Young guy looking for some Rockets history context

In short, no.

 

Not even close. I prayed for Francis to be traded away everyday. I was so excited when we got T-Mac for him

 

He dribbled for 22 seconds then shot fadeaways.

 

Francis era was tough, because we were transitioning from the Hakeem era. He quickly won over fans with his high flying and passionate play. Him and Cat were easily fan favorites on the team. Unfortunately, he was never a good passer or shooter (pretty mediocre actually, in a position that demands you to be pretty good at both) and I remember him being ultimately a pretty lousy defender as well. He was basically an undersized SG playing PG. I might get some flack for saying this, but Ellis reminds me of Francis a lot of the time.

 

He was also not a good decision maker either.

 

Shot selection, not so great play making. But I seemed to recall at one point Francis's relationship with JVG wore thin.

 

He had all the ego of Westbrook with maybe half the skill.

 

Dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, Shoot.

or

Dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, turnover

 

I was young too and loved Francis, but I grew up as a fan (and a person) during his years and I realized by about his 3rd year what he really was.

The only way Francis was ever going to contribute to a winner was as a Jamal Crawford offense off the bench type. He was a ball dominating SG who played PG.

Iso's and shoot, it was unwatchable.

 

He was voted in as an All-Star by the fans, but being popular doesn't make one a great player.

I don't really look back at the Francis era too fondly. There was a lot wrong back then. The ISO system Rudy put in place with Francis or Mobley ISO'ing on one side of the court with the other 4 players on the opposite side. Not only was it boring, but it was completely neutered by the league's rule changes in the summer of 2001. The trade of Dream to Toronto. The signing and trading for awful, overpaid role players. The constant waste of draft picks. 4 straight lotto seasons. Those stupid pajama uniforms.

And most of all, what seemed like a complete lack of direction for the franchise. Obviously the West was too stacked to even make the playoffs with 40-45 wins, so what exactly was the long-term plan to rebuild? In the end, Les was finally forced to make some changes that were long overdue. Rudy was fired....errrr, allowed to resign for health reasons. Francis was eventually moved in the T-Mac deal. And the Rockets went toward a more defensive oriented system under both Van Gundy and Adelman(and now under McHale in Year 4).

I just view that period as mostly a waste of time, although I suppose it did unexpectedly net us T-Mac and Yao, so it wasn't a complete waste.

 

You can't talk about Francis without Mobley.

That's 1.

We got him as a raw rookie.

That's 2.

Rudy T designed the offense so Steve could play iso

That's 3.

 

...and half the brain.

 

Jeff Van Gundy

 

The Francis era is how I play nba 2k15 in 'My Player' mode. Dominate the ball and be the only one to shoot/score.

 

Tinman pretty much nailed it. You were either in a camp that loved Francis and thought Mobley was stifling his development or vice versa.

He came into the league at the right time, the ISO era was emerging, soon you'd have ball dominators like Kidd and Iverson making the finals on a regular basis and Gilbert Arenas types putting teams on their back. Rudy worked the system and got the most out of it before Stern squashed it.

I appreciated his energy. Full throttle 94/48, except that one time he went to the Superbowl (lulz).

He was never on Harden's level but his popularity was through the roof. The Texans were new and the city still loved the NBA.

JVG tried to reshape his game. He suffered from migraines. Never recovered.

 

I remember those days fondly, because the Francis-Mobley teams were the ones I grew up with. He had his spectacular moments, but it was very obvious that a team led by him wasn't going to be a contender. I do think that in this day and age, with his slashing ability, he would've still been considered a star. Monta with elite athleticism (...and a propensity to dribble the ball for at least 10 seconds a possession) is a great comparison

 

Honestly felt Francis was every bit as talented as Harden but I think he was poorly coached. He needed more structure to his game and unfortunately he was given free reign to do whatever.

 

The Francis-Mobley backcourt was exciting but, you knew they were never going to win anything with them.

Harden had already been to the NBA finals, and been in the playoffs three straight years before joining the rockets. Francis was just a rook