Francis has to go for this team to win consistently

Yao sat at the end because JVG decided that the only way to catch up Kings was lucky 3-pointers. He sent in Pagette and he did make a 3-pointer.

Yao had no inside game last night, partially due to his lack of aggression. But I believe he had his game taken away by the refs. He was hammered on his arms and wrists but never got a call. He was hugged by Divac and didn't got any call. He decided to go strong a couple of times and was called offensive fouls. Besides, SF was a non factor so Bibby and Jackson often go around to try to steal the ball from Yao. All these factors made yao hesitant so he settled for getting DT and passing the ball out. The refs were blind yesterday, Yao got pushed from bottom many time when he was fighting for rebounds, but refs never called a loose ball foul on Kings. If that happened to TD, TD would have gone to the FT line 30 times last night.

 

None of those are examples of role players making superstars better.

Making a move for chemistry reasons is one thing.

Duncan, Shaq, and Jordan were all great players from Day 1 and it didn't matter who their teammates were.

 

Will a mini-streak end these threads for a while? Feb 20th?

Stevie is mojoless, and when he gets it back I hope it is here for us to enjoy him and the W's.

It may just be that his mojo won't return until he is in a better system for his considerable talents.

 

I repeat my contention that this season as SF has been asked to assume a more traditional PG role, his game has suffered dramatically. It's as if he can only play one particular style of ball and to have him to attempt to play any other style, totally screws up his game. Because he is so frustrated right now, he's pressing more and more leading to more turnovers (ex. 1 on 4 or 5 and losing the ball) and emotional outbursts that result in silly fouls (ex. last night he gets hit with a Flagrant 1 for a needlessly hard foul on Bobby Jackson).

As for the team, they appear to be taking their cues from SF. If he's "on" and playing well and into the game mentally, then the Rockets play very well. If not, then you get the results of the last 2 games. He sets the pace and as such he has to shoulder the blame for the team's inconsistent, sloppy and boneheaded play. Until he takes that proverbial "next step", the Rockets will pretty much remain stuck in the NBA middle tier.

 

So then does he get credit for all of the quality wins this season?

Something tells me that for you it's Steve's fault when we lose but Yao's credit when we win.

 

Individual player will not be responsible for the team loss. But the performance down the stretch will be counted for each play. If you continue to make wrong plays in the last couple of minutes, you have to take part of the blame.

Steve had made too many bad plays in the last couple of minutes in his four and half seasons as a rockets.

We are lucky to beat pacers last time. Steve made two straight turnovers at the clutch time in that game , have you seen it?

 

This is incredible...I agree with DaDakota's premise that Steve has not improved in 5 years; you can even say that he's regressed this year. There was a stretch in the last third of the season last year when Steve was really playing great ball (Player of the Week type stuff)...I really thought he was getting it. His problem is he simply has no basketball IQ. This may be due to the lack of organized ball he has played. He played 1 year of major college ball, and had a laissez-faire coach his first 4 years. His game is all playground, and bad habits are really starting to hurt him. He's definitely fixable, but age is no longer a valid excuse. He needs to put in the time with coaches, film, whatever....I think that all of the deficiencies he has are fixable through practice and coaching, like mentioned previously he has incredible athletic ability but he only has maybe 7 years of his prime left.

 

Some of the wins were credit to SF, or JJ, or MoT, or Yao, or Cat. You have to look at every game. But lately SF is playing sh*tty ball, even during our recent winning streaks.

Granted he was not getting enough calls last night, he still shows that he is often lost out there. You would expect your max player know what to do every night, right? If a max player is in a slump, you would expect him to pull himself together and overcome the difficulties. SF isn't showing that either.

 

If he only got four assists out of JJ last night, that says alot about his decision making. Why not feed the fire. Who, then, made all those passes to Jackson?

 

even crazier, the first guy to defend steve in the thread was Yetti!!!! i'm a little frightened.

 

ya i noticed that too. We had that long fg drought when sf was out. He had a bad shooting night, but his decision making wasnt horrible. I mean 13 assits is okay, right! He did try to distribute when he knew he was shooting horibly.

 

yeah, explain that LegendZ3. either you:

a) are blind and can't tell the difference b/t a 6'3 guy wearing #3 and a 6'5 guy wearing #21 or

b) only checked in every 10 minutes or so and just didn't see much of the game or

c) are just a liar and not to be listened to.


saying yao wasn't getting the ball in the post and sf wasn't giving it to him is ridiculous if you watched the game.


If he only got four assists out of JJ last night, that says alot about his decision making. Why not feed the fire. Who, then, made all those passes to Jackson?

how many friggin assists do you want him to have? it's not like a guy gets a pass from the same person every time. there are 3 other people on the court who can swing it to jj if steve is on the other side of the court, someone hit jj flashing in the paint when he went to 10-10. he had an assist on over 1/3 of jj's made shots, that's pretty high i would think and he had 13 overall. he must've known what he was doing on passing or something.



and yes, we immediately lost our small cushion when steve was out at the beginning of the 4th.

 

How long would it take you to write with your off hand?

Rocket River

 

Please tell us what variable you use in the "efficiency rating" to note why a highly efficient player such as Yao was benched during a crucial time of the game. Yao was a no-show in the 2nd half and didn't even play the final minutes of the game. Why? He couldn't run with the rest of the team. His efficiency was sucking wind halfway through the first quarter.

By the way, Brad Miller's efficiency rating ranks 5th in the NBA. Let's trade Yao and Steve for Brad Miller.

 

Please don't say it again and again that Yao sucked so he was benched in the last 2 minutes. That was not the case.

We were 6 points down with 2 minutes to go, JVG decided to try our puck with 3-pointers, therefore he took yao out. You can see that by looking at how we played in those two minutes. 3-point shots! I didn't feel we should panic that soon, but JVG felt that way.

 

Your' obviously not a fan of Yao. My gut feeling tells me that your hoping that the rockets would succeed without the contribution of Yao, so you can go on and celebrate. You're obviously biased towards Yao. Cause it shows in the chat-room and here in the bbs. DoD , are you really Rush Limbaud? I guess having the title " Clutch Crew" has it advantages.

 

You are correct. But more specifically, Yao went to the bench at 2:46 with the score 94-86. Fortunately, Bibby missed both FT's or it would have been a 10 point spread. But no one knew that in advance. Obviously, 2:46 is not enough possessions to dump it into the low post...hence Padgett who did manage a 3pter.

 

I agree with you about Steve, but lots of players' offense would thrive in Dallas (or Sacramento)...

 

Bottom line on Francis is that he's an athlete playing the game of baskeball. Alot of the things that JVG wants him to do as a PG just aren't natural for him. Anyone with fair knowledge of the game of baskeball can see that Francis just does not have very high BB IQ. He's an amazing athlete who's probably a great street baller! But this is not And One stuff!! This is the NBA!!! A successful player is able to conform and play in a structured/organized environment. This is why none of the And One ballers that you see on ESPN are in the NBA!!! It drives me nuts everytime Francis has a wide open look that he would wait for the defender to close on him so that he can do his crossover rather than taking an open shot or driving to the hole. But then I realize that he's just doing what comes natural to him. He feels more comfortable having a defender in his face!!! (which is puzzling to me!!!) I honestly believe that Francis has max. out his potential and that his style of play does not fit with the Rockets nor any championship contenders. We know he can't play the point! I don't think he can play the 2 either since he plays with the ball entirely too much!! A catch and shoot 2 is more suited for the Rockets offense - an offense with good post players (notice I did not say great b/c I don't think Yao is at that level yet). The Rockets need to trade Francis while he still has good value. Let's not make the same mistake like we did with Eddie Griffin where he has no more value at the time that we want to trade him.

 

I only had time to read a few of the messages on this thread so I may be repeating some things others have said...

My thought is that the first game that MJ played with us showed how much Francis is not a point guard. PGs are about getting the ball in the right hands at the right time not getting assists. Great PGs get assists because that is all they do so the assists eventually come. Steve doesn't get this and never will. He is simply not a point guard. Given this and given that we are fairly locked into the the away games in the first rd of the playoffs, I would love to see Steve move to the 2 with Mobley off the bench in a more aggressive offensive role complimented by Cato on the glass. Our starting lineup would be:

Yao
Taylor
JJ
Stevie
MJ (the lesser)

In relief, Stevie can slide to the point and be more offensive and work with Mobley and Cato on some oops and drives.

If this doesn't work then maybe we can work a deal in the off-season or suffer more first round losses.

Interestingly, and I would not have thought it after last year....Mobley has adjusted better to Yao than Steve, but he should still go to the bench as instant offense.

Go Rocks!!!