O-Dawg: nor a poet: "mathemetician" just kidding... on a serious note, you're right. drew is a role player. francis is the offensive impetus for the rox. the comparison is null. you know, sometimes i think people would rather have a role player at pg than the offensive impetus at pg. one more thing (though not directed at you)... why do people keep saying cato is the only person francis passes to??? a) cato cuts to the basket after steve makes his move. obviously, steve (as am i) is more comfortable with cutters who move after, not before him b) it's a flat out lie. ask bullard and drew (aka mini-bulli) how many of their 3s come from steve.
Verse, Again thanks for the correction... So maybe I'm a lover not a spi.. spa... spu.. speller, yeah that's it. I must agree with your latter comments, especially point (b). I also think that not only Steve, but Shandon would also be able to get more people involved if Rudy would use them more in post-up situations, taking advantage of smaller players (Mugsy, Alvin Willams). Rudy started to do this with Cat and it was working. Then for some reason after a time out he stopped running it. Man!!! Rudy's decisions frustrate me. Raww, I'll take a stab at your game. Let's see... hmmm... could it be... Bryce Drew . Just a guess. Hope I'm right. BTW for those of you who feel that Francis passes to or "sees" only Cato ,which by the way is completely ridiculous (I guess he got all 12 assists from Cato dunks, huh). Which would you rather have a)Francis passing to Cato or Carlos for open dunks and lay-ups. b)Francis passing to Bullard, Drew, or Williams for possible threes. hmmmmm? [This message has been edited by O-dawg (edited December 29, 1999).]
O-Dawg, Raww, whoever, let me retract the statements about Francis and the only recipient being Cato. That was very stupid. But he is the main recipient in many a game of Francis's passes. But certainly not last night where Francis did a very good job distributing the ball. Raww, "I swear some of you beleive that Drew is some great point guard or something." I don't believe that. I just want to say that Drew gets the ball moving around but that has nothing to do with direct assists. Drew lacks the ability to slash and draw in others defenders, which creates opening and assists. That's the way Francis is capable of playing. i didn't really watch the game last night so maybe I'm reacting to some things I saw in the past. Francis is the far better point guard and I very well understand that. Just ignore me. I didn't really see the game.
I was really down on Drew right after the game last night. I feel like he lost the game. He is supposed to make his free throws and three pointers. I thought those were his strong points. So at clutch time he clanks the free throw. The 3 pointer right before the buzzer was meaningless. And like the poster before me, had he made his free throws he probably would not have taken or made that 3 pointer - which looked like he was a little off balance when he took it. Nice for one last hurrah from the crowd but meaningless. I think we need to remember these guys run the play Rudy tells them to run. Cuttino is not a selfish player - I think it is Rudy telling him to do the isolation plays. I'm sure he tells Drew certain plays he can run which draw to his strengths. I agree with whoever it was above that said in effect that this isolation stuff is very repetitive. Worse than the post it up stuff we used to do. I know I don't enjoy it anyway. If Stevie passes better to cutters who move after he does why does Shandon never seem to get the pass. He is so active out there but doesn't seem to get the ball that much. I could be wrong on that but we are making a mistake not utilizing him better.
Hey, You guys wanna know something? THEY ALL SUCK !!!! It is a team game, you are only as good as your TEAMS record. Until they learn how to play together and to win, all of them are losers...NO matter who scores the most points. Does anyone remember the CLippers leading scorer last year? You know why...THEY SUCKED !!! Jesus, Francis or Drew....it is getting sickening. They both play their respective roles, but is the team winning? NO !!! All I want for the new year is a Rocket heart transplant named Hakeem. DaDakota PS...You are only as good as your TEAMS record...PERIOD !!! "The views expressed above are the opinions of a VERY competitve person who thinks winning as a team is the most important lesson to learn in basketball"
There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. In order to demonstrate Francis' superiority to Drew, many have invoked the disparity in their assists/game. How about assist/TO ratio? Francis: 1.732, Drew: 1.735. Francis gets about 3x the assists and commits about 3x as many TOs per game as Drew. Pick your poison. If you work out points per 48 minutes? Francis: about 23, Drew: about 18. Bryce is 5th in the NBA in 3pt% and 10th in the NBA in 3pters made per 48 minutes. The point of all this isn't that Bryce is a better athlete than Steve (he isn't) or that he'll pan out as the better long term NBA prospect. The point is that right now the two PGs contribute in different ways, and neither is universally superior to the other. Like it or not, Drew does belong on the court (contrary to some of the above rants), even if he deserves less PT than Francis. That said, DaDa's post should be the last word. -lb
One isn't universaly superior to the other???? And to think I thought a PG who averaged 17 points, over 5 boards, and 7 assists, as a rookie whos only averaging about 33 mins a game, was a superior player to just about anyone. Forget the turnovers, theyll come down. After all he's a rookie with mucho game, and dribbling skills. Sometimes his teammates just aren't ready for his passes. BTW. I suggest you guys look at some of the turnover ratio's for players like Shaq Kobe Iverson Garnett Kidd Williams [This message has been edited by thedreamshake99 (edited December 30, 1999).]
