Steve Francis Interview(s) - did this strike anyone else?

JEEZ! You just nailed it.

Here I am sweating bullets on how Yao/TMac/SF3 are gonna share the ball & not even give SCOLA a mention. HOLY CRAP thinking about these line ups are going to be INSANE!

99% of the teams would love having Yao/TMac/SF3/Scola as their core & you've got Battier/James/Head/Alston behind them.

I am simply dumbfounded by our depth. DUMBFOUNDED!

 

I agree with you. Look at the name of the thread: Steve Francis Interview(s) - did this strike anyone else? Now it has changed to : Yao is our no. 1 options... I'm really lookin' forward the season

Right. I agree with You and doublehh03. WHo would you choose for the game winnin' shot? Yao or Tracy. Cause I would choose Tracy but that's not the key. I have noticed that most of the members of Clutchfans are Yao's fans. Most of them are really good, they know whet they're writtin' and I respect them. But topic and threads like "Yao is number 1 options" annoy me. I hate when people are sayin' that Yao's the best and only he can give us the Title...bla bla bla. I'm not sayin' Yao's weak but come on. Yao still isn't the best. He has a lot to improve but right now I think he's the best centre in the NBA. He has to iprove in his ball handlin' cause his turnovers are too easy and when he gets the ball it's too easy for the opponent to steal it.
Tracy's good Yao's goo and please stop postin' posts like Yao is our no.1 option.

That's all I wanted to say.

 

Why do you assume that is a YOF post? There are plenty of Rocket fans who are in that belief that Yao is the key. And going by your logic of giving up on the developlement of players ... thank goodness your not in charge or otherwise you would have given up on the development of Olajuwon before he was 30. Might as well give on McGrady then ... I mean what's the point.

 

I was pointing out that it isn't like SF has been a great team player his whole career. His comfort zone is dominating the ball and it took a stern coach, who wouldn't bend, to force the change. So I admit for one of his five seasons here SF sacrificed his game.

When it comes to selfishness, SF isn't about stats so much, it's about his comfort zone on the court and desire to score off the dribble. As you say, it's a flaw in his game (and mentality) that he will have to fix under coach Adelman.

I guess some of us have fonder memories of his time here. Mine aren't and I found him very boring to watch unless he was having an exceptional game on offense. Now that he's back, let's hope for the best since he's probably going to be our starting PG.

 

You guys should have confidence in Tmac. No one can replace him for rockets.

 

What does YOF stand for?
Statement 1 - Duh
Statement 2 - You're right. When a C tries to guard a quick PF, its gonna be tough for the C.
Statement 3 - You're nuts. You want to trade the most coveted commodity on the open market. A dominating center who is young.

The point of my post is that I think for us to be most succesful, the team must believe in Yao, and find a way to get him the ball. Tracy is now just past his prime, and I believe Yao should take the reigns.

 

Man i luv u guys.... but sometimes i think yall worry way tooooooooo much. Steve is not going to come back with the franchise attitude. trust me. just let them play

 

Thank You!

 

Yao had to play Boozer by default! Now we have our Power Forward (Scola) and Yao will be able to play in his natural position, doing the things he does best.

 

Agreed 100%

 

Don't get me wrong - my memories of the Francis era are anything but fond. It was one of the darkest eras in Rockets history (in that we didn't necessarily suck but were stuck in mediocrity) and the style of play made me cringe. But I will defend him on the point that he was not the least bit a selfish player. He was an absolutely atrocious point guard but his problems stemmed from what I have already stated - terrible passing ability, no point guard instincts, no shooting ability, complete inability to do anything not off his own dribble. I don't think you can fairly label him a selfish player when his first coach capitalized off his isolation ability and built his gameplan around it. That wasn't Steve forcing the issue at all.

His problem has always been that he runs his mouth. JVG has even stated in interviews that he never had any problems with Steve and that Steve just likes to create this perception that he is a problem child (hence his "I will play my way" comments in the past).

That's why I'm not too concerned but there is no doubt that the comments should raise eyebrows.

 

OMG I hope you are joking.

How many times have we gone over this?

Yao did not play Boozer because our PF couldn't. Yao was defending Boozer because JVG didn't want him wandering around the perimeter with Okur.

Sigh

 

Sorry to burst your bubble but Yao was the liability in the Yao-Hayes defensive equation. Hayes shut down Okur and shut down Boozer the few times he guarded him. The only reason Yao was on Boozer to begin with is because he is too slow to stay with Okur on the perimeter - Hayes shut him down all series until Game 7.

Yao isn't immortal and the fact that he refused to grow a pair was a large part of why we failed to advance last year. He's the game's best center but that isn't saying much and he still has a long way to go in many areas.

 

Yao's offense (= JVG's predictable offense) was a bigger problem.

Now I don't think Okur can single cover both Yao and Scola.

 

I totally disagree. Hayes didn't shut down Okur. If anything Yao shut down Okur by making him expend energy in defending him. Yao took his legs and in tiring out Okur made it easy for Hayes. Sloan saw this and in Game 7 he switched it up and had Okur guard Hayes to start the game and bingo Okur gets into rhythm and starts making shots. Yao could have guarded Okur, he had done in the past. JVG unlike Sloan didn't adjust.

 

He may not have to, if Yao gets abused on the defensive end like he did in that series we may have sit him down so we don't get our a$$es kicked.

I'm really not worried though, Rick will make it easier for Yao on the offensive end and hopefully he won't be frustrated like he was by game 7 of the Utah series. I take comfort in knowing that we won't watch 4 guys standing while Tracy tries to beat a whole team only to pass out for a missed shot.

Come on season!!!

 

party like its 1999

 

Okur can guard Yao. Boozer can guard Scola. The question is whether Yao can successfully guard either Boozer or Okur. The answer is no and the Jazz present a difficult matchup for us at the big positions.

 

yao should absoluletly abuse okur in the post and it was frustrating watching him struggle.

thankfully, the rockets have more talent which automatically makes thing "easier" for a player, regardless of coach

 

I agree. I think Yao wasn't and still isn't able to quard Boozer. Boozer is too quick for him, he made a quick-first step and he had a wide open layup or dunk. Anyway not only for Yao Boozer is hard to quard, I think most of centers and some forward would have a lot of problems.