Why do we need Mike James? I think that these are too simmilar as players. I know that Rafer was enimic on offense. He took a million 3's and made only a million of them, but I think with 4 guys that can score Rafer might be the best option to start. He is the best ball handler, and the best passer of any of the guys on our team. He doesn't play the best D, but lets be honnest, none of the PG's we have are going to be even considerd for the 3rd team D. Mike James can't be traded until April, right? Did he get the trade kicker in his contract from Minn? Maybe it will make since for James to be moved during the season, especally if he isn't getting the time he thinks he needs. Put Brooks in the D-league, keep Rafer, play Francis at the 1 and 2 off the bench, and trade Head and Lucas. I think that it will give us 2.5 PG's and will allow us to make moves during the year. It will give Brooks more time to develop.
Rafer is good for absolutely nothing. If he is on the floor then we will be playing four on five on offense. Something only Stumpy was dumb enough not to realize.
This has been discussed ad nauseum in other threads, but here's my €.015: Insurance. If you go into the season counting on Mike James or counting on Steve Francis, you've got about a 50% chance of getting burned. Stevie's been hurt most of the past year, and MJ's been a bad teammate on his last two teams. That's not saying that either of them won't pan out, but odds are against both of them being productive team players. I'd feel really uncomfortable with either MJ or Steve Francis projected as my starting PG, but with them being able to battle it out, it gets better.
I tend to agree that on a team with so many more scoring options, Rafer is a much better fit than he was last year when he was forced to play 10 minutes more per game than his career average and the offense dictated that he be a spot up 3 point shooter. Rafer is better at running an offense, running a fast break and distrubuting the ball than Francis or James. JVG had great faith in Rafer's defense, and according to Jeff's comments he attributed the majority of the times Rafer's "man" had a big scoring night to bad help defense on pick and rolls by our big men. That being said I expect Rafer will be the one traded, even though it wouldn't be my personal choice since the other 2 were just aquired this off season. I do have concerns that both Mike James and Francis's play style are not particularly complementary to TMac and Yao, when both our franchise players are on the court. Francis and James are unquestionably better backups than JL III and what little we got to see from VSpan. They are certainly better at getting their own shot and scoring off penetration. That is something we sorely lacked as an option when either Tmac or Yao was out of the game last season. But Francis isn't going to improve our 3 point shooting significantly at the PG spot considering his career 3pt% is less than Rafer's. I'm just not convinced we need a ball control scoring PG starting with TMac and Yao obviously being the first two options and presumably Scola being an upgrade offensively from Hayes. At any rate our starting PG is unlikely to be a strength regardless of who it is.
James can be traded right now. The Question is: what the hell can you trade him for? Remember, all Minny could get for him was Juwan Howard. It's pretty clear that no other team really desire him that much.
James will be a solid option for three-point shooting, solid offense and good defense, whether its as a starter or off the bench. There's also no guarantee that Francis will stay healthy. We have more than enough extra players like Alston, Head, JL3, and possibly Snyder that could be used in a trade if we need to fill another position. Besides, it would be really tacky for the franchise to trade him again and would hurt the organization in the future when it tries to recruit other players.
I operate on the premise that you can't have too much insurance. Plus, I would like to see them play at the same time: Francis-SG, James-PG.
Here's a question to answer your question: Does anyone here think that the Rockets have enough or too much firepower to actually start trading AWAY players that can score? We've been devoid of offensive contributors other than Yao and McGrady for the past couple of years. It's like a breath of fresh air to have a team with players that can actually score.
I agree that they could, and if we don't trade James, should play together. The other question I have is where does Bonzi fit in this equation? His best position is the 2.
They are only redundant in the sense that they are normally capable scorers. Francis is more of a slasher, penetrator while James is a better spot up shooter who can also drive to the basket.
There is no way we are trading Francis, and James is just about as unlikely. Honestly I would prefer to keep all 3 until the season starts if possible, and then see who does well and who flames out. But most people consider that unlikely, and the reality is that all 3 of them have had issues in the past where they caused trouble when they didn't get the play time they felt they deserved. Talent wise we are much better than last year on paper, but lots of talented teams don't mesh well on the court for what ever reason (see the last few USA "dream teams"). My main thing is that with all the increased options in scoring that we seem to have and the promise of a more up tempo motion offense, do we really need a score first PG who is most comfortable dominating the ball starting? Personally I would prefer a player who makes few turnovers, feeds the post well, moves the ball and gets everyone involved, and shoots only when left wide open. Then the scoring, ball dominating PG's subbing in when Yao or Tmac leave the game giving us the scoring lift we sorely missed when either was out. If you ask Francis to play the distributing and spot up shooter role and not dominate the ball you certainly are not playing to his strengths.
Why does it matter if James and Francis are similar players??? They are both better basketball players than rafer. Bibby and Jackson were very similar and they worked well. There is no point of keeping an inferior player, simply to get a change of pace.
This is what kills me. People act like we've added all these players at the peak of their careers or something. I mean, yeah, they may be offensive juggernauts in the end, but do you really know for sure these guys will be great additions before you've seen them play and play together, at that? Francis : knee issues, but probably will be a good offensive addition. People were wanting to kill him before he left and now he's a saviour. James : nutcase, but probably will be a good offensive addition. plus is he as good as he was? Bonzi : uuuh... undetermined. Scola : uuuh... undetermined. Brooks : rookie... undetermined. It's not like we've added 5 offensive studs at their peaks or something.
I still do not understand why many people want a trade. What if Francis, James and Brooks all suck next season? It could very well happen. Francis and James had crappy seasons and Brooks is a rookie. We have no urgent need, so it is best to wait and see how things play out.
And what if rafer has another crappy year. James and Steve are proven to be much, much better basketball players than skip
the roster we have to start the season won't be the roster going into the playoffs. even if morey does not trade any of our guards when the season starts, he can hold on to those pieces and trade during the season to get a PF or something. i still believe at least 2 of our guards will be gone when we go into the playoffs next yr.
