ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Timberwolves 3/5/2004

BTW, does anyone else find Cassell's mercurial rise to the top of the league kind of funny? The man is 34 years old, and just last season, he was considered the prototypical selfish PG. Hell, I even underrated him, and I've always been a pretty big fan. When he signed with the Wolves, it was almost an afterthought to me. I thought Kandi and Sprewell were the big acquisitions, while Cassell would be the 5th wheel, or even a combo guard off the bench behind Hudson. If he can do it at 34, can't Steve do it at 27? Don't say you don't see it happening, because who predicted Sam Cassell's season? Did anyone think that Sam would have this big an impact on the Wolves?

 

Nothing Steve does in the next 21 games plus playoffs will make me believe that he is suddenly a fundamentally different player than he has been for 4 and 3/4 years. Steve is very athletic, and that is his best attribute. That allows him to get a lot of rebounds (for a guard) and penetrate pretty well. His weaknesses are shooting, passing, defense, and taking care of the ball. Unfortunately, his weaknesses would be the strengths of the ideal PG for our system. Even if he becomes average to above-average in all of those areas, it is not worth paying him a max contract when we could get a minimum contract player or a MLE player to do the same. It doesn't matter to me if our PG only gets 1-2 rebounds per game and never dunks the ball. This isn't major league baseball, there is a limited amount of resources that we have to distribute across 12-15 players. Spending 20%+ of our payroll on a square peg that we are trying our best to force into a round hole is not the best way to expend our resources, even if it is a very nice peg and we sometimes manage to squeeze it into the hole.

 

yes, the should be able to supply half the offense.

 

hate blinders on

 

Consistency blinders on.

 

That's right. I was hypothetical that SF be the 3rd best player. But I'm not going to be upset if we only got T-Mac, but didn't get to keep SF. "Darn!" <---sarcasm

 

I've probably got more mixed feelings about Francis than any other player in the NBA. I loved watching him at Maryland. What's ironic, is how much he was praised for being unselfish while at Maryland. For sacrificing his game to fit in with the team (which was ultra-talented). What happened to that Steve?

Steve has a bad rap in a lot of ways. He doesn't rely on his athleticism as much as many think. IMO, his most important ability is how he manages to create space off the dribble and hit shots with just a little bit. He plays very hard, mostly has a good attitude, and can really take over a game at times.

But he drives me crazy beyond belief. IMO, the most obvious and indisputably stupid thing he does is how he conducts a fastbreak. Even on a 3-on-1... I wince. Because he screws it up more often than not. College teams don't have a problem with it. Good highschool teams can do it. Yet beating a single defender on a 3-on-1 fastbreak still blows Steve's mind. How is that even possible with a non-r****ded adult? I don't get it.

THere's dumb shots, dribbling into corners, dumb offensive fouls, faililng to get other players involved... I just don't know.

I want Steve very, very much to succeed. I've just finally decided in this last year that he never will.

 

I hate negatives. i hope you enjoyed that CLOSE game

 

That's pretty much my feelings on the guy. He and EG were two guys that I always rooted for, because I see almost unmatched potential. I learned early on that Yao would be a star(I was skeptical at first, but it only took a few games to change my mind), and Cuttino's attitude/mindset are hard to beat, so I've always had confidence in those guys. Steve and EG are two guys that showed glimpses early on(EG had something like a 15 - 20 game stretch his rookie season in which he put up something close to 15, 10, and 3), and I've always had confidence that they would continue to improve, but I've always been in the minority. I was wrong about EG, but I think that Steve and EG are different players. Steve, for all his mental lapses on the court, seems to have his head on very straight. He plays very hard during the games(I'd say the hardest on the team), and I presume that he works his ass off in the offseason, as he has improved his conditioning/physique every offseason except for this last offseason.