it's funny because he was an all-star starter..which means the fans voted him in. i highly doubt he would have been an all-star if it were up to the coaches.
FG%: Lowest in his career. 3P%: Lowest in his career. OReB: Lowest in his career. DReB: Lowest other than his rookie season. TReb: Lowest other than his rookie season. PPG: Lowest in his career. The only statistical category SF did better than his career average was Steals per game (a category skewed significantly by the "headache season," which was off roughly 30%).
So, when Steve doesn't have free reign to ISO when he sees fit, he doesn't play well. Hmmm, even when he WAS ISO king we weren't anywhere near a contender. Our team isn't that great when he is and isn't the focus. A lot of people think that a stud PF will solve our problems, but the rockets aren't going to get a stud rebounding power forward just so he can give it to Steve with his 40-43% FG shooting. Steve should NEVER be the focus of an offense, he's shown us that plenty of times...and its obvious that when he isn't the focus, his game suffers...he's shown us that plenty of times too. The fact that Francis is a allstar is irrelvant...flash and popularity are more important to fan voting than winners are.
That was Steve's best year and last year before the Zone defenses. It was also the worst year of rockets ISO ball. Ugh. Too bad we didn't make it to the playoffs.
I've said it before and I'll say it again...<b>it's because he's got to expend his energy playing defense with intensity for the first time in his career</b>. Again, what would you do to help him increase those numbers and make him more effective without hurting the team? Posting him up more? Setting screens for him away from the ball? Dribble dribble dribble? What?
Good points. Both our guards have to cheat down low and help our bigs get boards. Of course, VG is responsible for fixing a frontcourt that can't board. Rebounds are all about heart everybody keeps saying. But as far as A vs. B, I would still have to go with B. Van Gundy hasn't run a fastbreak his whole career. I don't think he knows how to teach an organized breaking game. He packs in the defense, and sends 4 or 5 to the boards and then screams and hollers for everybody to bust tail back upcourt. That ain't a break and never will be one. If you are gonna run the break, you gotta get one guard out at the timeline for the outlet pass and the PG breaking up the middle of the floor when the ball is being rebounded. The rebounder throws the outlet pass to the outside guard who flips it to the PG running the middle, with one forward and guard running the wings. Van Gundy didn't run it in NY and he ain't run it here. He teaches everything else. He teaches defense. Here's the rub. Van Gundy knows that to run the break he has got to give up a little bit of defensive pressure and get people out of the paint. He is not willing to do that. He wants to run half court basketball. All the lobbying for the players hustling up the court is in my opinion just a smokescreen to keep Les happy since he told Les he wanted to run this team uptempo in order to get the job. Is Steve the best PG on the break? No. But when we were getting the ball out under Rudy and letting him and Mobley do their thing they were very adequate. Both are strong finishers. Too many TO's, yes. They were forcing everything. Because they knew it was their best opp to score. The low post game was non-existent. Now JVG has changed all that. We have a low post game. In fact, we force the low post way too much now in my opinion, wearing Yao out making him run back and forth from block to block. That's why I say, JVG is responsible for the lack of a break. He doesn't want to give up any defensive pressure and he doesn't want to give up any half court sets. We only run a break when it is a breakaway after a steal. We don't run the break after missed shots and we sure as heck don't run the break after inbounding the ball.
I am not anti-van gundy at all. I just think the dude needs to quit the pretense of wanting to run the break when he doesn't. I even agree with him to the extent that to win a championship you have to be able to play effective half court basketball. So, let's just quit pretending and be a half court team. Get rid of the free thinking, creative, athletic types and bring in a bunch of Harprings and Berrys, guys that can can the jumper and bang on the defensive end, and just wear people down like the Knicks-Heat used to do. The bad thing for us fans is that is absolutely horrid basketball to watch. And in my opinion, when you remove the ability to break from a team you limit their dimensions for scoring..............and it is much more difficult to win championships. Championship teams can play the half court set effectively and they can run the break also. They are balanced. But teams that are not balanced, like the Doug Moe Denver Nuggets or the Pat Riley/Jeff Van Gundy Knicks don't win championships. THey win a lot of games, they win a lot of playoff games, but they don't win championships. Is Van Gundy a good coach? He certainly is. Is he a championship coach? Absolutely not. In my opinion he won't be until he gets a team to play efficient in every area of the game and to change their style of play to attack the opponent's weaknesses instead of playing to hide his own team's deficiencies.
DO NOT blame this crap on JVG. Quit skirting around the issue of our inability to run the break and using JVG as the scapegoat. JVG's style may have somewhat limited our <b>OPPORTUNITIES</b> to break, but it has nothing to do with our inablity to run a 2 on 1 or 3 on 1 break once we have the opportunity. If JVG coaches Jason Kidd, we'd be one of the better fast breaking teams in the league. Jason Kidd rebounds a lot...does that stop him from pushing the ball for easy fast break buckets? <b>How many times did you see JVG waving his arms for stevie to push the damn ball throughout the year?</b>
Do you not watch the games? JVG is yelling every game for them to push the ball up the court. You get your easiest baskets on a fast break then you do any other way...why would you think that VG wants to eliminate this? You sound like its some 'conspiracy' that he tries to make it 'look' like he wants to push it but really doesn't, and thats just delusional. Its been said his whole career and is still being said... Steve does not run a good fastbreak. This is one of the most obvious problems with Steve's game, there is no need to try to pin the blame on someone else, like JVG or frontcourt rebounding. Edit: Ooops, Chen Zhen was 3 mins quicker.
Yeah, that'll get it done. Just wave the arms. LOL I have not ignored the fact that Steve is not as efficient as he needs to be in running the break. Don't you ignore the fact that no JVG coached team has ever run the fast break. Have you watched any games from his previous coaching stint?
I think a big problem with fast breaking is that it just wastes Yao. If we play uptempo, Yao can last for MAYBE 5 minutes before he's done for the half. I really think that Steve slows it down so that Yao can get to the other end of the floor and set up. Now that is not the reason every time, maybe not even most, but seeing Yao make it almost to the other end of the floor and then have to hustle back on D is just horrible. He gets there just as the other team rebounds and then gets to the other end in time for a layup or dunk.
What?! What else is he suppose to do? He can't go out there and bop Steve on the head, although he's probably been tempted to do it a couple of times. You think the knicks didn't fast break when they got the chance? JVG offense tries to get the highest percentage shot possible with every possession because every possession is critical...the fastbreak is the highest percentage shot in the game, if you think VG doesn't like fast breaking then you're lying to yourself.
He said in a radio interview that he "doesn't believe in the fast break." Interpret that as you will, but it IS what Van Gundy said. As far as percentages go, JVG does not play them. He never has. He has a set offense, and runs it. Period. The Rockets stagnant offense looks uncomfortably similar to the one the Knicks ran.
I think the lack of fast break points/attempts is mostly due to the players being scared. It’s very easy to turn the ball over during fast breaks and the team already turns the ball over enough as it is. The responsibility lies with both the players and Van Gundy. The players for being way too mistake-prone and Van Gundy for perhaps making them think too much about not turning the ball over and scaring them from attempting risky passes that could lead to fast breaks.
Then explain why SF had such a bad year? What changed that precipitated his loss of shot, and loss of rebounding skills in a year he is mostly healthy?
Our front court didn't lack of rebounding. They outrebounded their counterpart by two last season. Please support your claim with fact.
+ i remember someone had stats about how steve has been shooting bad ever since the zone was enacted.
