The Steve Francis "discussions" have heated up since his recent comments and part of the knock is his on-the court "selfish" play. But is it really a matter of Steve being selfish and unwilling to find his teammates or is it the offense Rudy T uses for this team. The Isolation offense is one that is not predicvated on passing or ball movement (hence the name). Couple that with the fact that Steve plays any where from 8-15 min. a game at the SG spot how many more assist per game can we realisticly expect from Steve? I guess I'm a bit biased but not biased enough to say that some of the comments about his game are true BUT a lot of the talk on Francis is unwarrented IMO. Steve desereves some blame for laking to get everyone involved but I think Rudy should share in some of the blame for the ISO offense he runs and the lack of plays we have. That being said, I love both of those guys and I hope thy can both make the adjust we need to take this team to the top. What do y'all think?
There was nothing wrong with what Steve said, the "discussions" heated up because people didn't hear what they wanted to hear and got all pissed off. It's hard to be selfish and still avg. 6 assists a game, think about it, the only ones that could score last year were Steve, Cat, and KT, that's it, and the ISO didn't help either. It doesn't even matter, let Steve be unhappy right now, but winning cures all.
I think its both. Steve has tunnel vision and Rudy hasn't changed enough against the new rules. I've seen many times in the past couple of yrs when it has been a fast break with Mobley francis and a 3rd person and the othe player never touched the ball. In fatc , i remember a couple of games last yr when griffin got the rebound, kicked it steve, hustled down the court and didn't get rewarded with the ball. Its no coincedence that Anderson,Hakeem and other players all mentioned the same thing without calling out any names. Even scrub ass cato said sometimes we like to shine instead of playing more team ball. Rudy, of course is as much to blame also. At the end of the 00-01 season the competition committee came up with the new rules. Rudy had an entire offseason to set and adjust the offense, instead he took the easy way out and the Rockets were horrible on offense. The same way i told people were going to defend the Rockets is exactly the way they did. When a defender know exactly were a standstill player is, its easier to rotate to him as opposed to having to look for him. Everyone or most people were talking about how old ass rice was going to benefit and how Francis numbers were going up, when in fact, standstill shooters rather than slashers are good against the zones. Once everything is played out, a player will have to be able to move a little and hit the mid range shot. Injuries played a big part of the teams failure , but also the teams coaching and players not adjusting to take advantage of the new rules probably hurt more. The injuries they had happened early and there was plenty enough time to get a new scheme that would benefit all the players and not just 1 or 2. Offense just like defense should be team oriented period. We all know the lakers have 2 of the best players in the league, but what makes it really work is that guys feel like they are part of the offense. As dominate as shaq is and kobe can be, look how quick the get into their offense and look how many players touch the ball. Its times that players with the rockets don't even toush the ball for possessions at a time. It would benefir Francis and Rudy to start teh offense quickly with a entry past mid post to ming and let him dictate the double teams and stuff. The problems they had last yr shouldn't be the same problems as this yr. Rudy need t improve as well as francis.Francis is on the verge of being a very good player on a very good team or a very good player on an avg to sorry team like Marbury.It all depends on how he wants it work.
