For those of you who think we can just simply move Francis to the 2 guard to accommodate bringing in a real point guard. Francis is too small to guard most other shooting guards in the league, imagine what would happen if he had to face someone like kobe or tmac. He can’t consistently hit the open jumper or midrange shot. He also does not move well without the ball, which is essential for a shooting guard. Francis is only at the point because of his size and lack of a consistent jumpshot. This also brings us to a predicament where Steve just doesn’t fit in with jvgs offensive scheme, which is more of a passing and team ball instead of isoing. I wouldn’t be surprised if Steve was moved this off-season. Guards don’t lead teams to championships plain and simple. Our best hope, like it or not it is with Yao. This team needs a true point guard, one who can take care of the ball and get it where it needs to be, to run the offense. Steve flat out doesn’t have the vision and instincts to be a good distributor. We know Yao doesn’t get good position at times, but we also know he doesn’t get the ball half of the time he does. Francis is a good penetrator and can hit the open man, but alot of his turnovers come from penetrating and having nowhere to go or pass, he needs to learn how to just peel out and look for something else or stop and pop. If eveyone thinks we should build around steve and get players to compliment his "game". What kind of players would they be, athletic guards and forwards who can run with his open style? Too bad francis cant run an efficiant fast break. Francis does not make his teamates better and does not get the ball in the rights hands. Too many times this season I have seen Yao in great position and steve just doesnt pass to him. Does he ignore him? In my opinion he thinks in his head what he is going to do next and does it without adjusting. If he is going to pass to yao then he is going to try to pass to yao. He doesn’t react well enough or see when players can get easy shots. To sum it up steve is just a superb individual talent who can carry a team for periods of time, not for 82 games a season and all through playoffs. In the era of the zone steve with no consistent jumpshot wont be able to do it all himself. We should build around Yao because it’s our best hope of winning a championship. Steve is no Michael Jordan and I wouldn’t be surprised if he couldn’t lead his team if zone defenses were legal back then. Is it a bad idea to build around yao? No, its sound fundamentals when your low post player receives constant double teams and can pass out of them to create open shots. What it is though is a risky one. We know yao has the potential to become a dominant player and would be a 20/10 player this season if his stamina didn’t hold him back. What eveyone here is questioning is his ability to lead and if he has the heart to become a dominant player. I believe he does have the ability to become the dominant player, but what is holding him back? His stamina for one, but mainly steve francis. SF is the most dominant personalilty in the locker room and was here 5 years before yao arrived; and yao has to respect that because of his nature and how he was brought up. If SF is shipped out everything will be on yao. If this team fails it will be on him and it will be blamed on him. He knows that and he will have no other player to turn to but himself. We know he can prove his critics wrong when he entered the NBA. Once ricky davis was shipped off, lebrons numbers skyrocketed for example. Will building around yao guarentee us a ring? No, but it gives us a better chance then if we build around SF. Bold moves will be needed to make this team a contender and that starts within shipping off your "franchise" player, who led this team to 5 straight lotteries. A decent power forward or backup point guard isnt going to make all those turnovers and bad decision making go away. It starts with the losing culture of this team and that is SF.
We need to be build around Yao's potential to be THE guy, SOMEDAY, when HE feels the DESIRE. Not Yao the guy WE think SHOULD be THE guy, next season. You can't force it, no good will come off it. Therefore, you give the brunt to someone else who has no problems of being THE guy when you need him to be, and who can do it on a consistent basis, while having a well rounded game offensively/defensively, unlike Iverson. And has really good ball handling skills including in clutch moments. That guy is T-mac, the guy will give you 30pts + a game CONSISTENTLY, while keeping a pretty good shooting average on the field, unlike Iverson. He will be your go to guy, until Yao's ready. In the meantime, JVG must cease on forcing Yao to learn how to BANG. Enough with that crap, it's completely killing his natural abilities. Give BRADLEY the weights and teach him how to bang, he has no skills whatsoever. Shaq must bang, cause he talents lie on brute unmatched strength blanced with decent footwork, and has no shot. Yao has a shot, he can shoot from 2ft away from the basket to 15-18ft away from the basket, sometimes even 20ft away. He has passing skills, really good passing skills. He has great footwork for his size. He doesn't NEED to BANG. What he NEEDS is to return to his natural skills and focus on them attently, letting them flourish and really evolve his true potential. His natural skills for his size are what make him so unique when compared to other big men, so why deny them from him with other's common theories of what big men SHOULD do? Isn't uniqueness what causes change? That's what they said of Yao when he came into the league, that he would SOMEDAY change the game. He isn't gonna do it banging, banging, banging and doing what ever other big man does or is suppose to do. So why keep pushing him to do so? I say let him evolve naturally using his natural skills, in the meantime, T-mac is your perfect go to guy. He'd have no problem being the go to guy, and has the ability to do it on a consistent basis. If he becomes a Rocket and JVG lets Yao flow naturally with his skills, not only will Yao flourish, but so will T-mac even more from Yao's natural passing ability. One of many abilities JVG has denied from being seen this season, from constantly forcing him to BANG BANG BANG. How many times must i repeat myself?
Yao is not Olajuwon. We cannot build the team around Francis and they sure as hell can't build it around Yao. Yao is a decent compliment player and so is Steve, neither one of them is a true Franchise player. If the team builds around Yao with the hopes of him finally becoming The Man, and he flops out then this team is left with a bunch of garbage role players. The Rockets need a true Leader and scorer. They need some one who can give them the points when they need to have them. The need some one like T-Mac. This dude is a top 5 player in the league, and he can do it all. Yao would finally become the true player he is, a role player and Steve will finally become the complimentary guard to a superstar talent.
HE BANGS HE BANGS, in the post... HE MOVES HE MOVES coast to coast... He plays like Wilt but his name is Ming, be a part of something big....
Madmonkey you missed the fact that he just doesn't play defence, its not that he is too small to guard the other Shooting Guards he can't even guard Point Guards.
Very interesting! But who will play the passing Point Guard? Francis can't he doesnt have the ability or ther mind set to do anything but play with the ball and then only one on one.
do u know that steve got 2 votes to the first defensive team? which PG in NBA can actually guard another point guard??? Yetti u missed the fact that Yao just doesnt get rebound, its is not hes cant get as many reb like other centers, he cant even compare with other forwards
i just love the style of argument on this site. somebody presents a fact that discounts your argument and you just cast it aside with a little quip. why cant you pople just be happy witht he fact that francis is a good player? game three must have really sucked for you guys.
We should keep both Yao and Francis. I agree with a lot of the criticisms of Francis but he's got what I can only describe as grit. It's been amazing watching him throw himself into the game, making jaw dropping plays while setting up the other players. He showed me he's got the heart, desire and will to take on tough situations and not back done. That's something I'm not sure can be said for any other current Rocket or for many players around the league. Of course he still makes boneheaded plays and will dissapear for stretches of the season but I think it would be a mistake to trade away the grit that he showed in this last playoff game. If Yao and the other Rox played with the same grit this series might have turned out differently. As for keeping Yao I agree that he has phenomenal potential, that is JVG can ever figure out how to tap it, and we should hold on to him. Who we find to fit around Yao and Francis is going to be a challenge.
Steve is a good player, but does he fit? We are not going to fire a proven coach like JVG in order to make steve fit. Steve does not fit with JVG, not the other away around. Alexander was the one who made the call with Van GUndy and he isnt going to fire him. Why do so many people want to trade SF, because he is our best commodity. How can this team get better? Drafting a player who can contribute? No first rounder. Free Agency? No cap space. Trades? Trade Yao? Giving up so early on a player who has the potential to be the most dominant player in the league isnt a smart idea and I would give him at least to the end of his rookie contract before we decide to trade him or sign him to a max contract. We only have one good tradable resource and thats steve. This team needs to get more help, no question about it. Game three? Thats only one game in 5 that we played. That sounds about right coinciding with steves regular season performance. I didnt expect this team to win the series, but i did expect them to win at least 2 games. If steve was able to carry this team for more then one game I would have to think twice about trading him. If the right deal comes along, I would pull the trigger with no hesitation.
Does Yao even fit with JVG? When JVG looks at Yao he's seeing a 7'-6" Ewing or Alonzo Mourning which Yao isn't. I'm just worried that JVG's game plan doesn't fit either Yao or Francis and it would be a mistake to trade Francis to build around Yao when what JVG is building isn't going to be that successful because Yao doesn't fit that plan.
*sighs* My god ppl.. Again, ppl avoid the great possibilities that would come with T-mac as a Rocket. Yes yes, no one disagrees with Steve's "grit". But, you can give a player all the "grit" in the world, it won't get you far if he doesn't have the brains to use that "grit" in a controlled, intelligent manner. Afterall a raging forest fire just spreads uncontrollably, till there's nothing left to burn. But in the end, what has it achieved, besides a great display of undying desire to not cease no matter what? And that is all Steve is, uncontrolled fire, no smarts to utilize it in ways that would produce MORE clutch, and LESS boneheadedness. People don't seem to understand that, while Francis sometimes shows us displays of clutch and of a superstar player, he shows us more and most often displays of immaturity and boneheadedness. A warrior can only go so far with pure desire and strength, he will always succumb to a warrior who not only has desire, but has intelligence to know his rival's weakness, his predictable immaturity and lack of smarts. And that warrior will always fall to his more learned and more wise adversary. What we need is a player, who has the same desire, same "push" to win. BUT, also has smarts to perform it wisely and consistently. Plus, who also brings you good defense, good ball handling skills, and can rebound all the same. That player my friend's? Look at my sig.
