Francis’ Postgame Comments: Echoes of the Big O? You decide.

u will get flamed by steve hater.... they will come in and say he is a PG, not SG.... or the other way, he is a SG, not PG... we need to trade whoever for a TRUE PG....... these quote is kinda becoming a norm nowadays..... even though Francis is picking up his game IMO

 

it has nothing to do with steve hating. they're telling the truth. steve isn't that good at play making and has a shoot first mentality. i think just about everybody agrees with that.

 

I do agree that he is not that good in playmaking.... but he is not really that bad either.... do we really need a TRUE PG? I said it in another thread, we can use Ming as our playmaker.... pass it into the post and work from there on..... play an inside-out game..... they have been playing more of these now, just like what they use to do when Hakeem is here.... but for now, Ming is not that consistent and always get bang out of his position, thus we still rely on Francis for playmaking (which is not that good).......

like I always say.... give them one more yr, I believe next season will be a lot better than this....... we will see......

but at the mean time, can we as a Rockets fans don't bash the players that much? especially after they get a win for us to cheer about......

 

At least half of the blame for Yao not getting the ball has to go on Yao himself. All season long he has had trouble getting position on teams who front him. If teams are going to put that much defensive focus on Yao, then the rest of the players have to make them pay, and that's what they did.

 

i second that... im in it for life baby, what can i say im a homer

beside what i see from steve is he does try to get the team involved in the first 3 qrts and if we are losing or its close and noone is hot he puts the team on his shoulders. he knows this is his team, its not a rookies team... yes i said it, yao is a rookie with a big future but he is still just a rookie.

francis is a no guts no glory kinda guy.... he lays it on the line thats what i love about the man

 

Last night, the key man was mobley not francis. no mobley no last night's win.

 

Uggg......Everyone always b****es about Francis not being a "true poing guard". What was the last team to win a championship with a true assisting PG? Kobe usually does the duties in LA. Pippen or Kerr usually brought it down for MJ. Maybe San Antone. Don't even get me started about Kenny Smith. Detroit???? He was a scorer too tho. I guess it was Detroit. 13 years ago? Correct me if i'm wrong. Please.

 

Francis played good defense in the 4th, knocking the ball away from Battie (2 blocks) and found Mobley for key baskets as well, I think it is fair that Steve gets some credit too.

 

There is no denying that SF has one of the quickness crossover in the league. The fact that Celtic guards didnt get much help in guarding our guards as the rest of their team focusing on Yao on defense most of the time has something to do with our guards having a good shooting night. I dont really harp on so much on things, such as ALL offfense should go through Yao first. I think versatility is the key. Mixing things up is always better than predictability, especially in offense. I just prefer teamwork much mote than ISO. Looking to shoot first before passing in our guard oriented offense will never bring us to the next level. As I pointed out before, in order to get Yao involved, the inlet pass has to be made ASAP before the defense collapse on him. When a guard always does his crossover to look for shooting first then pass, it gives the opposing team time to readjust their defense and makes it much harder to get Yao involved. By the way, its nice to know of the fancy sportcars you have. But its a poor analogy, you could only drive one car at a time. Hope you got enough sleep.

 

You know, I can't believe that people are blaming Steve and Cat for Yao not getting the ball tonight. The Celtics played a brilliant defensive scheme for most of the night that was designed to do two things: Prevent Yao from even touching the ball, and harass Steve into turnovers and bad shots.

Well, they succeeded on one of two counts.

It was still a very interesting defensive plan, and the Rockets were completely unprepared for it. I can't really blame Rudy for not being able to compensate for it, as such a defense would have been illegal before this year. However, if Rudy has never seen a similar defense, can you really blame our guards for not figuring out how to force the ball in to a double-teamed guy? They pulled out a win, and that's all I can ask for.

Interestingly enough, some people seem to think that Yao had little impact on this game. That is incorrect. By fighting for position all night long, Yao had a big impact on the court by occupying the attention of two guys.

Finally, if we had a respected sharpshooter on the weak side, teams would not even be able to pull this stuff. Hopefully Boki will fill that role next year.

 

They did see it before when Boston played them the first time in the Compaq center. They played Yao they exact same way and he did not touch the ball often.

However, a win is a win. And if our guards continue to play as well as they did tonight, teams won't be able to use that stratgey.

Yao has proven he can play so teams concentrate on him leaving opportunities for his teammates. If the other Rockets play consistently, they will open opportunities for Yao.

Great combo if both sides hold up their end.

 

CB4ever,

It boggles the mind that you would stubbornly imply that there is absolutely no defense that can deny Yao the ball. You just saw one. Don't give us old pre-zone arguments of Oscar and Magic getting Jabbar the ball. ZONES WERE ILLEGAL in those days.

get it! there is no comparison! zones are legal now.

I read you title. I read the quote. I read your post, and I'm ready to decide on your question.

No, this is not echoes of the Big O. This is not even what happened last Boston game, aside from their defense on Yao. This Boston game we kept calling Yao's number over and over. Feigen reported 35 possessions had Yao's number called, with 14 in the 1st quarter.

Another difference is we had 23 assists, that shows you how Mobley was getting open shots from ball movement initiated by Francis.

What the Rockets did this time was plain as day to me. They spent a great portion of the shot clock on many possessions swinging the ball around with Yao following it, fighting for position to try to get a pass to him. He would get it and he would have to pass right away...thus, no shots, but he remained the focus of the offense.

In the end, the Rockets were able to capitalize on this by switching into another gear where they attacked the weakness of a defense that was focused on one player too much. They burned the Celtics will fine ball movement and defense at that end.

What I'd like is for them to see this earlier in the 1st quarter, take a lead, and force the Celtics to come out of the defense against Yao. Once out of that defense, then you go back to him. However, we are not capable of switching easily into different attacks in our offense, and Yao is not good enough to get position and burn aggressive and early doubles/triple teams. And that was a gimmick defense that takes major risk to deny Yao the ball. So, we didn't or couldn't alter the attack to burn the gimmick defense enough to make Boston come out of it in the 1st quarter.

but, make no mistake....Yao was the focus of the offense, Boston used a very risky gimmick offense that Yao can't get open against, and the that defense wasn't enough to stop a Rockets win via directly burning it at its weakpoints.

 

In Oscar Robinson's day, zone defenses were illegal. You couldn't double team Abdul-Jabbar when he didn't even have the basketball. I thought that defensive strategy was a little weak, and we should have expoited it better than we did. But seriously, you try getting a guy involved when he already has 2 guys guarding him. I thought the idea was to pass to the OPEN man?

 

I don't see any reason to complain. Even Yao had no problem with it. Yao was smothered, we were losing, Rudy actually made an intelligent adjustment (mark your calendar; this comes along about as often as an eclipse), and the guards won the game for us.

"Well, duh, dude, that's obvious," from the peanut gallery.

So why is ANYONE complaining?

The guards found a way to beat the Celtics at their own game, and so we blame their leadership?

*cough cough* haytas *cough* haytas

 

twas a great win for us, but dont expect francis and mobley to shoot like that every nite. (though it would be pretty cool if they did)

 

CB4ever,

Comparing Yao to Shaq's situation is an excuse for you. You can't say, "Yao can do X, because Shaq does." Using that as a premise for any bball argument is flawed from the get go.

Shaq is a monster who can just toss people aside, and can shield people much easier and blast through them. Yao can't. Yao gets shoved out to 18' by Brian Grant. And that is a fact. An argument that says it is the offense that gets Shaq better position is just flawed, and it is a excuse for why you are not giving Boston's defense more credit.

Besides, last time I checked, the Lakers are having their worst year in this "Year of the Zone" and Shaq has had his least spg and ppg since his rookie year. He is over 4 spg off his career average. Don't tell me zones aren't effecting Shaq's touches, and that is a very mature player and team.

First off, we will not need to solve it against anyone but Boston, because Boston seems to be the only team that is still fronting Yao now that we have solved other fronting with our double high post PnR. This is the first games since the All-Star break where this BBS complained about Yao's touches. There's a reason for that, because we are going through Yao, but Boston was determined to stop it.

Secondly, the way to solve gimmick zone defenses is not to stubbornly force what they are trying to prevent. It is to attack their weaknesses that they are risking in order to overload something else. And I'm not talking about swinging it to get Yao on the other side. I'm talking about swinging it to penetrate and attack the zone with other players. You solve them by not trying to go at Yao, and when they come out of that gimmick zone, you can go back to Yao.

 

I agree with the leadership, or lack there of...

This is all on Franchise...He is the Franchise and always will be...

That is why you see so much b****in' and moanin' all the time, however, this will get better, although it may be after the season is over...

 

Why is it that in any thread anybody who doesn't think the Rockets played the way they need to is a b**** thread. He has a good point. Its a sad thing that Rox fans are beginning to sound like Raider Fans in that their team can do no wrong. Be greatful with a 7th or 8th seed year in and year out, maybe we can pull a Denver occasionally---- Uhh no.. anybody who thinks the Rox are playing the game they need to needs to check the standings. Sure a 6-8 seed is a step up, but I'd take missing the playoffs by a game or 10 if Stevie, Yao, Cat and EG all start to "get it". Sure I'm b****ing, cause I want the afore mentioned players to hold a trophy up some time and I don't want it to be the one the Houston "fans" collectively give them for a good try... I WANT RINGS DAMMIT.. and if somebody feels improvement needs to be made well then lets hear it.
Mike