Wright: They play better when he's (Francis) not out there

What all this said to me is a reafermation of the facts that Steve Francis is a good player, but a poor playmaker and has the makings of a great Shooting Guard. The Rockets will benifit greatly from Steve relinquishing his position to a player whos mind set is pass first, shooting only when placed in the embarrassing poition of having to. Not only did Moochie show Franchise up but third string Maddox showed signs that with more experience, he might fulfill all that was said of his potential.

 

I think some people are taking what Wright and Moochie said about Stevie way too literally. I think it's more important to take the comments for their implications. When everyone from analysts, your teammates, and even opposing players are talking about your point guard and talking about his ability to run the team from the point you've got problems.

I would never say the Rockets are better without Steve, but I really don't think he's fit to run the point. He's a scoring guard 1st and a playmaker 2nd. I think when you have the offensive threats that Houston has, you really need a traditional point guard.

 

Grizz have the 8th best FG% in the NBA - 44.6%. Rox are tied for 19th.

I was assuming you didn't mean defensive boards as the Grizz are 23rd.

 

QUESTION for Lorenzo: DID YOU PLAY MOOCHIE LIKE YOU WOULD HAVE PLAYED STEVE? No? Why not?

THEN SHUT THE F*CK UP

I'm serious . .. . If Moochie was played Exactly like they play steve
Collapsing on him . . . etc. . . .would he have had this monster
game . . . .
The point is . .. the underestimated the mooch. . . .and he made them
pay

Rocket River
Easy for a sub to go off. . . . cause u don't expect **** from them anyway

 

Here are some comments about playign without Francis from the Rockets:

I hate to hear guys say this because everyone should "raise" their game every night. The Rockets are trying to make the playoffs. Don't wait for Francis to sit before you play with urgency.

Basically, players are better prepared to receive the ball with Mooch because they know Mooch will get them the ball, whereas with Francis, they expect him to shoot. He isn't knocking Francis and he is carefull with his words to not do so. But--as Barkley noted about Kobe--when one guy dominates the ball so much, eventually, for the other players, the game loses its fun and interest. It is always good for other guys to get consistent touches, not just bail-out-pass touches.

Wright was not trying to knock Francis. He was noting was that the Rockets played team ball tonight. With Francis out, the team didn't run all those Francis high pick-n-rolls and shared the ball a lot more.

None of these are indicting Francis. Simply put, they highlight the burden Francis has as his teams floor general and number one scoring option. This season Francis is slowly learning to not try to do every thing himself. It is taking time to break the habits formed during the ISO/no-big-man days. Hopefully, if Francis sits out longer, the team can keep up this performance and, in turn, affect Francis the way the Rockets affected Hakeem when he had to sit out and watch the team play better without him.

 

Rocket River:- Your vocabulary need a little polish, especially the street language. Let's keep the Forum Clean.

 

Grizzlies are just pissed that Francis didn't want to play for them back in 99

 

Okay. 26 assists is pretty good. Moochie had 9 assists. That is pretty good to me. Yeah...they underestimated him and never like triple teamed him or anything. But everyone played very well. The team played better. Maybe they felt more comfortable without Francis. Or maybe they are scared of Steve. Let's see if they can win against Boston.

 

It's not a bad idea to have Francis sit down a few games to see how the team chemistry/offense go without him. I like Moochie playing the point so far. I like the 9:0 assis/TO ratio.

 

Guys!! It's only 1 game....ONE game. And it was against the Memphis Grizzlies....the GRIZZLIES for cryin out loud!!!

That's the deal with this board. You love em when the day they win and hate em the next day they lose. What's wrong with yall poeple?

 

LOL

Yea, you tell him Abominable!

 

True without a doubt

 

It's not like the Grizzlies cannot beat the Rockets. They did.

What's wrong with the Rockets?

 

I just think this supports my guess that we only need one (Steve or Cat) to hog the ball. Two are too many. Were we doing pretty well when Cat was out?

 

Sadly it starts with Stevie and Cutino - and that is the plain truth. All what that game thought me is what I already know - we do not need great performance from the PG position to win - period. But that said Steve is still essential to this team.

Steve needs to learn to take care of his body and not purnish his body reguarly and many times unnecessarily. He defense is still very BAD and it is sad that Tito Madux is our best defensive PG. I will sincerely still like to see Steve watch one or two more games from the bench and get completely healthy.

I must also add that I was a bit dissapointed to see the disgusting ISO (by Mobley) against Memphis. This came when the team was working like German machine - almost flawlessly. I asked myself why? Is he going back to his old ways because the trade deadline is over. Don't get me wrong Catty had a great game - he was a delight to watch most of the time but please please please NEVER ever call an ISO unless it is the last shot of a half or game.

 

No, we just need to play one of the worst teams in basketball and hope their best player has an off night.

 

Mo's comments reflect worse on him than Steve
Maybe a bunch of Stevie's TO is because MO NOT LOOKING FOR THE
D*MN BALL!!

Rocket River
StreetBallMouth . . . .

 

What's the point of looking for the damn ball when you know you will actually get it 1 out of every 100 times?

 

I guess Wright drew his conclusion as much from this game as from his own experience playing with some PG named JWill.

 

It doesn't matter what Wright said, the fact is the Rockets ball movement looked much better and Cat seemed more at ease and comfortable in the offense than he has in a while... I don't know why they looked better last night without Stevie but they did. They seemed to be under control with less turnovers for almost all of the game accept for a short period in the fourth. Even Tito looked good. If had a shot I would move him ahead of Moochie, actually I think I would even without a shot.

I think for the most part Stevie is getting better distributing the ball, but he still has long way to go if he really wants to be a point guard and maybe that won't happen.