Even Linda Cohn and SportsCenter Pointing out how crappy our Offense is.

You know what this tell me? It tells me that people want to see Yao Ming more than they want to see Stevie and Mobley. Yao is so refreshing that people (Sports Center) and myself included cannot have enough of him. The sooner franchise and Cat realises that the show isn't about them the better our team will eventually become. I hope it is this season but my guess is next.

The sad part about this is that Yao only gets a handful of minutes (and rightfully so though) but he isn't utilized to his fullest ability. Because of this Yao is forced to make something happened since he is not sure when next little Stevie and Mobley might be willing to let it go.

More power to Sportcenter because God knows that Calvin Murphey, Bill Worrel, Rice Glen, Gene and Jim are already hoarse.

Yes I want to see more "boring" basketball as opposed to Mobley version.

 

Hey GREAT if ESPN is showing it, maybe Steve will finally see that what Rudy has been saying all along is RIGHT ON !!

I mean he lives for the highlights.....this is a good thing.

and we won too..

WOOT !

DD

 

I wouldn't bet on it ever happening. Some things aren't meant to be. Remember Shaq and Penny? The 3 Js in Dallas?

I'm sorry fellow Rockets fans, but you are living in a dream world if you think Yao can coexist with Mobley and Francis. Eventually one of M&F or both will have to leave.

 

I am a big Yao Ming fan but to say the Francis and Mobley have no place on this Rox team is ludicrous.

I'll bet that if we remove SF and Cat, Rox will sink to the bottom of our division in no time. Yao Ming can't carry a team because he can't create his own shots. The West may be a big man's conference but without someone to feed these big guys, they will starve to death in the low post.

 

True, true...

They punish Yao for missing shots, yet the guards reward themselves for missing shots.

Heh heh...

 

Of course, the guards have a place on our team, their talent alone deserve a place on any team, it's just that their place shouldn't be the whole place or at least that big. But to be honest, I am afraid if they don't improve their attitude, eventually there would be a time when they really have no place on our team.

 

Apparently thinking on your own is too much to ask for.

I am saying trade those two guys for equal caliber guards in return. My whole preface was that those 2 do not fit in at all with Yao. As long as we are in the West, we need Yao.

I did not say we were better off with Moochie Norris (who I deplore more than Cat and Francis) and whoever at SG.

 

Francis and Mobley feeding a big man??? Ha.

I think Saddam Hussein being Bush's VP is more likely.

 

Personal insult aside, I think you made some very valid points. Yao is going to be a very important part of Rox's future. However, I think SF is just as important. Why do you think it is so easy to replace Franchise and his 20+ points?

Sure we need Yao, but not at the expense of SF, please.

 

It took Kobe a few years to learn how to pass the ball to Shaq. Give SF a bit more time. He'll learn.

As far as Cat is concerned, I think he should be shipped somewhere. We don't need another marginal player.

 

How embarassing to be called out on SC for your COMPLETE LACK of offensive awareness. Someone desperately needs to put Mobley and Franchise back in their place because they have obviously aquired an inflated sense of self-worth over the past 2 seasons. If Rudy won't do it then at the end of the season you MUST find someone that will. The talent is there, I just think someone needs to force these boneheads to conform to the gameplan. Look what Hubie Brown is doing in Memphis. He has taken a team that really has NO buisiness being in the hunt every night and he turns them into a dangerous young club that plays together. Mark my words, in the future Memphis will be a very dangerous club because their organization is run by the right type of people. Jerry West is a mastermind in thh front office and Hubie Brown is a teacher who is not afraid to rub a young player the wrong way. Not all coaches are for all teams, and while Rudy might have been a fit for the rockets during the mid-90's, he has obviously not been able to control the headstrong young players that replaced the more experienced veterans. I'm tired of Franchise and Mobley "Freeballing" and "profiling". At the end of the season if I don't see some sort of dicipline, I will continue to call for Rudy's job and maybe for a trade of the second round pick who thinks he's an all-star.

 

Prob the most overrated stat in basketball, esp when you mention Stevie "I Give up 25 ppg" Francis.

Here are the benefits to dropping Francis...

#1- Name me the last elite PG to win a title. Zeke Thomas

#2- Yao will not develop fully until he is given more shots/opportunities. Remember when the Lakers were bashed for trading Campbell and Jones for Glen Rice? They did it because they knew their future was Kobe, not EJ. They knew EJ was mentally fragile, and didn't have "it". You could say the same for Francis.

#3- Houston is a frontrunner city, which means the Rockets need to win 50-55 games and do that FAST. Maybe Francis can turn things around, 5 years later... I don't see Francis having an epiphany anytime soon.

#4- Like I said before, Francis gives up more than his fair share of points. Very rarely does he actually OUTPLAY the opposing PG. If he is our "star" player, he must be capable of outplaying 75% of his opposing PGs. With Yao, he will outplay the opposing center 95% of the time.

#5- Francis doesn't lead by example. I don't mind that SF isn't a vocal leader. But at least lead by action, especially at PG. He has done nothing to show any sort of sacrafice for the good of the team. Who benefits from his 20 ft jumpers off the dribble? Who benefits from his piss poor defense? Who benefits from his missed double pump reverse layups? I could go on and on...

NOW, if you tell me that the Rockets could get a REAL PG, without trading Francis, then I'd love to see Francis slide to SG. Assuming, of course, that he sees the light, and realizes that winning matters more than slapping the backboard after a fastbreak dunk.

BTW, sorry for the personal cheap shot.

 

Kobe's basketball IQ is light year's ahead of Francis'. Moreover, Kobe saw the light at age 21, as a SG. Francis is a 25 year old PG who hasn't seen the light...

Moreover, Kobe's rapid maturation process could revert back to how well Phil Jackson was able to handle Kobe. But that's another topic for another time...

 

The flip side is: if they think Yao is misused or made to look bad, the Chinese fans of Yao will brand Rockets enemy#1. The opposite of love is hate, as they use to say.

 

How many times did Gashole hammer Yao's wrist? How is a second-year gatting Jordanesque calls?

 

Gasol is the reigning Rookie-of-the-Year. Yao is a Rookie. You do the math.

 

Another pt. It really doesn't matter if it was Yao or not, even the player was Cato, Mo, Collier or any other player, Francis should still pass to him. It just showed Francis's selfishness and/or poor court awareness on his part.

But the funny thing is that Francis's good passes usually go to Cat or Cato. I wonder if a 7'5" target is easier to miss.

 

seriously, gasol has shot 32 ft's in their two games against us so far. 32 friggin ft's. and by the way he whines all the time, he thinks it should've been about 50. also, that one sequence where yao got blocked, got it back, got blocked, and then put it up and missed a dunk but a foul was called. umm exactly how many fouls were committed before they finally called one. gasol hammered his wrist the first time (replay showed there was no doubt about it) and then he probably got fouled about 2 more times in the scramble for the ball. he seems to have gone from getting extreme rookie calls to superstar calls back to normal rookie calls all in about 40 games. what gives refs.

about the topic at hand, i can see how SC said yao was open the first time, a good pass and he has a dunk. but the 2nd time? by the time he turned to receive the ball gasol was already sliding over, he may have drawn a foul or been able to hit a little jump hook (or he may have been blocked by gasol again) but he was by no means going for a wide open dunk as SC would portray it.


and kidrock, show that steve doesn't outplay 75% of the opposing PG's on a nightly basis. and did you mean ming will one day outplay 95% of centers. i sure hope you didn't mean he currently outplays 95% of them b/c that would be extremely untrue especially given the previous streak of 11 games or so.

 

If Yao was "bros" with Francis, Yao would be getting 20 alley oop lobs like Cato does. If no-hands Cato can get 20 alley oop attempts from Francis, he must be great friends with him...

 

Sticks and Stones....words....

SF is among the top PGs in the league but I realize that his reckless style of play is annoying to most BBall purists. Having said that, he is not easily replaced. I agree with your observation that he has some problems on defense but he doesn't get lit up like you seemed to be implying. I never said that Francis was the complete package but he is as untouchable as Yao to this Rox team.

Now I have a little problem with your observation that Yao will outplay 95% of the centers in NBA. If the last few games give us a glimpse into the future, I'd say that Yao will be outplayed most of the time.