense, allowing Shaq to flash in the set offense and get the ball. Because of the spacing of the offense, there are times where Kobe, when given the green light, can break out of the offensive set and take his man off the dribble. Maybe a better example of your counter arguement would be how Tony Parker or Ginobili can break down the defense with Tim Duncan playing in the post. (However Duncan is also active on offense without the ball) Of course his confidence is low, and if he gets it back then he will do well. But that is not really the reason for his poor ofensive output, at least scoring wise. Why is his confidence low? Is it that he can't get the shots that he wants? Is he not getting the fouls that he wants on the shots he takes in the lane? Or, to take it to a MFW2310 level, does Stevie need a visit to the Enzyte man's doctor?
I think the Rockets should be playing more 2-man game with Yao and SF. Remember last season, when Yao would regularly dump it off to SF in the deep post while screening off SF's man... so that Francis had essentially an open lane to the basket? We need to see more of that. We need to see less one-on-one play out of Yao when he gets the ball (which, I'm sure, is not what he wants... but is the way that JVG has drawn it up). Part of the problem is that SF has, historically, a problem getting the ball to Yao when he's on the wing. So you instead end up with JJ and Yao playing the 2-man game. But with SF's passing improving (I saw some entries from the guy last night, but Yao was having problems finishing)... I think we'll go back to that sooner or later. It just makes sense. Make the defense choose between guarding Yao, or giving Francis an open lane to the basket. We all know the guy only needs a couple open steps to do his damage.
Good analysis again, YW. I think if he starts just going to the bucket early in games and often, and either scores or gets to the line, it helps his confidence, and thus his jumper, later on. You ever notice that when Cat is in a slump, he will often just take the ball from the top of the key, put his head down, and explode the hole to get hiimself some easy points and get his confidence boosted a bit. Even Yao, when his jumper isn't falling, starts to bring his game closer inside, like he did last night. However, when Francis starts out missing from outside, he just keeps jacking up long jumpers to shoot hiimself out of it, an approcah which doesn't seem to work that well. I wish he would just put his head down and get to the hole a la Cat and Yao rather than doing the crossover/pull up.
I few time last night, Steve posted up his guy and took difficult fallway jumpers. I think maybe 1 of 4 went in. That's clearly not his game. I don't really see why passing it sometimes precludes him from doing his thing when he decides he's going to shoot. On some possessions he dumps it into Yao, but on the other possessions where he's staring down his man and massaging the ball, he's ineffective and this has nothing to do with sharing the rock. Steve is clearly not playing well, and I don't really see how JVG's "system" is hampering him. Maybe Yao is clogging up the lane, but why doesn't the team just tell Yao to clear out on plays called for Francis? I think teams just aren't letting Steve penetrate. They're playing him tough on the drive and letting him shoot outside and he's not a good outside shooter. He's just been scouted well.
That would be ideal. The problem is that Francis just doesn't know how to play that 2 man game. He doesnt know how to run pick-n-rolls. He doesnt know how to pass back to the picker, Yao. In "theory" it is a great idea. On ESPN NBA Basketball Video Game it works great. But Francis' game just doesn't MESH with Yao's. That is the problem. And for this team to move forward we need our two star players to be able to feed of one another. Now, imagine Ray Allen coming off picks set by Yao.
I think the call for Steve to post-up on McInnis IIRC was to get Francis involved in the offense and hopefully boost his confidence by taking and making closer shots. While ultimately it was Cat Mobley who was able to take advantage of the weaker Cav guards, Van Gundy obviously wanted to get Steve into the flow of the game, scoring wise. For a player not to know how to perform certain plays, that responsibility falls on the coaches to teach him that in which he does not know. If it is the fact that Francis has been taught and practices pick-n-rolls just does not perform them when the play is called in the game, then the fault falls on Steve Francis. I do recall games last season (against the Lakers, for instance) where Steve would come off of a pick from Yao and nail a clutch long range shot. Even early on this season, JJ would feed Yao in the paint close to the baseline and instead of clearing out past Yao along the baseline, JJ would fake the drive after the pass and break back to the original spot and hit a wide open shot. While the JJ & Yao 2-man game isn't something that suites Francis as well, it makes me think that the Rockets do not run plays like that too often. More and more, it is feeding Yao and Yao kicking it out to get better position on a re-post. I would like to see a healthy combination of plays involving Yao, including the pick-n-roll, the JJ & Yao play, the post & re-post play, and a pick-n-fade where Yao gets to show off his soft touch from the outside. Basically, play the way Tim Duncan plays on offense. Yao is certainly capable and with the Rockets stars playing like Tim Duncan and Mike Bibby, the Rockets should have no problems scoring.
Clyde came in as one of the top 50 and used to having a free lane and adjusted playing with the most dominant center in the game at the time. Any great player or supposed to be at least good, should be able to mesh with another, especially a big guy. If you were to take Francis and replce him with Mcgrady,Carter or other cast of plyers, they would still get their points, and probably shoot higher because of the attention Ming demands. Had Clyde had Hakeem his entire career, Clyde probably have 3 or 4 rings and be considered and almost the same level as Jordan.
Ray Allen is getting to be a disgruntled player in Seattle. He's been complaining about losing so much in his 1st full year with Seattle. He'll keep on losing if he stays on that team without any low post presence offensively and defensively.
This comparison is not valid. Clyde is a shooting guard, he didn't need to handle the ball as much, or set up the team. Francis has been struggling to balance scoring & setting up offense at the same time. He used to just drive to the hoop, either draw a foul, or dish out to a shooter, that's pretty much taken care of both duties before. This year, his penetration option is limited by the zone & Yao's presents in the paint, he is just look confused out there. Will he ever be able to find the right balance? I don't know. But to give up on him after half a season doesn't seem fair to him, or to the coach who is partially responible to make the maximum usage of his star player. --daoshi
But Yao and the zone were there last year, and his shooting percentages were a LOT better than they are this year. When you have another player drawing attention from the defense, that should make it easier to score, not harder. The question is, why is it so much harder for him this year. The article above seems to be subtly questioning the coach, IMO: But the Rockets seem to be sacrificing a player who had been an outstanding scorer. Francis seems more unsure of himself than ever, and little is being done in the offense to get him going. The use of the word 'sacrificing' stuck out to me immediately.
For the most part, I agree. However, it seems as though Francis needs to score "easy" baskets to get his game going. Fast break lay-ups or mid-range off the dribble shots are examples of "easy" baskets for Francis in particular. Since the lane is clogged with Yao and the various defenders surrounding him in the post (something that teams did not have to do last year when Yao was not as polished of a NBA scorer), defenders are taking a step off of Steve and not allowing the drive. Last year, most teams employed a late double team on Yao where a guard would cheat over while Yao was making his relatively time consuming offensive post moves. This season Yao has been making quicker moves before that guard double-team could come, or he would notice the double-team coming and pass to the open man over the defense. Thus, teams are zoning up and double teaming Yao with the PF, causing the open man to be Cato or 'Spoon or Taylor - all of which are not catch and shoot type of big men. Teams have scouted the Rockets well. With Francis not making the long range shots and not having good spacing to take his man to the rim, Steve is rightfully down on himself for his scoring contributions to the team. That is why I was encouraged by Van Gundy calling for Steve to post up. I think he is used to posting on taller players, hence the fade-aways. Yet with his size, strengthn and leaping ability, Francis should be able to post up most guards in the league. Hopefully this will be something that the Rockets can use to get Steve going throughout the season.
I talked about this issue in the other thread. I think What happened is JVG & the stuff made their mind that the team will start with Yao on offense (it didn't happen that early because they were focus on the defense initially), so all the plays are designed around the post play, or some PnR with Yao starting from the high post. These are evident from the games the Rockets have played so far. Now, with the team get more and more comfortable with this inside-out game, maybe the coaches are ready to insert some plays for the guards, especially Steve, to get more options. Someone uses Mobley as an example to highlight his argument about Steve's inability to adjust, but he forgot that Cat's duty is scoring, and Steve has to set up the offense in addition to scoring. We can see he is trying hard out there, but just have trouble to find the right balance. I'm willing to wait a little longer for the coaches to maximize Steve's ability.
