How Many 'Streetball' Players Are On This Team Now?

Steve's problem was he just wouldn't give the ball up on a fast break. Even on a 3 on 1 break, he'd still try and dunk over the defender instead of passing to the open man.

Guys like Barry, Sura, and Wesley aren't flashy players(Sura used to be, but not anymore), so they have no trouble making the extra pass on the break for an easy basket.

Now if we can just work on those alleyoop passes to T-Mac....

 

I'm not a fan of how Steve Francis plays the game. And I recall a comment by Charles Barkley from his last season that neither Francis nor Mobley had any respect for veterans. But to Steve's credit, he has allowed himself to be influenced by Grant Hill. Both Francis and Mobley run a break much better in ORL than they did in HOU and IMHO a very large portion of that is due to the influence and quiet leadership of Grant Hill.

 

Good lord, get over it. They're not on our team anymore. They're both playing very well in Orlando, which is a much more up tempo team than Houston.

PS. Who's Stave?

 

Are we speaking different languages? Is there some sort of communications gap? "Over it" means getting past the topic, moving on. You're clearly stuck on a last year / this year comparison. Hence, the "get over it". This shouldn't even be a topic anymore. Enjoy the new team.

Is this Bizzaro-world? Am I speaking backwards? When did I say that ORLANDO was doing better than HOUSTON. I stated that Orlando plays uptempo much more than Houston (an undisputable fact, check the stats) and that Francis and Cuttino are doing well in that offense. Steve's averaging career highs in points and assists, despite reduced minutes. Cat's up across the board from last season and is shooting almost 50% from the arc. These facts tend to defuse the theory that those 2 guys can't play uptempo.

JVG is the one holding Houston back from playing an uptempo style of game, despite his protestations to the contrary. Both last year and this season. I'm hoping that the freedom he's been giving Tmac lately changes that in the future.

 

I agree with Gater that Steve is successful in Orlando due to Grant Hill's leadership, basketball IQ, and versatile ability to play with a wide variety of players. Not everyone in this league could have chemistry with Francis that is productive.

I like Steve and will always be in awe of his talent, however- Steve is a cypher, not and idiot savante, but needs veteran leadership with him to succeed.

It will be part of Van Gundy's legacy that he could not make it work. That is not all Van Gundy's fault, but if JVG had gotten the right talent around Steve, they could have succeeded.

Like Charles Barkley said recently on TNT- a good coach adapts to his players strengths, and not force the players to change their game into the coach's design.

Steve Could not play up tempo with the VAn Gundy grind - 1/2 court method of slow - controlled offense. I really think Steve did try to adapt to Van Gundy and shared the ball with increased assists and fewer turnovers.

That we can play a fast syle of play and not be "street ballers" cannot be credited to Van Gundy , but to the player mix we have right now.

Enjoy this team chemistry we have now like you would a beautiful flower arrangement-because it is temporal and will wilt soon. These players are all old and father time will win.

Dog Steve all you want, but he played his heart out every nite- not always smart, but with great effort and poor coaching...

 

I was under the impression that about 3/4 of a street ball game is fastbreaking. The other part is about one on one play with fancy moves and tricks. Steve and Cat are good at the isolation play, and finishing the break, but they are bad at running the break.

 

I don't think their inability to run a break had much to do with streetball, and a great deal to do with lack of court vision and spacing.

 

Can't argue against that. Spot on Nero.

 

many NYC point guards were PASS-FIRST streetball legends before they made it to the NBA

Mark Jackson
Rod Strickland
Kenny Anderson
Jamaal Tinsley
Rafer Alston

streetball point guard = penetrate-and-dish (no J) type point guard

i think steve is in his own category--not a "streetballer".at least, not a NYC streetballer.

to me, steve's game is playing 21--every man for himself.

 

Great post. You bring up some good points.

SamCassell... you are living in the past as well my friend. Sam Cassell? How about I change my username to Jim Peterson?!

dconover

 

I think I once saw Scott Padgett walk into a Whataburger off the street with no pants on and his nads hanging out.

Does that make him a streetballer?

 

That's the impression I get watching Stevie, that he played a lot of one-on-one 21 type games growing up, but not much team-oriented ball.

On a side note, I get the exact opposite impression from Eddie Griffin. From his total lack of any kind of skill with the ball (handling, driving, post moves) it's like the kid never heard of the game 21. It's like someone stuck him on a 5-on-5 full court game and said "go play". So he learns to block shots and chuck up stand still 3 pointers, but nothing else.

/EG rant

 

I wish we had one...Rafer Alston on our team.

DD

 

When I play ball in the park, the guy who comes down the court with the ball shoots it unless he can toss a fancy, behind the back or alley-oop pass to another. Once in a while, you give it to your teammate so he can go mano to mano against someone. More often than not, guys like to push the ball but fastbreaking alone does not define street.

BTW, Rafer is not playing street ball in the NBA. He is less street than Steve even.

 

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I know that is why I wish he were on the Rockets.