Looking back, would we have been better just sticking with Yao and Francis? I say this as a HUGE fan of Tmac.
Relevant: https://www.theplayerstribune.com/steve-francis-yao-ming-hall-of-fame-tribute-2016/ Edit: Damn... Rudy T was old school cool. Can't imagine a coach spitting truth like that these days .
Agreed. In the end it was a lateral move at best The Rockets were rising with Francis They plateau'd with TMac Rocket River
In an alternate universe, I would have liked to have seen 1 more year with that Steve, Cat, Yao group. We never saw Steve and Cat with a dominant Yao, and I do think Steve would have greatly improved as a player and a person If he had stayed in Houston. The trade out of Houston hurt his spirit, and when Orlando traded Cat for Doug Christie that just completely murdered his spirit. Which is unfortunate because Orlando had a decent thing going with Steve, Cat, Grant and a young Dwight.
Man, this is so morbid, but I tried remembering all the players from that 2002-2003 team, and that team was just cursed : Jason Collier - died 3 years later Eddie Griffin - died 5 years later Juaquin Hawkins - stroke in 2008 (survived) Tito Maddox - brain cancer and surgery in 2007 (survived) Rudy T - left the Rockets after this season after 30+ years due to bladder cancer Cuttino Mobley - heart issues forced retirement in 2008 Yao Ming - injuries ended his career way too soon Steve Francis - whatever's going on with him
it was a regular season win when steve got 44. But the one playoff win we did get against the championship lakers was when steve had a great game
I'm not sure that Francis would have been a better pairing with Yao (as Tmac's failed pairing had a lot more due to injury that prevented us from ever moving on), but we could have definitely been a better team than we were when we lost to the lakers had we kept that same core group of Francis/Mobley/Yao. We did end up giving a lot for tmac who had already begun to show signs of injury. In the end it was worth the risk. It just took us too long to get enough pieces around Tmac/Yao and then the injuries didn't even come at the same time. They were always playing one without the other, or one of them just getting back to form. In the end of the day, Francis' career plummeted for reasons that were definitely on him BUT as well as JVG completely taking away his strengths and what made him such a gamechanger. He put the clamps on Francis more than any defense did that year and forced him to play like Mark Jackson's role ... JVG later admitted this during the finals between the Thunder and Heat when commenting on Westbrook's play. He said something along the lines of "I coached Russell Westbrook once. His name was Steve Francis" and he went on to publicly say on national tv how regretful he was of doing that and not letting Steve play to his strengths. It always came with a cost (turnovers) but I mean you look at guards now and I'm not sure it was any better. I would have loved to see Steve have the freedom under Rudy T combined with the disciple of JVG with a budding star in Yao. Unfortunately he got the clamps and only had two good years in Orlando to show off those strengths before his career was over.
I saw Steve Francis about an hour or so ago. He was trying to replace a lost license. To do so you need a personal document like a real votor card, or social security card. He didn't have anyone of those. Since i am the only guy there (and i am black & love basketball) he came and stood in front of me. I told him to wait a few minutes until i went outside for a break. He went outside as well and went and sat in a white maserati. He looked like he has been thru hard times. I was going to invite him to visit my church, but someone had helped him and he left.
http://www.tmz.com/2017/03/28/steve-francis-burglary-case-plea/ Ex-NBA star Steve Francis has struck a deal with prosecutors in his burglary case, and he'll avoid jail if he stays out of trouble ... TMZ Sports has learned. As we previously reported, Francis was hit with a felony burglary charge after allegedly breaking into a stranger's BMW and taking more than $1,700 of stuff in Florida back in June. A rep for the State Attorney's Office tells us Francis was accepted into a pretrial intervention program on Monday, which means he'll avoid prosecution if he completes certain conditions. We're told Francis will be under supervision for a year. During that time, he has to undergo drug and alcohol evaluations and complete any recommended treatment. He also has to do 50 hours of community service, pay a $7,300 fine and apologize to/stay away from the victim. If he does all that and stays out of trouble, prosecutors will drop the charge next year.
Agreed. It is kind of like Curry and Klay except no one is talking about. . . I WONDER HOW CURRY WOULD PLAY WITHOUT KLAY Trying to trade Klay just so curry could 'step up' (Not saying Francis is on Curry's level but how stupid the doug cristie for cuttino trade was) The Laker team the Rockets played against and lost too had 4 hall of famers on it we never played another team that was as loaded and experienced afterwards The first round exists in the TMAC era were to inferior teams . . .. inferior to that laker team Rocket River
WOW! I never heard that . . . .that is deep. His handling of SF was one of my personal big knocks on JVG (To a lesser extent his handling of YAO) His ridgedness imo cost him games and ground down players Rocket River
