Stop Blaming The Team's Deficiencies On Its Strengths

I think while Steve has defincies, and LeGrouper is right. I think it goes both ways.

Steve will learn to be more of a team player when he has players around him that will reward his efforts. If you pass to an open EG over and over, and he misses the open shot night after night, is that an incentive to do it again? It's probably less of an incentive when you know that there is a decent chance of you scoring when you don't pass the ball.

It's not just EG either. A lot of Steve's teammates don't hit open shots, turn the ball over or something else goes wrong.

When Hakeem finally got competent help around him, he passed the ball much more, and we won as a result. Trust is earned as well as given, and both sides need to do their part.

 

It took this long for someone to say this?

That was well said. Steve doesn't have trust in his teammates, and there's a reason for that. It's sort of a circular argument. That's where JVG comes in. He needs to make the sure the role players are able to do their job AND that Steve buys into it. Both sides are important.

 

... and who was the star of "The Facts of Life?"

 

i AGREE completely!

 

It is a little worrisome when several of Steve's teammates have a higher FG% when Steve is not controlling the ball. That makes you think, "Maybe it isn't that his teammates are all incompetent, just that they are not getting the ball in the right circumstances." Cuttino Mobley, Kenny Thomas, Dan Langhi. All have shot better when they weren't depending on Francis to get them the ball. At some point you have to realize that it isn't he shooters that are incompetent, it is the point guard.

 

Guess what. Cuttino scored almost solely one on one. Kenny Thomas did score solely one on one with his only 2 moves. Langhi missed wide open shots. If you watched the games instead of looking at stats, you'd see why Steve had no confidence in his teammates.

 

Kelvin Cato's and James Posey's shooting percentages went up with playing Steve Francis and so did Cuttino's.

 

Posey was allowed to play off the ball, and Cato was allowed to play with the first unit. Those are thing which will tend to help their shooting. Oh, and Cuttino's best year in almost every category was when Francis was out with his migraine problems.

Kenny did not score exclusively 1 on 1 in Philly. Why was that? Could it be because Steve doesn't know how to get others involved? Cat did not score almost solely 1 on 1 last year for certain. Also, the same thing I said about why Kenny was reduced to a 1 on 1 player when teamed with Steve could apply to Cat. BTW, I did watch the games, but thanks for condescending to me.

 

So when the shooting percentage goes up, it's not due to Francis, but when it goes down, it's his fault. Nice objectivity. Oh and for folks wondering, this huge increase Stupidmoniker is basing his claim on, is from .434 to .438, while ignoring the fact that his shooting increased his first two years with Francis, Mobley's rookie year .425 to .430 Francis's rookie year then to .434. But stating the complete truth would hurt his argument.

 

cuttino's best year involved his best half, the 2nd half of 01-02 season in which he scored 25 ppg on 47% shooting. since steve missed at least 15 of his games in the first half, then cuttino's best half was the half in which steve played MORE and in which he played at least 75% of the games. unless he just lit it up in those 25% games and sucked in the 75%.

and i don't know exactly how KT going one on one was a steve thing. hasn't rudy's offense always been predicated on people going one on one and then dishing if doubled? if there was a time it wasn't, i missed it, so it's gonna be hard to place that on steve. i know you hate steve, but come on, there's nothing to back up that point.

 

I think we have enough talent. Francis and Yao are awesome.

Our perimeter defense is not good though. needs improvement...and it should improve gradually...

Our offense is decent...should get better once Piatkowski and Taylor return.

Mobley...is a good player...but I still don't think he is the perfect fit. I would rather have a very good shooter and decent defender and a banging power forward who also has an OK shot at least. Mobley is a very good shooter and decent defender...but he's too short and he's like the only one that doesn't look like he is flowing with the offense.

Yao. Just give it to him! Francis...should stay. Everyone benefits from Yao!

Eddie Griffin has to make more shots...I don't think Nachbar will play much during the regular season.