Somebody needs to e-mail Steve Campbell and tell him to post an apology in the paper for all the true fans out there cheering their arsses off and being in their seats when the game starts.
Like tonight's game. You tried to read Adelman's mind. Which is worse? Hmm. Well well Roffy m'boy, hope you like the taste of feet.
I personally think Adelman knew Francis has the skills, talents and heart. Somehow the first 6 win and the summer practice gave him a very sounding belief that the Rafer, Mike and Head are better players. It's probably true back then when Steve is still rusty and coming in not well prepared. However, the last 6 losses showed that in reality or in real games when pressure piles up, Rafer got worse, Mike slump and Head went missing. That's why we lose in playoff. These players are not BIG TIME players unlike Steve. Well I am pleased Adelman finally realised the weaknesses of Rafer, Mike and Head. This knowledge is crucial during playoff. Finally, we still got AB. Landry and Synder to explore. We need to know their true skills and talents during crunch time so that we can play them when we NEED them during crucial time i.e. when someone is injured or ill or banned during playoff.
Coach Adelman always said that Francis fell out of the rotation because he came in to camp out of shape and was handily out played by the players in front of him. Being in shape now or having a good game doesn't mean he wasn't out of shape or playing poorly before. They aren't mutually exclusive. While I didn't expect Francis to play as well as he has so far, I do hope Steve can keep up the good play. It makes us a much better team.
But I'll say Stevie is not in hi best shape so far. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-2itVYnZRI Above is mix of SF3
No, actually, with so many of us having pleaded for Francis to have playing time and with tonight's peak game-saving performance coming from his having finally made the rotation, the real title of this thread should read as follows: ADELMAN NEEDS TO TRUST FRANCIS FANS!!
We could have won against Memphis, Lakers, San Antonio, Mavs, and Heat without Francis. And we did. All of those games were close down to the final minutes, Rockets even led in one or two of them. Plugging Francis in does not guarantee a win. It COULD lead to a win, but then so could role players not named Luis Scola actually hitting an open shot in the 4th quarter of those games.
Thing about Francis being out of shape early on is there is no definitive timeline for when the effectiveness we see out of Steve in the last couple of games truly begins, so its all speculation. Most likely scenario is due to the poor play of the other guards early combined with the efforts Francis made during practices the weeks leading up to his debut, he was ready to get some minutes in these games. And thats exactly what happened. Playing Francis earlier than that could have led to poorer performances by the team due to spacing and other issues that arent apparent in one on one scenarios(where he succeeds).
There a bit of trust that needs to go both ways between RA and SF. Whenever there are new coaches and/or new players, it takes time for them figure out one another. It's good to see RA bringing Steve in early now. Seems like RA trusts him more. Although there may be a few knowledgeable basketball fans out there, but there are far more ignorant ones. RA's job is to coach the team and ultimately win games. Fortunately, fan-pleasing isn't part of RA's job requirement.
RA's job is to win games. A win will make fans happy. So if RA does a great job, he will mak fans happy.
let it go, the point is that the article says adelman knows what he is doing like he has made all the right decisions. you can't make that argument if the team is out of the playoff currently. as i said earlier, the timing of this article is also suspect.