Really? Are you saying that we would be worse with Scola and Battier as opposed to Mo Taylor and Boki? Players that relatively do not need the ball to be effective? Very interesting.......... I think I disagree...........
Does it matter? The ball was going to get turned over or shot by francis anyway. It wouldnt have mattered. They never bought in to any game plan that wasnt one on one dribbling around.
Hmmm, It seems to me like Steve did a good job of getting everyone shots. I always thought he was too unselfish. He would often not even shoot until the 4th quarter........... Steve was alot of things, but never selfish......... Cat led the team in scoring that last year btw.....
Torraye Braggs F 6-8 245 May 15, 1976 R Xavier University 13 Kelvin Cato C 6-11 255 August 26, 1974 6 Iowa State University 1 Alton Ford F 6-9 275 May 29, 1981 2 University of Houston 3 Steve Francis G 6-3 195 February 21, 1977 4 University of Maryland 7 Adrian Griffin G-F 6-5 217 July 4, 1974 4 Seton Hall University 21 Jim Jackson G 6-6 220 October 14, 1970 11 Ohio State University 31 Mark Jackson G 6-1 180 April 1, 1965 16 St. John's University 11 Yao Ming C 7-6 310 September 12, 1980 1 5 Cuttino Mobley G 6-4 190 September 1, 1975 5 University of Rhode Island 9 Bostjan Nachbar F 6-9 221 July 3, 1980 1 12 Moochie Norris G 6-1 175 July 27, 1973 6 University of West Florida 33 Charles Oakley F-C 6-8 225 December 18, 1963 18 Virginia Union 35 Scott Padgett F 6-9 240 April 19, 1976 4 University of Kentucky 52 Eric Piatkowski G-F 6-7 215 September 30, 1970 9 University of Nebraska 2 Maurice Taylor F 6-9 260 October 30, 1976 5 University of Michigan 30 Clarence Weatherspoon F 6-6 240 September 8, 1970 11 University of 29 Mike Wilks That roster made the playoffs and gave a good show......... Outside of Steve, Cat and Yao that was a bunch of over the hill D-League scrubs...............
The last year was Van Gundys first year where he actually tried to install a system on offense. It was pretty obvious Francis didn't buy in and thats why he couldnt score. Because he didnt know what he was doing.
They made the playoffs but how many games did they win....id be willing to guess they won about 45 games. That hasnt been enough to make the playoffs the last 3 or 4 years.
Steve francis has never scored 44 in a playoff game. In 5 career playoff games(4 of which were losses), Steve averages 19 PPG and his high was 27. Oh and in that awesome year they won 44 games in the regular season. Thats good for about the 10th seed in the playoffs nowadays...Wait there is no 10th seed.
No doubt, but it was a good foundation to build on........... I think with the right PF and SF(and the continuation of the Gundy defense), that team could have been very good....... Another year with Steve and Yao under Gundy would have worked wonders too I believe......
um, jim jackson and mo taylor were pretty decent in that series v. the lakers. those 2 played better than any role player we've had in the past 3 playoff series v. the mavs and jazz.
Oh yeah he had 27-7-9, He played great in the playoffs....In Gundy's system, with a shabby roster, Young Yao, and a great future.......
steve peaked unfortunately. that's why he disappeared and dropped off the earth so fast after he got traded. but again, this is all hindsight. you could have said if we had scola/landry v. dallas in 04-05 (hell + the refs), we could have gone far that year and things could have changed. there are a lot of what ifs? but that's all they are: "ifs".
actually steve averaged 19.2 ppg in that series (along with 8 boards and 7 dimes). if he had scored 27 pts per game, we might have won more than one game.
Van Gundy and steve never saw eye to eye and thats why he got shipped out. There was no future there.
Luis Scola > Mo tay Carl Landry > Mo Tay Shane Battier > Old Jimmy Jack And now we have Artest............Brooks, etc........... That team was a bunch of scrubs lets face it.........
shane battier has been a GHOST in the 2 series he's played for us. LITERALLY A GHOST. i'd take jimmy jackson for the past 2 series than shane battier. yes scola and landry are better than scola but we had them for ONE YEAR last yr (and YAO DIDN'T PLAY last yr, and rafer didn't play for TWO GAMES. you seem to forget we didn't have 2 starters last yr and the starters who played were injured outside of scola. and we still took the jazz to 6 games. if we had yao healthy last yr (hell just rafer), we beat the jazz. tracy played well enough last yr.
First of all Scola and Landry were added last year....The year Yao had a season ending injury. Who knows what would have happened had he stayed healthy. Plus we had steve on that team too in case you forgot, and he couldnt even play 10 games.
That is all I was disagreeing with, I do not think we would have been lottery bound for 4 straight years with that squad plus a few additions.......... Everything else is speculation I understand. With Tracy or Steve and Cat
