Francis' assists per turnover ratio is below top 50 in the league and he has played NBA pg for 4 years. In those years his pg stats have been steady, with slight fluctuations. Even without guidance, he should progress naturally with more experience. So another face of the coin emerges, maybe Francis didn't develop himself?
It's legitimate to look at the reasons Steve hasn't developed well as a point-guard, because in his prime Francis would make good trade bait, and he hasn't fit the team now being built around Yao. If the coaching staff has been largely to blame, and now we have a different coaching staff with a veteran point guard to mentor Steve, how long do we give them before pulling the trigger? Are 3 months (and 3 weeks of Jackson) enough to validly judge whether Francis will improve greatly, with those 4 prior years weighing heavily on our opinions? IMO I've seen enough of change in his play--and his shooting woes remind me of when you reach the point in learning a second language in a foreign country when you even begin to stutter in your native tongue (several weeks for me! until everything became smooth again, of a sudden)--that I haven't seen in those earlier 4 years to think he has matured quite a bit, enough to want to see how several more months of Jackson influence his playing. I don't believe that waiting until the end of this season would hurt the Rockets by lowering Francis' trade value if his play doesn't greatly improve.
We definitively need to wait till the end of season to see how the current teams (and Francis) fares in playoff. If results are worse than expected without much hope of improvment, consider trading him for the best available. If this is also hopeless, because no team is willing to trade for SF (it is a possibility seeing his contract), unprotect him for the expansion draft and pray that Charlotte take their chances. If this fails too... he will be the most expensive sub or underachieving shooting gaurd in the league. Off course, he might just wake up and redeem himself come end of season and playoff time, and help us forget this struggling period of his.
