I don´t think steve will have to change his game at all to fit into Adelman´s system. I think his role will be that of Bobby Jackson when he was with the Kings. Come and lead the second unit and score and score in bunches. When Yao and McGrady go to the bench which I hope will be alot more often this season or when the offense becomes stagnant, Steve-o will be called upon to put points on the board and keep the pressure up on the other teams defense. He also gets to the foul line alot because of his penetration so he will also put pressure on the opponent´s bigs to stay out of foul trouble. Its and aspect that Tmac didn´t bring because he doesn´t go to the rack that much. The question now is will Mike James be able to distribute the ball as a starter.
I think it's a lot more likely james will be coming off the bench. james is the better shooter of the two. it's james who will be the bobby jackson. francis will be...francis with less dribbling.
Yes, 2nd poster has it right. if anything Mike James will be playing Bobby Jackson's role. Also Francis is nowhere near Bobby's level of play. Bobby was a great slasher, a much better spot up shooter, a smart player, and just a great athlete. Francis "slashes" by taking 6 dribbles and crossing over which kills any offensive rhythm. He can't spot up shoot and he's lost some athleticism. I'd much rather have Bobby Jackson than Francis, many would.
i think james is the better starter. francis isn't a spot-up shooter and is most-effective with the ball in his hands. he can play with yao and tracy but can probably do even more as an offensive weapon in the second unit. james is a better shooter from everywhere thus has more value playing with yao and tracy. james does fit the bobby jackson mold but between him and steve i'd rather francis be the guy off the bench.
just saying opinions aside, I'm pretty certain francis will be starting. also I think people are sleeping on steve a lot. I'm fairly certain he's going to pull a vince carter and have a great year this year. the way people are talking you'd think mike james was better than steve, I'm sorry that's not the case. francis is not a great "shooter" but he is a gamer. watch his highlight video from him in orlando a year or so ago. that's what you're going to be getting.
what both mike james and francis lack is the ability to initiate the offense and get the ball in the right players' hands as quickly as possible. this is where we'll realize how much rafer meant to us. i agree with BigM though, James being the better spot up shooter means he'll better complement Yao and Tracy. Francis is only effective with the ball in his hands. he's not a spot up shooter, hes not a passer, and hes not great at penetrating. he needs the ball in his hands a lot to be effective, so Adelman will be staying up late figuring out where Francis will be in the lineup.
I think Francis is a better player who has played in bad systems. Jackson had by far his best years in Sacramento under Adelman. Adelman maximizes the strengths of players and minimizes their weaknesses. Hopefully he will have the same positive influence he had on Jackson on Francis. Then I believe we would be looking at a rich man's Bobby Jackson. As far as career stats go, the players are very comparable. Here they are just to be objective. Bobby Jackson career stats: FG% - 42.0 3P% - 36.0 FT% - 78.8 PP40 - 17.97 RP40 - 5.64 AP40 - 4.76 SP40 - 1.76 TO40 - 2.56 Steve Francis career stats: FG% - 42.9 3P% - 34.3 FT% - 79.9 PP40 - 19.41 RP40 - 5.91 AP40 - 6.44 SP40 - 1.58 TO40 - 3.76
if you want to call a halfcourt offense a "bad system" then i dont know what to say. a good player can adapt to any system, slow pace or fast pace. the fact that francis couldnt adapt to a halfcourt offense speaks volumes of his weaknesses: spot up shooting, PASSING, pick and roll play, etc...
he's not great at penetrating? he's not a passer? does the guy have any strong suits to you? francis is a very good penetrator. his court vision isn't incredible but to say he's "not a passer" ignores the fact that he avged 6.4 apg for us. your boy rafer averaged 5.4 last season, and 6.7 in a year that both tracy and yao were hurt. I realize you don't like the addition but francis makes us a lot stronger. if you can't see that, then maybe you should just go into hibernation until next offseason.
Possibly the most important stat which I neglected. Bobby Jackson career points per shot: 1.12 Steve Francis career points per shot: 1.27 Francis is a more efficient scorer. His turnovers are somewhat troublesome, but I believe those will diminish since he won't have to dominate the ball so much and Adelman will help mask this deficiency. At worst his 1.2 more TO40 counts as 2 points lost for us and 2 points gained for the opposition. However, he will not be playing 40 mins.
How is Francis not good at Penetrating? This would drive 5 people and score when he was last in Houston. I'm not saying he can still do it to 5 people but he can defiantly penetrate.
Adelman can use mike james in a lot of ways that he used mike bibby in this offense. James will be the adleman starter because of his ability to do some of the things that adleman wants to do early on in the game. James knows how to use the screens better than francis. The offense will be intiated with the bigs at the high post,Mike james's game is better suited at using the picks to get open look scoring oppurtunity's than steve francis would use the screens. Mike james is has more ball moving energy than steve and he want dribble the ball as much as steve would. Francis is better served coming off the bench and using his dribbbling and one one one abilities to get to the basket and be a spark off the bench liek a bobby jackson.With the second unit you won't have to emphasize the ball movement aspect, the second unit you can change up the way you want to play and give your offense a different look and take the defense off balance,you can put brooks at the point and they can run a little bit more and use quickness to beat teams and with yao and tracy getting a rest,francis can spearhead this unit and he wouldn't have to change his game as much.
Actually, Francis is a much better player than Bobby Jackson every was. If anything, he's our "Mike Bibby". Mike James fits the "B-Jax" role more.
You guys are all talking present tense about an image of Stevie from the past. I'll say this: the only stats that bad knees won't kill = turnovers. I hope this works, but I still see it as a bad move. If this keeps a young gunner like Brooks off the court, it's especially bad. I really hope he's more healthy than everyone in New York and Portland has been saying. But hey, Bobby Jackson had the knee problems, right? So maybe the comparison is better than ever.
Does he still take it to the rack like he used to? I didn't see him play much in New York, but I would expect that after all of his injuries, he's probably lost a step and may not be as effective at that. However, I feel like if we had one guy who would have gone hard to the bucket, we could have beaten Utah last year.
