Just checking if your any nba team, who would you rather have: Steve Francis OR Kenny Smith OR Tony Parker OR D. Fisher OR Sometimes we get caughtup in the OLD idea of what a pg is. Tim Hardaway and Payton began this newage pg that can kill in more ways than one on a nightly basis. B Ball is about having the best match ups. With Steve at the point we win this almost every night, but at the two the players gaurding him are taller and more athletic. Its not the same, He is no A.I. Plus thats one of the reasons A.I. has to shot so much and shots so poorly. Maybe the best move for this team is to get better team assist numbers if we feel SF cant do it alone. If thats the case we need a slick passing sf. We already have a good passing C who will be alot better next year. The Bulls, Lakers, Rox, and SA didn't have high assist pgs but won the last championships. There is always more than one way to skin Cat.
I don't think you understand some of non-statistical aspects of the game. Francis's problems is not only his assist-turnover ratio. It's his UNFORCED turnovers. Remember that a lot of his fumbles are turnovers that are unforced: pass to no one, dribble off his foot, drive into traffic with no one to pass to...etc... There's a reason that some guards (elite passers) have 8,9,10,11,12 assist per game. They are GOOD AT IT and know HOW TO PASS. Thus, good passing begets more good passing. Francis is bad at passing, and thus is assist go down because he doesn't use that skill as a weapon because it's a weakness. And the odds are against him to try (high percentage that he will turn the ball over). You also need to understand that when you compare Kidd to Francis, you need to use both assist and turnovers for both players. Assist can be points. But turnovers can be negative points (difference makers in games). You also seem to think that passing is a skill you can just learn over night. Learning how to pass for a PG is not something you do in the NBA. If that was the case then the first 5-7 years would be used as a training ground. Go and look at the best passers (low turnovers) in the game and you'll see that they had 8-10 assist per game, even in their early year (rookie or not). It was a constant. Check out Kevin Johnson. He prepared himself before coming to the NBA. Francis was busy dunking and trying to look good for the ladies. By the way, you throw around 1.2 assist or 2 turnovers per game like it's small amount. Those "small" number make a big difference. Gary Payton hovered around 7.5 assist per game and around 2.5 turnovers per game. That's very good!!! If Francis could achieve those numbers people would be saying around the league, "Francis knows how to pass."
So why will these change if he plays the two??? He will still have the ball in his hands more than any other rocket player as he has no idea how to move without the ball or set himself up for a score with the ball NOT in his hands.
I do undrstand the stats and what not seen in the stats. Steve is not on the level of Payton and Kidd when ti comes to running a team. They where not on this level either when they were SF's age. Steve is alittle diff. then them just as they are diff. from one another. SF is the most athleticly talented point gaurd. Payton is the best defender. Kidd the passer. But with time they improved their weakest parts of their games. SF should do the same. No he will not be the passer Kidd or Payton are but was Kenny Smith? Dream was a terrible passer but once he got it, after we stuck with him, he got us rings. With some stabilty he will be better. Hell, we are complaining about his passing and he was 12th in the nba. I would think thats the best the rox have had, maybe.
Since I gotta clear outta here like right now, I will come up with a more detailed response to your question tomorrow. However, right now I will just say that the list you name above, all of them, with the exception of maybe Baron Davis, helped their respective teams win/get somewhere, except Steve. Sleep on that.
Why do you people complain about needing a "true" point guard? How many "true" point guards have won NBA championships? What a team needs a roster full of good passers, not just one guy to distribute the ball. We don't need another "point" guard...we just need another player who is a good slasher and passer in our backcourt.
We need guys who can hit the open shot!!! It's upseting to see how many times Francis drove and pulled the defense to him so that many guys were wide open and he dished it out to them, only to see it go CLANG!!!
Well, if we move Francis to the 2, and then just put the ball in his hands (to run the offense, i.e. bring the ball up, and then pass to open mates) then, yes, you are right. Nothing will change. But if we have Barry do those things, then Francis will be receiving the ball off of picks and back doors or on the open three point line. Now, that that's the system way. When I say "system" I mean most of the time will run that way. But there are times when you just hand the ball to your best one-on-one player and get the hell out of the way. And that's when we give the ball to Francis after a play breaks down and let him do his stuff. Like they do with Iverson (but with a little more passing from Francis; he does have "some" passing skills). I think what I'm trying to suggest is that we take MOST of the passing responsibilities out of Francis's hand (the odds are in our favor now; less turnovers). And make Francis's do what he does best: score. Remember, Barry's job would be to make his teammates better (first priority; get everyone involved). Francis's job would be to score (first priority), and then get other involved (secondary).
Well maybe if you read the post above before you take cheap shots you would have known I was responding to a post. I never said Francis quit.
Check out Payton's first 6 years. He hovered around 6.5 ast, but kept his turnovers around 2.5. Then, his asts grew year after year 6,7,8,9, yet he KEPT HIS TURNOVERS at 2.5!!!! That's a competent point guard! Francis is consistently around 3.8 turnovers! And his assist are the SAME or WORSE than his rookie year (6.6). This is a degradation! Not an improvement. Francis is going on his 5th year! We're waiting for an improvement. By the way, Kidd was a very bad shooter early in his career. But with the exception of his rookie year, he's consistently been a 9 to 10 assist per game player. So, it's ok for him to have a 3.5 turnovers per game. But for Francis to have 6.5 assist per game and the SAME/WORSE turnovers per game (Francis is at 3.7) as Kidd's. Well, that's just crap! All this talk about Francis being a "great guard" is all based on the spectacular, not substance. If there was one thing that he's improved on since his career started, that would be his ability to shoot the short jump shot (like C. Murphy, it was this that helped his scoring average, imho). But other than that, all his stats are pretty much the same or worst from his rookie season; FT, FG, 3PT, TO, AST, you name it. His scoring avergae went from 18 to 21. Big whup! More Rebok commercials for Stevie!
He's 20. Funny how some people thing that age has something to do with competence. I know some 20 year olds that could be managers. Some kids are just mature and smart for their age. Parker is one of them. So was Magic.
Steve Francis is NOT a point guard. Point guards look first to create things for their teammates. Francis looks first to create things for himself (as exhibit A I give you Francis dribbling 2/3 of the shot clock down before passing the ball). The position is not determined by size but by performance and Francis' performances fit the shooting guard mold a lot better than the point guard mold.
I guarantee Steve would average 1.5-2 less TO a game if someone else brought the ball up the court all game long instead. His carelessness with the ball is sickening at times. How many guards to you see just lose the ball coming up the court because they try to dribble between their legs too many times? I can't remember any right now, yet its an every-game occurence with our point guard. Hell, I'd be happy to see anyone else bring the ball up as long as I don't have to see him skip up the court with the ball when our team is losing by 20. When he does crap like that it makes me wonder if he has any kind of pulse of the game, he just seems oblivious at times.
People ask how many pure point guards have won the ring. Why don't they ask how many scoring point guards have won the ring instead? Maigic and Thomas were great all around point guards. Stockton as the pure point guard prototype went to the finals. Baron Davis and Marbury, even with their scoring point guard stickers, have much better pg related stats than Francis, and both of them went to the playoffs while the great scoring point guard Francis watch it on TV. The concept of scoring point guard is oxymoron, it's like orchestrating a symphony while playing violin at the same time.
