Moving Steve to sg will never work in the west. The only way I see this as being a possibility is if we bring in a much larger guard to run the point, someone like Lamar Odom. If we were to get someone like Andre Miller, our backcourt would simply be far too small to match up with the backcourts of other teams. Steve has enough trouble defending other team's point guards as it is. Another reason I wouldn't bring in another pg is because pg or not, Steve demands the ball to be effective. He does not play well when others create for him so either way, once the ball travels past half court, he will be handling it. If another pg must be brought in, I would use someone that is truly a role player. Someone who can get the ball up court, who will make the right pass, and who can knock down the occasional trey, giving Steve the freedom to score at will. However, the lack of defense still must be considered even in this scenario.
I think moving steve to sg will happen this year. One of the problems i see on the team is the lack of role players. Just look at mobley do you really belive that he thinks of himself as the third option. Hell no!!!!!! I like jamal Crawford comming over from chicago. Hes 6'5" so he could match up with most sg. You do realize that odom is a three right, you trying to make him the next magic johnson.
Steve at the 2. Thats the way to do it. Steve at PG hasnt worked. At this point, we have to try something else.
I do realize Odom is a three but he is a proven playmaker and has great point forward skills. I suggested him since he is someone who could be counted on for the point guard duties but still allow Steve to guard the opposite team's pg instead of their shooting guard.
He has a point; looking at the latest precedent, the Iverson at SG experiment, I can't help but think it wouldn't have been nearly as successful had the Sixers played in the West. They would have never gotten past the 2nd round and either iverson, or brown, or possibly both would no longer be with the team.
The only time I see problems is when we play teams that have really big and dominant post up guards like Kobe, Tmac or even Bonzi Wells. All the other SG's aren't as good at posting up as those 3 are. I don't see why we even need to bring in a big pg, although it would help. Most of the time, when there is a big SG that likes to post up, there is a useless SF that does nothing. We'll just stick Posey on the SG and let Francis handle the SF.
We will not win a championship with Lamar Odom!!!!!!! Unless Elton Brand comes too. Now it's not suicide. It's experimenting. Nothing wrong with trying new things...which Rudy doesn't do much. Now Odom. He's tall. That's good. He's pretty fast. He can dunk. He can create. His shooting is A BIT better than average. I would want him.....only if we get a good shooter like Eric Piatkowki at the 2. Mobley and Rice for Odom and Piatkowski. YOU ARE JUST ASSUMING STUFF!!! You don't know if Steve HAS TO HAVE THE BALL! He seems like he could be a good slasher. Having another point guard will help Steve...and the team. It will help everybody! But on defense...not sure. We could live. Like Philadelphia is doing...
I'd doubt we could get both Brand and Odom but I'd like to trade Mobley and Griffin and maybe a future 1st for Brand and Jaric. Jaric is quick(1.5stls in 20mins) and could be top 5 in the league in steals with decent mins. He has been injury prone this season but when he's healthy he's got range and can hit the 3 consistently and esp. get hot out there. The best thing about Jaric is that he's got great court vision(3asts in 20mins) and handles and loves to push the ball. PG could be his natural position despite being 6-7- 6-8. At times this year he's out played Miller at the point. And he's very young. How bout a starting line up of: Yao Brand Posey Francis Jaric With this we get the power rebounder we need and a tall PG that can switch on defense with Francis. We'd still be a very young team with Francis and Posey being the oldest at 26, Jaric being 24 and Yao and Brand 23. We'd get so many steals from Posey, Jaric and Francis it's not even funny. And Yao and Brand would be a super blocking tandem, they both could be top 5 in blocks.
You say that the Iverson expirement wouldn't work in the West, but then again, Steve is 2 or 3 inches taller than Ivy, so that may be a good enough difference. I do, however, agree that we need a big PG, and Crawford is a great idea. On the other hand, I'd rather have some more experience in the backcourt to make the playoffs and win 50 next year, so I'd much rather go for Payton.
76ers don't have a center as talented as Yao. Anyway A.I. at 2 would work in the wast just as good as it works in the east. Being tall does not make you a great SG, being faster and quicker has its advantages too.
Is Francis quick enough too offset his height disadvantage? DaDakota made an observation earlier in the year. He said that Francis always has trouble with any defender that can match his speed/quickness. Obviously, SG's, on average, are not as quick as the best PG's. I think that the fact that Francis NEVER plays post-up basketball makes it easier to move to the 2. As MManal said, stopping the opposing PG from penetrating is far more important than defending the SG. Ultimately, I think Francis will only have trouble defending 4 SG's, T-Mac, Kobe, Pierce, and Ray Allen. As opposed to Gary Payton, Tony Parker, Jason Kidd, Gilbert Arenas, Jamaal Crawford, Steve Nash, Nick Van Exel, and Troy Hudson. For me, it's important that our PG is able to defend Point Guards abd Shooting Guards. Gary Payton fits this mold perfectly. Crawford's defense may be a bit suspect, but then again, he's too young for us to tell. Gary Payton is the man for this team. Too bad he said Championship is the most important thing on his list. Unless we SOMEHOW land Elton Brand first, I feel Payton is a longshot.
Why don't we have a offense so he doesn't have to make all the plays. Bibby used to drop 8 dimes a game in Vancuver, now he's like 5 or less, but he's just as effective. Brandon was a good smart playmaker, but when he united with kg, he was known for his play off the ball more. People will make the argument about Francis playing sg, but constantly shooting over bigger players will drop his fg% like it did Iversons. It may work in the east for teams like NO and Phi, but in the west, I don't think thats a smart idea. Its a lot easier to run a triangle tpe of offense as opposed to him matching and playing against the Kobes,Finley's and guys like that in the West.Its basically a uncontested shot when a guy has 3 or 4 inches over you.
So you want Griffin to bring the ball up the court? We don't have any playmakers.... Francis cannot really defend many guys. But he can if he tries. But most people cannot defend him. Does Jamal Crawford play defense? He is young and inconsistent. He has potential...he is tall...but Steve had one of his good games against him. Gary Payton would be nice. They really need to break up the crazy Bucks. Man...they are all yelling at the refs or each other or the fans or the other team. Spreads like disease. Anyways...if I were the Bucks, I would keep Cassell...since he still looks good. And maybe sign and trade Payton to get something in return. Payton would be great here. But his ego...
Moving Francis to the 2 is the right move, not suicide. The thing is, is that we want to maximize Francis' talents and it is clear that his talents are scoring, driving to the basket and rebounding. Taking the shackles off of Francis to distribute the basketball allows him to score more points. That is what this team needs, an all star player that is putting up all star scoring numbers. He will still get looks at the 1 spot but mostly play the 2. People talk about the disadvantage that Francis will have defending 2's but myore counter point are 2's trying to defend HIM! Remember Kobe running around in circles trying to defend him in that Laker game in January? Remember how dominant Francis was at the beginning of the season when he was shooting lights out and scoring around 28ppg? That was an instance when he was just concentrating on SCORING and he put up HUGE numbers! We weren't incorporating Yao Ming at this time but imagine if we could get that scoring output from Francis NOW with our scheme of getting Yao the ball! Finally we would have two all stars putting nice numbers on the board. Francis is too quick for most SGs. And defensively Francis' quickness is good enough to match up with SGs, better than having to match up with quicker point guards. Francis' only problem would be defending "post up" guards but with the team defense getting better we can cover up that problem. Finding a PG that can distribute the basketball and run a fast break and also be a nice spot up shooter is something this team needs in the backcourt with Francis. Having someone in the 6'4 - 6'6" size would be ideal as this person could also defend 2's at times as well. I reallly think it is worth a shot to give this a try!
