02-03 HOU 81 81 41.0 .435 .354 .800 2.00 4.20 6.20 6.2 1.74 .51 3.69 3.10 21.0 03-04 HOU 23 23 38.6 .395 .286 .787 1.60 4.10 5.70 5.0 1.35 .52 3.57 3.20 17.4 compared to his stats in 02-03: FG% -0.04, 3p% -0.07, FT% -0.02, AST -1.2, REB -0.5, STL -0.04 all minus.
To answer your question... YES!!! There is not one thing he has improved on since his best year - 3 seasons ago. PPG, PG%, assts are down and TO's are up. His confidence on making the right decision have taken a steep fall as well. He used to be a borderline superstar, now he is just your run-of-the-mill good player.
I don't want to bash Steve. From the stat and what I saw in the game, he doesn't improve a lot this season under JVG. Maybe he's adjusting. If he's going to make the allstar this year, it's an injustice for many western guards that're getting snubbed.
He's either regressed or the system has changed. Maybe parts of his game have regressed, and the system has changed.
Has anyone else noticed how much muscle Steve has lost in the last two or three years? He was pretty ripped when he came into the league, with some thick arms, but now, his arms seem alot thinner with very little definition. I just thought I would ask if anyone else noticed this.
I'm starting to get irritated at these threads. I am not the biggest Steve fan at all, but has he regressed? Absolutely not! He has bought WHOLEHEARTEDLY into JVG's system. He understand the need to feed the ball to Yao. His scoring average has dropped so far and he is taking fewer shots, but is he complaining? NO! He is not a perfect player, but he is a GOOD player. The whole notion that he is a "cancer" is a stupid idea. We are a better team with him on the court. Would you really rather have Matt Maloney or some other averege player? We would be an even uglier team.
I think steve has regressed. Steve is older, and he is not going to become any younger.. any quicker... any faster... or any more agile than he was when he was a rookie. On the other hand, he is still playing the exact same way. the only think I see him do better is probably his mid range jumper. Steve is just not a great basketball player.. He'll always be good enough. becuase he is a great althelete, so he will get by with it most of the time. But he is not going to lead any team anywhere.
Actually, he is only taking about 1/2 a shot per game less than last year, and more shots than 3 or four YA. The only year he took significantly more shots per game than now was 2001-2002. Cat has sacrificed his shooting significantly. From the early results, it appears these cases should be reversed.
Okay, this is all I'm going to say... 24 seconds left in the 4th quarter of Game 7 in the NBA Finals. Rockets down by 1. In whose hands do you want the ball?
I am not sure. I know SF sometimes plays good down the stretch. But I think sometimes he cant even get off a shot or turn it over when the shotclock is about to expire. To be very honest, I feel panic when we're down by 1 with 24 sec left. LOL
Yea, but SF's ability to go wherever he wants on the court, to drive the lane at will and then draw the foul is comparable to Kobe Bryant's or Tracy McGrady. The difference? Those guys don't play PG. If the Rockets trade Steve Francis, we'll trade him to a team that will immediately move him to the 2, and he'll put up insane scoring numbers, because HE HAS THE ABILITY TO. I wish the Rockets organization would wake up and realize, this man is NOT A POINT GUARD AND NEVER WILL BE. But, he does not need to be traded away...
I don't think he has regressed, he is having a hard time adjusting to the demands of being a real PG, and having to play defense for the first time in his career. He is trying hard, but has not yet found his comfort level. DD
of course his PPG is gonna go down. he is our 3rd option now. maybe 4th after jj. JVG is trying to make him into a pass first PG and steve is having some trouble with that like DD said. you can't be mad about his RPG going down because we aren't exactly starting pig miller and matt bullard and 4-5 anymore. teams that run their offence through the post never have PG's with high ast #'s because the post players do a lot of the passing too. so steve is doing ok there to. the only 2 things that worry me are his TO's and his FG%
The prob with being a team first guy is that you'd expect to see APG go up. Maybe instead of driving into 4 people and jacks up a wild shot he improves a little by dishing out to the 3 open guys for a change. But as you can see by his numbers that's clearly NOT the case. I wouldn't go as far as saying he regressed, I'd rather trick myself into believing he's in a slump. But then again that would just be desperately searching for excuses like I did the last 50 million years.
In fairness to Francis, I think Steve's numbers this year vs last year is simply a result of him trying to incorporate Yao more into the offense than himself and him trying to run JVG's offense. That doesn't mean I think he was a great player before this year though.
He's not finishing his drives to the bucket as successfully as he used to. Maybe it's wear and tear. Maybe he's trying too much circus stuff out of frustration with his role in (what should be) the Yao-centric offrense. And this despite all the rest he's getting on the defensive end. JVG should consider spelling him a bit more--maybe that'd make him more effective, or smarter, on both ends of the court.
