I think some fans are just too young to remember what winning (championship) basketball feels like for the team you're following. Fans have to, and should, demand more from their team than one playoff experience in five years. Regardless of who the players are, the team has to improve.
I'll bet you Steve Franchise will score 40+ against the rockets if traded because he will try to prove something to JVG/CD/LES and rocket fans. p.s. I would love to see FRANCHISE dunk on YAO or T-MAC.... and I would love to see him hit a game winning shot against the rockets in HOUSTON>>>>>>>that would be CLASSIC You know he would really love that I dont even think he would taut the crowd or JVG or the Bench. I could see him doing a crossover making our PG fall look at him a nail a jumper(GAMEOVER) and he just walk out the ARENA with no celebration thats real GANGSTA!!!
You're kinda contradicting your sig. I absolutely love Steve Francis, moreso because of the haters, but I would never root for him to do anything but bad against my team.
That's right! (GAMEOVER) Rockets: 105 Steve's new team: 83 Steve's ego gives his new team a blow-out loss. Way to go Mr. Allstar "GANGSTA" PG & thank you very much.
As much as I appreciate Steve sacrificing his game, but when I look at this past season, I just can’t help but think of Jerry Stackhouse. Early in Stackhouse’s career he was known as a big time scorer, but a selfish player that didn’t make his teammates better. Then in his 6th or 7th season with Detroit, he completely transformed his game by shooting much less, passing much more, and finally becoming a team player. His scoring average dropped 10 points (from about 30ppg to about 20ppg), but EVERYBODY was praising him for sacrificing his game for the betterment of the team. How did Joe Dumars reward him? He traded Stack to the Wizards the next summer for Richard Hamilton. Everybody thought Dumars was off his rocker for trading a big name player that finally looked like he had turned the corner for an unknown player in Rip. Well, Hamilton has flourished, while Stackhouse has reverted right back to his old ways. The point is, do not let ONE season skew your opinion of a player and prevent the team from making a move that can drastically improve the team. JoeD thought long-term and it has paid off big time.
stop dreaming, T-mac will not come. and steve will ask to leave houston, coz he is hurt and finally, rockets back to a lottery team
That was a good comparison... In the last 5 or 6 years, some managers have learned that "flashy" players may not have what it takes to uplift a team. Attention to details sould be the key to picking players. Not the obvious "fo sho." Stackhouse, while a great dunker and athletic freak. Was also erratic in his shot %, and with turnovers. Sure, he could score a lot. But he was one dimensional. Like Francis. Hamilton, although not as good a scorer, he's pretty damn good! But he's a solid shooter, smart, and understands the game as a whole. These are valuable characteristics in a player. Oh, and he can dunk too, but not at the expense of the other skills. P.S. Athletic specialist like Stackhouse can be a good addition to a team... But those are specialist that are not the "stars." They role players. Supporting cast...Guys like Sromile Swift, Bruce Bowen, Bo Outlaw...I love those kind of players. But only as role players. Not leaders. Our superstar should have both athletic ability and smarts: McGrady. Not limited to just one side of the spectrum.
The Rockets will be a playoff team with or without McGrady. And they will be one without Francis. Francis makes $11.5m and there is a $6.99m trade exception. Bottomline, there will at least 2 players incoming for those amounts. I for one like our chances with less athleticism and flash and more BB IQ and sure-handedness. But then again, the huge SOF's can't relate to substance over flash.
First off, I wouldn't exactly call Bowen and Outlaw Athletic. Second, some athletic players that are stars (and most are on winning/playoff teams) Garnett, Carter, Kobe, T- Mac, Finely, LeBron, Pierce, Marbury, AI, and Baron Davis.
It would be very stupid of the rockets to trade Steve to get T-Mac. First off T-Mac hardly plays any defence and as everyone knows the Rockets and Van Gundy are defence oriented. T-Mac is lazy and that isnt Van Gundy's style which could cause some problems between the two. Steve on the other hand works hard and plays good defence. Sure Steves stats have gone down from the previous years but he could bounce back next year. T-Mac has only one year left in his contract while Steve has like five years which means T-Mac could just leave the Rockets after the first year. It would be dumb of the Rockets to trade Steve because he plays with a lot of heart and is the only one on the Rockets team who had a good showing in the playoffs.
Trade Steve for TMAC....then get Nick Van Excel to run the PG position and the Rockets are really looking at a championship contender. NICK VAN EXCEL wants to come to TEXAS! TMAC wants to play with a BIG MAN! 'Nough said!! YAO TMAC NICK VAN EXCEL WOW WOW WOW!!!
wizkid83, I corrected my "P.S." post above....but I'll restate more clearly of what I meant. "Our superstar should have both athletic ability and smarts: McGrady. Not limited to just one side of the spectrum." The superstars have BOTH: great athletic ability and smarts ---> McGrady In terms of role players....like Outlaw...I was talking about is good to have athletic specialist as role players. In which that's their main strength. Like Stackhouse and Francis. Their main strength is their athletic ablity. But these players lack in the intelligence areas to understand the whole game. They are one-dimensional players. Both Francis and Stackhouse where both good at one thing: one-on-one playing. But they were scorers. Not shooters, not passers, not team-players. They were best by-themselves. This type of player is limited. But they can still help a team. Just not as the "goto guys." And if you don't think that Outlaw is athletic, you haven't been watching. He's a defensive specialist. But still he's incredibly athletic. Athletic doesn't always have to mean offensive. Anyways...those guys are just specialist role players. Our stars must have both great athletic ablity and smarts. If you read my post above again, you'll see that I changed "athletic player" to "athletic specialist."
yah, T-mac come to houston as another Penny(damn they even wore the same jersey in orlando), rockets r locked for a lottery team for another 6 years
Dude there are no similarities between Penny and T-Mac besides they're both leaving Orlando. The talk of T-Mac's back injury is very very precautionary. I doubt anyone actually believes that T-Mac is gonna break down at age 25. And anyway he's lightyears better than Penny in his prime at any time. He does play defense but he probably didn't as well in Orlando... for obvious reasons. Do you have no faith in the mighty Keith Jones, best trainer in the land?
you know i'm a fan of nick van exel... but the problem is... NVX has started the eddie jones slip already. he's not as good as he used to be. for a 30+ year old guard to completely rely on his quickness is not a good thing. you know he won't be bad... but i also hope he won't demand too much money.
If Steve gets traded I kind of do want him to do well against our team, I don't know why but I do want it to happen. Same feeling I got from the Hakeem trade but I knew that he wasn't gonna score even 20 on us. Steve capable of doing so and I kind of want to see it too, I know I'll buy tickets to that game
If we have a hole at pg, NVE would be our best choice for what we'd pay him. Some nights Yao or T-Mac could be off. He would wreak havok with his teardrop shot and 3 point shooting. Did you see the 03 playoffs? He often kept Dallas in that series. He hits those shots in the lane that Steve doesn't because he does it with a measured shot, not a wildly athletic heave to the rim. If Steve had a consistant floater (Mobley does), he'd be a much more dangerous player in the zone.
