Oh CWard... what might have been! Instead of sitting on the bench with the Spurs you could be running the show in Houston with Stevie at the 2, Cat at the 3 and JJ off the bench at the 2 and 3. What a great 4 guard rotation you could have given us. As a defensive minded point guard who thinks "pass first" you could have made sure that everyone got their touches... from Yao down. It worked for AI. It can work for Stevie. MOVE HIM TO THE 2.
For the 1,000th time... Francis is not a traditional 2. He can't catch and shoot like Reggie Miller, Voshon Lenard, Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen, Iverson, Pierce, McGrady, etc, etc, etc. Francis is not a catch and shoot SG. In fact, he's not even as good as Cuttino and recognizing and splitting perimeter double teams. Francis is a Scoring Guard. He is going to dribble to get his shooting rhythm. Calling him a PG or SG is irrelevant because of how he currently plays the game. Whether Moochie, Jackson or Ward is the PG, Francis is extremely poor at running off of baseline and/or weakside screens and shooting with a quick motion. Again, Francis is a rhythm shooter and that's not changing anytime soon...Ward or no Ward.
The ROX offense does not call for a guard who can catch and shoot. Most of Mobley's shots come off of the spotup. In fact... our whole offense is built around spotup shooters. We hardly ever run a shooter off of a pick or screen for a shot. When we do... it is to JJ or sometimes Mobley. Iverson is poor shooter (look at his percentages) ... but playing him at the 2 works for him and for Philly. Iverson's greatest ability is his ablilty to drive to the basket. The same is true for Stevie. If Stevie does not have to worry about initiating the offense and just scoring... I think that his value to this current ROX squad would improve.
Francis is a rhythm shooter. Neither catch and shot nor spot up plays to his strength. Mark Jackson is a great passer...what's your best recollection of Francis finshing any Jackson pass? Didn't think so...case closed.
Ward's only signed with the Spurs for the season. He will consider the Rockets next year if we're interested in him.
The point I am trying to make is that the ROX offense does not call for anyone to roll off of a screen to hit a jumper. So it does not matter that hitting those shots is not one of Stevie's strengths... although they do run him off of a high pick at times (I saw that play work several times vs the Lakers). Stevie could be more effective running off picks and slashing to the basket ala Iverson. He needs to be playing the 2 if he stays with this team.
Relativist - Ward has an option on year 2. He signed with the Spurs for less money than the Rockets were offering because he wanted a shot at a ring and because the Spurs' team better suited his religious beliefs. If he gets a ring, my guess is he'll retire. Personally, I don't see why he would move from SA to HOU. http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=211&xlc=1111812&xld=211 Neither of us is going to change each others' mind. My final comments.... 1) All NBA offenses run some form of baseline and/or low post screens for shooting guards and their small forwards with enough footspeed. In the recent loss to the Spurs, Manu Ginobili killed the Rockets in Q4 with multiple executions of that play. The Rockets and Spurs are both inside-out teams whose personnel skills and offenses are very reflective of each other. IOW, when Van Gundy has finally molded the team to his desires, the offense will very much look like the current Spurs. Not having this wrinkle in your offense severly limits your offensive efficiency. 2) Apart from running off of picks, an effective NBA 2 guard must also be able to hit open shots in a quick rhythm without a dribble. "Catch and shoot" if you will. Case in point is the recent All Star 3 Point Shootout. Chauncey Billups is almost a carbon copy of Steve Francis. They are highly comparable in overall physical size and skills. Billups was dead last in the 3 point contest. After a shooting "eye", the next must important aspect of succesful 3 point shooting is the ability to catch the ball flat-footed (nearly motionless from a foot standpoint) and get off a shot. Shooting Guards like 3 Point Winner Voshon Lenard and less athletic standstill players like 2 time winner Peja Stojakovic excel in this aspect. When the Rockets go back to work, watch how few of Francis' 3 point shots are taken without a dribble. Almost none. 3) In an honest comparison of only those skills needed by an NBA Shooting Guard, which skills is Steve Francis markedly better than Cuttino Mobley? Seriously now...what aspects of Francis' game make him a more efficient Shooting Guard over Mobley? Mobley can shoot flat-footed and has a quicker first step to split perimeter double teams. Francis has a higher vertical and a cross-over move. If anything, Francis is a SG in the more rare Iverson mold and Iverson is a volume shooter. Part of the reason Francis is struggling is that Van Gundy's style does not emphasize volume shooting. That is among the reasons for Francis struggling. 4) If Steve Francis is going to play SG and not catch and shoot, and not come off of screens, what is he going to do at SG than he is not already doing at PG? Other than an Iverson impersonation, it's only a cosmetic change in titles unless he runs SG in the traditional NBA mode. Just because Francis is not a stereo-typical PG does not automatically qualify him as a SG. By the definition I have seen ascribed to him by TV ananlysts both he and Cuttino are "Scoring Guards". Scoring Guards dribble to get their shooting rhythm just as Shoot First - Pass Second Point Guards do. A change in title is not a change in function.
Seeing how hard he was pushing for a 3-yr contract, I don't see Ward retiring, ring or no ring. I think his reversal and signing a 2-yr/option contract when Les Alexander told JVG no wasn't a coincidence. I personally believe JVG asked him to revist the Rox this summer. Evan
I hope we get Cward.. it would make our guard rotation deep and he could spell SF3 more minutes or play PG with SF3 playing some SG for certain situations and matchups. I dont think Cward could start over SF3 for us.. hes not as good as SF or Cat so where would he come in? But I think he would provide quality minutes and leadership for this team. Right now when MJ comes in for SF3 we lose out on defense and shooting while I dont see much improvement in our offensive abilities with him in. MJ has great court vision but hes a lil too slow, cant hit a shot, and defense can be damaging to a low possession team like ours. CWard would have filled that spot alot better in my opinion. A solid backup PG for a few more years... good enough to give SF3 some rest and not have to worry about losing too much. J
For the love of God!!!! Thank you.. ive been chiming in this same theory for a while...stevie is the type of scoring pt guard whose game was killed by the inclusion of the zone defense...steve's talent is purely and simply to break his man off in an ISO situation...now, the zone defense forces him to dribble the clock out and throw up a bad shot as he finds some daylight...you take the ball out of steve's hands and he avgs 12-14 pts a game...
On any catch and shoot from Mark Jackson to Steve Francis, Jackson would have received an assist on the play. Jackson's first Rocket game was the 86-71 Jan 21st home victory over the Knicks. I don't have the time or inclination to review the tape of the game. But according to the statistical database I use, Jackson and Francis did not play together in Q4 which was when Jackson got all 3 of his assists. They did play together for roughly 7 minutes of Q2. The next opportunity would have been the 78-74 road win at IND on Jan 23rd. Again, according to the stats database I use, Jackson had 1 assist for the game in Q4. Of Francis' 14 game points, he had 12 at the half and 2 in Q3 and none in Q4. If it ever has happened, it was not in their first two games together. In the 99-90 next game win versus the Magic, Jackson got a season high 10 assists. From the database, Francis had 0 first half points so no assists could be attributable to Jackson in 6 Q2 minutes. In the 2nd half, Francis scored 2 of his 7 points in Q3 when Jackson did not play. Francis scored 5 (1 2pter and 1 3pter) of his 7 total game points in Q4 where Jackson played the entire quarter and Francis played about 9-10 minutes. It is possible that 1 of Jackson's 5 Q4 assists was a Francis catch and shoot. But considering for the quarter, Francis scored 5, Taylor 12, Mobley 5 and Yao 2, one C&S is an absolute best case scenario. And it took 3 games to do it if it did in fact occur.
Stevie doesn't have to dribble and shoot the ball. He can drive into the basket to break the defense and pass the ball to Yao if necessary. He's good at this. Nobody can get him one on one, with his penetrations. If he's doubleteamed, find the open guy. He is causing more trouble with this dribble and shoot game coz most of the time he carelessly turns the ball over. That's his mental game. Spend 10 seconds for me or pass... tha't not a good PG's mentality.... and that's what majority of the rockets fans is complaining about... Going back to original subject.. I think MJ can pull this off.
Charlie Ward? We are worried about whether or not we have Ward? He's a so-what player, absolutely not a difference maker. Never was, never will be. He is good enough to be a reasonable back-up, 18-20 minute kind of player. Damon Jones brings as much. Anthony Carter brings at least as much. Armstrong brings more, even Atkins brings more. Hudson lots more (tho not a JVG-type). Strickland and KAnderson bring more. These are all guys the Rox could get in the off season, but so what. I have missed another half dozen. Give me Steve, or give me another stud. Don't waste my time on Charlie Ward.
All of this is not to mention the fact that Leslie Alexander signs the checks and won't be signing one for Charlie Ward. At least I hope not.
When he was actually getting PT with New York this season, Ward was averaging about 5 assists per game in 23 minutes with just under 2 turnovers per game. In nearly double the playing time, Francis gives you 1 more assist and more than 1.5 more turnovers. Ward shoots for a better percentage on threes than Steve does from the field. Steve makes the max and Ward makes about the min. Charlie Ward would be a perfect starting PG for us and would allow us to trade Steve for a good forward.
Hahaha, like Ward would give us a chance in hell of being one of the top 4 teams in the conference. So instead of barely making the playoffs, we might be #6. Keep the big picture in mind. Francis is not a better shooting guard than Mobley. I think GATER went over that pretty well. I think some people are too enamored with Steve's athleticism and hype. He's a good player but people think moving him to SG will solve problems. He's not going to produce much more if not less than Cat in a shooting guard role. I mean catch and shoot, shooting off of screens, hitting 3's consistently. If you don't mean that, then you mean what he's doing right now? For us to be a real contender a few things need to happen: 1. Our offense needs to improve by: -Yao getting more touches/getting more comfortable/being more aggressive -Moving Yao to high post, he's not a primary back to basket player. I'd say about 1/3 of his offense should be back to the basket low post moves. -Getting Steve to either learn how to be a real point guard or get a trade for a PG who knows his role (Ward, Snow, etc.) PLUS a solid 15 PPG SF or PF. Either a versatile good 3 pt. shooting SF or consistent post-play from a PF who'll get rebounds (Brand...I wish) 2. Continue playing good defense And a few other things that aren't so relevant to the thread...
My point when I started this tread was not to state that CWard was the end all solution to our problems... but it would have given the ROX a true point guard and it would have given us some flex when it comes to Stevie. No... he is not a better option at the 2 than Cat. But I think that a CWard (or someone of his type) and MJackson platoon at point and a Stevie/Cat/JJackson rotation at the 2 and 3 would be pretty sweet. In order to attack a zone or solid help man defense... you need someone who can attack the basket off of the dribble... Stevie could provide that at the 2. Move Yao to the high post?!
