were effective late as a starting backcourt but how far should we trust them?

Crawford has a good deal of the shooting and ball-handling skills and scoring acumen to be a starting 2. However he is a toothpick in size and the maturation of his floorgame has been slow coming.

Steve IMO is not the problem that most believe him to be. I wouldn't label him a floor general but he is a guard who does things to take pressure off others such as rebound and post up. He hits the wings in stride and he can find the shooters. 1 thing I don't like about Steve is his affinity with his handle. A child of that is outside of the lob pass, his chemistry with his bigmen is shaky.

If healthy conditioned and concentrating, I like this as the starting backcourt with Nate and Rondo or Lowry as the back ups. I think Brown can coach these 2 to play with the other 3 guys on the court.

Any thoughts?

Stevie mailed it in last year. I don't trust anyone who mails it in for a whole season to be more of a team player. I'd like to get rid of him, but I understand it may simply be impossible to get rid of both him and Marbury. And I'm not sure having a guy who has to dominate the ball and take a lot of shots is the best fit with Crawford and Nate.

Posted by VDesai:

Stevie mailed it in last year. I don't trust anyone who mails it in for a whole season to be more of a team player. I'd like to get rid of him, but I understand it may simply be impossible to get rid of both him and Marbury. And I'm not sure having a guy who has to dominate the ball and take a lot of shots is the best fit with Crawford and Nate.

Yep, Francis didn't want any part of the Knicks, acted as a child. If the choice comes down to him or Marbury I think even Brown would agree that he rather Marbury. Despite all the issues that Marbury had with Brown, he was the first to greet his teammates on the court and cheer while Francis just sneered.

Not to mention Steph is the superior guard. Steve is gonnna get it done for someone next season, just hope its not the knicks.

After several years in the league neither Crawful or Frankenstein have settled into a specific guard position. They each play "both" positions, but own neither.

But believe it or not, of the two I prefer Craw at PG. I think he's better at feeding the post, unlike Francis he can penetrate and think score or pass without losing his handle, and on D I like his log arms disrupting the passing lanes. I can't think of a single reason to like Francis at the point.

And I'm really left to wonder what a guy like Francis expects at this point in his career. He wasn't happy in Orlando or here, which leads me to suspect he wants to be with a more developed "contender". But he's got to realize that generally teams that are already succeeding typically already have chemistry and systems in place but have remaining specific needs to fill, like a good perimeter defender or a high percentage long range shooter. Few contenders need these combo guys that it takes a guru coach to figure out how to utilize them. Guys like him are more likely to succeed, at least on a personal level, on teams with huge vague deficiencies, like "we need someone who can score" or "someone who brings in fans."

"Talent" aside, to my mind, the skill set of some of these combo guys really lends themselves to 6th man roles on contenders (think Van Exel.) I'm not trying to say they're not starter caliber, cause they are, but these guys who've been in the league 5+ years and you still don't know what position they play are not in high demand. After a while one dimensional guys, whose talents while more limited are undeniable, like say Bowen or Peja, become far more useful to elite teams than these much vaunted combo dudes.

How we ended up with 4 of these guys (Stiph, Nate, Frankie, and Craw), all jockeying for "position", is beyond reason and humor.

How we ended up with 4 of these guys (Stiph, Nate, Frankie, and Craw), all jockeying for "position", is beyond reason and humor.

the GM is clueless

Isiah's spin on it is truly shameless

If you can't play more than one position you probably can't play.

what does that mean? Many great players have and are spending their careers playing one position. Some like Duncan have learned to play two. They still had to learn their "natural" position first.

I first of all want to draft lowry to groom as the future PG.But for now, craw could run the point. Now I think it is time to ship marbs out, and I think that is why francis was brought in. Now I don't know what to think of francis so far, but I do like his rebounding and size over marbury, steve can't shoot and he turns the ball over too much, now maybe we can cut back on his TO's, but really where does steve fit here? I don't know, I am not sure If I rather have Craw and Q rich in the backcourt......I think that might be a better duo..

i want to see Craw given the reigns to this team at the PG spot, & let Q Rich play the 2. (which of course, means Marbury & Francis are playing on other teams next year)

Crawford at point = 30 wins

Crawford is a good 4th quarter player. Getting him the ball knowing he can put it in the hole when situations get tight is a nice luxury. Being able to use him to orchestrate a few plays is an even bigger one. However when we talk about full time point guard

Being able to set tempo and get everyone involved, read defenses, motivates involves so much more that I don't recal Craw showing glimpses of to warrant giving him the starting 1 spot.