Francis has to go for this team to win consistently

And that city would be...?

 

Francis need to very quickly be moved to @ spot or traded for a legit PG. It took, what, about two games with Mark Jackson on board to shwo just how ill suited lil franchise is for his position. Have you EVER seen a starting PG with 5 years in the league play such crappy bb late in gomes? He looked so horrible I wanted him benched 10 minutes into it. Bibby made him look like an idiot. I thiink his confidence is history. JVG knows what the heck he is doing and we may wake up Monday with a trade..pleezzeee...

 

neverland?

 

OK, so first his assists mean nothing because they supposedly all went to Jim Jackson (which was proven wrong), and now he's a poor decision maker because his assists DIDN'T go to Jim Jackson.

Look, I'm not saying that he had a good game or that he shouldn't take any blame for the loss, but stuff like that is the difference between honest criticism and "hating"...

If you wouldn't mind contracting a painful venereal disease or just dying right now, I'd be very appreciative.

 

No, if SF had shot 36% from the field (6-17, which is terrible anyway!) instead of 18% (3-17), we would have won!

Now I just wish that SF can finish the rest of the season shooting 38% from the field instead of sub 20% the rest of the way!

 

SF Knows where he's at - where his team's at - and he man enough up to take responsibility as a good leader should.

Here are SF's comment after the Kings loss.

I think Steve assesses the game and his role in the outcome - shortly after playing 44 minutes - better than any of us who sat on our ass and watched it.

source
http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/quotes040128.html

STEVE FRANCIS

On losing the last two games:
"When you're at home, you should win a high percentage of your games. Obviously tonight we didn't; we lost to a good team, it's not like we lost to a bad team. We turned the ball over entirely too much to give ourselves a chance to win. It's been a long season, anything can happen. I don't think it takes away anything, but it should be a lesson when you do have success and when you lose how quickly, (1) you fall in the standings, and (2) people discredit anything that you do. For us, we just want to continue to try to get better, whether it's offensively getting into a better rhythm or cutting down a lot of those turnovers late in the game."

On his play:
"Besides not hitting shots, I thought I rebounded well. Of course, hitting shots is a very important part of the game, but everything else to me is pretty good. I passed the ball pretty well, I rebounded pretty well, but not being able to hit shots put my team at a disadvantage by me not scoring. My man (the guy he was guarding) hit some very, very tough shots. When you get a combination of turnovers and me not scoring, it's going to be tough. The main thing is we did it to ourselves as far as not taking care of the ball and not executing late to win, we just came out and started jacking up some crazy shots that put us way back, so hopefully we can learn from this."

I for one believe he will deliver the goods post all-star and in playoffs.

I am new in town - coming from Chicago via Milwaukee and St. Louis (doesn't even have NBA) - you should learn to appreciate what you have here in Houston and stop whining.

Getting rid of SF would be as bone head a move as Milwaukee made in getting rid of Ray Allen - who is a flat out stud hoopster and an ambassador for the game.

I'm not comparing SF to RA - just the idea idea of change.

 

I second that.

 

Naw, I pretty much blame all of them depending on how bad the team played. Generally, it's been a teamwide effort when they lose. I personally refuse to get drawn into the Yao Only/Steve Only debates - both players have sucked big time at one time or another in games so it's folly to try to pin the blame on any one player when the Rockettes lose.

One thing I've noticed lately (especially in the Miami & Sac games) is the disorganized nature of the offense. There appears to be little or no movement on offense. In many respects, the offense looks a lot like Rudy T's - the players still stand around watching the action rather than moving without the ball. As Francis' struggles on the offensive end have increased, this situation has become more and more pronounced in games.

 

Gee A-Train! Don't just sugarcoat it - tell us how you REALLY feel!

 

montevido, I like Francis but when has he ever NOT said the right thing? Come on man seriously. The dude says the right things all the time. He's been saying the right things since he's a been a Rocket. And that just the thing. We've been down this road before. Oh Francis please please don't lead us down this road of bullcrap anymore, please oh please, say what you mean and mean what you say. I'm a Rocket fanatic and I can't help it and I have the right to beg and plead dammit. And for the love of God, stop and pop, stop and pop!!

 

Look at it from Milwaukee's point of view. They saved money from not having Ray Allen's salary, and they have a better record than Seattle. I'm not the move was boneheaded. When someone makes $14 million or so, the expectations are huge. Ray Allen is a good shooter, but he's not a championship-caliber player.

 

Charvo, with all due respect - Milwaukee gave Allen his salary in the first place [oops#1] and the results of that trade[oops#2] speak for themselves if you look at the players involved and their stats...

...Ray Allen was traded by the Bucks with Kevin Ollie, Ronald Murray, and either a 2003 first-round draft pick or two 2003 second-round draft picks to the Seattle SuperSonics for Gary Payton and Desmond Mason on 2/20/03.

Payton was in last year of his deal and would likely have left Sonics just as he left Bucks. Where would that have left Seattle this year?

There are other factors that are contributing to the teams current respective postions in my estimation than that trade, such as Terry Porters coaching in Milwaukee , but I certainly give credit to Milwaukee for re-inventing themselves after GK nearly ruined the franchise and almost caused Herb Kohl to sell.

 

Judging from my prior post, I really need to invest in that edit function.

I disagree. I know it's not really a matter of opinion, as he is either a good shooter or he isn't, so I guess what I'm saying is I think you're wrong.

I see Steve and Cuttino as scoring equals. I'd say Steve is usually a better finisher(not of late), but I don't think either is superior to the other in any other scoring aspects. I hate that I have to preface all of my statements with this, but it's true...Prior to this season, Steve was definitely a threat from long range. You can always expect 35-40% from him. He's never been a pure shooter(If you want to see a pretty shot, I reccommend watching Peja as much as possible), but he's no slouch.

I wasn't implying that they did.

 

Eh...didn't finish.

There's no doubt that Bibby had a better game than Francis. First, his team won. Second, he had a great shooting game. He didn't pick up too many assists, but he served his role as a playmaker. What I'm saying is that Bibby's performance was not a result of Steve's subpar defense, as it may have been in past seasons.

One very ugly development(Besides his shooting, of course) is that he always tries to draw the foul rather than go for the easy shot. I remember one specific play in which he could have easily dunked the ball. He instead tried to throw himself into a Kings defender. He did not draw a foul and was lucky to hit the shot, as it rolled around the rim before it went in.

 

I think one of the problem is that SF is too short! With the zone defense, short guys like SF have problem finding their penetration games. They will get blocked 5 out of 10 times. Given passing is not his strength and is harder to learn, SF needs to improve his J if he wants to stay competitive.

 

I'm beginning to rethink that Kings game, they just beat the Spurs last night, maybe they are THAT good and they are on a hot streak right now.

For all of the Rocket players boneheaded moves (no, I'm not excusing SF's play, he still stunk) we gave the Kings a tougher game then the Spurs. I just kinda wonder how good they will be when Webber comes back.

What Francis needs to do is stop pointing to whatever he's pointing at while he's dunking, he looks stupid, not a hip bballer like he thinks. I wonder if that gesture is like when Kidd shoots a free throw (Kidd blows a kiss to his family, I think) but instead maybe SF is pointing to his many kids in the arena he's visiting.

 

That's awful. That insinuation has no validity. It's not funny.

He's usually pointing to the person who gave him the assist, I would think.

 

How does Kelvin get a T for slapping the backboard on the way down, while SF, who hangs there longer and actually points at someone, doesn't?

I agree...it does look ridiculous, like Darius and Quentin's horn thing.

 

True about the first part, but he's not pointing at the guy giving the assist. He once pointed directly at the opposing bench, but more often than not, I think he's just posing.

 

Ok bad humor, but the point is he looks stupid. He really doesn't need to do extra things like that to look bad, his play of lately speaks for itself.