Francis Lightened Up Atkins at the Expense of Rocket

One would think that the millions of dollars of salaries would be enough to keep our other players interested in the game, or at least keep them from getting stymied by Mehmet Okur..but I guess not.

Even in praise, you must bash. Simply pathetic.

 

Sam, you love Francis too much.

Even in praise, you smell bash, Simply pa***tic.

 

RocketManJosh, hope you know the difference (Payton's passion vs Francis's ego).

Talk the talk, walk the walk. If one can back it up, fine. But if one can't. Then, it's just dumb pride.

Payton will use that "fire" and "passion" to fuel his team to a win, whether it's scoring or passing for an assist. Francis only thinks ONE way, "Lite him up." Which means ONLY SCORING. That's one dimensional thinking.

 

Man you must never have watched GPs game ... I lived in Seattle for awhile and watched him when he was there. When the rest of the team is sucking as all the Rox were against Det, GP would be the first guy to go one on one for about 10 plays in a row regardless of how he was doing which is just as Francis tried to do against Detroit.

GP is no different than SF in that regard. So do not speak of what you do not know.

And the whole point of what I said was to say it is not ALL SF fault as you blind people like to believe. Yall need to get a guide dog because you are obviously walking around with your eyes closed.

 

It's not all of SF fault. Just MOSTLY!

He's our "leader."

 

The difference was that by GP's 5 year he was averaging 20PPG, 7apg, and getting only 2.5 TOPG!!!

Oh, and one more thing. He shot 50% PERCENT FROM THE FIELD!!!!

Yeah, "GP is no differeent...." Ok....

 

I think Francis would have a MUCH MUCH easier time scoring without zones.

Don't know if he wuld control TO's, but I think he could easily put up Payton's scoring numbers back then.

 

OK .. we were talking about trash-talking and how the "leader" of the team tries to take over the game 1-on-1. I said GP and SG were no different in that regard.

When was I ever talking about who was the better player. Yes GP was definitely a better player in his 5th year, but you were saying that he didnt trash talk and then go 1-on-1 trying to take over the game by himself which is blatently WRONG.

 

You can compare it because after they trash talk they both try to take the game over when the rest of the team is sucking ... but I guess that makes GP passionate and SF have an ego ... WHATEVER

 

RocketManJosh,

I don't care of Francis trash talks or not. As long as he can still focus on the game and it doesn't hurt his game and the team flow. But it does. Time and time again I've seen Francis get into a trash-talking match with someone, and his game goes south. It affects him. He can't concentrate. Those opponents that start trash-talking start to "get in his head." And they know it. This is advantage opponent.

A few guys I've seen Francis get into trash-talking matches with are Aktkins, Marbury, Luke Ridnour, Tyron Lue, and Randy Brown!!! In all those games Francis lost his goal (get the win) and started to "make it personal." It hurt his game and his teammates.

Now, to be fair. I've seen players trash talk to Francis, and Francis IGNORED THEM. Those are the games that Francis did well, because he stayed FOCUSED on the goal at hand.

What I'm saying is that Francis is NOT offensively good enough to get into those one-on-one battles. It starts to make him predictable and easy to guard (doubles, traps, and turnovers). Jordan and Payton were able to trash-talk AND stay focused because they had the offensive ability to score 40 points on someone and still get the win.

 

True. But remember that Francis did play before the zone was implemented. The main issue is that the league is trying to KILL the ISO culture it created in the 90's. The league is trying to force current players, and future players from coming into the league thinking that they are going to do their best "Jordan impersonation."

We've had tons of discussions on the pros and cons about the zone. And a lot of people are of the opinion that the zone is a bad thing. But I disagree. The reason that the zone seems like a bad thing now is because the best players we have today in the league are,...NOT very well-schooled. And these "best players" don't know how to play team-ball, how to pass, how to get others involved. They are from the ISO-culture of the 90's. They grew up watching Isiah, Bird and Jordan thinking that the things that made a great player was "going one-on-one." Forgetting ALL THE OTHER THINGS THAT MADE THOSE PLAYERS GREAT! - DEFENSE, PASSING, READING OPPONENTS DEFENSIVE SCHEMES, FAST-BREAK PASSING, HALF-COURT PASSING, FINDING THE CUTTER, FREE-THROWS, MOVING WITHOUT THE BALL, SCREENS....TEAM-BALL!

Now, this does not mean that our current "stars" wont "get the ball" most of the time. We'd still give them the ball. They'd still have great offensive ability. But they at least have the ability to see OTHER OPTIONS to get the easy bucket. Today's stars do not "see those opportunities" because they grew up thinking that "scoring ONLY" is what made a "star."

So, the zone is being used to discourage these type of players "thinking" they are going to come into the league and just "get the ball." No, they will now think twice and learn OTHER SKILLS besides scoring. Thank you LeBron and Carmelo! Those of you that think that Melo can't pass, need to watch a few of his games.

Now, as far as the zone...
We wont see the benefits until 4 or 5 years from now when new players (stars) start to come into the league with a whole new mind-set. We'll see multi-talented players like Gasol, AK-47, Parker, Lebron, Melo, Ginobli...and these are the tip of the iceberg.

And hopefully, hopfully, the league can achieve a marriage between "old school fundamentals" with "new school athletic ability."

 

think about it MO and CAT went 4 for 24 .................which means they MISSED........<( 20 assist ) > ......that could have been for some one else.

we mostly lose when yao mig have a bad game when we don't get the inside presense that we should have from a 7 foot 6 giant like yao ming.I really like yao ,but he has played soft in 85%of our games this year.shouldnt yao be grabbing 15 ,16 boards a nite scoring like 20 points ,demanding the ball,blocking atleast 4 shots a game............ if so tell me why not?

so how could steve get all the blame?

 

Well he's not a great passer, he wasn't trying to pass the ball so he didn't turn it over much.. but those four errant shots.. couldn't those be counted as turnovers? I mean you shoot 34% from the field maybe turnovers aren't your biggest concern at that point.

Mike

 

i agree with that british guy, it is really hard to read this board anymore. i used to read it all the time for years, now? i can barely peek in once a month. if sacto and dallas had these types of fans, they would never gelled into the powerhouses they are now.

give this team another year, and they too can run like a welled oiled machine, but that would take patience, something the majority of you do not have.
steve francis may be scoring less, but i have never seen him play better ball. decision making, moving without the ball, passing, and defense is awesome. but whatever, most of yall don't even seem to be watching the games!

see yall in another few months.

 

Umm.. the problem isn't the talking. Steve can say whatever the hell he wants if it gets him going.

The problem is that Francis really did try to play 1 on 5 far too much.

 

right, francis played 1 on 5, so i suppose those 6 assts on 33% shooting were all to himself?

do you realize what it takes to get 6 assists when no one on your team can hit a basket?? but whatever, this is more engaged than i care to be nowadays.