With all this Yao & Griffin talk, let's not forget about the Franchise... Despite just staying healthy, I think Steve needs to play more within himself. He certainly will have more offensive options and not have to take things over all by himself. A more "Jason Kidd-like" pass first mentality would help. Maybe not as much "pass first" as Jason, mainly because Steve is a much more talented scorer than Jason - far quicker and more explosive. The Rocket's additional offensive options (a scoring PF - MT; a scoring center with range - Yao; two SF offensive options - Rice and Boki) should help Steve's turnover count go down and assist total go up. What do you think?
1) Play hard on both ends of the court, not just of offense 2) Know the strengths of his teammates. It's not passing the ball that gets assists but passing he ball to where teammates can do something positive. He needs to understand where his teammates want the ball and find a way to get them the ball at that point. 3) Play to win. Cut out the showboating and earn the respect of the league. He had too many stupid T's last year. If he can earn the respect of the league (officials and players) that is when he can showboat more without costing his team technical fouls. Playing to the crowd is fine, but not at the cost of your team.
He will have to improve his passing,learn how to beat the double teams sent at him and work on his defense.He lets opposing guards shoot over him easily.With the addition of Yao,Nachbar,and Taylor/ Rice returning he won't have score as much as before which can help him save his energy to play on the defensive end.
He will need to learn how to keep his focus on Defence and not be trying to do too many things ! He gets caught many times far away from the player he is guaring, of couse thats the player that scores or makes a great play. He must redefine himself as a Point Guard.His job is to run the team and make everyone arround him better.
Be more of a playmaker on offense. Playmaker as in being more assertive. Take the ball to the rack more, and look for open teammates more. Defensively, he just needs to try. Quit going for steals. He gets 1-2 steals per game, and gives up about 10 pts per game, because he's out of position trying to play the passing lanes. It's not worth it.
Mid-Range Pull up jumper needs to be money. That should be his bread and butter shot. Get to the free throw line as much as possible. get teammates involved. defense first mentality.
I was just talking about this with someone last night. To me, this isn't about passing, it isn't about heart or even intellegence. With Steve, it's really about two things: 1. Effort 2. Instinct Maybe Francis feels like he needs to save up energy for the offensive end, but he does not give his full effort on the defensive end of the floor all the time. This could be a product of the defensive scheme as well and I'm not convinced that Francis is lazy. In fact, with the degree of his shoulder injury last year, I'm never going to question his ability to play through paid or his desire to play and win. But, whatever the case, he needs to be put in a position to give effort on a constant basis on both ends of the floor. The biggest thing I see though is that Steve thinks too much on the floor. I've seen him make three moves on a guy when one was all he needed. He thinks about what he does and tries to do things that are too obvious. The reason Kidd, Stockton, Maravich and Magic Johnson pass so well and with such flair isn't just that they have skills, but that they don't think all that much about it when they do it. It reminds me of Bull Durham when Costner tells Robbins, "Don't think, just throw." Francis looks labored sometimes on offense trying to make a decision. Even if it only takes a split second, that's enough for a defender to recover or a pass to be deflected or picked off. Until he learns to get out of his head and quit thinking about it so much, he's going to create problems both as a passer and as a playmaker.
Yes,he does take too much time in making decisions and ends up trying fancy moves instead of making simple plays. This shows a lack of confidence in his play making skills. Instincts can't be taught,but working on executing plays can make things easier. I wonder if we need an extra coach for the PG spot.
Frances is a prototype of the "new breed" of NBA players: style over substance. He has mind-numbing athletic skills, but strikes me as short on fundamentals. He needs to lose the "highlight reel" mentality, and become more disciplined ie. protect the ball, pass the ball, run plays, set up his fellow players, play defense, etc. In otherwords, become a point guard. Until he takes the Rockets on his back and makes them a winner, he will not be a true All Star, no matter how many votes he gets.
You guys have said most of it...but anyway..... Steve in case you are reading this... YOU NEED TO BECOME THE FU**ING LEADER OF THIS TEAM....not in WORDS, but in DEED. And remember you are a LEADER of a BAsketball Team, and carrry our hopes; Not a Freaking COUNTRY CLUB, where your 'M' boys (Mobley, Moochie, Morris, Mo) need some tough love - because individually they could be could be good...but their ego needs some ass whipping. First, be a ROLE MODEL -whether off the court (no DUIs, turning up late for charters, going to Doc on time etc.) or on the court (when you want other to play defense, SHOW it, when you want motion offense, SHOW it) Second, INVOLVE OTHERS (other than Mobley!!!). Trust your team mates, and see what they give you back. And kick their ass when they do stupid things (like Moochie dribbling to test the timekeeper skills and my patience; or when Kelvin 'the butterfinger' Cato sulks for missing a point blank dunk instead of running back for defense) Third, SHOOT MORE. You anyway play point guard in the 1st and 3 rd quarters. So we know you are really the SHOOTING GUARD for the critical times in the games. I said SHOOT more, not jack (up...off!!) MORE. I really appluad you for insisting that you are the point guard while you excel as a SHooting guard...in a WAY that we have your ego massaged as being the point guard but get to see your best skills as the guy who can create /score. FInally, show me some game in May......................show us some PLAYOFFs.
I don't feel I can come up with anything better than what has been stated in this thread so far. This particular post is my favorite because IMO some of the "highlight reel" stuff is also an injury waiting to happen. This ties in with the poster who suggested a mid-range J. The only thing I have read that I disagree with is that Francis should shoot more. Given that Yao has the potential to lead the league in shooting % and Boki is supposed to be excellent on the break (and Rice is supposed to be in good physical condition), Steve needs to P1S2.
I don't think it is a lack of confidence. I think it is just a question of being decisive. It's like he has too many moves and can't just choose one and go with it. In football, the north-south runners tend to be the most effective. They just go fast through the hole made by the O line and make moves as necessary. But, their first objective is to move ahead, not sideways. Steve seems to do a lot of moving and juking, but he doesn't really have a clear objective all the time. That just shows a lack of decisiveness on his part. I'll agree with this to a point. I do think he has very good fundamental skills. He is a terrific outside shooter for a guy who likes to go to the hole. He has above average ball handling skills and is devastating one-on-one. His problem is that he tends to choose the spectacular over the simple. The reason guys like Maravich and Johnson could make the spectacular pass was because they were so accomplished at the simple pass. For every highlight reel play, they had 50 that were bland, straight-forward offensive moves. But, they were effective. One thing I didn't add before and I probably should have is TRUST. Francis, much like the elbow-throwing, ball-hogging, trash-talking Akeem Olajuwon on the 80's, Francis has not learned to trust his teammates. For Dream, he could get away with it for a while because of his position on the floor and his skills. Franics has the SKILLS to do that, but being a guard of ANY kind (2 or 1) means looking for your teammates more often than the center has to. Taking the BEST shot is more important than taking A shot. As the team grows and matures, I still believe Steve will embrace the same concept Hakeem did. It took Dream almost 10 years to figure it out. Let's hope Steve does it a little sooner.
I think that he needs to give up the ball earlier on plays and give them time to develop through others as well as himself. Also I remember that Mobley was a point guard I would like to see him handle the ball some so that he could also take some of the play-making pressure off of Steve. On defense it is always about effort but I agree that he spends way too much energy running around so he should stick to his man unless we are playing the Lakers, because of Shaq. He also needs to try to rebound less and instead get back on d, let the big guys rebound. In time he'll learn these things I think that players with "young legs" tend to want to do too much.
Jeff, you summed it up. Players today wonder why they can't make the "spectacular pass." It's because Magic, Stockton, Cousey knew the basics moves so well, that the extraordinary pass wasn't that much more difficult to them. It wasn't a stretch for them. It was a *learned deception.* Players today try to make the spectacular pass every every time down the court, but fail because they don't know how to do the other simpler moves very well. The don't know the art of deception. They actually think the the "spectacular pass" is just only a pass. But they forget that it was more into making that pass than just "looking flashy." It really takes good team work, knowing your players, the setup, the pick-and-roll, a subtle look in the eyes, gesture in the head, chemistry ...a lot of things. Just because you are athletically gifted player doesn't mean you know how the make the perfect pass. Think about it, I'm sure you've seen Francis get a steal and then go on a breakaway (3-2). The crowd will get so excited that they almost coax Francis into making a "spectacular pass" even when it's not there. Turn over. Sure, he want's to please the fan. But come on! At the expense of a turn over. Just make the simple pass, and surprise us with the spectacular pass when the opportunity presents itself; don't force it just because you want to be on ESPN. Also could someone please TELL Francis that he doesn't have to DUNK EVERYTIME DOWN THE COURT! Most of the time the lay-up is what is needed. I think Francis needs to take a hint from the "Cynthia Cooper Rule-book of Basketball!"
Francis needs to take a page out of Jerry Stackhouse's book on team play, and maybe we can make the playoffs this year.
