Juan: i have read, today, in a few threads where people have suggested starting drew over francis temporarily. to me, that is temporary insanity. 4chuckie: first, i offer my respects to chuck...now, in response, i believe that he will be a pg. the difference between a pg and a sg, IMO, is a matter of court vision. you can have a sg who thinks to pass first, but has a good shot. however, most sg's don't have the court vision that a pg has. i believe steve has that court vision. to further prove my point, look at sac's jason williams. it can be argued that he shoots the ball a lot for a pg. lots of ill-advised pull up 3's, right? well, look at his court vision and his passing ability. that is what makes him a pg, the fact that he sees the court (and his teammates) better than anyone else out there. that is also the difference between francis & drew: court vision. drew may make the simple, easy pass. however, francis sees things that drew doesn't. he is just learning how to get from point A to point C. drew can't C beyond point A
He couldn't have meant Brent Price. No one would ever be silly enough to think BP would be a productive player. Even if he were signed by a team that needed a spot three-point shooter. Eh, Clutch?
i suppose what i want to know is what kind of point guard do you all want? a mark price type or a jason kidd type? it's not so much about francis vs. price..err...drew. it's about a philosophy of point guard play. do you want someone you can handle the ball decently, gets his teammates involved 1st and scores - on occassion - from them OR a pg who looks to score until the defense stops him, then gets his teammates involved? not to say he never passes, but his mind is more offensive than passive. i'd take the 2nd one every time. it's the difference between magic & stockton.
by the way, Clutch, i have the utmost respect for what mark price could do on the court. and i'm not saying he was a terribe pg (though injury prone is an understatement). what i'm asking is what kind of pg do you want to see? the mark price type or the jason kidd type? and kagy, you're right. brent (again when healthy) is a valuable spot up shooter. and he is a good backup. but that is all he every was or will be. same as drew.
I agree with Verse 100%. TO by francis are resulted from pressure due to the lack of team play in Rudy's system and only rely one-on-one play of Francis to creat offense. Although Drew has shown that he is a pretty good long range B-52 lately. [This message has been edited by Caveman (edited December 13, 1999).]
I think it's pretty close to a consensus that Francis is our long-term PG. However, I think that it is important he understands that his success on this team in the PG position will be judged by not how many points HE gets, but how many points the TEAM gets (in relation to the other team of course). From the couple of games I've seen on nat'l TV here in Austin, Francis' hustle has been very apparent. Yet, when Francis shot 5-9 but had no assists and the team was doing terribly, Rudy should show him that it was NOT a successful start to a game for him! Still, he's awesome now, and he's going to get more awesome with experience on the floor. Drew's a luxury few teams have and his presence (not necessarily competition, but similar) on the team can only benefit Francis in the long run provided he's a quick learner. [This message has been edited by oakdogg (edited December 14, 1999).]
Bryce Drew start???????? That would be the biggest mistake ever by Rudy...uummm no never mind but it would be realy stupid, although it would not crack the all-time 100 stupidest coaching decisions by Rudy it would be in the top 200 for sure. Although Bryce gets assists they were a product of Charles making some tough shots down low, but the fact of the matter is Bryce does not look to get players involved, he has a shoot first mentality which is KILLING the Rockets when his shot is off. He has no lateral movement, so speed what-so-ever, he can not even keep up with guards who are dribbling the ball, Bryce Drew has been playing well of late so I won't bash him to much but you need to look within the stats and watch how he is achieving them. When Bryce Drew takes more shots than Shandon Anderson then there is a problem. To not get your shooting guard involved in the game is a cardinal sin by a Pg. With Francis in the game Anderson scored 27-26 and then the next game that Francis played(injury) in Philly SA scored 15. Now look up the shot attempts by SA when Drew was playing instead of Francis. SA scores 1 pt takes 1 shot otherwise he has a brilliant game 7 boards 7 assists to go with a couple of steals. Thats not the way you reward some1 who has husstled his ass off covering for your mistakes and you feed him the ball only once or twice???? Drew will never be a true Pg passing the ball is all in the mind either your selfish or your not. ------------------ "We need to fockass".....Dream back in the day
The one part of this machine that isn't broke is the point guard rotation which wont change. Yes Drew is playing well but he is our back up point guard. RT will start CAT and move Anderson to the 3 before he starts Drew and moves Francis to the two. Remember, Francis doesn't want to play the two.
