One Eastern Conference scout says the Rockets have been running a play for PG Steve Francis that the 76ers run for SG Allen Iverson. In it, Francis starts under the basket, then runs along the key to the opposite elbow, coming off two or three screens along the way. "It's a ripped screen," the scout says, "a lot of contact, a lot of elbows flying. You need some toughness from the screeners to run it, and (coach Jeff Van Gundy) is trying to make them tougher." Taken from Foxsports.com http://www.foxsports.com/content/view?contentId=1931518 I know the play they are talking about and if I am not mistaken it seems like it is being run recently for Mobley too. Good things typically happen for Iverson on that play and it seems like we are getting better at it. Meanwhile, I would think that the next five games will be used to get SF to consolidate and build on his performance against the Pistons. His TO's were down and assists were up. If we look at the numbers, his position has been a drag on the team performance on both sides of the ball. If he can return his relative performance to a breakeven level the effects on the team will be exponential.
Sounds good. I like Cat off a screen, but Steve gets that extra shot with contact, and Cat doesn't. Glad to see a structured shot. What's the default escape if they get caught and don't break free? Just jack it up, or pass back to the pick?
I tend to agree with this. Steve Francis has been having by far his worst season statistically so far (even worse than the season he was suffering from migraines). If he can return to even what he was doing last season (43-44% from the field combined with 35-36% from the arc) this team would be a whole lot better. Cuttino Mobley has improved a LOT this season esp in terms of playing within the team concept and picking his spots, Maurice Taylor is almost as effective as he was before the achilles injury, Kelvin Cato has been very good in terms of rebounding and providing an interior presence and Yao Ming is significantly better on both ends of the floor. The team has been the best defensive team in basketball and this has carried them to the 12-7 record they currently have. .390 FG% Against is incredible stuff and this is the area JVG has had the biggest impact. Offensively right now, the team is 18th in the league in FG% at .427 and needs to be around #10 or so if they want to win more consistently. The players around Steve have improved their games, it is now his responsibility to start playing up to the level he needs to be at.
I think the difference is that last year everything was structured to make Steve look good. Not the case this year. Clearly Steve is suffering for it and having a hart time fitting in (for lack of a better term). It will be interesting to see what he and JVG do to find the right role (again, for lack of a better term) for him. He has a huge amount of talent, and I figure he will eventually excell, rather it be points or something else. I am not sure why, but I remember when Joe Morgan came back tothe Astros. I used ot go to a lot of games back then. The Dome was a real pitchers park at the time. I remember Morgan all but scratching his head after hitting a couple of "homers" that turned into long flies at his new home. For many games, you could see him trying different areas of the park to find out wherre he could put it out. It was an interesting process.
If the team's recent play is for real then I expect SF's numbers to make a big comeback. If the assumption is he had the biggest burden initially trying to get the team jump-started then now that it is assumed that things are now rolling along, I would like to think that increasingly he would have less pressure and his game can recover as a result. Afterall he did follow his instructions and probably invested the most in what the team is doing. He is dribbling less, he is passing the ball, he is playing better defense and I believe he and the team are beginning to get a return on that investment. Although I do not like the fact that it has been shortened, the rotation is stable and consistent and the chemistry is increasing obvious. The team has a number of fundamentally sound ways of beating its opponents and that will continue to keep defenses hesitant, like we saw vs. the pistons on a back to back night for us. Probably the best way to see the return of SF is when he moves the ball up faster. Because more of the offense is known now he should be moving the ball up faster and aggressively go at the of defense. Heck, even Moochie has shown hints of how he too is getting comfy with the offense and should more and more run a crisper pick and roll and set up all kinds of shots for his two- man partner. He did get MoT and Ming dunks in the recent games just based on his pg play.
I would hope they don't use Cat to pass to him after all that work to get open... Really, it should be JJ at the point then... Let Cat run around at the same time...
