Free Steve Francis, the reigns of the Rox now belong to Yao Ming. When your boy is flailing like he did last night remember without Steve there to deny him the ball it won't be a 4-16 shooting night it will be an 8-32 night and that's only if he can keep his winded ass on the court for more than 25 minutes a night. Open your eyes Steve has LEAD this team to every win we've gotten this season, all the other players could do is tag along. Yao is content to drift in and out of games and only take over occassionally, you wanna talk about the Rox only beating the good teams maybe that's because that's the only time Yao can be bothered to show up. God, I am so tired of y'all thinking he is the second coming of Wilt Chamberlain, open your eyes to the obvious. He IS a rich man's Rik Smits, nothing more. Go ahead, trade away the heart and soul of this team but don't be surprised when it comes back to bite you. This team has done everything to cater to Yao, and how good we become will hinge on his developement but I am so tired of YOFs blaming everyone but YM for YM's shortcomings. When you've got your desired PG and YM is still not Wilt maybe then you'll realize but unfortunately I'm going to have to suffer right along with y'all because I'll continue to supprt the Rox but.....
i have a difficulty seeing how steve is the team's heart and soul. if that's the case, rigor mortis should be setting it any minute now. and a RICH man's rik smits would be one badass player in today's league
please dude, Steve is on the floor every minute of every game, outrebounding our entire froncourt and outhustling the entire team. FACTS brutha. Think about this Yao's stamina is prolly at it's peak right now it's all downhill from here, think about the other giants the league has seen, Rik Smits is prolly the best we could hope for and I didn't see him win any rings.
Rik Smits is prolly the best we could hope for and I didn't see him win any rings. Yeah, but he did get to the playoffs...didn't he? Should we stick with Francis as the goto guy and never make the playoffs? please dude, Steve is on the floor every minute of every game, outrebounding our entire froncourt and outhustling the entire team. FACTS brutha. It doesn't give you much credibilty to post something so obviously untrue and calling it fact. Not only isn't Francis the leading rebounder, he's having his worst rebounding season since his rookie year. You're saying that Steve is on the floor every minute and you also say that Yao can only play 25 minutes? What does that tell you? If Francis is playing that many more minutes, shouldn't he be producing more than a guy playing 25 minutes?
Steve is not being given the oppurtunity to succeed though. He is asked to dribble the ball to half court and dump it inside, Steve's stats this year are irrelevant at this point. Listen i'm all for it, trade him he is being wasted here not to mention costing us on the cap big time but Yao Ming ain't gonna lead us to the promise land atleast not without alot of help.
you dont know what you are talking about! Francis is a loser and wont ever win a thing, we need to get rid of his stupid play it will doom is in the end!
you dont know what you are talking about! Ming is a p***y and wont ever win a thing, we need to get rid of his weak ass play it will doom is in the end!
Summer Song Giver and Steve Francis sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! Geez man, Steve Francis cannot shoot, cannot run an offense, turns the ball over like the CEO of a charity, and is a whiner who leads the league in technical fouls. If this make Steve Francis the heart and soul of our team, the Rockets need a heart transplant and new religion. We did the right thing when we traded away Hakeem and he actually did something for the Rockets. Steve Francis is not the second coming of Jesus Christ and it's flat time that people on this board realized what a ****ty-ass point guard he is.
farhan007, Love is blind, and you, my friend, are in love with Steve Francis. Either you judge a player by ESPN highlights or get up to piss every time Steve makes a bad play. ANYBODY that watches the games DOES or SHOULD know that Steve Francis needs to dominate the ball to be effective. Steve Francis is one of the athletically gifted players in the league, but his skill set is pretty shabby. Why can't you understand this? P1st,S2nd
verse honestly I like steve ALOT but if it improves the team . .I'm for it HOWEVER every trade I have seen is either 1. nigh impossible 2. ridiculous SF for hinrich and a ham sandwich DOES NOT IMPROVE THIS TEAM the steve bashing has gotten so ridiculous it is shameful Honestly the calls on the man's intelligent/personal attacks are a bit unwarrented as well Rocket River
I was trying to make a point, if you notice I was only playing off the blind hate the other poster showed replacing the SF3 with Yao and changing the adjectives to make a point. I don't hate Yao at all, I hate the cat who dogs SF3 calling him a hack when he prolly never even saw him play before Yao came into the league. I hate the fas who blindly wants to dismantle this team because they think because Yao is a promising young player he should be given everything especially when Steve is doing everything he can to do these things for Yao.
im sorry, but im afraid i watched every single game this season and last season! So your logic is inefective. Plus francis is or was a good shooter. Look at his past fg%. One season he shot a 39% from the 3pt line, ad for half a season last year he shot 44% from the 3pt line!!!!!! You dont call that a skill set???
You're right. Last season through the first 41 games, Francis hit 49 of his first 110 three-point attempts (44.5%). The rest of the season, Steve hit 27.7% of his threes (I'm not sure - was Van Gundy coaching last year or not?). This season, Steve is hitting 28.8% of his threes. Which means over the last 106 games (since January 25, 2003) Steve has missed 257 three-pointers in 359 attempts (28.4%). This isn't a fluke, and it wasn't brought on by Van Gundy. Rocket River - based on your no-response, I take it you concede that the Brent Barry-pads-his-numbers-against-second-teams argument that you tried to make was total and complete nonsense.
You people don't even see the simplest solution. I like JVG, but the problem is his system. I understand that he believes in it, and it may even work. At the same time, you have to play to your players strengths. You shouldn't trade away or waste a great talent like SF just because he doesn't fit your system. Tweak your system to fit him. I have no problem going through Yao most of the game. But the rockets were a better offensive team last season when they ran mostly iso's for their guards. Why not give Francis isolation plays 7-10 times a game. They give them to Mo, Cat, and JJ. Why not let Stevie do it? He's comfortable in iso, and would do a good job. He's shooting so poorly this season because he doesn't always just go with the flow. He's thinking too much. The GS game was a perfect example. He struggled all game, but when they needed his scoring, and he wasn't afraid to piss off JVG, he hit. Why not just give him the iso play he had last year a few times and let him be the scorer he is. You can run the offense through Yao the rest of the time. SF will never be a prototypical point, so why waste his scoring ability? Give him some freedom. JVG needs to understand he has better players than he did in NY, and play to their strenghts.
what is even funnier is that almost every player suggested to replace him will be able to represent thier current team at this year's lottery....
