Although Im not on the trade Francis bandwagon, I pretty much agree with this right here. If you want to move Steve to the 2, thus taking away his "playmaking" skills, then Id rather have Cat. Steve, without the ball primarily in his hands, would be an average shooting guard at best. BTW, MacBeth. Did you give your own thread 5 stars as usual??
MacBeth, this is a relevant thread. Though I'm not a "I want Steve out of here" guy I find much legitimacy in their arguments. Worse, for a max player I think his trade value has lessened. I think Steve at the 2 only works if we get other bases covered: pg and pf. And even then we end up lessening his trade value further even if Yao becomes a monster next year. Then, SF's weaknesses as a 1 & 2 will have been exposed completely. So, I think this is a discussion that JVG, CD and Les have immediately after the season has ended. And we bite the bullet yet again and just find players that can help us win immediately with Yao. Steve at the 2 presupposes a lot: it's impossible at this point for me to confine myself to the topic unless it's a last resort - and that could happen. But before it does we offer up everyone on our team including SF except Yao, and then see what happens.
Cat is developing into a very effective 2 guard. He's a good spot up shooter and is also posting up defenders more and more. He is really a more effective 2 than SF is a 1; he's simply adapted better to JVG. And he's a much better defender that SF. The truth is that the zone has robbed Francis of most of what he does best - iso, break down his man, and then take it to the rack or dish. He simply looks lost now. And on top of that, he's a rhythm shooter and not a good spotup shooter like Cat. MoT is in exactly the same "rhythm" mode as Francis (& is becoming a black hole >>> Kenny Thomas ) Francis is an incredible athlete and Rudy milked his abilities using the iso system, before zones were legalized. I don't think he can work as well off the ball as AI, and really don't know where or how he truly fits in. I don't question his heart or his will to win, it's his bball skills and IQ. If we can move him and Taylor or Cato for an Eric Snow type PG and an impact SF, we'll be much better off. D R
go back and watch the tape, he was on Manu for a sometime last night, when Cat was off and when we had the MJax, Steve, Cat line-up on the floor........ damn you see such a defensive difference steve ball watches on D, a couple of times he had no ideas where Manu was..... All the great SGs in the league can set themselves up for baskets without the ball...... can Steve do this?
I don't think it would work because 1) Steve's game is predicated on his controlling the ball and beating guys in isolation. Having another player bring the ball up the court and then pass it to Steve doesn't really solve this. And yes Steve does not have AI's floor sense or scoring instincts as another pointed out (no knock on Steve here, no other 6'3" or less guard, including Marbury, has AI's offensive repiture either). 2) his defense would be atrocious. Thus limiting Steve time with the ball by moving him to the two basically makes him the equal to Mobley offensively and he is a much inferior defensive player, I don't see the gain. Maybe if we had Lebron or Magic it could work, but I just don't see it happening.
I think this is really the key. Steve right now has to create off the dribble to be effective. He hasn't had to move around without the ball much, so this isn't part of his game. That is not to say that it couldn't become part of it though. Iverson early in his career dominated the ball too, but learned other facets of the game necessary to be an effective 2-guard. Steve could do the same, but we'll never know until we try it. Steve cannot all of a sudden become a shooting guard though, it woudl take time. I think JVG should design some plays where Steve acts as the off-guard and moves around more and does not run the offense. Cuttino can do a suitable job for a few plays a game and just see how it goes. I think it would be good just to see how it changes the flow of the game, if at all. It could be used as a way of throwing opposing teams off the zones that are killing us. At this point, I actually feel bad for Francis. His game has come unraveled of late and he seems to have little confidence out there on the floor. He is scared to shoot now and can't seem to please anyone, whether he scores a lot or not. Since the whole Super Bowl debacle, Francis just hasn't been the same player, even compared to earlier this season. We have to do somethign to get him going . . .
Funny thing is, Yao would be pretty effective in an uptempo offense, since the defenses would have less opportunity to double- and triple-team him. I think in many ways, JVG has done a great job here so far, but it does make you wonder how things might be different under Brown or Dunleavy.
I've said this in a couple of other threads but I can't believe no one brought it up here. Yes, I know a lot of people agree that Francis isn't a pure point guard, and the question here is could he make it as a 2 guard. I say no: He doesn't have the defense, size or consistent outside shot of a 2-guard. I can't see him defending Kobe, Ray Allen, or even Doug Christie and holding his own with them, much less shutting them down. On both sides of the court, he'd have trouble with any of these matchups based size alone. Yes, he's quick and he jumps high, but there's no substitute for an extra foot of wingspan. His outside shot is not the lethal stroke you want from your 2 guard, and he'd get blocked/hurried on most of his 3 pointers if a 6-7 guy was guarding him. My next point: We need Brent Barry. Francis is too much of a scorer and not enough of a court vision/passer (although he tries hard) to be a pure point guard. Like the previous post, I agree that he's a 1.5 guard or combo guard. So how about a 2-guard that can pass? How about Brent Barry? He has the size and outside shot of a 2 guard, and he can pass effectively. It would work. Remember the game Rox vs. the Lakers when Mobley had 10 assists and we looked _awesome_? How about a season-long performance like that?
