How about the Rockets give Francis back to the Grizzlies and we take Gasol... C: Yao/Cato PF: Gasol/Taylor SF: Jim Jackson/A Griffin SG: Mobley/Piatowski PG: Mark Jackson/Mobley
Oh, i'm sorry, you must be one of those people who think A) keeping a guy who is undersized, playing out of position, can't shoot, and can't defend, and is among the league leaders in turnovers is better for the Rockets than B) getting a young, athletic, versatile 7 foot power forward with an array of offensive skills to take pressure off Yao that can be a consistent #2 scoring option.
How many times has Francis gotten torched by opposing teams' point guards? Don't even talk about defense, you got a losing case there bud.
Let's see, if this trade happens, the Houston Rockets will have the softest non rebounding PF rotation in the league (Mo and Gasol). Not only that, neither can play any D. Other teams will be torching them night in night out. The two of them and Yao can form the best All Non - Rebounding team in the league.
Hmmmm, getting torched from outside compared to getting torched in the post. I wonder which I will take.
Bradley only plays 12.1 minutes per game versus 33 minutes for Gasol. Damn that Mark Cuban for being such a poor evaluator of talent!
Would you rather have Gasol's 17.7 points per game alongside Yao or Cato's 6.4 ppg? I thought the point was to try to make the other team NOT double team Yao, not the other way around. Cato Gasol PPG 6.4 < 17.7 RPG 7.2 < 7.8 APG 1.0 < 2.5 SPG .80 > .56 BPG 1.42 < 1.77 FG% .458 < .485 FT% .661 < .719 3P% .000 < .286 MPG 26.2 < 32.0 With the way Francis is shooting I don't see any double teams on Yao getting beat. With a solid low post scorer opposing teams can't cheat over on Yao because Cato is an offensive liability besides alleyoups which I'm fairly certain a 7 foot athletic player like Gasol can handle.
Bck awy frm th p*ssng mtch. Please. Silent, why would the Grizz want Francis? They have Jason Williams and Bonzi Wells. I saw the post from Memphis X and Deuce, too. Sure, Yao / Gasol would be a very nice front line; not ideal though. Gasol is not a fan favorite in Memphis even though very skilled because he loafs on defense and doesn't show up every night. He's a pout and somewhat selfish. For a high-value asset like that, I'd rather try to get Troy Murphy. He's a worker, and skill set perfectly matches with Yao. Vladimir Radmanovic and Brian Cardinal are lower profile and also good fits. I think Gasol should team with Wally for an all-sourpuss team.
any trade involving francis leaving for a quality PF or PG is worthy of discussion. I think the majority of the members of this board would agree with that.
The Grizz might want Francis to add to their star power value. It's hard for them to get media exposure with such a diluted team running a 10 man rotation. Gasol would be a 20/10 guy if he were the main emphasis but they've got so many guys who can contribute sometimes he doesn't get double digit shots a night. They wanted him in the first place right? I bet they would to have him since they have plenty of parts for trade.
I wish we could make a sticky with the following message: If you want to go to the playoffs... MARK JACKSON CAN'T BE YOUR STARTING POINT GUARD. He's way too old, slow, and a terrible defender... yes, worse than Steve. There's a reason he didn't play for the first half of the year.
I wonder though, if a Mark Jackson efficient in setting up the offense outweighs the Mark Jackson liability on defense. Imagine how many more shots and good looks at the basket we would have with Mark Jackson getting more minutes at the point.
