The guy was brought to the team to score. He has to shoot to score. I could see if he was jacking it up over triple teams or something... Curious though, how come when Mike James shoots a lot he is deemed a ballhog by some, but when Steve Francis shoots a lot some people get all nostalgic?
I watched the whole thing. I felt a bit uneasy about getting Mike James back. I thought he was a ball hog when he left.........someone, like Francis..........who just doesn't get it. Hearing him speak does NOT make me feel better. Confidence is one thing; misguided confidence is quite the other.
The only problem with that is that Steve holds the ball and dribbles the shot clock out just as he did when he was a rookie. The boy has not learned.
Maybe because Steve was doing his thing with 3rd-stringers and Mike James was taking away shots from Yao and T-Mac. The ONLY time he went into "Steve-O" mode was late in the game and OT when we needed to score. In those situations, that is what you do. Give the ball to your best players and let him create. If he was playing with the starters, he wouldn't had done what we had to do. Before he turned the clock back, he was playing within the system, moving the ball, setting picks and taking shots in the offense. You didn't see him go ISO unless the quarter was about to end. Then, when the 4th Quarter came and somebody needed to step up, Stevie was there creating plays. Although you can't forget Lowry was torching both Steve and Head at the other end.
james had snyderitis in the last game. that's not a serious illness. it just makes you jack up shots in the preseason because you think if you do you'll earn a bigger role and more minutes on this team. the problem with james' play is that even if the other guys are off, as a pg you have to create easy shots for your teammates. the way james played was typical lottery ego ball. the way to go was to get the others easier shots and make a couple of open ones himself. a sound mix of it. he just went to freeze everyone out and score by himself. and that's why mike james is just not a starting caliber pg on a winning team. he's a bench scorer and that's it. the bottom line is that it seems that we'll still have lots of trouble at the pg position this year. we have different options with different strengths and weaknesses and we're significantly better than last season. but the problem is still that we don't have that one pg that can do it all well. we need a pg who has alston's low turnovers with his good passing, francis' finishing ability in traffic and james' shooting ability. in the regular season our pg rotation will do it easily. but in a series against a good pg like nash, parker or deron williams it will be a serious problem imho.
The guy shoots 41% from the field on a night when nobody else could either hold, shoot, or score the basketball and it is a massive crisis, and people are clamoring for Rafer, coming off of a 1-6 performance. Don't be fooled by Yao's 4-11, he was a nightmare. Mike James should have taken MORE shots away from him.
Have the recent playoff failures gotten to us Rocket fans so much that we treat preseason like regular season and regular season like playoffs?
This is exactly correct. I'm not a big fan of either Mike James or Steve Francis, but this is exactly why they are here. It provides us with two options to take over games offensively if our other stars are off their feed like they were last night. I do think it is pretty indisputable that so far this preseason the offense runs much more smoothly with Rafer at the helm. After last night, anybody claiming Steve is a better defensive player than Rafer is absolutely bonkers. Please, please, please let the Luther Head at point experiment be over. He is a great cutter and shooter, but is a turnover machine when asked to create.
james should watch more barn ball to learn how to be an effective unselfish shooter. sorry, couldn't resist...
Ball hog or not it seemed like alot of the players were scared to shoot ala Scola and Yao at times. If it wasnt for Mike the game wouldnt have been close and if it wasnt for Steve it wouldnt have been any OT quarters. that last rebound that slipped by Landry cost us the game... but it doesnt matter its only preseason
Last night show's why MJ will be great coming off the bench. Rafer can start and work to get the offense flowing smoothly. If guys are having a hard time getting their shots off, or just having an off night, MJ can provide that extra energy and be that gunner off the bench ala the Microwave and Bobby Jackson. MJ is not the ideal starting guy, just gives us more options, same can be said for SF. I'm still not sure about where Brooks fits in, will probably be a year before he really gets into the rotation.
I was watching some show on fox before the game, they went to james' old neighborhood. he was talking about being from the ghetto, it was a very nice area. anyway, thought it was funny.
this is why rafer will get playing time, he has an above average assist to turnover ratio, james and francis will be fine because when they are in tracy will be out or running the point
i dont know why, but i kept waiting for him say..."clutch city doesnt care about scoring pgs" But MJ is who we though he is. Which isnt a bad thing, but when you have other weapons out there, its nice to get them going early. Rafer does that.
