I realized something about our team, we don't have that many guys playing off the ball. Yao needs to get his shots himself, so does mobely, moochie and Mo T. T-Mo and EG really only shoots open jumpers or hustle pts of reb and stuff and are really inconsistent. Cato was the only good of the ball player we got before Posey. So in a team like this what is a PG suppose to do. With much motion in our offence, the only thing the PG can do is A) dump it off and let someone create there on shot B) drive it into the lane hoping to let the defense collapse on him and dish it out fo the open jumper. Now to A) Mobley and Yao are great if they can create their own shots AND make them, but that's not always the case. Cat is very inconsistent and Yao's fatigue and the new zone defenses limits his effectives. Also even if they are playing well, if they create their own shots, Steve still doesn't get the assist. to B) if the offense gets the stagnant and are unable to really get a lot of scoring going, steve is force to create shots for other ppl, but that forces him into a position we don't want him in, forcing the action that leads to a ton of turnovers as well as even if throws it out to an open shooter, most of them miss the open J. After watching the all-star game, it shows me what kind of stuff Steve can do if there are enough talents around him. People like to talk about how good Payton and Kidd are, look at the off the ball players they have on their team. Payton has Desmond Mason, Rashad Lewis and a consistent out side shooter in Barry. Kidd has KMart, Rich Jefferson and Lucious Harriss to choose from. Steve has to rely on Cato and Posey as well as our sporatic shooters to help him get an assist. Though our supporting cast isn't that bad, we just don't have a team that can get our PG high assist numbers on a consisten basis. For those of you that say we are 14-4 when steve gets 7 assist or more, that usually means taht our outside shots are falling more than anything and its not hard to win if we do that, we jsut can't seem to get it on consistent basis.
It's not the number of assists... it's knowing when he should pass and when he should keep the ball. And driving in the middle against oposing double teams trying to force up a shot and hope for a foul when Yao or someone else is open is his fault. He is the playmaker and when he starts making better decisions, I don't care how many assists he has, I will be satisfied. He did look good in the all star game but he now has to transfer that kind of play to everyday. Trusting his teammates has to be second nature. If they consistently miss the open shot then we need to replace them but he has to give them the chance to miss. If he is double and triple teamed someone is open and it's time to pass. When he plays that way he played in the all star game consistently with the Rockets we will be a better team.
I know. He can pass like in the All Star game. And he showed he can pass at home. But man..what's wrong with us on the road? Francis...it can't be his fault. His teammates miss so many shots. But they can't make all of them. That's why Francis has to set them up for easy shots. AND MAN..by the way. Would you rather have STEPHON MARBURY? Golly...the first thing he did when he got the ball in the All Star game was NOT LOOK...he should started doing all his dribbling like Francis usually does and made a jumper. I mean...good job...but man. He didn't even look to pass!
Sorry first I don't think you could judge if a player is a great assist man or not in an ASG. I mean most people can get assists surrounded by those great players. And from what I observed, I just think that Steve got more assists because he's more willing to pass the ball to all those great players. He needs to have the same respect for Yao and his Rockets teammates like he'd for KG and company. I know it's hard but he needs to try because it's his job to get everyone involved as a PG. Also when did Yao become a "create his own shot" player? Didn't someone complain earlier saying that Yao couldn't create his own shot? Yao's a great motion player who can finishes off passes and Mobley's also a pretty good catch and shooter, even better than on one-on-one iso IMO. You know Kidd's rated higher than Francis as a passer because he not only passes the ball to his teammates, he creates easier, more open shots for his teammates. Those two are completely different things. You can't say that Jefferson, Martin are better shooters than Mobley and Yao. That's why people always say that Kidd's a player who can "makes his teammates better" but the same cannot be said about Francis at least not yet.
There is not any motion in our offense. You cant have consistent motion when there is a lot of dribbling. You and your buds ever play a little five on five? Well if you do, you know how pissed off you get when one or two guys are always dribbling the basketball. Its a waste of time to move off the ball when one or two guys dribble in stationary spots beyond the threepoint line. You cant have guys cutting and moving and flashing across the lane when your guards are beyond the threepoint line with the ball and with no clue. Heres my solution: Just keep it simple. i bet Rick Adelman did not say, "here Steve, heres your certain amount of plays, and heres Garnett pet plays, and heres Yao's pet plays, and heres Kobe's special plays, now Steve lets run each of their plays so they can get involved too." To me thats not getting teammates involved. Adelman seem to just let them play. I wish Rudy would do that sometimes. Toss out all those individual plays he sets up for each starter and let the players play like they're a team of trustworthy friends at the local park, who just want to win. Keep the ball moving until somebodys open, if your open shoot it. Set screens for eachother, recognize favorable matchups, move n' cut. just imporivise and go with the flow. but the number one rule is - and everybody has to agree with this: Nobody on the team will waste precious shot clock seconds with needless dribbling and they will not overdribble and allow the defense time to get in comfortable defensive sets.
Mobley's a good catch and shoot player. You're right. But he makes no effort to get open. They dont' realize that yet. And Yao a great motion player? Sorrry.........he messed up yesterday. Maybe he didn't expect Kobe to be passing to him on the fast break. But I think he is better creating his own shot. UNBELIEVABLE. EVEN AT ALL STAR GAME...they don't let him to shoot. They double teamed him every time... YES YOU ARE RIGHT. EASY SIMPLE MOTION OFFENSE!!!! But Rudy is already simple..his plan used to be...give it to Hakeem and let him do his stuff. Now it's give it to Francis or Mobley. MOTION OFFENSE. NEW JERSEY NETS OFFENSE. Beautiful! We need that. Forgot stats. We just need WINS.
This is just not accurate. Adelman didn't coach them, they had one 2 hour workout in which they just tried to go over a few simple plays just so they were a little on the same page and even in that practice it was obvious the players were having more fun with it than trying to learn some new Adelman philosophy. These are all stars and most of everything they did is instinctually. The only time there was any real coaching was during timeouts and most of those the west was on defense. So how can make such a dumb misinformed statement?
Nope. The second best offensive weapon (Cuttino) is a one-on-one player as well. The rest of the players are not sure handed or made thier own shots. In other words, if Steve played in the right offense with Peja, Wes Person and Lamond Murry, he would average 9 assists a game.
You are right, wizkid83, that Rox players don't do much when they don't have the ball, but that's not the reason SF has only 6 assists per game. SF does not have more assists because he doesn't pass the ball often enough. Other than that, you were off with most of your other observations. Cat and Posey the only good players SF can pass to??? Are you serious? Yao prefers to create his own shots?? We do need a more consistent perimeter shooter and we do need more movement on offense. But SF needs to get rid of the damn ball more often. Yao is deadly if he gets the ball near the basket on those PnRs. When SF realizes that he doesn't have to go one-on-five, his assist number will go up and Rox will win more games.
Forget Adleman. He's not the issue. This is about Steve last night and the way he seemed to play without having to run a certain amount of designated plays for each starter. I know Adleman didnt have time to install some type of system for them to follow. But Im saying Steve seemed pretty comfortable out there when he was just able to freewheel it and use his own judgment. I dont know what Adlemans philosphy to coaching is or how he likes his Sactown guys to play, but albeit one game with allstars, It seems, For Steve, less play calling is better.
you make a great point about kidd. why do you think kidd is considered to be the best point guard by many people even though he's not leading the nba in assist? in contrary, why do they don't consider marbury a great point guard? numbers don't mean everything. francis should penetrate and dish more, creating open shots for his teammates. he gotta know that he can take outside shots anytime he wants.
Just to provide some stats. Francis's AST/TO ratio (1.47) is last among PGs playing significant mins (actually only Larry Hughes - a SG playing PG is even close). ESPN.com rates him 19th among SGs (out of 31 qualified) in AST/TO ratio. Our SG (Mobley) is 27th of 31 in AST/TO at his position (1.28), and our third guard (Moochie) is 34th as a PG in AST/TO (2.08). Our whole backcourt rotation of Francis, Mobley and Moochie have a cumulative AST/TO of 1.53. No wonder our team's ball distribution is .
Ok, most of the response to Steve's reason to not getting more assist was he was not passing enought, I thought I already address this in my orginal post. Our current doesn't support a point guard that touches the ball only for a few second. Our 2nd and 3rd offensive weapon are playmakers themselves meaning they don't play as well of the ball. For those of you that says Yao isn't a play maker, lets look at what he does most of the time he touches the ball, he either a) trys to find a teamate or b) goes to his post up moves. That's a clear play maker and not a play finisher. I'm trying to state within this current team we need a player to force the action to get his teamates involved.
Remember the 1st half of the Dallas collapse game. Almost all his points were finishes off passes from teammates.
Andre Miller, btw, had Wesley Person and Lamond Murray. Oh, and his team didn't win **** because he insists on holding on to the ball. ANYTHING as long as the boxscore says (Assist Andre Miller). He dishes it out, but unlike Kidd, he doesn't make his team or teammates better. The issue with Francis, like Jordan and Hakeem, is trust. He doesn't want to let Cato, Posey or Griffin take a jumper. he's absolutely right. He has a better chance taking a jumper in a double team than they do with single coverage. This team lacks the proper role players. We have too many players who creat for themselves, and therefore waste the shotclock. This is one reason we should get rid of Mobley. A more off the ball SG would do wonders, such as Brent Barry, Q Richardson, Wes Person, Pre-injury Mike Dickerson. These people coming off screens and open will RARELY miss a shot. Mobley would rather break down the defense. That's not to say he cannot become an off the ball player, but that's not where his value is. His value is breaking defenses down with his ISO play. But that's not what we need. Francis may never have 9 assists a game over a whole season. But that doesn't matter. Kidd and Dre combined aren't as good as Francis in the scoring department. You have to, in fact, add 1 or 2 assists to Francis tally because he is in essence passing to the best scorer, himself, at times. Francis trusts Yao Ming. Now, we need to switch all role players over the offseason, except maybe Posey and Cato, and they should both come off the bench.
Have you watched Kidd much, lately? Perhaps that was once true, but no longer. The big criticism of Kidd was always his shot... but now he's improved dramatically. He's not as good as Francis at scoring... but the difference isn't as dramatic as you think. Blaming the system for Francis having such abysmal assist #'s and assist/turnover ratio works a bit... but doesn't solve the entire problem. He doesn't make good decisions w/the ball. He never has. And he has had good shooters on his team in the past. Walt Williams and Glen Rice could both shoot well. Mobley, while primarily a 1-on-1 player, doesn't object to well set-up jumpers, either. He played with Matt Bullard, who's a pure shooter. Certainly these guys aren't much worse than Andre Miller's shooters in Cleveland. PG's with good skills are going to find their assists in any system. If you don't believe me... hell, just look back to Clyde Drexler and Chucky Brown. Clyde wasn't a point... but he made a career for Chucky by getting him the ball where he could score. I don't see Francis doing that nearly so much. Oh, and remember when Kobe Bryant was playing without Shaq, Fox, and Fisher? he was averaging more assists than Francis is now. That's, quite frankly, pathetic.
