The most common arguement aganist Francis is that he led us to no playoff appearance in his first four years. I think it is extremely unfair to judge him this way. We were the only team in NBA histroy that did not go to playoff after winning 45 games and 43 games! Man, we are in west conference and Francis single-handed brought us two winning seasons! First season: 34-48: Francis rookie season, won ROY Second season: 45-37. we swept the whole central divsion. third season: 28-54. Francis injured and missed two months of action. we were 1-22 or something like that when Francis did not play last season: 43-17. Another winning season. The only help he got is from Cat, who is by no means an all-star player. Please name another player who could do that in west conference other than Shaq, TD or KG? Heck, you all-time favorite T-Mac is leading Magic to a 20 win season. I would be first to agree tha SF is not the ideal PG for JVG/Yao team and would certainly trade him if the right package is offered. However, do not bash this guy on his ability to win games for us.
Hey what can we say were in the west. Before the season starts 5 spots are already spoken for. that leaves the remaning 11 teams to fight for 3 spots.
consider this...when a player thoroughly domintates the ball for his team, as Francis has, especially in his first three seasons, the rest of the team lacks the a feel for how to play amongst themselves when that main playmaker is not on the court. That's why mediocre players on Sac can continue to play beautiful, fluid offense when its key players are not on the court, and why the ROX look stumped on O.
damon stoudamire's Toronto teams had a decent record when he played, but were patently awful whenever he missed a game. Steve is a more athletic Damon. I have a feeling that Toronto does not regret trading away their best player at the time in order to foster a new culture.
I, too, think the whole '4 years in the lotto' arguement is very unfair to throw at Steve. You can hardly blame him for absence from the playoffs in his rookie year. As been stated, one year he missed alot of the season with his migraine problems. and the other 2 years the team was a winning team. I mean, look at the Cavs. Everyone LOVES Lebron James dont they? Sure he's putting up nice numbers, his team may make the playoffs, but their record is horrid. If they were in the West, they would be in the lotto for sure. And it is debatable that the Cavs team is more talented than the Rockets team in '99. Lebron may get better, but it's hard for me to imagine the Cavs being a winning team (above 500%) within a few years [even in the east]. Steve led the Rockets to a winning season in his 2nd year in the west.
