Ouch sorry so I didn't understand what you meant but at the same time, your content of this thread doesn't seem to match with its title. Your title of this thread is a bit misleading you know? What I want to say is that leader or not I think the skills of Yao and Steve simply don't mix well with each other, at least for now. Ideal partner for Steve would be a Ben Wallace who cleans up mistakes and doesn't need the ball to be effective. Ideal partner for Yao would be a John Stockton who loves and knows how to get big man the ball at the right time right positon. The most worrying thing for me is that I can't see how either of them can change their games to suit each other.
This situation was on the cards even prior to the start of this season. The problem is that for us, the future is a Big Mans game and the Guards are reluctant to have it go that way.(IMHO) Besides that Steve is realy a scorer ( Shooting Guard) and has difficulty in passing and setting up other players. Just focus back to all the negative feelings the Guards had about Yao Ming, as our prospective draft pick. This season 02/03 has been to see how these two different directions could meld into a positive force.The degree of Positiveness on Negativeness, each must draw their own conclusion.
Yeah, I guess it was a little misleading, I just wanted to say that with attempt to "involve" Yao more in the offense, Steve's playing seem to slacking. I don't think the ideal partner thing applys absolutely though, I mean look at Kobe and Shaq. It's just Yao at this point of his career and Steve as of late are playing like players you can build a team around. Not that they don'thave the talent or potential, but are just not playing like it as of late.
I can not disagree more! Our players can't make a face up jumper, can't ourmuscle defense, turn the ball over, don't have height (except Yao). Playing 1-on-1 is hopeless. Hell, there are so many better 1-on-1 players in NBA, Kobe, T-Mac, MJ, even Dirk. Kings and Mav both have better 1-on-1 players than Rox, yet they play team offense. The point is Rox has to learn to play that way and they have not.
the title was definitely misleading for me. i was thinking that the two aren't meshing as well as i thought they would. but, i don't think it's a matter attitude or cockiness issue. i just think that the defense is horrendous and stevie and yao are just off right now. both yao and francis haven't been playing as well defensively, but on offense they are missing a lot of shots that they normally would make.
Yes Francis's and Mobley's best skills are 1-on-1. But they are not good enough 1-on-1 players (the kind who would lead you to victory singlehandedly namely T-Mac and Kobe). Primary 1-on-1 is no longer good enough in today's game especially with the zone allowed. Actually I am not sure if 1-on-1 is ever successful because all the great teams of the past I know Showtime Lakers, Celtics etc all played team game, even MJ's Bulls played a supposed unselfish triangle offense. Basically the quicker we impose a team game approach, the better.
Actually, Our problem is that our best player doesn't know he is our best player, and the 2 guys who THINK they are the best should actually defer to the ROOKIE who IS the best. DD
The ONLY thing that Yao doesn't have is experience!! He already knows more about TEAM basketball than S.F. and Cat will EVER know!!!
It is one thing too be a team player, its totally another too be TOO unselfish. Yao is TOO unselfish and Steve is becoming too unselfish. They are passing when they clearly should try to set a tone and score themselves. Yao looks to pass first and then shoot second, that's not what a big man is suppose to do, it really hurts the team more than anything else. Steve is giving up the ball recently for no reason, its one thing to pass to an open player, its totally another to pass to some one just to pass to some one. Honestly, I think all the ESPN bashing has gone to Steve's head and he's playing out of his element.
What are you smoking? Most of us are complaining here Rox does NOT play team ball by passing. Get a pair of new glass.
Nothing I'm as straight edge as they come and did purchase a new pair of glasses recently. Watching the last few games, I've notice that Steve is forcing himself to pass instead of letting it come to him in the flow of the game. Yao look to pass to much period. There's a diffrence between playing a team game, and just being to timid. Right now Yao and Steve are being to timid and they are hurting the team. Carayip, what u post is fairly accurate but I don't think its that Steve doesn't like to pass, its just that our current offense forces Steve to initiate the offense. I do want to see more pick and rolls though.
Steve and Yao need to strike a better balance Steve's efforts in getting Yao involved in the first quarter are coming at the expense of his own productivity. Steve is at his best when he has 30+ minutes of fairly steady FGO (field goal opportunities, not attempts, mind you). When he shoots only one shot in the first quarter, he's essentially written off 12 minutes to get "ignited" for the game. I WANT to see Steve get going early and score 25 to 30 in a game. I WANT to see Yao steadily accumulate points off scrappy plays. I DO NOT WANT to see Yao's totals go up at the expense of Steve's productivity. The people who SHOULD be less involved in the offense are CAT and EG, IMO. theSAGE
Give it time. Sheesh. Everyone here is so impatient. It's not like the Lakers just threw Kobe and Shaq together and got instant results.
Although I second that motion for more patience, I only wish we could be more patient. A lot of the problems, at least, I see, are not individual in nature. They are no longer problems of "Yao being a rookie" or EG being "young and inexperienced" but rather it has to do with the team NOT understanding how to maximize their COLLECTIVE STRENGTHS. The first step to self or I should say, TEAM-DISCOVERY and understanding one's own relative strengths and advantages. Despite how methodical RudyT has been with the substitutions and player minutes, I NEVER KNOW WHAT KIND OF ROX EFFORT I WILL SEE. And I think the key variable that makes or breaks this team IS the guards (plural). If our guards NEED to score early to be productive AND set a rhythm... then DO IT. There is no theorizing necessary when strengths are clearly demonstrated. Back in the day, we HAD players in this league like Oakley and Rodman who took ZERO shots b/c they were less productive offensive weapons relative to other team members. I argue that Steve AND Cat are much better point scoring weapons than EG. If so, then why is EG still shooting over 8 FGAs when he's rarely around in the 4th quarter??? Let our main men get going early instead of our benchwarmers come the final 5 minutes of the game. theSAGE
I think I get what you meant. You think Steve looks to pass to inside too much which hurt his own offense right? I don't share your view of this though. I agree that Steve does look to pass to inside more lately in the set plays. But I think what Steve does now (i.e. always looks to pass to inside 1st) is about right. In the set offense, when he initiates the offense, he should always look to pass the ball inside 1st. The key though is for THE WHOLE TEAM to have good ball movement. If we can do that, it wouldn't stop Steve picking up his large amount of shots within the offense. On another note, I still don't think Steve passes enough 1) when he's driving. He always has his head down. What's up? You should always look to see if there's teammates open, 2) when he's playing pick and rolls, well doesn't he know that if he never look to pass the ball to his teammate rolling to the basket, the defense can always focus him and this pick and roll would become pretty meaningless?
I remember there was a thread a few weeks ago (by winandsea?) that asked the question: Does Yao make the team worse? My response was that, yes, he made us worse by forcing us to change our style. I believe that without Yao, we might have won more games this season by the talents of the guards. Francis is conciously changing his game. That probably throws him off his rhythm. BUT, the change is good for the team IN THE LONG RUN. Without Yao, we would be a perenial 40-something team. With Yao and with the offense changed, we might not win as many this season as two years ago, but we will be a 50 or even 60 something team in the future.
