point guard's total fg attempts and ft attempts per game last season. Stephon Marbury- 1530 total, 18.8 per game Gary Payton- 1466 total, 18.3 per game Steve Francis- 1312 total, 16.2 per game Baron Davis- 798 total (50 games), 16.0 per game Jason Kidd- 1244 total, 15.6 per game So if Steve is a ball hog then Marbury and Payton are major ball hogs and Baron and Kidd are also ball hogs.
the thing is not that he is a ball hog, its just that he used to keep the ball in his hands for the majority of the 24 seconds allowing the clock to run down what we wanted and still want him to do is pass the ball around more...great passing during the clock will find the man with the best shot
oops no edit! what i meant is yea he kept the ball in his hands a lot so he is a ball hog, but your stats only show field goal attempts, which doesnt relate to the ball hogging
Steve held onto ball because he had few options. No one out there to pass to with likelihood of scoring. Our scoring is still limited until we get Pike and the team can gel.
Ball hog not as in jackin shots up (mobley is an expert at that) but dribbling the ball around wayyyy to much tell the shot clock goes off
He really hasn't been this season... but to compare with payton and marbury last seaon is misleading, i mean if francis played with pedrag drobgnac or jake tsakalidis i'd be okay with him taking more shots too. consequently, if payton and marbury played with yao, i think they would have passed up some shots too.
Yeah but Steve also didn't have guys like mason, barry and rashad, or steph with Marion, Penny, Joe Johnson. I say as far as supporting cast, we are slightly better than the sonics and just about even with the suns.
Yes, but I noticed you conveniently left out the most important stat in the "ballhog" discussion. Why didn't you post the assists?
That's a fair assessment, but in the last year Steve has had solid complimentary teammates to pass too and it's been the same old Steve. Will see what happens under Van Gundy.
So would you consider Moochie a ball hog during his time on the floor last year? Didn't take all that many shots...must not have been hogging the ball....right?
Ball Hog = Masturbatory dribbler (cousin of DRIBBLEMANIA). It is one thing to shot 20 times or more a la Iverson but it is another to over massage the ball before passing or shoting it. Calvin say that there is no excuse for mastubatory dribbles. Every babasketball expert says that you - because you lack offensive help or options does not give any player the right to play dumb or stupid basketball. This is not really an indictment post - just stating reasonable counter points IMO. Yes Francis is as BALL HOG as Kobe is an ADULTERER. But is Francis' case I believe JVG will cure him of it. He can score 23 - 27 points easily but he does not have to HOG or over dribble the ball to get to his desired destination. Even his coach mentioned this to him a few days ago - now don't tell me that he coach does not know what he is talking about. Also based on some stats I read in the Houston Chronicle's Rockets summary section (for 11-05-03) - there is a stat out there that states that major part of the reason our shoting percentage is higher this season so far is because we have moved the ball more and often to the open man in a deliberate and precise manner (save for our loss to the Griz). Francis is a good guy who really cares - he just needs to up his mental department of the game and stay away from Cutino-titis (perculiar disease that attacks the human brain resulting in wierd decision making and dribblemania).
Taking a close look at all their asst/TO ratios PLUS the number of times they shoot RELATIVE to the amount of time they have the ball in their hands should make this a moot point. Francis holds onto the ball at least as much as every single one of those guys, averages less assists than all, more TO's than all but Kidd, and has an overall horrible asst/TO ratio. He also plays 40+ minutes per game, meaning there's more opportunity for him to pass the ball more, score more, pace his scoring bursts. I'm not judging. I'm just saying that IF you were going to judge, then THESE are the things you look at, not just the shot attempts. Marbury is supposedly the biggest ballhog in the world, but I'll take him over Francis anyday considering he scores 3 or 4 more points, 2 more assists, and less TO's. Marbury THE BALLHOG is averaging 8 assists per game. Shouldn't Steve be averaging MORE than a ballhog if he ISN'T a ballhog? To be fair, we don't have many players that like to catch and shoot, and our other 2 main scorers don't turn passes into assist because they are either in the post (Yao, MoT) or dribble several times before creating the shot (Mobley, MoT). What we CAN note is that Francis is averaging 4.8 assist and 4.8 TO's, yet we're still winning. What does this mean? It means that this team is not one that will rack up assists simply because of the individual skill sets of the players, and it also implies that Francis is trying to adjust to this new concept of giving players the ball where they like it. To be honest with you, I'll settle for last year's numbers MINUS one TO per game, PLUS the defensive effort he's already been giving. In my eyes, that would earn him an A+.
