"Slip on my shoe" Alston must get traded we dont need him and we have other needs at other positions. He is very expendable and brings back some trade value! get it done Wizard!
I was talking about this year chief. The Knicks were a pretty bad team record wise but it's not like we didn't have offensive options; once again Francis demonstrated a complete inability to feed the post to Curry, swing the ball, and a penchant for dribbling out the shot clock. I'm not saying he's a selfish player by nature; i believe he's not and wants to get his teammates involved. However, he plays selfish; he wants to make every play himself, which results in overdribbling and often in a bad jumpshot. If you've played pickup ball, you know the kind of pg i'm talking about; the one with loads of talent but who keeps screaming at you to cut rather than just passing you the ball at the top of the key to let you make a play for yourself. We're all talking about Francis "knowing his role" and deferring to the superstars, but my point is that that role would be the one Rafer played last year; bringing the ball up, feeding the post, swinging to the open man, and shooting open jumpers and the occasional drive. The thing is, I happen to think that Rafer is more capable to do all but the last two (and the shooting part is debatable; Francis is a pretty piss-poor perimeter shooter). As a spark off the bench, however, I think Steve can contend for 6th man of the year.
I believe it was JVG and Co. that decided to NOT have a serviceable back up for Rafer, no? And with a lack of a serviceable backup, an offense would drag when you take out a starting PG, no? Alston made plays, sure. But to say that he ran the offense "responsibly" as being factual is a stretch.
not turning the ball over, delivering the ball to our main options is running teh offense responsibly, imo.
When rafer was on the bench, Head played as PG, yeah, Rockets looked worse. Kudos to JVG for not letting Deke playing PG, or Rockets looked even worse. Rafer got better stats in 37 minutes at PG than his 10-minute backups, Head or JLIII, does not really mean anything.
I don't mean any disrespect but now I know why you're so frustrated by Francis. Being a Knick fan these days must be hard (again, NO disrespect) Of course I have. Those are the worst players to play a pick up game with. But I'll just call it blind faith then...that I believe he'll change his tune when he realizes that this is the only chance he'll get to ever winning a championship so he better act right. You have a higher opinion of Rafer than I have because I've been frustrated with Rafer more than once this past season. His playoff performance I can actually let slide but his regular season performance is best described by one word--inconsistent. Sounds petty but it's actually worse when you're the starting PG for a team that has a total of, what, FOUR offensive plays?
Rafer is valuable to us as a backup point guard; otherwise we're left with Mike James. Steve Francis should never play PG for us; he should be our back up 2. Rafer has the best ballhandling in the team and that type of person, as long as he's not a starter, is valuable as a backup. Our lineup so far should look like this: Yao, Scola, Battier, T-Mac, Who? Mike James Deke, Chuck Hayes, Bonzi, Franchise, and Rafer Novak, the rookie Brooks Actually, our team is perfect, don't you guys think? Why trade further if it isn't for something else really good ( or a quality third center ) We shouldn't trade Alston because that would be dumb.
ah crap, I forgot about Head. Wow. Head as a trade asset...?! We should trade Head for a high draft pick. Give him to Philly/Hawks/Grizzlies or something.
This is a very accurate post, Steve is a bad player who will do more harm to this team than good. We needed a better true point than rafer to pair with the scoring mike james, not a dumb$hit like francis.
I'll put the question up again: Who would you want the Rockets sign for $1 million instead of Francis?
No one. It's absolutely a steal and a potential high reward situation. It's just that unless this past season was some absurd nightmare, Francis isn't a star player anymore. I really hope he understands that.
Oh I am fully aware that he's not a star player anymore but that doesn't mean he can't be a positive contributor of some sort. I, too, hope he understands that and, by the way McGrady responded, I think the Rockets hope he understands that as well. Otherwise, it's off to Orlando he goes.
That's not the point. He is liability on the court no matter the $$ cost. taking the ball out of mcgrady, mike james, yao or bonzi's hands is bad. i could just see him at the end of a playoff game dribbling 21 secs of the shot clock without mcgrady or yao ever getting a touch. i don't even think he should play over aaron brooks, let alone mike james or even alston. he is me, me, me ballhog, ballhog, ballhog there is no way he can coexist with all of the other better players on the team.
I CAN'T POST A NEW THREAD BUT SOMEONE DO IT FOR ME IF YOU WANT. ON NBC CHANNEL 2 they had a phone interview with Rafer and he said "I've been a starter for the past 2 years, AND I DONT EXPECT THAT TO CHANGE"
Neither is John Lucas III, Alston, Head, and Spanoulis. Expecting any GM to sign a star for $1 mil is unrealistic.
Do you honestly think he will continue to do this. I mean even steve Franchise has to know he has a lot of help around him. Besides, I'm willing to bet Adelman would bench him if it ever came to that. I really don't see the negative in giving francis a shot for the amount we got him for. If he works out great. If not replace him. We will still have james and brooks.
