I agree that he was trying to roll to the basket but he has done this many times this year. He will learn in time but I think it may have been one of the factors that caused Rudy T to take him out.
If Steve plays PG for the Rockets, then Bryant does for the Lakers. He's the primary ball handler on that team. Bryant is 1.5 years younger than Francis. Bryant plays the same role as Steve does. And the assists back that up . That's absurd. The only type of players who score more as a result of being 2nd/3rd options are jump shooting specialists who can't create their own shots. Steve's fg % might go up from being a 2nd or 3rd option... but his ppg would go down. It's called the Clipper Effect. The better your team is offensively, the lower your point total is going to be. Someone has to take the shots, after all. Look at the rest of that Laker team. Do they have anybody who remotely compares to Cuttino Mobley when SHaq's on the bench? Hell, do they have anyone else who favorably compares to Kenny Thomas? Maybe, maybe you could make a case for Rick Fox. But, absent Bryant, the Lakers are beyond putrid. Absent Francis, the Rockets are bad... but they still have scorers. Defense is more of a problem, which we're not addressing here.
It might work that way with the Cilppers, but not The Mavs ( a better offensive team). Findley, the second option actually puts up more shots than Steve Francis.....Findley also puts up more shots than the go to man, Nowitzki. There is no way Steve can have an advantage by being double teamed I maintain Steves progress is comparable to Kobes at this point of his career.
Based on this, shouldn't Kobe be able to lead his team to be an above .500 ball club? Francis certainly seems to do a better job on this without the help of the most dominant player in the league. I am not saying Francis is better but it does say something about each player's impact on his team.
Timing, Rudy can't teach something at the end of the game when he is lost. Stellar play calling has been vacant on Rudy's watch. You would think that he would learn something new after all of these years!
It looks like Phil is doing the same thing RudyT had to do last year, .....look for mis-matches,,,, and the same one keeps coming up. Kobe vs anyone for Phil and Steve vs anyone for Rudy. When both teams get their starters playing together, things will start looking up.....
Nice point. Funny how awkward good teams can look when they are beset by injuries, isn't it. Even The Zen Master isn't safe from criticism and everybody wants to trade Kobe. Fans are the same all over.
