Finley is just about the only player on that Worlds team that had a completely positive influence. To me, that should give him preference over Steve, even though Steve is the better player IMO... If you ask me though, Richard Jefferson should be kicked off, and Finley and Francis should make the team. There's no question Jefferson is the understudy of both of these guys. Isn't this supposed to be the year we pull out all the stops and actually take our best players, after the embarrassment at the Worlds...?
In my recollection, Paul Pierce was the only guy who kept us in those games last summer, and I think was named to the all tourney team, I don't recall too much about finley one way or the other. The only guys I'd keep from that squad would be Pierce and maybe Wallace, just cause he's such a hard worker.
Why don't you do your homework before you say something is Blatantly, Factually wrong. In assist to turnover ratio for 2002-3 Steve Francis was a 1.68. If you goto Espn's webside and sort PGs by Assist to Turnover ratio you will see that would have placed Stevie 37th on a list that included 38 players (unfortunately you have to get Steveie's number from SG's since ESPN has wisely already moved him there) Steve is a bad PG. 37/38 is not good.
Racist, where did you get that from? Nice if you can't argue with facts then spin it. As for trying to win, well I've seen enough of his backboard slapping, Technical getting, skipping down the court, bouncing the ball of his leg antics to last a lifetime. You don' think the backboard slapping was an attempt to be on ESPN? He has made no one around him better (outside of his buddy cat), has not let the Rockets anywhere (wow over .500 but no playoffs that's great!) while other teams with less talent have tasted the playoffs (KG and the Wolves and Payton and the Sonics until this year come to mind in the West). I grant you he has tons of potential but he has no idea how to use it. He has average at best basketball smarts with a super-stars ability. Team USA wants team players (and AI) not one on one players. And great bring up the All-Star game but just remember how "good" he did the year before when he played with all the Stars. And let me ask you, if we took Francis off the team what is the difference between 25 wine and 40 win seasons? Neither gets the playoffs they just get us better draft picks. So take him off the team, trade him for a real PG and pick up a PF, I guarantee n offense centered around Yao would be .500 next year with a real PG.
Nice of you to get back on point, but you just destroyed your entire case with that caveat. Yes, we should take his first all star game and give it more weight than his second, since the WC's and Olympics are played in a backwards time continuum. I mean hey, since we are basing bibby's selection on 5 or 6 good games he had in 02, why not, right? Do you recall Shaq's first all star game? He grabbed the microphone and told Olajuwon and RObinson live on NBC that he was coming for them and then threw the mike down, WWF style. Then the game started and they proceeded to teach the young Shaq a lesson about humility that he would never forget. Kobe's first all star game was a similar debacle, with him jacking up shots like crazy. The difference betwee 25 and 40 wins is 15 wins. That is a lot in the NBA.
Uhh...."heart and passion" can only get you so far. You need to have a lot of luck like the 2002 Anaheim Angels if you expect "heart and passion" to get you anywhere. Learning how to play basketball better would certainly be a better option. I can't wait for JVG to TRULY turn him into an NBA star.
Wow... even I wasn't sure Francis had a better percentage. I thought it was about even And 4chuckie, I've about given up on you. You have a very stereotypical view of Stevie, and I just can't stand Steve-haters who call themselves Rockets fans anyways. It just doesn't work that way. Also, how many power dunks do you think there were last season where the player DIDN'T tought the backboard? It's practically become tradition. Does them slapping the backboard make the play count for fewer points? Does it add to anyone's stats? They do it for fun, and for the fans and entertainment value. You do realize that that's what the NBA was created for, right? And technicals!? Francis didn't get any more technicals than most players in this league if I'm not mistaken... Every player's bound to lose it from time to time. You people are misunderstanding my point. I never said heart and passion alone could get the team anywhere... but when you have talent, it certainly can. Otherwise it works both ways, if you've got talent, and you're the smartest player in the world, but you just don't give 2 sh!ts about winning or losing, your'e going to be a loser.
I really dont think he needs to check his faqs. Maybe you need to go back to 2nd grade, or get some reading glasses. He said Assits per game, not asst/turn And yes Francis is num 10 in apg in the league. So that would put him above the top half since there are 29 starting pgs in the league.
To be honest, I'd pick Finley over Francis as well. But this doesn't mean that I would pick Bibby over Francis...i mean i got duped into thinking Bibby was a pretty good player after last year's playoffs...but this year, even after the recovery from injury.....i know he isn't THAT good. Francis should have been considered moreso than Bibby. I think they needed a REAL shooting guard and they needed size and that's why they're probably leaning towards Finley. Francis basically didn't get shafted this time...he got shafted when they chose Bibby over Francis...I wish Stu Jackson could pull a mulligan right now
Yes, thank you, that is in fact what I was saying... weird how I didn't even see that post of his until just now. And on another note that was brought up, yeah, I also agree Francis (or at the very least, even Marbury) should have been taken over Bibby, but that didn't happen, so this was a good place to squeeze him in. I think Francis can play the 2 better than Finley.
Farhan- Why don't you go back and read what he was quoting me on origanally I said: "Stevie scores more than most PGs, but gets less assists and more turnovers" so the Racist-Claiming spin doctor says my numbers are "blatantly, factually wrong" and his assists are fine. I simply showed him that my numbers were Factually Correct.
Also if you want to just do assists (and not worry about his ability to bounce the ball off his calf about 3 times/game) then look at his assists/48 minutes, his is 22nd for the PG. Now that is better than 37/38 but 22nd is not good.
I disagree. Pierce scored a lot, which plenty of other players could have done. He was trying to steal the show, and it wasn't doing the team much good. I remember reading multiple articles about how the rest of the team was getting seriously ticked at Pierce. Finley was the only guy who swallowed his pride and played well on both ends.
Well we'll have to agree to disagree, but the stats make it look like pierce had a pretty good show. Here they are for whatever its worth. I didn't know Pierce shot an outrageous 49% from three point land! Andre Millers numbers aren't as bad as the criticism he received afterward, though he didn't do much passing evidently as his assist numbers show; but Baron Davis should pretty much be banned from ever wearing red white and blue again: 2002 USA Men's World Championship Cumulative Statistics NAME G/S FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT REB/AVG PTS/AVG AT BK ST Pierce 9/9 53-111 .477 33-67 .493 39-58 .672 41/ 4.6 178/19.8 35 6 10 Finley 9/5 38- 94 .404 22-56 .393 19-22 .864 27/ 3.0 117/13.0 25 1 7 A. Miller 9/7 41- 84 .488 3-11 .273 11-17 .647 27/ 3.0 96/ 10.7 37 1 11 B. Davis 9/2 25- 66 .379 16- 44 .364 4-10 .400 16/ 1.8 70/ 7.8 36 3 14 Marion 6/1 25- 53 .472 2- 9 .222 7-10 .700 28/ 4.7 59/ 9.8 11 2 7 O'Neal 8/5 25- 49 .510 0- 0 .--- 8-19 .421 36/ 4.5 58/ 7.3 10 14 6 Brand 8/5 25- 43 .581 0- 1 .000 5- 9 .556 33/ 4.1 55/ 6.9 11 5 6 A. Davis 9/4 21- 46 .457 0- 0 .--- 11-18 .611 44/ 4.9 53/ 5.9 11 3 1 Wallace 9/4 23- 44 .523 0- 1 .000 5-14 .357. 61/ 6.8 51/ 5.7 6 15 12 R. Miller 6/3 11- 29 .379 10- 23 .435 4- 4 1.000 8/ 1.3 36/ 6.0 5 0 1 LaFrentz 6/0 14- 31 ..452 2- 8 250. 1- 1 1.000 18/ 3.0 31/ 5.2 1 3 2 Williams 7/0 10- 21 .476 1- 7 .143 6- 9 .667 7/ 1.0 27/ 3.9 11 0 6 USA 9 311-671 .463 89-227 .392 120-191 .628 434/48.2 831/92.3 199 53 83 OPP. 9 229-567 .404 69-190 .363 152-207 .734 390/43.3 679/75.4 151 30
Are you sure that's 22nd among PGs or 22nd overall? I'll take your word for it, I'm just wondering if that's what you meant to say. And anyways, there's no point in us arguing about his ability to play the point (even if I think he can do it better than most), the point is that even you said that he could score more than most PGs in the league. So you also essentially admit he's well suited for a 2-gaurd's abilities, and I believe that's the position he'd be playing if he replaced Kobe. That was my argument all along - I think he can play SHOOTING gaurd better than Finley.
Francis deserves to be on Team USA... but more as a pg. I'm pissed they picked the likes of Bibby over him. I mean.. COME ON!!! I'm not surprised they chose Finley over Francis though. Finley shoots better, gives a bit more D and he's been to the playoffs multiple times. Finley's got the edge on Francis when you're trying to decide between the two so I'm not so surprised Finley got chosen. And there's definitely some grudge thing between Stu and Francis... Grizzlies are coming back to haunt him. SUCKS.
