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

Oh my! Thats one of the weakest and lamest arguments I have seen here. You pass to the open man and you keep moving the ball to get the best possible shot for your team. Team not player! Judging from your username I am assuming you think Francise is the "team"

 

Nope but I could show you about 2 full seasons of Stevie not passing the ball and seeing the Rockets in the lottery.

 

Oh yeah there is also a saying the winners measure results, while losers make excuses. Maybe Steve not seeing the open man is an excuse, but now it's time to find ways to win. Pass the freaking ball.

 

[

As Machiavelli once said "Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great. " Machiavelli never met Cat. [/B][/QUOTE]

Riet,

LOL

Now THAT is Machiavellian!!

Dallas Rocket

 

And I thought I was a pessimist. Steve did OK and won the game. I wished he passed more to Ming but that's not his "style" eventually, it will be but you can't expect Steve to "just pass into Ming" every time down the court.
If Ming got the ball 30 times, he would be so tired and the other players so bored that the whole BBS would be screaming for "others" to ge involved.

And yes, Ming was having a hard time against Gasol and yes, he's not getting the calls he was getting earlier in the season. So what, it's part of the NBA.

And remember what you all all saying now, this is half way into the season for the team. If they fail to may the playoff, then you can asked for the whole team to be traded away and fire coach.

And no way they trade Ming, Rockets are not crazy and same for Steve. These 2 are popular enough to be voted into the All-Star game. From the business side, enough said.

I am a big Ming fan but I do think that until he can "finish" with authority, he will not be very effective on the offensive end. Why, because he will be "hacked" and miss the pointblank layups. He needs to "break a few wrists" for the refs to give him the benefit of the doubt when he misses a weak layup.

 

That was embarassing. We must be looking for absolute rock bottom.

 

Wow...this thread is borderline ridiculous. First of all, its ESPN...who cares who they make fun of or call out? I seem to remember them making fun of Yao A LOT during his first week or so, but now they ride is jock harder than any other player...including MJ. Funny what ratings will do to you.

Second, its one thing to not like a player or like how a player plays, but calling that player names is not only immature and annoying, its uncalled for. Does calling Steve or Cat a "streetballing idiot" or whatever really help get your point across?

Also, I think someone made the genius comment that if Yao were Steve's "bro" that he'd be getting the ball a lot more on lobs and alley-oops. I seem to remember Steve TRYING to give lobs to Yao near the beginning of the season, but Yao was unable to handle them. Steve LEARNED that when he was doing his little drive-and-dish thing, that he couldn't lob it up like he does with Cato. Instead, he started dropping it off and doing wrap around passes to Yao. I know its amazing to admit that Francis actually learned something, but its true.

All of that being said, I think that there are definitely problems with our offense and Steve (among others) is part of the problem. However, don't use last night's game as an example, b/c our offense looked a lot better than it has in about a week and Francis actually distributed the ball pretty well (no matter what a couple of isolated highlights show).

 

Who cares? At least the ball hogs got on SportsCenter. After all aren't they trying out for the And1 tour? You know that is what the NBA is all about. Forget championships.

 

The offense last night was as smooth as the Texas Hill Country, but at least Stevie was looking to dish the ball a little more. Turnovers were still too high and he missed the open man a lot. He must learn to trust in others to win ball games and play for the name on the front of the jersey, rather than the one on the back.

Go back and look at Stevie's stats for the last 10 losses and compare them to the last 10 victories. I guarentee you that he averages more assists in the victories than the losses. But...,oddly, he probably also averages slightly more points per game when he shares the rock. That is not by chance, but really how the game works.

As for SC remarks, it should be intresting to see how Stevie comes out against the Mavericks Wednesday night. Will he trust in his team or in himself?

 

Actually trade Yao Ming for Amare Stoudemire plus $$$ or future picks may not be a bad idea. Instant play-off team, I think. Not a championship team though.

 

Oooh... oooh... my turn!

This is a conclusion. Let's see if you earn it.

Why do we care about 5 sweaty men tossing a sphere around, either? Or who cares to watch them? Not like it changes whether they win... we care because we invest ourselves in a team and we like to watch. It sucks when people are making fun of something you're invested in.

Moreover, if even the Sportcenter morons notice that your PG is a selfish fool who won't past to a wide-open 7'5 player and picks up a travelling violation instead... you have real problems. Usually, the only thing they notice is dunks...

Yao picks up ratings either way. After his initial success, you already have a lot of "analysts" saying "well, I was wrong about him being a bust... BUT." Sportscenter can make a meal out of Yao, either way. This was just a case of a PG somehow missing a 7'5 center on a designed play when he was wide open.

No, but it's unfortunately a pretty accurate assessment. How do Steve and Cat NOT play streetball-like NBA basketball? What have either done to demonstrate a high basketball IQ?

Francis has made some progress this season. But your comment isn't relevant. Fine. Francis doesn't throw the alley-oop (which yao does get sometimes). It was still an easy pass. And much preferable to a turnover.

A good pg will never, ever make that sort of mistake on a designed play. Anytime the Rockets run that, Steve HAS to look to see if Yao is open. Otherwise, the play loses all effectiveness because the threat of Yao streaking isn't credible. If it works, it's 2 points. If steve ignores Yao, not only does it waste a possession, but it also leads to Yao resenting Steve, and other teams learning that Steve isn't a threat to pass.


__________________

 

Good point. Steve hates the Mavs, has trash talked way too much about them, and I think he's going to try to go 1 on 1. He obviously thinks he can take Steve Nash and doesn't respect the Dallas man-to-man defense.

I wish Steve would realize that dishing the ball and playing the game the right way will ultimately result in more opportunites for himself. He'll have more open shots, more easy layups, more dunks. Hakeem learned this. He looked to pass first, and when his teammates hit the open shots, then other team had to honor the outside shooters, that opened up the inside for Hakeem.

 

Yes, Francis should have passed the ball on that particular play. He made a mistake. I also refuse to believe that a "good pg will never, ever make that sort of mistake on a designed play." You are basically saying that other "good" pg's are infallible, which is ludicrous. I agree that Steve isn't as good of a PG as a lot of other PG's in the league, but please do not put these other PG's on an unrealistic pedestal in order to try to prove your point.

My comment on Francis and the alley oops was just a response to someone else's comment about how Ming doesn't get any of those attempts. Just because it has nothing to do with the one play you're discussing doesn't make it irrelevant. Its relevant to the point of Francis never looking for Ming. Its also relevant to the fact that Francis is learning to adjust his game to the strengths and weaknesses of his teammates.

First of all, I never said that they didn't. My comment was in response to the name-calling that serves no purpose (I don't know, kind of like callling Francis a "selfish fool"). Anyway, I'm not sure what you mean by "streetball-like" basketball. It seem like you are equating it with being the opposite of having a high basketball IQ. Granted, neither Francis nor Mobley have a really high b-ball IQ, but i don't think it has anything to do with any streetball-like things that they do. I think its more evident in their decision making abilities (i.e. the popular SportsCenter highlight/lowlight). I think a better way to describe these two are one-on-one players who are struggling with their decisions in a more team-oriented offense. I think that's a little more accurate and descriptive than "streetballing idiots". I think both guys are showing signs of improvement in making better decisions and getting the rest of the team involved, but not nearly consistently enough.

 

brocktoon:

The issue isn't whether a good PG is infallible, but whether a good PG will always decide to pass to a wide open 7'5 center on a designed play when he doesn't have a good shot himself. My guess is, that Jason Kidd makes that pass 10 times out of 10. Even a Gary Payton does 99/10. Francis does maybe 6/10.

(note: those #'s were pulled from thin air, and are likely not accurate ).

 

Oh, and for the "streetball" issue. I've heard NBA players say that a lot of guys on the street are far better 1 on 1 players than most people in the NBA. The problem is that they can't play well in the team. This would seem to imply that they have extremely low organized basketball IQ.

 

Did the highlights show Yao missing layups and repeatedly getting rejected by Gasol right at the basket?

Has Steve or Cat ever missed 5 to 10 shots in a row?
Have we ever stopped passing the ball to them?

 

Why can't they take shots?? In last 10-15 games Yao Ming's shooting percentage may be even lower than Steve or Cat!!

He didn't miss "a couple of shots", he missed A LOT. He was blocked 3 times in Mav's game and 2 or 3 times yesterday. That would really hurt the team's morale and made his team mates to have doubts when passing to him.

So until Yao Ming can really get back to the form that got him into the all star game, Hoston will HAVE TO rely on the guards!!

 

Steve sucks and even if he can score, he can't pass. Bottom line, they need to find some motion in their offense instead of this one man crap.

 

Don't know you've been watching. Go back and read the whole thread. This has already been discussed. A bad pass with only few seconds left was just a prime example.

There are no excuses for not passing to an open man when you are 1-3 PERIOD.

 

Yao shouldn't get the ball every trip down. He'll get too worn down trying to create for himself and others. However, when the man is rolling to the basket with no defender between him and the basket or with no defender within three feet of him, then pass him the rock!

Weak layup or not it is easier to finish with authority when there is no defender anywhere near you (I am not exaggerating, SC showed how Francis turned the ball over while Yao was open by about 5 feet in either direction right at the front of the rim). Get Yao the easy shots. Not 30 shots a game, just the 5 where he is WIDE OPEN. When a rookie is struggling, it is up to the vets to make the game easy for him while he gains his form.

I could accept if Francis just misses a guy every once in a while, but it is ridiculous to miss a guy that open, at the rim, more than three times in the same game. This has been a theme through out Francis' career. Be it Yao, Anderson, Dream, Francis holds the ball tooooo much and gets tunnel vision about getting to the basket or getting the ball to a friend (Cat, Mooch).

This isn't about Yao-vs-the guards or inside-vs-outside. It is about balance. They won last night not because of Francis' miracle shots or because of Taylor and Yao's play, but because Taylor and Yao provided something inside to balance the outside. Memphis had to play D on every spot on the floor and it mentally drained them. Francis makes some incredible, athletic, miracle plays. He just needs to learn that if he made the easy, simple, fundamental plays, the team wouldn't need those miracles so often. Save the miracles for the championship run.