when you watch francis plays, you'll see a guy that loves to dribble. he bounces the ball about 15 seconds before making his first pass. if you count how many crossover dribbles he does in a game, it will be over a hundred. Ridiculous! only steve nash dribbles more than francis, but dallas doesn't have a post up man, so he has to create for his teammates.
Moochie norris does the most dibbling on the rockets team, even with the limited playing time he gets. If you watch moochie, he dribbles off about 20 sec, off the clock, and tries to be "Mrs Clutch man" and make the shot at the buzzer. Almost ever single time.
Sometimes Francis is left to dribble because his teammates don't know how to move without the ball. If Yao is being fronted or manhandled, and no one is moving, Stevie has no choice but to dribble. On the contrary, Moochie dribbles because he hasn't got a clue.
francis has to dribble or they'll call him for traveling. otherwise, he'd have to give up the ball. now that would be a travesty.
This thread is an OLD SUBJECT! He does it all the time and it is one of his flaws in his game. That's why his control of this team sucks and it shows.
The worse thing is that it's not just Francis dribbling too much (which is not good in itself) but our 2 other guards (Mobley and Moochie) have the same problem.
When you boil it down, Rudy's offense is not a team offense, but just a series of iso's What imagination, what creativity. And it promotes and rewards "me first" play. Where are the cutters? Where is the motion? Where are the off-the-ball screens? Where is the variety? Even when Yao gets the ball OUR OFFENSE IS TOTAL STAGNATION If the player's don't get it by now, get a coach that can get through to them. If this is what Rudy is preaching, we have no chance. Somehow I expected more...........AT LEAST PROGRESS - the players look lost , and they are. Resetting expectations still doesn't take away the hurt and disappointment. Whole < Sum of the Parts D R
Stop blaming everything on Rudy. You have to admit that Francis and Mobley (and Hakeem) are fantastic 1-on-1 players, not very good motion, off-the-ball players. So Rudy's just basically designing an offense that ultilize their skills. It's just unfortuate (or fortunate depending on your view) that Yao Ming's not that type of 1-on-1 player. Bad habits (like dribbling) are difficult to change or get rid of.
Also Francis, Mobley and Hakeem early in his career are all average passers. You don't run a motion offense when your main players are average passers.
Carayip, The buck stops with Rudy. He has ultimately responsibility for molding these players in a team. I'm just looking for game by game progress & gettin' it, and it's pretty disappointing so far. If holding him responsible = blaming him, then that's how it should be D R
