Parker= a controlled Steve Francis. They both can get open off the dribble whenever they want to. It's just that Parker has other good attributes that allow him to succeed once he shakes his defender off. Steve on the other hand is not a good passer, not a good shooter, and really is not that good of a finisher. He's out of control which pretty much makes the fact that he can create his own shot off the dribble not as valuable an attribute as it could be.
let's be honest. if yao were playing with parker instead of duncan, parker would be averaging negative points, assists, and 10 TOs per game. some how he would suck points off the score board and take assists away from other people and turn them into turn overs. that's what you really think right?
I guess it's kind of funny that certain people can actually take steps back statistics wise yet people will think they've taken the next step forward. I guess this either says player evaluation is all about hype / the team's record, or that quality is only loosely related to statistics. the examples i can think of this year are J. O'neal and T. Parker. Jermaine actually has fewer point, rebounds, and a much lower FG% this year than last year. while his assists and blocks have gone up very marginally. yet all of a sudden he's an MVP candidate. T. Parker's FG%, 3PT%, FT%, scoring, steals are all down from last season. and he is averaging only 0.2 assists more per game. yet all of a sudden he is top 3 point guard in the game?
If I remember correctly, this board had the exact same argument last year. Who cares about regular season stats when Parker has the ability to help his team to championships. He is ripping the LA defense apart, without the bad shots or mistakes. regular season stats mean nothing.
Stevie was also rippiong LA lakers (19 ppg, 8 apg 8 rpg) apart last series. Unfortunately, SA had TD (30 pt 11 rebs) and we have ......
Yes, he was. And many posters singled out that he had good games against LAL all year because Phil Jackson won't double team. Parker is torching Payton and Fisher at the same level as Francis but you SOF's only want to acknowledge the ppg and assists while ignoring that Parker had 1 TO and 17 fastbreak points. I don't care at all for "Jesus" Parker but therein lies the difference between a natural PG and athlete playing PG. BTW - Jackson was forced to put Kobe on Parker at various times in Game 1 and Parker blew by him like Kobe had glue on shoes.
