That is a weird picture of Shaq. Why in the heck the ball behind him as he is hanging on the rim. Did he miss the dunk and the ball went flying backwards? or he hanging on the rim waiting for the ally --OOPS. As far as fast breaks. I wish the best for Orlando, as their "best" offensive player is now with the Rockets. So they will be hard press to score 90 next year.
Doesn't even look like Shaq.. are you sure that's Shaq? Looks to me like both eyes are looking in the same direction...
Orlando *and* Houston improving as a result of the trade are not mutually exclusive paths. I said from jump street that the deal is even better for Orlando than us. That doesn't make SF the best PG for us and we'll still be better as a result of the trade.
Those guys are role players and not the best ones in the league either. Hill isn't even sure if he's going to play or hold up for a season. The Magic scored only 4 more PPG than we did last year and now they're losing their best and second best scorer and replaced them with Steve(who isn't the best distributor of the ball) and Cat who shoot a lower percentage...yet the Magic are going to get BETTER? I can't see how that would happen.
They are role players, so? Hill doesn't have to hold up for the whole season that's why they got Hedo. Mobley shot 43% last season, McGrady 40%... I didn't say they'd be better on offense, just that offense won't be a problem just like it wasn't last season. 95 points is fine in today's NBA, all they gotta do is play decent defense and the team scoring 95 points will win more than it loses, the Magic played horrible defense, especially horrible with their interior defense. They might not improve on offense but they won't miss a beat, and there's no way they play worse defense than last season.
I'm not bashing those guys... Orlando could win the championship next year with the greatest half-court offense the NBA has ever seen.... but they definetly won't be uptempo. JVG lost his voice screaming at our guards to pick up the tempo.
Why do Francis and Mobes have to finish when you've got Nelson and Hill tossing lobs to them? Seriously, give Nelson a chance before you right that team off or think they won't run. (I'm not commenting on the trade for T-Mac, just saying that our old buddies might not get that many chances to make ugly TO's if they're just filling the lanes).
Why people always bringing up this JVG screaming at SF to pick up the tempo? Have you ever thought about that the problem might be with JVG? Have the guy ever coached a team capable of running up tempo games? I don't seem to remember the Knicks be a great fast break, or up tempo team. BTW, the Rockets scored more points with SF & Cat before JVG became the coach, they are surely capable of doing the same thing with the Magic.
The '99 Knicks team that made the Finals was an amazing running team with their defense leading to numerous fastbreak opportunities.
Jeesh. Some people are sensitive. THe Magic will not be a fast paced team with Francis dominating the ball. Sorry. Won't happen. He can't fast break. And the fast break, and the secondary break, is the key to success for any up tempo team. That's totally independent of his overall value as a player. I can't think of anybody on this board who defended his ability to push the ball when he was here. Let's not push loyalty over the top.
Francis doesn't run fast breaks, and he doesn't push the ball to save shot clock. Hard to run up-tempo offense when those two things are missing. Hill is done IMO. He has been a walking Frankenstein that's falling apart after several NBA games. Hill averaged only 16 games in the last three years. It's gonna be a near miracle for him to play more than 41 games. Parrity is nice, but worse than J-Jax. Gooden is decent, slightly better than MoT. And there's two unproven rookies. Cato starting at the 5 will make them play 4 on 5. Not to mention the zone defense limiting Francis and Cat's penetration. If they don't get fast breaks, passing and off the ball movement, which aren't those ex-Rockets strong suit, they'll have trouble running an uptempo offense. They'd revert to Iso ball and rot in mediocrity. Worse yet, they still can't play defense, because Cato isn't your savior on D. They will probably make the playoffs at a low seed and quickly get knocked out in the first round.
The point guard isn't the only player responsible for leading the break. This was not a fast breaking team, specifically when Yao Ming got here. The Rockets average 97 points in 00-01. That wasn't all isolation, dribbling for 20 seconds, blah blah, whatever else Francis bash you can think of basketball.
