there is no time.......see the minute these rafer haters see flashes of mike james/steve francis playing well they ask for rafer's head and for him to be benched, and when rafer doesnt play and either of them suck all of a sudden they need "time" to learn........if rafer's so bad, what in the world does francis have to learn to fill his role?
For Francis to run the team right, he has to go back to the passion he had as a Rocket the first time around. That means getting into incredible shape. Shooting a lot of basketballs in his spare time to get his shot back. Watching films to learn the plays. If he's the guy who is going to get the nod, then he needs to learn fast.
Nailed it. Francis looked good, but very old out there. Hopefully with him, it's just a question of conditioning. With Rafer gone, you can clearly see his value in setting up the offense as well as establishing an up tempo offense. I've been a Rafer "hater" for the past 2 seasons, but he certainly does have value in making the offense smoother because of his speed in bringing the ball up court and surefire dribble that discourages full court press. I think the board greatly overestimates the value of our superstars also, especially Yao. Yao was dominated on the glass and wasn't able to establish scoring position the whole game, which is par for the course when faced with quick PFs. I think unless this team gets a consistent 3d scorer the ceiling for this team is 2nd round fodder (like it has been forever in the Tmac-Yao era)
interesting the comments from TMac post game "Rafer is a big loss for us," McGrady said. "He provides a guy that controls the tempo. He's a great floor general, very smart basketball player and we kind of miss that." if Steve is going to play more it needs to be at the 2..... the time has come from Rick to really mix it up
with the length and frequency of the NBA season........ during the season is no time to get into shape and learn the offense......maybe Steve should have come into camp in shape and tried to learning something new outside of bouncing the ball....
I agree that Rafer is the best floor general type guard and would've been incredibly helpful in this game. But we shouldn't zero out Steve completely out as a starter. It's only one game. In the long term, I expect to Steve to take the reins at point guard.
McGrady has an agenda. He was the one who single-handedly interrupted the flow of the game and brought the Rockets down in this game. Ever since the first interview I have seen from T-Mac about Steve's arrival, I have had the impression that he wants to make sure by all means to keep Steve down.
Except he played well in the first quarter ... but I do think T-Mac got frustrated and gave up when things got hairy in the third-fourth. His body language, at times, is terrible out there.
Steve may good at the 1 in some situations (he is better at finishing around the rim and drawing fouls than other PGs on the Rockets), but when the other team playing pressure D, Rafer is generally better since he has better dribbling abilities and makes quicker decisions. You may not like Rafer's floater or his 3 pt shooting, but whatever he does-- shoot, drive, or pass, he does without hesistation. Steve does too much hesitating.... Remember that 3 pointer he made in the first qtr? He was open, but thought about it for 2 seconds and then launched. Good result, but not so good decision making. Later in the game, he hesistated on launching again, then passed to Battier.... and that was a 3 second call. I remember seeing a training camp special on NBA TV... and George Karl was talking to his guys... he said something like "shoot it, pass it, drive it, fake it-- whatever you do, just don't hold the ***ing ball!" Steve does too much of holding the ***ing ball. On the dribbling side of things... take a look next time at the shot clock on when the Rockets cross halfcourt with the ball with Rafer at PG vs the others. Take a look at when the first move in the offense is when Rafer is in vs. the others. It may only be a 1 or 2 second difference... but it can make the difference between a hurried shot and a good shot at the end of the possession.
I think this game is SF3' own problem. He always gave the ball to Tmac. I don't know why didn't he give the ball to Yao. I think he isn't as smart as Rafer. Rafer knows exactly how to get balance between Yao and Tmac. Tmac will never support him more than Rafer. After this game, I think Yao will do the same way.
LOL at people using this ONE game as backup of Rafers difference-making value. How many games have we watched Rafer played? Or should we pin this loss on Head and Landry playing? BTW, I didn't watch the second half and they totally flopped, unbelievable.
Rafer's been doing that last season and this. People said it was because his backups sucked last season. Apparently, his backups still sucks.
This isn't about Skip starting or Francis starting. Regardless, we should be able to win games when one of our guards goes down. No excuses. Forget all this floor general crap. If we can't win without Skip in the game, then we don't deserve to win any games. Plain and simple. I'm tired of excuses. If Yao and T-Mac, two "superstars" need an above average point guard to help them play good, then we are in big trouble. We're always looking for a cop out answer. "We didn't have anyone be aggressive." "We have no true PG out there." "Skip plays too many minutes." "New system, it takes time." blah blah blah. It's not just the fans, but the players also. But who knows, it could be just one game. It could be just the fact the game was too early and the Rockets just wern't up for it. I'm starting to think they were overlooking the Raptors the way the came out the 2nd half.
SF3's hesitation is probably due to not wanting to make a turnover. He has to find a balance between driving the ball and playing aggresively and being too complacent in making safe passes.
one thing i noticed about Francis was his inability to bring the ball up the floor as comfortable as rafer. francis has good "crossover handles" but he doesnt have good "up and down" handles if that makes sense. he looked nervous when pressured.
He has 10x the pressure Rafer does, his job is on the line. Rafer stabbed a guy and misses every other shot and yet he can't go wrong.
um i meant pressured on defense. he's not good at protecting the ball. then again i see what u mean, francis has big shoes to fill if he's starting for rafer.
It doesnt really matter WHO is our PG...with TWO super stars you are SUPPOSE to win games....We have the best center in the nba and a tier 1 shooting guard...who can play the 1... AND create his own shots..They shouldnt NEED AN ALL STAR PG to be an above average team. Cmon before Houston the Tracy had TYRonE LUE and was still able to put up 31PPG! If we lose the blame goes to those two..they are our core and if the core doesnt perform they we loose...simple as that.
