My point would be that not one of those guys has been stuck in offensive hell that we currently employ. I remain convinced that our offensive scheme contributes to his difficulty improving in these numbers. The difference in Marbury and Francis is three and a half passes for better or worse. Francis only had 3 more turnovers than a legendary disher like Kidd. All of the PG's mentioned have much more versitile offenses that create passing lanes and involve moving without the ball. In the few games that the Rockets ran that type of offense Francis shined. I doubt that for a total of 10 games Franchise played within himself and the rest of the time he was just completely out of control. I believe it had more to do with teams not remembering how to play this kind of offense since they hadn't seen it since high school. With the introduction of the Zone the flaws of our offensive system were more apparent than ever. Change the system, if he doesn't improve then i'll stand down and accept that he needs to be a two guard until then I stand by my signature.
I was taking Francis career average assist (6.4), but I rounded it up (6.5) to give Francis the benefit of the doubt (stay the same in assist). So, let me explain again... Keep Francis's assist the same (6.2), but lower his TO's to 2.5 (down from 3.7) and that would be incredible (for Francis). Now, before you say, "What's the big deal about 1.2 less TO per game?" That's HUGE! It's not 1.2 TO per game in the sense that he will only turnover the ball that many times less. It's an AVERAGE!!!!!! And those turnovers ADD UP! So, 1.2 less turnovers is a huge improvement that you will actually be able to see on the court. A guy with 2.5 averer consistently has games that teeter-totter around 1,2,3 TO per game (back and forth - with an occasional 5 TO game). Francis consistently has games around 2, 3, 4,5,6 TO per game (with an occasional 8 TO game). Very erractic! And it's shows up as 3.646 TO per game (3.7 rounded). So, going down to 2.5 TO per game is a BIG improvement. Do you see? Now, keeping Francis's assist at 6.2 not asking to much. I'm not asking him to be Gary Payton and get 2.5 TO per game AND 8.5-9 assist per game! Yes, he did that. Nash is at 7.3 assist per game at 2.3 TO per game. That's awesome too! So, what's so hard for Francis to get 6.2 assist per game at 2.5 TO per game? That's giving Francis even more leeway. Note: Nash and Payton have always keep their TO very, very low, even during their rookie years (yes, their first 4). Francis has always been around 3.7-4.0 TO per game. He has NOT significantly improved. He's consistently BAD his whole carreer. Youth is NOT an excuse!
True. And if Francis is ever able to take care of the ball (low TO), then Francis will be head-and-shoulders above Nash. But until then. Francis is a good guard (with a lot of flare). Not great. Not a leader.
Nor do I blame youth. I blame the coaching staff for paying a ton of money to non-leaders who are riding the bench, thus preventing us from getting LEADERS to help the young stars. I blame our terrible offensive system for preventing our players from developing as they gain experience = no improvement in numbers. I'm through arguing about SF's ability because until I see a real offense capable of being effective in today's game I don't care who is playing point. Move him to SG and bring in Marbury. We'll have about the same numbers because we will still only have two offensive sets. 1. Catch and make something happen on your own because you aren't supposed to pass. 2. Drive and Dish, which is so very ineffective against the 2-3 zone.
You're absolutely right. DavidS However, I think Steve is willing to change and he can be better than Nash in the long run. For the PG comparison, Nash blows Steve out of the water. He's so much smarter than Stevie right now, he creates for his guys, he provides instant leadership when he steps up and drains clutch shots, he goes to the hole strong when the whole team is bricking shots. IMHO, Nash is one of the best PG in NBA. As for shooting, Francis can get there even though he's not as good a shooter right now. Francis need to improve his shooting right now he's looking to drive more than pull up J. I watched many Mavs games & Rox games, conclusion: Nash flat out kicks franchise's butt as PG. I'm hopeful that Francis will get better. (Hopefully, sigh... he's got the MAX contract, not going anywhere)
If I'm a coach, stopping Nash is the first thing I wanna to do if I want to beat Mavs. If you ever watched any Mavs game, without Nash running the plays, Irk or Finley will not get as good a look as they would like. True. Kidd will not be as effective if all he does is dropping a pass to the post. However, if we get Kidd in here, do you think all Yao can do is sit at low post and wait for a lob from Kidd? Everyone needs to move and we get better shots. Running offense through Yao makes a lot of sense even to those with tons of technical bball expertise. (Coaches, commentators,etc) PG should dictate who gets ball and where, I think offense through Yao means Yao in low post as first offensive option. I for one like Franchise and he's the best player right now. We're only trying to get the teams to play better, every player and coach is up for criticism, that's not hating. Steve Francis is good however he's not unstoppable like A.I. Kobe, TMac or Tim Duncan.
I agreed with most of your post except this. Francis is asked to distribute the ball not just score. Those guys are asked to score first, and ball distribution comes out of that. If Francis was given greenlight to take as many shots a game as AI, or Kobe, he would be unstoppable. I'm not saying Steve does distribute the ball totally effectively just that he's asked to, and thus doesn't focus on scoring as much.
That's cool OUTITTAN, in fact mid season I was right with you that Francis could still be good at doing what good traditional PGs do plus being an explosive scorer that he is, and that Francis & Mobes could still be a great tandem. I guess I have just changed now. Kidd, Marbury, and even guys not in Francis class like Dre, JWill and Bibby have all played for teams and offenses far worse than the Rockets were last year yet have consistentlyhad much better A or A/TO numbers. In fact it was very suprising to me to see what Marbury did in NJ, Bibby in Mem, and Dre in Cleve--all some of the most dreadfull teams at the time. It lead me to conclude a little better system with a little better players in it has a modest impact compared to the basic fundamental skills and discipline of the PG and it is unrealistic and unfair to expect Steve to be an elite scorer while also being elite in traditional PG duties. So I conclude the best thing to do is let Steve be free to do what he does best (score and break down people 1 on 1) and not ask Steve to do many of the tradional PG duties like organizing the players, bringing the ball up, running the break, and making the routine plays that set up other players in their sweet floor spot and knowing where those other players sweet spots are. Maybe it would be a huge relief for Franics like it has been for Iverson with Snow there. So move Steve to the 2 or bring in a 2 or very special 3 (Odom will not do--we are talking a young Pippen or Hill) who excells at those things. There are different ways to reduce Steve's traditional PG responsibilities--but I think it must be done one way or another.
