Francis is almost untradeable as of right now. GMs will be very reluctant to take on a contract of that length and dollar amount in the luxury tax era. Plus, it sets a really bad precedent in terms of signing future free agents..."OK, we're going to sign you to this long term deal, then trade you a year later". Not good PR wise. The only way to move Steve is through a sign & trade, but I doubt that many teams would want him right now...another genius contract signing by CD...
Build around Yao and Stevie... Everyone else can go...It's doable as there are clubs that will want someone like CAT, Mooch, Rice or Cato...There is always someone dumb enough to take our garbage... But buy doing this, you must re-tool the offense around Yao...With a year under his belt and rest, he'll open up the offense and Steve will still get his shots...
A lot of these "Yao will never be top 5" posts have focused too heavily on Yao's lack of jumping ability. Anyone who has played at a competitive level knows that leaping ability is not even close to being as important as good positioning and footwork. The latter are two things that Yao can improve upon in time with weight training and more experience. Once he does, he will be an absolute force on offense...you can count on that. Combine that with his mental smarts and competitiveness, and you have your top 5 player. More importantly, you have someone no other team can match up with. That is the kind of advantage, combined with smart, tough players, that leads to championships.
You want a reason why Yao will be a top 5 player in the league in 2-3 years? Read your signature and you will know why. And as for you lack of quickness stuff you mentioned, it was clear to me that are a novice in the training forms and the kind our muscles (short and long twitch) that come to play when one is trying to develope speed or quickness laterally or otherwise. Please enough of the myth about Yao "slowness" - he is not slow. His problem is stamina and physical strength. Yao is a very quick athlete but he does not have the stamina to hang now with the more superior athletes in the NBA. Yao will better for his first taste of the NBA. He will gain some more muscle mass for next season and he will hopefully grow stamina wise. This team is Yao's and our team administrators must build around him. Asking Mo Malone to help his developement will be good as well (God knows that Mo will be a better asst. that Mr Mean at least). Yao will get at least 1-2 months of break to "recoup". I am greatful that Yao is on my team. I can't wait for next season with our new 'digs' and 'unis'.
Well having those numbers mean nothing if Francis refuses to pass the ball more. Francis can not be a point guard as long as he continues to look for his numbers instead of helping the team become better.
Don't kid yourself. Just about every other team in this league would trade for Steve in an instant. He's an explosive dynamic player that would put people in the seats. I live in NY and watch the Rockets through League Pass so I get the perspective of the other teams and the first thing that they always say is that the guy is unguardable. The Knicks would take him right now I know for a fact and they would be a top three team in the East.
Don't kid yourself if you really think that Francis's talent/potential and his contract really make him that hot a commodity. Of course every team would trade for Francis. Every team would trade scrubs to us for Francis. Knicks would sure gladly give us their Howard Eisley and Allan Houston right? LOL.
I think you are contradicting yourself. Personality is part of the mental aspects. If you believe that mental aspects develop with experience, you should also believe that aggressiveness can be developed with experience. The fact is, both the physical and mental aspects of the game may or may not be developed. (Just look at Mobley. ) It depends on how much the player wants to improve himself and whether he recognizes his own weaknesses. You mentioned about Larry Bird. Let me point to another example: John Stockton. (OK, let's just set aside our hatred of the Jazz for the sake of argument. ) He has very little physical athleticism. But was arguably a top 10, if not top 5, players in his prime. And he is still damn good over 40. I know some people will point to his not winning a ring. But let's look at it from his point of view: Jordan chose to play baseball in the wrong years. Stockton is so good because of just one thing: smart and fundamentals. (OK, that's two things. But you get the drift.) If there's anything that cannot be developed, you either have it or not, it's smart. Larry Bird was smart. Magic Johnson was smart. Michael Jordan was smart. Steve Francis is not smart, from what I've seen. And from what I've seen, Yao Ming is smart. That's why together with his size, he has good potential to be a top 5 player. What he needs is to develop some fundamentals and toughen up his body.
I don't believe any of this. The luxury tax isn't an issue. If it were, how are all these players signing max deals? Not to mention you're matching salaries in a trade. The only precedent it sets is that if we get a fair offer for you in a trade, we'll take it. That's the precedent set by any trade - what difference does the amount of the contracts involved make? And yes, teams would still want Francis. Lastly, 'another genius contract signing'? WTF? What the hell was all that M.A.S.H. crap about? Were you advocating trading Francis before he was signed to his deal?
C'mon, Freak...the luxury tax is an issue because of the length of the contract. The pay goes up by 12% each successive year of the contract, making it harder to sign other players as the contract progresses The precedent being set is in terms of future free agents...I thought I mentioned that. Let's say a player is interested in signing here, but then remembers that the Rockets traded Steve one year after signing a fat deal...think he'll trust the Rockets not to do the same? Sure the NBA is a business, but excess player movement is just bad karma, which is why nobody wants to play for the Clippers Don't overestimate Steve's value on the league, especially after his performance in the last few games. Most other teams either have something equal to or better than Steve, or they don't have a comperable player that they want to trade. Fourth, yes this contract does seem like it's a bad one. Steve is barely playing better than his injury and migraine filled campaign of last year, and is down across the board from 2000/2001. As it stands, CD overpaid for him, as he did for Cato, Taylor, and Moochie....hopefully, Steve will prove me wrong Finally, M*A*S*H stands for Members Against Steve HATING. There's a big difference between hating and criticizing...and I wasn't advocating trading for Steve before he signed his deal, and I'm not advocating trading him now, if that's what you're accusing me of doing. Whatever roster moves the Rockets make, I'll have to support because they're my favorite team and I have no input on player movement. I'm stating that he can't be traded right now.
Would agree that Francis looks like crap right now, but alot of his missed layups are the result of non foul calls. He gets hacked alot. As for Yao, I think he has finally hit the wall. What, .9 blocks? Are you kidding me? Also, if he's posting up 6'10" Dale Davis, the last thing you should do is look to pass. He's got 8 inches on the guy.
New Girl, Francis is a young All-Star, repeat All-Star (voted by the fans, mind you). Francis is exciting and puts people in the seats, bringing revenue to his team in the process. That is what makes him a hot commodity. Francis is not going to be traded and if he were, the Rox would definitely command more than the ridiculous (I know or hope it was tongue in cheek) swap that you suggested. You could get frickin' Lebron James and a big contract for Francis and a pick. Don't think any differently. I think you are TOO worried about the cap, and it has impacted your ability to judge player values. In effect you are posting non-Homer-esque posts, in which you are de-valuing our players. One other thing, enough with the Rox salary talk... "it will be 50, 60, 70 million for a borderline playoff team talk". We all know that Cato, Mooch and Taylor are on the roster and they have non-liquid contracts (for the Rox anyway). As someone earlier pointed out the Sonics moved Baker, although that house was on the market for a long time, and Taylor is twice the player that Baker is. Taylor is now and always will be younger than Baker, someone might bite, but not until the end of next year. It's just hard to project who is moveable and who is not because there are 29 different opinions in the NBA and to make a deal work you only need two of them thinking alike. Luckily the Rockets are not counting on you and I agreeing on Steve's market value to get a deal done.
But all contracts increase each year. What difference does it make if the money is tied up in one contract or 3 contracts? Any team trading for Francis is already spending that money on other players, or they wouldn't be able to match the salaries. This makes no sense. So you can't make trades anymore? Nobody is going to refuse to come to Houston because they traded Steve Francis. What difference does it make how much the deal was for? Are players going to refuse to go to the Lakers because they traded Glen Rice? Are players going to refuse to go to the Knicks because they traded Glen Rice? So we trade Steve Francis and all of a sudden we're the Clippers? I'm not buying it. Ray Allen was just traded. I believe he makes as much as Francis. I think most would say that he's not as good either. I don't think he overpaid. It was either sign him for the max, sign him to the max and trade him, or let him walk and sign somewhere else for the max. Francis was getting the max no matter what, it was just a question of where. There's no reason to take a swipe at CD here. No there's not a difference b/t hating and criticizing, at least not on this board and not as far as you're concerned. EVERY time someone would criticize Francis, you'd come in and pull the 'hata' card. I remember. Besides, the only reason I brought that up was because you're now saying that Francis isn't worth the money. Sounds an awful lot like 'hating' to me. Peace, Gilmore.
A couple of things- First For those that think Ming will not develop athletically, you're insane. The guy has NEVER worked out before coming to the states. The Rockets have en excellent strength coach (I know becasue he is a friend of mine) who will help Yao improve. Strength, power, quickness must be trained in a specific manner, and anyone can improve these qualities if properly trained. 2 things I can guarantee: 1. Yao is extremely fatigued from the cumulative effect of playing the Chinese season, followed by the world championships, followed by the entire NBA season. He is also shooting a ton of commercials flying back and forth has got to be fatiguing as well. 2. He will improve his athletecism and become practically unstoppable. He has already shown the ability to take a game over earlier this season, and he has shown it enough times to know that it wasn't a fluke. Second, expect changes in this team. You have to have consistent outside shooting to be able to operate inside, and we don't have consistent shooting of any kind.
Put people in the seats? Without prejudice can you tell us where you originated from? Mars or Pluto? Francis has been on this team for 4 years now and during this period, our team has coontinously slumped at the gate. Having Hakeem around in the first year made it a little bit better but our attendance has gone down since then.
Luckily, the Rockets have been getting calls from the Texans after they saw Steve punt the ball 60 yards.
Can some capologist eleborate?? For how long will Francis have a BYC contract or some other feature of it that all but makes it impossible to trade him. If he really is untradable because his contract can't be matched in the near future due to CB rules it makes no sense to debate further, even though I am one that thinks his leadership is questionable. While his leadership may be questionable, Francis's talent, skill, youth, marketability and production are not questionable. There is no question if Francis was on the market he would be a hot commodity. More than half the league teams would give up any player they have + more to get him. In fact he is worth more than just about any player who isn't going to be in the playoffs. If Francis could and was to be traded the bidding would start with somebody like Gasol, Brand, Jermain Oneal, or a top 3 pick (Lebron, Anthony) and go up from there. BTW--No way Yao is traded unless he is part of a deal for KG or TD (yeah, right).
Dummy.....Steve is here to stay deal with it. No I know lets trade him for Jay williams! yeah lets a get a younger player who can't even dunk right!
