Imagine YOU are Steve Francis, your team wins, but you are average...

True.

 

you're right. for us to take the next step steve will have to trust the ball more to his teammates. however it seems to me that he's done alot of changing over 3 months and definitely since last season. this is a guy whose been forced into dominating the scoring for the last 3 years and through college. he's adjusting to a totally different offense and has even said himself that everything now has to start with yao ming. i don't think for a second that he doesn't believe that.

yes he has mental lapses and stretches when he feels he needs to do too much but that's a result of a desire to win not selfishness. i wouldn't trade this team for any other in the league but people have to have some kind of patience with them. here's a newsflash: they're 20-15 which is much much better than the mood that seems to linger on the board.

 

That's exactly right. Give the team time to grow and they'll be a championship quality team in a few years. It doesn't have to be now! Look at Dallas; Nash, Nowitzki and Finley were there together for several years before they finally made this huge leap forward. But before they got good they had to lose...a lot. Houston right now is better than Dallas was a few years ago, and I think in a few years we'll be better than Dallas is now.

 

word up yall! i think that the young guys just need time. francis is still pretty young in the nba. only thru experience will he get better.
just look at all the great teams. they werent a bunch of 20-somethings. they were men. on the rockets title teams they were 30 year old men. robert horry, in his mid-20's was the youngster in the starting lineup. how long was hakeem in the league before he took it to the championship level? our group right now is sooo young.
we have the makings of a dynasty if the core group stays together. though its frustrating as hell at times, we just need to sit back and let nature run its course.

 

We DON'T win if Steve's playing AVERAGE. In the wins we have, I see that Steve has played great, and we need him to play like an All Star that he IS to be an above .500 ball club. Can Yao win without Steve? NO. Can Steve win without Yao? NO. Think back to all the championship teams in the past, for a team to trully become elite, we need 2 super stars. Shaq and Kobe, Jordan and Pipen, Hakeem and Clyde, Bird and McHale, Dumars and Isiah, Kareem and Magic, etc etc etc. We have a solid foundation of TWO young all stars that are going to just get better the longer they play together. Give BOTH of them time to develope.

 

People have to be patient, they expect Francis and Mobley to be these new players that suddenly play a different style of game because they have a good big man. It's not like they've had Yao Ming here for 2 years and haven'y adjusted, Yao's only been here for 2 months, and without a training camp to get used to him. Yet the team is winning while this team is learning about each other and that is what it's all about. But you have to give Francis time to adjust before people say he's not a smart player, he can't pass, he's not a PG, he's not a team player, he's not this, he's not that.

 

By they way, this team isn't going to win if Francis plays average. We get a dominant center and suddenly people want to cast off Francis or suddenly thumb their nose down to him. A good big man has never won a thing without good guard play. Let the team grow. You would think the Rockets were 15 games under .500 and headed to the lottery, this team is on the right track.

 

I think the one thing Francis needs to learn to become a better player is learn to shoot the 5-7 foot jumper. He is so good at driving to the hoop, but if he either gets blocked or fouled at the goal by the big men all the time now. They prepare for him getting to the hoop. If he could learn to shoot a 5 foot jumper when he cuts to the hoop, I think it would help a lot. Plus, he would not get beat up as much.

 

Roxran, I like everything you said. I think your ideas give me a pretty good idea of steve's position right now. To suceed he needs to just LET GO. What I mean by that is that he needs to have less control of the way the team plays. Give up the shots more, trust his players.

This may be what Doc Rocket was saying, but I didn't exactly get that feeling. I don't think Doc wants Steve ultimately(unless he changed his mind).

Steve's time to shine is in the playoffs and when the rest of the team is having trouble. He can take over games for a while until the team gets its feet under themselves again. Steve is one of the best players in the league, to be great, he needs to learn when to assert himself. That's what makes this Steve's team, he should watch it like a parent and take over when it's necessary.

Good topic!

 

I agree totally. I have faith in Steve and his desire to win above all else.

 

Steve really gets roasted around here. Even something that is laudable and unique about his game, his rebounding, is somehow a liability (what was *that*, Doc Rocket?)! The guy can't win for losing. He has had his fair share of poor games and commits too many turnovers, but virtually every team in the league (save for the Nets) would trade their point guard for him. No one here can dispute that.
He's one of the best in the game at breaking down defenses and getting to the line. On a team that shoots as inconsistently as the Rockets do, this is only positive (the last few games of poor free throw shooting, notwithstanding). I also think that he distributes the ball a lot better than he is given credit for. If we had forwards who were *at all* consistent outside threats Francis would have at least two more assists per game.
More importantly, Francis is a better leader than he is given credit for. Francis did not exhibit any of the ego problems welcoming Yao Ming as an integral part of the team that many (and many around here) predicted. He's been quite the opposite as a teammate of Yao. I also think that people shouldn't underestimate how the other players on the team look up to his toughness and work ethic. On a basketball level, I think he *is* trying to get more people involved in the offense. In a lot of recent games he hardly takes any shots in the first half of games and then picks up the slack later. Am I the only one noticing this?
I know, I know, kill me for defending the Rockets, but I think things have gone about as well as could be expected after last year and integrating such a big change in direction without a training camp with Yao. If the offense is not running as smoothly as desired, why must some fundamental flaw in personnel, or coaching be the culprit? Patience is a viture in life and sports. Back to your regularly scheduled bile fest....

 

People need to back off of Francis and look where we are now with him healthy. He is a pretty damn good player and our team would be nowhere without him. I think a lot of people on this site may be reading through the lines a little too much. True, we are losing to teams that we shouldnt lose to right now, this is not Francis's fault. When you have a guard averaging 23ppg, 6 rpg, 6apg, you have something special.

The Kings have two very good point guards in Bobby Jackson and Mike Bibby, but they dont rack up a lot of assists. In fact, nobody on that team has anymore than 6 assists per game. However, they average 24 + assists per game. This is an example of a superb offence because their team has the passing mentality.

I think if anything, this is much more important than a point guard racking up assists. If we could somehow instill the passing mentality in our team, our offense would be much better and more consistent.

One thing I have noticed stat-wise is that most of the time, your team can be one of the best offensively or one of the best defensively, its very rare for a team to be top 10 in both. We are probably one of the top 5 easily on defense. We have dramatically improved our D from last year, our offense is coming along very slowly but when it comes around, and it will, we will be a team to reckon with.

 

Steve statiscally is awesome! As I wrote in a previos post, he is like a pocket Magic Johnson. But like everyone here stats ain't enough. We want to see W's, leadership and adaptibility with the stats.

When Hakeem was around, it was the W first and the stats took care of itself.

 

If I were STEVE, I would ****ing quit. Everybody in Houston hates me, regardless of my stats or my intentions

 

I swear to God I will eat my words, but just fyi, did you know that Steve is one of only four players that aaveraged 20/6/6 in his first 4 years? The big O, Grant Hill, Steve , and ?????? And, I think Steve is the only one under 6'3".

 

I like Steve Francis a lot. Between him and Emmitt Smith they are my favorite players, of any sport.

I think Francis will get even better. Once his forwards pick up there shooting percentage he will average 1.5 to 2 assists more a game. As stated above.

I do think Francis wants to win. He will make allstar game for a while now and he already has a max contract. And a couple commercials, once he starts winning a lot. He will get even more.

All hail Steve Francis.

Better then Wilt or MJ...

Just kidding.

 

Last time I checked, the only thing Steve said cared about was winning. Did I miss something???

 

I don't think I've ever questioned Steve's desire to win. The guy's got heart. The point has already been made that he's the type of player that can go off in the playoffs if it comes down to that. Hell, he's been waiting for going on 4 years now. I think he'll come to play. This isn't that good without him, errors and all.

 

sometimes, as a player, you have to recognize your own limitations. steve's limitations, to us as fans, are quite obvious. although he is immensely talented, he is equally immensely dense as a basketball player.

when i first began composing this thread, i started to say "immensely stubborn", however, i have no choice but to be dirrect in my assessment. why? because a stubborn person believes in doing things one way - usually their way - despite what the alternatives may be. a dense person doesn't even see those alternatives. they only see one way - their way (aka: tunnelvision). no matter what steve francis may say to the media about getting other people involved, i don't think he has the slightest clue how to do it, nor the desire to see how to do it.

example #1: how, as a basketball player, do you justify using a screen by going baseline - thus making the baseline an extra defender?

example #2: how, as a point guard, do you justify consistently turning your back 100% to the defense while dribbling?

example #3: how, as a point guard, do you justify consistently running the wings on a fast break?

example #4: how, as a basketball player, do you justify not giving the requisite effort necessary to lock up a player like earl boykins?

example #5: how, as a guard, do you justify not being able to throw an effective and consistent entry pass into the post?

example #6: how, as an point guard, do you justify having no less than 3 other offensive weapons on the floor (yao ming, cuttino mobley, and glen rice...at least some of the time) and choosing to consistently shoot 15-18 times per game?

example #7: how, as an nba point guard, do you justify ignoring obvious 2 for 1 situations at the end of quarters...choosing instead to "skip" and "high step" up the court; or even just dribbling then shooting with 20 seconds left on the game clock?

these are not "ability" questions. they are "intelligence" questions.

is he at a crossroads? sure he is. absolutely. the crossroads is a matter of swallowing his pride and ego. it's recognizing that although he is immensely talented, it takes more than talent - namely intelligence - to LEAD a team to the upper echelon of the nba.

can steve francis be a part of a championship team? absolutely. francis is one of the most difficult players in the nba to cover. he can shoot, drive, dribble, everything. however, if he wants to ascend to the top of the mountain that is the nba, he must understand, accept, and execute his role.

what is that role? it must be a role of a) setting up his teammates for the easy shots that they want to take; and b) honing every skill he has for the purpose of making yao ming's game more complete. now let's look at how to do this:

a) learn where your teammates like the ball. it is all too apparent to me where his teammates like the ball. eddie griffin likes to post on the move (unusaul, but understandable) across the paint. glen rice likes to shoot his 3s while moving forward (ie: in transition). cat loves backdoor cuts. posey loves to dive into and across the lane, plus running the wings. cato is a garbageman (nothing wrong with that, btw).

b) hone skills for yao's benefit.

what does yao ming need from his point guard? well, the first thing he needs is time on the shot clock. i am soooo sick of watching the ball pass the 8second line at the 18 second mark. get the ball upcourt as quickly as possible. that's just extra time where yao ming doesn't have to fight and maintain position. in this, yao's nba infancy, holding position is more of an issue due to strength and technique. it's vital to get it to him as quickly as possible once he has established his postition.

secondly, he needs a shooter (which francis definitely is) to be in position to receive the "kick out pass". i have counted numerous times where steve does not rotate to a spot where yao can easily and effectively kick the ball back out to him for a shot. in fact, unless steve dives to the bucket, he rarely gets the ball back from yao. we all know it's not a reluctance on yao's part to pass. it's, imo, a matter of not being able to get steve the ball easily. that's on steve...not on yao.


steve can do this. of that i am confident. he can be a difference maker. i just hope he realizes that he cannot be the difference maker. i hope he realizes that he can be one of the men, but not the man. the rockets' future depends on it.