Yeah, let's not blame the guys who play 40+ minutes a night and dominate the ball every posession for our lack of ball movement. Come on, man.
The only thing I can learn from reading your guys posts is that no, Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley aren't going to cause massive death and starvation around the world, but on the other hand they aren't they aren't the most perfect and intelligent players ever in the NBA. My sarcasm measuring device blew up reading this thread.
Last year we were one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA. This year we've completely turned that around and become one of the better defensive teams. Some of it is Yao Ming, but credit is due to every player, not just Yao Ming. Our defense was good before Yao Ming was starting and playing 30 minutes per game. I'm confident that, given time, this team will become a better passing team as well. We did it defensively, we can do it offensively as well. IMO, the last 10 games or so, we've been passing the ball better, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. I'm confident that it will come. By next season, we'll be one of the best defensive teams AND one of the best offensive teams.
HE SHOOTS HE SCORES Id like to add a twist. As long as Mobley and Francis decide buddy ball is more important than the team concept. Someone should keep a stat on it........hmmmmm. T
spence99 "We will never win in the playoffs until we start passing the ball around to everyone." how do u no we will not win in the playoffs with this style, for all we no this team could win the title this year any team can win the title this year cause the playoffs r not set yet. let this team make the playoffs see how they do and then u can say what u said above if we fail. anything is possible.
I'm not covering up for our passing defeciencies. I'm just sayin assists are a poor indicator of team success. If you look at FG% rankings which in a way includes assists (assists=easy buckets) and defense rankings(opponent FG%), you can see a direct correlation between wins and rank. The reason the spurs guards don't jack up as many shots is because they suck and Duncan is a basketball god. Without Duncan the spurs would in the same league as the cavaliers.
Rockbox: this is a tremendous indicator of hard a team has to work to get point v their opponents. It may not matter on a nightly basis, but in a 5 or 7 game series the numbers will pan out if there is not a better balance. San Antonio will not got deep in the playoffs unless their team game improves in team ball, their opponent has a bad stretch, their defense is stifling (which puts tremendous pressure on their overall game) or Duncan or someone else has a career type stretch of 15-20 games. Would it not be better to not have to rely on one of these scenarios to win a game
A quick look at Championship teams since 1991 will show a nice pattern: The Lakers, Spurs, and ROckets were horrible passing teams (statwise). While I'm not sure about the Bulls, I'm sure it wasn't low, because Pippen and Jordan alone were combining for 15 at some point weren't they? Maybe not. You can't really imagine Rodman or Cartwright or Perdue racking up the assists though. Dallas, New Jersey, Sacramento, Jazz: 0 Lakers, Spurs: 5 Even if Dallas, Sacramento or New Jersey win this year, it will be solely due to Shaq's early season injury. Besides, I'd like to see those teams win 3 in a row. All 3 of them combined won't win 3 in a row. Passing is important, and we're bad at it. But I hope we don't end up averaging 25 for the team. If we could go from 17.9 to 20, and go down 1 or 2 turnovers per team, then we're in brilliant shape.
Interesting analysis of the passing game....although it's not very suprising....The Rockets need to introduce some major movement into their game....then they'll be able to take on the Mavs & Kings of the league...
Francis's stats for the last few games 5 assists against the hawks 6 assists against the nuggets 9 assists against the celts 8 assists against the suns.. I'm unsure if thats because hes creating more plays for other players.. but at least its an encouragable sign..
