Sorry, Easy. I don't usually disagree with you, but have to here. Murphy had 7.4 APG his 4th year, and 7.3 his 6th year (not the "beginning of his career"), dropping to 4.9 APG the year between, sharing PG duties with Mike Newlin (5.1 APG). He became more of a pure shooting guard with the arrival of John Lucas in 1976-77 (5.6 APG), but still managed 4.7 APG that season. The next year, Lucas blew up, averaging 9.4 APG and Calvin became the pure shooting guard you remember, averaging 25.6 PPG. As for Francis, he needed to be a SG playing next to someone like Lowry. That would have been an absolute gas to watch.
Lowry has led 500 teams ...like Francis. If Lowery leads us to the Western Conf championship with this squad then you can make that comparison ...and not before. Comparing him to Billups is BS at this point in Lowry's career. Regarding Lowry vs Francis, neither had decent teams around them. In the NBA, you want a player that draws a triple team. THAT is the player that has the potential to change the flow of a game. That is the player every coach would take their chances with. As Van Gundy described Yao, he 'warps' what is happening on the court. Lowry is a really nice player but at no point would you ever need to triple team him. Francis was a guy that needed to be triple teamed. The opposing team's whole defense started with Steve. You can't say that about Lowry. This is a bad team and Lowry is, what, the third option? C'mon? How can anybody seriously say Lowry is better than Steve at his prime. You guys are smoking crack. Steve in his prime would be the 1st or 2nd option on all 32 teams in the league except Miami. I'll concede Lowry is a better pure PG but no chance, as of now, is Lowry the better player.
Yeah, I guess I remembered the pre-Lucas time too short. And I always felt that Newlin was the real PG of the team. Calvin was more of a combo-guard.
Aaron Brooks? Did we already forget he should have been an All-Star 2 seasons ago when he lead the league in 3's? Oh yeah and he's the only starting PG we've had in the past decade to get into the 2nd round.
Since Steve Francis. I believe Lowry is at a level above what Aaron Brooks was at. Its not only offense. Lowry on defense, rebounding, passing, and scoring is overall better than any we had since Steve Francis who was good at multiple things too.
Problem wasn't his athleticism dying, problem was his body just completely falling apart. There is a difference. His career was destroyed by injuries. But he definitely underachieved as well. He should have had a lot more assists.
This only happened because the hand check rule meant everyone had to play iso-ball. When the Steve Nash era started and all these sweet-shooting playmaking pgs started entering the scene people realized how bad Francis really was. He couldn't understand why him dribbling wasn't such a big deal in Houston but got him boos and catcalls in Orlando.
Of course Lowry being this good is my opinion. I tend to gravitate towards guys who can do more than one thing. He fits that mold as the most important Rocket on this team in my opinion. A guy gaining steam every night for that multi talent type is Chandler Parsons. Of course its why I like Patterson too. Guys like Lebron, Pippen, Gerald Wallace, Lowry, Jason Kidd, guys who play defense and offense are real important to me. If they can rebound and pass? Thats a thing I think every Championship team needs out of at least one player. Lakers had multiple guys like this in Odom, Artest, Kobe, and Gasol. Celtics had this in Peirce, Garnett, and Rondo. Dallas had it in Jason Kidd.
Sleepy Floyd !!! How about 6'3" guard Sleepy Floyd playing with the Rockets before we won back to back titles? I was maybe 6 when I started watching the Rockets back then.
He's not better than Francis, but I do think he's better than Brooks. He's pretty similar to Sura (would have loved to have seen Sura at complete health).
We haven't had the combination of hustle, defense, brains and heart at that position in a long time. Francis has the hustle and brains, but Kyle is special. Kyle is a championship player. I hope he's a rocket for a long time.
