I don't believe you. Just 'some' radio interview. Whatever. When you have a 2 on 1 you don't slow it up and wait for the defense to catch up...NOBODY does that, if JVG made his players do that he wouldn't be coaching any team. Quit hatin on gollum.
This has been explained a thousand times already on this bbs. Steve has never had to play on a team when he wasn't 'the man'(which is probably why his teams never did squat), this year he had to and it shows in his stats. Actually he and Yao pretty much shared the team, hell, Steve even got more shots than Yao...plus didn't you even read chenzhen's post about steve having to play defense now? He even typed it in bold for you. Add on Steve constant inability to adapt to zone D and you have your answer. I think Steve's attitude has some play in it as well. He's shown us how he reacts when things don't go his way(i.e. Vancouver) and its not good.
Yeah, Steve just sux. He totally screwed up our playoff run. If we hadn't had him, Yao would have been able to go off for 25 a game, and we would have won in 5 instead of losing in 5. LOL
I see you have nothing left to argue except bringing in Yao to the conversation. Well done. Actually I don't think Steve is completely horrible. He penetrates well, rebounds, hustles and dunks. He just can't be efficient in the workings of a team and that what basketball is. How much longer are you willing to give him to figure that out?
Actually, I don't think Yao is horrible. In fact, he's my favorite player on the team. I was simply responding to whether Steve could run the break or whether Van Gundy could run the break. I personally feel that Steve can run the break. He ain't efficient, but he can dribble penetrate, dish, and finish. He has shown us here over the last 5 years that he can play fast break basketball. Van Gundy has never shown me that he can coach any kind of fast break. I'm not saying he's not a good coach. I'm not saying Francis is a great decision maker and distributor. I'm simply making the point that you can't put all of it on Francis. Van Gundy packs in the defense, has the guards rebounding and then he magically expects them to run a break to perfection. You have to design the play around your players. Steve ain't Kidd. He will never be able to take the ball from end to end, in traffic, and make the great decisions that Kidd can make. But Kidd can never take the ball at halfcourt and finish like Francis can either. And Kidd can 't shoot worth a lick. You want him on the Rockets. Sure, Yao would get a lot more looks and then they would double Yao and fade off Kidd and you got Kidd sitting outside clanging jumpers. Look at NJ's half court offense. It stinks. Is Kidd a great player, a great distributor, a great ball handler. Yep. But he has very low personal offensive skills. So as a coach, you design the break to fit the players. Francis is best when he is running ahead of the crowd or is one on one with the defender, and utilizing his crossover, his hops, and his strength to score and distribute. So, get him the ball in that position. Quit trying to make Jason Kidd out of him. That is coaching my friend. You can mold players to a certain point, you can help them with the fundamentals. You can help them shoot FT's better, not over dribble, pass to the open man, etc. But in the end, have a system that best utilizes their special skills to maximize the opportunity to win. I don't think we are getting the maximum use out of Steve's skills. I think he needs more opportunities in the open floor, just like I think Yao needs more opportunities in the half court set. I'm sorry, but rebounding the ball in the paint and then running up the court real fast until you get to half court and then wait for Van Gundy to call a play is not a break. It is not open floor basketball. It is not what Steve excels at. Once again, Van Gundy is a good coach. He has designed a defense that contests most shots and keeps the opponent's shooting percentage low. But, just as in New York, he hasn't helped this team run the floor. New York stunk at running the floor. They had Starks flying around and Van Gundy always complaining about the same things that he complains about with Steve........high TO's and poor decision making. Personally, I think the way to help Steve and Cat is to get a rebounding machine at the 4 that can throw the quick outlet pass. Who is it? I dunno. But we need that guy that can dominate the boards and get the ball out quick, so the guards can fade out and run the break. We don't have a defensive rebounding force. We have team rebounding, all 5 guys crashing the boards. There ain't nobody to run a break man. That is by design, Van Gundy's design. They are all under the basket helping each other pick up the rebound. I didn't bring Yao into the argument because there was no argument until you made one. But, if you WATCHED the playoff games, you will have to admit that Steve played his .... off. He ran the pick and roll, he dished. He adjusted this season and brought his game up to a different level in the playoffs. That is the sign of a special player. Can he still improve? Sure. Does Kidd need to improve? Yes. Kidd should be shooting 500 jumpers a day every day this summer so that he is not a liability in the half court set when his bigs are doubled. Now, does Van Gundy need to make adjustments? He either needs to adjust his coaching or adjust his players to fit his system. Personally, I'd rather he adjust his coaching and change his system a little bit, not that we don't need to change some players because we need to improve our personnel if at all possible. We need better shooting, less turnovers, and better passing. But we also need a system that is flexible enough to allow the players to get out on the break and mix it up with opponents that may be beating us up in the half court. That doesn't mean that Van Gundy's system should be thrown out completely. There are good things that he has brought to the table, things this team needed. But this is pro basketball. You gotta be a little flexible man, not a pushover, but a little flexible. I hate to say it, because I can't stand the guy, but look at Phil Jackson. The guy is a disciplinarian, he is tough, but he is also flexible, witness this season. (You don't know how much it pains me to make that reference.) Van Gundy needs just a little bit of that flexibility. I do not want to see New York Knicks South. I want to see championships. Championship teams are flexible. They can play more than one style of ball. They can adjust their style of play to attack the opponent. Van Gundy is responsible for making those adjustments.
I agree with somethings you say but not this. Steve may be the worst PG at running the break in the league, but thats my opinion. How many PGs do you see blowing 2 and 3 on ones on a regular basis like Steve? Its so bad that I practically cringe whenever the break starts.
Good point. How many PG's in this league do you see taking the ball to the rack against Shaq, scoring, and drawing the foul? The reason he blows so many is because he runs so few. It's like asking why didn't Pike shoot good this year, why doesn't Boki shoot well? Dude, they don't get the shots. They have no opportunity to warm up. Steve got very few opportunities to run breaks this past season. Yeah, he screwed up too many of them. How good can you possibly be without repetition, game repetition? Look, you need to admit it. The only time Van Gundy wants the Rockets to run is when they have a breakaway. Here's the other problem with Steve and most of it is his own doing. He gets zero calls. He gets fouled constantly when he drives the lane and on the break, but he doesn't get bailed out with the foul call. It is really ridiculous. When you look at the games, and rookies like Carmelo are getting the benefit of a foul call with any contact that they create, it is totally ridiculous that a 5 year veteran superstar player doesn't get the same benefit, but he doesn't. And I believe that is largly due to how he has handled the refs. But still, he doesn't get the calls he should get. The refs should call the game consistently and quit the politicking with the players. If they called all contact consistently, Steve's game would benefit greatly. If you don't think that affects the way that he plays and the decisions that he makes, you are crazy. Worst PG in the league at running the break? That is an overexaggeration. If you gave him the opportunity and let him fade out and get an outlet pass, instead of having to board and then drive the ball up the floor, I believe there would be drastic improvement. I don't think Kidd, Nash, Marbury, Davis, or any other point guard is gonna be able to run the break for the Rockets unless Van Gundy tweaks his system. Nash, Marbury, and Davis would have their tongues hanging out after playing D for JVG. The system needs to be tweaked to allow the guards to get out on the break. We need to dominate the boards and let the guards release. If we aren't gonna do that, they we might as well trade both Steve and Cat for Allen and sign NVE to run the point and shoot the 3.
How on earth anybody can watch Van Gundy screaming from the sidelines to "push it" and conclude that the Rockets lack of fast break is systemic to Van Gundy's offensive scheme is utterly baffling. With the great Rudy T and 58 games with the high-flying James Posey, the Rockets managed a whopping 2.8 more fb ppg in 2002-03 than they did in 2003-04. The were dead last in the league in 2002-03, too. And puh-lease....Francis doesn't fb because he's rebounding? Fact: The 3 highest FB PPG teams are DEN, DAL and MEM. Fact: Steve Francis grabs 4.67 DRebs per 48 min. Fact: Andre Miller grabs 4.04 DRebs per 48 min. Fact: Steve Nash grabs 3.18 DRebs per 48 min. Fact: JWill grabs 2.77 DRebs per 48 min. Fact: Earl Watson grabs 3.71 DRebs per 48 min. I'm sorry but 2 DRebs every 48 minutes doesn't explain the difference between the 980, 789 and 694 more fast break points scored by DEN, DAL and MEM.
I agree. Steve does have some STRONG moves around the rim. But there is no way I could believe that the refs have it in for Steve. Every team and every BBS complains about the refs, its universal. He's no different than everyone else when it comes to officiating. Steve gets more shots on our team than anyone and thats a fact. If he can't get into a 'layup rhythm' don't you think that has to do with his skills more than JVG system? If its really hard for players to thrive in the gollum system, then why has Yao's FG% actually improved since last year? This system is just as hard for yao to adjust to as it is for Steve, hell, Yao wasn't a huge low post player until he came to the NBA. Yet, when looking at this last year it looks like Steve is the one that came from China.
Replace Francis with any other point guard in the league, and I bet this team would still be unable to run a fast break. It's all Francis's fault, right? Give me a freaking break already. without Steve this team coundn't have beat UofH the last 5 years.
Like I said, put Jason Kidd in there and we'd be one of the better fast breaking teams in the league. We have good finishers but no one to lead the break.
Your posts are irrelevant and full of excuses. You are in such denial of Steve's inabilty to run the fast break it's just amazing to me. Why on earth would JVG design a system to have more fast breaks if we can't run them efficiently when we have a 2 on 1 or a 3 on 1 advantage? No point of wasting my time... You won't have much of a chance to go far in the playoffs with a fast breaking team.
Put Kidd on the Rockets and our FG percentage will go down even further. Because Yao will get doubled, and Kidd will be open, and missing shots. And then Yao will get doubled more and his FG percentage will go down. Kidd is a liability in the half court game.
How can you say that Steve can't run a fb when this team runs so few of them? What does that say about Van Gundy when he can't get his team to do what he supposedly wants them to do? He got them to play D, why can't he get them to run? Wake up! It's because he doesn't care to run, only on breakaways. You are in denial that JVG wants to run a slow down, half court setup game.
So irrelevant yet again. I was responding to this quote: <b>Replace Francis with any other point guard in the league, and I bet this team would still be unable to run a fast break.</b> Why would you want to run more if we can't run? So it's not only JVG's fault...it's Rudy's fault also since he couldn't get him to run either when he was coaching the previous 3-4 years, correct? Quit blaming JVG for all of your problems please. Ok, no maas for me in here.
In another thread I wrote the complaint about the fastbreak represents the blame Francis for everything mentality on this board. In 00-01 the Rockets averaged almost nine more points a game than they did this past season. Almost a hundred points, 97, but if you ask Rockets fans it was all because of iso, one on one street ball. The Rockets can run the fast break if everyone is on the same page.
Quit taking my comments about Van Gundy to the extreme. There is no one that gets any more frustrated over the inadequacies of Steve and Cat handling the ball and running the break than me. I have expressed that over and over. Look up my posts. They need to get better. There is no question. But the other side of the coin is that if we are going to run and get fb points then Van Gundy has to adjust his game plan thinking a little bit also. He is going to have to get his big men to box out and rebound better and give at least one of his guards the opportunity to release instead of going to the bucket on D and helping rebound. He is going to have to give a little. And Gater you should know better. You are too smart not to see that. You are trying to make the argument that JVG doesn't pack it in by comparing 48 minutes stats of Dallas, Denver, and Memphis to us. Totally ridiculous. Take Dallas for starters. Their whole game plan is predicated around getting more possessions per game. They play very little defense in hopes of getting their opponent to put up a quick shot that they can rebound and run to the other end. They do not pack it in, and Nash does not go to the board, except when the game situation dictates it, such as in the last 5 minutes of the game when they are up by 15 and wanting to close it out, etc. His boards are incidental. He does not go to the glass on the opponents shot. He picks up boards because his man beat him to the basket and he is trailing him to the basket. He sets up for the outlet pass. Denver has Miller and Boykins at the point and they play a lot of minutes with those 2 in there together with Miller moving over to the 2. What is Boykins doing when he is in the game? Yeah right, he's under the defensive glass. Can't you see the difference? Boykins is getting out and setting up to get the ball on the break. Most of Miller's boards come when Boykins is in the game. When Miller is at the point, about half the time he looks to board. The rest of the time he is getting ready to run. Look at the game tape if you don't believe me. You'll have a difficult time finding 10 instances all season where one of our guards released for the outlet pass after the shot goes up. The only time you will find it is when Francis' or Jackson's man gets by him and is shooting the 10 foot jumper or layup and they are hanging out at the top of the key hoping that their man misses the shot. But if you watch the tape, you will see time and time again that when the shot goes up Cat and Francis are diving into the paint to help rebound. They are turned, facing the defensive goal, and positioning to board. You think they are doing that on their own??????????? No, my friend, that is team rebounding. That is packing it in. We did it all season. Do you think that Van Gundy didn't want them to do that and they did it anyways????????? No, my friend, if that were the case, then Van Gundy would have them sitting the bench until they got it. He would be up in their grill and forcing them to get in position for the outlet pass. They are rebounding by design, Van Gundy's design. And as long as that is the design, we are not going to run the fb. The only fb's will be breakaways from the defense forcing a TO. That is the break VG wants to run, a TO and a dunk. There is no other design to get the ball out and run the break. Let me help you understand what Van Gundy is trying to get our guys to do. He wants them to play smothering, 24 seconds of hell defense, forcing the opponent to expend a lot of energy. Then he wants our team to all rebound the ball, no on releasing. Then he wants the guards to start running the ball upcourt after we get the rebound as quickly as possible to put still more pressure on the opponent and force them to expend more energy running up the floor. But the running up the floor is not designed to run a fb. It is designed to tire out the opponent. Then VG wants them to set up in half court and make the opponent defend against 68 screens every possession. And then in the 4th quarter, the opponent's legs are gone, they can't D, they can't board, and we got Jolly Chinese Giant down low dominating the game. I don't know if Steve understands that yet. Steve is probably wondering why does Van Gundy want us to run the ball up the court just to set up a half court set. In the process of developing his style of ball, Van Gundy has had to recondition this team to play D, and learn how to use screens, which is something else that they had no clue how to do before this year. Personally, I like the defense. I like that we challenge almost every shot. I don't even mind us packing it in most of the time. But I feel that Van Gundy needs to add and tweak just a little to be able to run the break and take advantage of some easy buckets. It ain't all Steve.
