But Sam although Steve is trying to improve and is showing signs he hardly ever passes directly into Yoa Ming at the right time and place for Yao Ming to score.His good passes into Yao are about the same as his deliberate refusals to pass to a open Yao Ming.
I don't buy this argument. All plays are called to generate open shots or mismatches; it's the player’s responsibility to make the decision based on the game situation. Rarely, you will a play-call can be executed perfectly according to your plan from start to end. Let's assume the play was called to use Yao as a decoy, then on the way to cut to middle, the "decoy" Yao became wide open inside, what's the correct move for the guards? I don't think any play, or coach will call for continuing execution of your "original play" to get an open, or mismatch in that situation. Yes, when casual fans can see a wide-open target, those pros should see that, too. We all saw the same opens when Mark Jackson was on the court. The difference was he was able to deliver the ball to the right person at the right time; it’s just that easy for some players. --daoshi
I've defended Steve many times here, but the truth is he HAS SAID similar things many times before, all politically correct things, but his action hasn't matched his word yet. I like Steve; I truly wish JVG could utilize his max ability to play with Yao at the same time, so they can become a formidable tandem like the old Bulls, or the Lakers duo. Steve is making progress in some aspects of his game, but regresses on the other parts. He is capable to do much more than what he provides now. When he plays up to his full capability with Yao up his potential, then the Rockets will become a contender. Let’s just hope that time will be sooner than later. --daoshi
Yes it has, for the most part. Has it 100% of the time? No...of course not. But instead of focusing on the vast majority of the time when he does, people harp on the 2 or 3 occassions when he doesn't --- win, lose or draw. It doesn't matter if its a blowout win against Minnesota, a tight loss to Memphis, or if Yao is dominating or is sucking wind and barely able to get up court...the same lame accusations are leveled, to the general exclusion of the other ten Rockets (with the exception of his supposed co conspirator Mobley who is also frequently blamed whenever his shot doesn't fall). I don't particularly care that he only gets 1-2 assists to Yao specifically per game; as YOF's like Yetti like to dwell on...the Rockets are more important to me than just Yao and Steve; if you've watched the Rockets set plays for Yao this year, many of them are designed, whether this is on purpose or not, I don't know, so that Mobley or Jackson is the entry passer on the low post or otherwise the man who makes the final pass to the open player. Of course he's not going to get a lot of assists to Yao in that circumstance. Like it or not, the Memphis game is a primary example that Yao is not ready to carry the team night in and night out....accordingly that role is going to fall to Steve & co. when he is not -- however, they are still feeling each other out....and Yao is the kind of guy that plays like Tarzan and dunk it in some guys grill on one possession, and then turns into Jane and gets shoved around by some wuss the next....accordingly its unrealistic to expect he and Steve to have figured out when who should defer to who.
I will start believing it when I see it. But the fact remains. Steve simply doesn't pass well. It could be a combination of heart, brain, vision, skill, or whatever. We can all speculate. Last game, MJackson's oasses are real passes. They are crisp, timely, on spot, in a position that make our players conformatable. They are different from Francis's pass to Yao after he hold the ball for 4 seconds while defender knows where he is going to pass the ball and the help defense can come anytime to swat/front/steal the ball.
Just to answer daoshi...I don't want to quote different posts. I'm lazy. A couple things here... First off, under Rudy, the team may have looked for mismatches and been more freeflowing in the sense that the player had multiple options based on reading the defense. JVG is NOT Rudy. He wants guys to run plays as he calls them. It's why the game slows down so much. He wants guys to execute the offense as written because he draws up the offense BASED ON the defensive scheme of the other team. When the team freelances, it gets into trouble. When they stay within the confines of the offense and execute, they are fine. I read a quote from a high school football coach who said that his team always ran the same formation to the same side. It was the other team's job to stop them. If they couldn't why should he run another play? The moral: if you out-execute your opponent, it doesn't matter what play you run and JVG wants his plays run the way he draws them up. Second, Steve doesn't make entry passes into the post because that isn't his job. He does ON OCCASSION, but most low post offenses are predicated on spacing and putting your point guard on the same side of the ball as your center to make the entry pass can lead to poor spacing. It's why guys like Robert Horry have made their livings throwing the entry pass. Steve's strength is in the pick and roll and in slashing off of screens. When he interacts with Yao, it is often under those circumstances.
yetti you're act is old. steve likes yao. steve wants yao to dominate. that is painfully obvious now so i don't see why you still post like they have some feud. can you please explain to me why it matters if steve directly throws the ball in to yao or if he swings in to someone else and then gets to yao. kenny smith didn't throw the ball to dream half as many times as robert horry, so does that mean he was selfish and wanted the glory himself?
At least we agreed on something. First of all, I want to make clear here that Jeff and I are not debating about whether “Steve being selfish”, or “Steve doesn’t want to pass to Yao”, etc. We are debating the execution of the play calls by the coach, how should it be executed. Am I right , Jeff? As someone who has read my share of playbooks from different coaches, I can say that no coach expects his plays to be executed from the start to end according to the original plans. The players are trained to make their BEST judgment during any play-call execution. Rudy might set the play to get the ball to Steve, let him decide what to do most of the time; JVG in other hand, may want Steve to just bring the ball up, pass the ball to someone, and then cut. Either way, Steve is required to make his best judgment according to the situation at the moment. When a teammate is open, or has an obvious mismatch, the best option is to get the ball there. After all, all plays are designed to generate mismatch, or open shots. Its just ridicules to ignore the opportunity, instead, continue the initial play-call. I don’t think any coach will disagree with me here. We are not talking about the “team freelance” here, we are talking about the opportunities occur during the execution of the play-call. It may because of the execution of the initial plays, or due to the defense misread. It doesn’t matter as long as there is an open, ans that should be the best choice in that situation. About “Steve doesn't make entry passes into the post because that isn't his job”, you are joking, right? Every player is expected to get the ball to the open teammates when he IS at the position to do that. THAT IS HIS JOB. It’s different if the player doesn’t have the vision, or skill to deliver the ball, but it is his job to do that. I have said that Steve has made improvement in some aspect of his game, but he still makes stupid mistakes from time to time, that are just very hard to tolerant when he was paid as the Franchise player. I don’t like the way he is used by JVG right now. We can get much cheap player to do what he is doing, and do it better. I expect much more from Steve, a franchise player as he is billed to, and I believe in him & JVG. --daoshi
Good thread. Good man Stevie! Well first..we must get it to Yao. Like we've been saying....forever...he is the man! And then...Steve....and then Mobley..and then Jackson....and then Taylor...and then Nachbar or Padgett or Piatkowski. Please no to Cato...well once in a while. Everyone on our team can score! Besides Cato..and Weatherspoon. Jimmy Jackson is my favorite though...he like always makes the shot 1 on 1....beautifully. Steve and Mobley and Yao of course. We have played very well....but still West is very competetive conference.
Brilliant Post. I'll be in the chat room and here people complain that a wide open Yao didn't get the pass, when it was obvious that he wasn't really wide open, at least from the angle where the guard with the ball was. From the camera's angle he was open, but often there were two to three defenders between the guy with the ball and Yao, plus another defender is ready to close in. There are often times when players do try to force the ball into Yao when he's covered and we end up with a TO. Anyway I've about given up trying to talk reality. Biases will always come into play. Steve's play has come a long way, his attitude on and off the floor is anything but selfish and trying to freeze out teammates etc. I've seen statements from Yao saying this, Jeff Van Gundy saying this, you name it. But people have claimed that Yao was just being diplomatic, and that while they at first had high hopes for JEff Van Gundy it appears that he isn't any good after all. So I just give up.
daoshi... I dare you to find me a "franchise" player being paid the max that doesn't make mistakes. they are all human...and they all make mistakes... so can we drop that tired excuse for you to criticize Francis? like you need an excuse..that just happens to be the one you harp on constantly. also..as Im sure others have said... no one can change overnight and be perfect at what they are tryin to learn to do..HE has changed his game in many ways this season..and continues to change and improve on his duties every game inthe last week or two... the only reason why you cant see it is becasue your vision is clouded with hatred for francis.
Ha, ha, ha. Obviously, you haven't ready enough of my posts. I was much harder on Yao than Francis. Gosh, I was harder on JVG than on Francis. I stated at the very begining of my post that Jeff and I have different understanding about how to execute a coaches play call. It has nothing to do with Steve, or Cat, or Yao. Your over sensitivity just highlighted how protective you are when your boy was put in the spot light. Btw, I didn't say that Steve shouldn't be paid MAX. What I said was the way he was used by the Rockets this season (other than the Indy game), that's a total waste. The Rockets paid him max because they thought he is the Franchise player, so they should use him as a franchise player. --daoshi
Thank you for this thread! It's about time people started seeing that Franchise is growing up (they grow up so quickly! *sniff*) Even the sinister Bill Walton said it last night: "Steve Francis is playing the absolute best basketball of his career right now." True his numbers are down, but if people would actually watch him they would see that he's improving every time we see him out there.
