Moochie is a great passer. When he is on the floor, he can find any open player. He makes other players games better because he finds them so easily. By the way Webber is a good passer. ------------------ "Break off the block like Maurice Green" --- Steve Francis President of the Moochie Norris fan club.
Needs??? Easy- PF who scores in the low post, rebounds in double figures and sets the tone for the team... Other than that we need to draft well, trade well and convince Dream that $$$ ain't everything when he menas so much to us. ------------------ "The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till the other is ready." -HDT
I totally agree with gr8-1 who said that Stevie does look to pass 1st, but doesn't always make the right pass. Stevie for the most part doesn't have a shooters mentality, but he doesn't have true PG passing skills either (too many TOs and too few Assists). I would be interested in a point forward, but those guys are pretty rare (Anthony Mason, Grant Hill types). For the time being we have to hope that as Stevie matures that he may become a better PG.
Steve has not been playing basketball very long (missed his HS Sr. year, 2 different JUCO's, 1 yr @ Maryland) and is a work in process at PG. Once he learns to make better decisions and has a better Ass't/TO ratio he will be awesome. It will happen - it just takes time. For those who still think he needs help, I suggest drafting Dunleavy, Jr next year to play point forward! ------------------ GATER
imo, what is so good about Nash's passing ability is he quick interior decision-making. He has a floater for when they back off, and he has shown the ability to find the right man when they come get him. To me, it is all about how quickly he decides to shoot or pass while in heavy traffic. Instinctual. Remember, no matter how good of a passer you are, you must make the floater or J or layup to free up the lanes. Measuring a PG's passing ability is directly tied to their ability to score in the lane, too. Nash has a solid balance of the two that keeps defenses on their toes. Saying who is a better passer or not, isolating that as a talent or skill (like watching for tight spins from a quarterback) is not the issue. Francis does not have top notch interior lane instincts for balancing shooting and passes, and he's often slow when he does decide to pass. He has the worst ast/to ratio for PGs in the league. Even when he does do a pass to the wing, the stop and pop was often there. He has three things to decide when in the lane. Shoot the J/runner, take it to the rim, or pass...and then who to pass to. Nash makes those 3 decisions very well. So does Moochie. This area is where Francis stands the most improvement, imo. Saying he is a different PG who can take it to the rim and do other things is really just calling him a SG, imo. There is nothing wrong with people saying he shows SG skills in a 6'3 body, and there is nothing wrong with people saying he has to show improvement with his desire to be a PG. Without that improvement (interior attacks like Isiah), we are somewhat limited in our offense to a two SG attack, which is fine, but it makes Rudy invent a system for it.
heypartner, IMHO, the "Instinctual" part of a PG is more a borned skill than a learned skill. That's why I worry that Francis may never become a great "passing" PG. Do you agree? If not, what timeline would you set to say if Francis has not achieve let's say the "interior decision-making" skill by that time, do you say he will never become a great PG.
That's a hard one, Moonbus. I mean, we could argue nothing in bball is really "instinctual". It is more proper for me to say "reflex". Maybe all that we can call "instinctual" is a person's ability to process several decisions at the speed of "reflex". That talent is as much pure skill as leaping ability is in my book. For instance, Mobley has pure "reflex" at the end of ISOs to choose one of 101 different finishes. However, I don't think Mobley is close to reflex at knowing when to pass it on a pnr. It is almost like he has to decide early which way he is going. Yet, he can learn to get better, and with repetition can learn reflex. I think the learned reflex part comes from confidence to know you can learn it, mixed with humility to know you need to learn it. I worry more about Francis knowing that he has to learn to create like a PG better, more than I worry about Mobley knowing he must learn to pass like a SG better. So there you go,,,I believe Francis can learn PG reflex in a couple more years, but I worry about him having the humility to know he isn't close to being that Isiah with Hops that he strives for, and he needs to work much harder to rise to that phantom superstar status. I worry that he gets mentally lazy and just settles for being a short Kobe who takes advantage of being guarded by PGs...and a short Kobe translates into a Cassell with Hops, no? I worry that the whole reason he speaks like a PG, but plays like a SG, is so he'll get a PG role for the sole reason of being guarded by smaller players. That's just me. That is just someone trying to figure out why a player who loves to attack from the wing and baseline absolutely insists on being labelled a PG. Francis baffles me sometimes. His addiction to running the fastbreak wing and wing/baseline iso's baffled me last year. [This message has been edited by heypartner (edited June 05, 2001).]
heypartner, If we obtain a point forward in the form of a ... let's say Rodney McCray... would that solve Francis's deficiency and allow Francis to concentrate on developing other aspects of his game (ex: defense)? Or do you think that for us to win, we must have Francis develop that part of the game because now we are targeting a specific player (point forward) to hide deficiencies instead of a player to compliment the team as a whole? [This message has been edited by MoonBus (edited June 05, 2001).]
I can't really answer your point-forward questions, other than saying, yes another playmaker always makes the team offense more flexible, and no that I don't really agree with "Houston needs a good passer". I am saying that as long as Francis continues improving as a small Kobe, we can win w/o a PG, and he can be a superstar still. I am saying that *unless* he shows top-notch PG instincts; he will never reach the legendary status of Isiah with Hops, and be considered the best PG ever. Francis does not need to be a legend for us to win. He is a scoring machine. But Rudy's task is harder as a coach to develop a system for two SGs. It helps a lot that Steve and Cuttino are best buds. [This message has been edited by heypartner (edited June 05, 2001).]
Heypartner has me worried now... Somebody needs to go tell Steve Francis to read heypartner's comments so he'll know what he has to do. ------------------ PrEsident of The Danforth Langhford FAN CLUB... He IS our future All-Star Small Forward [This message has been edited by alaskansnowman (edited June 05, 2001).]
Wow, did you see the stat line of Indiana Pacer guard Jamaal Tinsley? 23 assists! This year, the Rockets' situation wouldn't have been too bad if they had good passing to start with. And that starts with the guard. Were Rudy Tomjanovich or the Rockets scouts ever considering Tinsley? Obviously, signing M.Norris to a ridiculously huge contract without justification now is becoming obvious. He (Norris ) is not a point guard. Huge mistake. Add to this, Cato isn't performing to expectations. Basketball starts with passing. A team. Not one-on-one players, which the Rockets have a monopoly on, save Allen Iverson.
You don't like Francis dfbreyes, we get it already. Moochie Norris is a PG, and the reason Rudy didn't draft Tinsley is because we have a PG, Steve Francis. Passing could be a problem because this team has never really played together before full-time save for Francis and Mobley.
I feel that steve is doing what he's being told to do. If u want him to pass more I say we tell Rudy that.
What the Rockets need is to go back to the drawing board and come up with some new sets\plays. They are fast becoming the Dallas Cowboys of the NBA on offense, boring and predictable. It's amazing that a team with so many good catch-and-shoot players still insists on creating shots with the dribble instead of the pass. I'm still waiting to see Cat coming off screens. (Actually, I've been waiting for 2 years to see Cat come off screens firing) Does anybody remember how good Cuttino was at URI playing catch-and-shoot with Tyson Wheeler? Walt is at his best when he spots up and is very effective coming off screens. And we all know how devastating Rice can be playing catch-and-shoot. No ball or player movement, poor spacing, and absolutely no structure, these are the things the Rockets need to improve on.
