My Cup is Half Full...There's a lot to think about

so because he disagrees with you that means he isn't a fan?

 

Exactly! Even Marbury wasn't allowed to be "Starbury" by Isiah.

 

James just turned 32 June 23rd.

McGrady actually had a FAR BETTER year than the previous. He shot .432 vs. .406 and played in 71 games (he played less than that in 3 of his previous seasons).

Scola has proven a lot, just not in the NBA. You don't know what Scola's rebounding number or 'D' will be like. However, Hollinger predicts he will put up 8+ rebounds in 35 minutes and he is a -proven- scorer.

You have exagerated the facts in order to make the glass half empty. Use the facts to determine that, don't just make them up to suit your needs.

 

My my my! There is certainly a lot of revisionist history going on around here. It kind of brings a warm glow to the old Hillboy ticker to see this wonderful outpouring of love and affection for a guy who 4 years ago was reviled as the basketball anti-Christ. I wonder if Morey has plans to place a ring around the court where SF3 & Mike James get to go 2 out of 3 falls to see who will get to shoot the basketball first? The truly neat thing about this signing is that if Francis doesn't work, Clutch will be able to save time to by reprinting all of the "Steve Francis Sucks!" threads from 4 years ago.

As you can no doubt discern from the tone of my post, I am not exactly what you'd call "blown away" by this move. Nothing against the player formerly known as "The Franchise" but I just happen to think that the last thing they needed was another guard especially one who plays like Mike James, Bioch!

Aaron, who? We have become to NBA guards what Atlanta is for NBA forwards...

 

I've always been a pessimist, and we've made significant moves every offseason for years. None of them have taken us where we want to go. I do like the moves made so far this summer. Scola for nothing was GREAT. No telling if he's really ready, but worst case scenario is that he's another Juwan... for cheap. Mike James was a solid addition, too. I don't really expect anything from Brooks, but we addressed PF position after the draft so whatever.

As far as Steve Francis... well. I really didn't want him. His game has always been predicated on dominating the ball for long stretches of the shot clock. That isn't close to being an ideal fit for Adelman. His turnovers are worrisome. He has never been able to run a break even close to competently. He can't make an entry pass to the post. His game depends on freedom, but he's not a great decision maker. He's also no longer 25 years old. These are the reasons I was not sorry to see Steve go, especially in return for McGrady, who is a far more complete player.

There are also reasons I WAS sorry to see him go, however. It's obvious he has heart. Steve Francis wants to win and he wants to please the fans. He evidently has a great relationship with Yao and I do feel it was important that he immediately accepted and encouraged Yao when he joined the team. He also played his balls off in his one playoff series against the Lakers. Finally, Steve Francis loves the city of Houston and chose to return here despite his unhappy ouster and better monetary incentives elsewhere. Loyalty to this city goes far in my book.

Steve Francis can still score. I'm sure of that. For that single reason, he will be an asset to the team. Figuring out what role in which that asset will be utilized is up to discussion between Adelman and Morey. This team has assets to be traded, and who stays and who goes depends heavily upon the coach's understanding of Steve's strengths and weaknesses.

I know that when we all see Steve lift his new jersey this afternoon, all will be forgiven. It IS exciting. But the first time he dribbles out the shotclock or botches a fast break (and it WILL happen), I know those doubts are going to be filling my head. I guess my glass is still half empty... at least til the games start!

 

I like your point about no one showing Steve the ropes in the beginning. That, combined with fact that Rudy made him 'the man' as a rookie/2nd year player enabled Francis to get a big head. He was also the only talented player (other than Cat) on the team those paltry years, so of course he was going to fall into the traps of dribble-mania & jacking up bad shots. Who else on those teams could score?

He's never been on a team this deep or this talented, so I don't see him falling back into his past routines. We've never seen him on a deep team, so I don't think we can all assume that he'll be the ball-hogging player that he was before. He won't have to be 'the man' on this team, and I don't think we should jump to conclusions that he'll be a selfish player on this team until we see him actually play. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't.

It never hurts to have too much talent or to have a deep roster. That's something we haven't had here in years (or a decade).

 

My glass is half full...... half full of jack daniels after drinking the rest in toasting to the franchise coming back!

 

- the roof at the toyota center could fall and kill 15,000 people.....


wow...this is about the most "debbie downer" post i've ever read. if you can't get excited about rockets' basketball after last 2 weeks' events? don't bother......we ain't going to sign Jesus, we're not gonna go back in time and bring MJ to the present.......so you should just give up on the rockets now.

 

Relax man, I didn't look up MJ's dob, I'm sorry, chill.

Everyone has different perspectives... Last year I saw a T-Mac who could not dominate like he had a few years ago, that was my point. Don't just compare him to the year he was out for, look at clips of him two-three years before that, if you don't see something different, then that's your opinion. A bad back is something that gets worse with age, it's something that's affecting his game, a logical person would assume this trend will continue…


As far as Scola, he has not played a game in the NBA, who knows how good/bad he's going to be, it's an unknown. Hollinger says "8+ rebounds", damn ain't he using facts......


My whole post was just to point out that there are a lot of "ifs" with this team, I'd rather have "ifs" than "nots". I'm happy that atleast something was done with limited resources that this team had, but I'm not going to jump up and down until I see them play...I was just trying to provide an objective point of view, things might not turn out so good as they appear.

 

Whatever Jason Terry's doing in Dallas can be done three fold by Francis here.



But my glass is half full too.

 

There's always that chance. However, there is good reason to be cautiously optimistic this year.

 

Definitely. This is message board, just wanted to bring another point of view, it would be boring if we all thought alike. I never stated that I didn't like the moves.

 

I think Steve can still score and if Mcgrady goes down with back then we still have two guys that can put up numbers. One big problem the rockets have been having is when T-mac is down the offense struggles and that is because Alston had to control the offense and he just fed Yao all the time. Steve will still have that offense rolling I think. He's at that point in his career where he just wants to win and make people around him better( I hope).

 

I like how we have 4 guys that are almost guaranteed to be double digit scorers.

On the first tier of double digit scorers, we have
Yao, T-mac, James, Francis.

Second Tier
Bonzi (Can occasionally break out for 20 pt games), Battier (camping at the 3), Scola (if he pans out properly)

Third Tier
Brooks (I have high hopes for him), Snyder, Butler, and whoever I'm missing.

Then whoever we decide to add. If we add Mobley, just stick him up with the first tier of scorers, for posey, you put him on the second tier, and lastly, for Foster, you slap him on for dead last.

Either way, we do have a lot of depth.

The only problem is, apart from James and Battier, we don't really have a lot of depth for perimeter shooting, unless we decide to keep Head. However, if we add Mobley or Posey, that does solve the problem.

 

RANDOM IDIOT i like that

 

thanks i try!

 

It's not about his desire to win. He has it, we all know. He is a rockets by heart. Say all you want about Francis, but he picked us after the bad blood and over his buddies in LA. Compraing with those self-claimed hometown boys like Reshard, who didnt enve put us on his map, and Mike James too, Francis is a true Houstonian.

Now, but aside from desire. You have to see his game. He needs to dribble the ball to be effective due to his street-like playing style. And that's what Francis is. You can structure him and he will listen, but at the end you are going to find out he is not effective that way and he himself hates it too.

Free Francis by bringing him off the bench.

 

Doesn't matter to me if Francis comes off the bench in a Ginobilli like manner or if he starts and takes a Tony Parker type role. Either way this guy is gonna get his points. As for the history lesson on Francis. It was totally ISO Ball.

Doesn't anyone remember how much Hakeem complained that they no longer threw the ball down to him anymore? How the guards of Mobley and Francis were the go to guys? Hakeem was pissed off cause he no longer got the points because Rudy T wasn't calling Iso Plays for Hakeem anymore. Barkley got Iso-down low on the left block a bunch while everyone went to the other side of the court and watched him back down his defender. I used to think that the offense just grinded to a stop when they did that. Wasted time on the clock and if he missed, it was an automatic possesion going the other way. So..yeah I was never a fan of Iso-Ball.

That being said, dribble, dribble,dribble is a direct consequence of Iso-Ball. If you Iso a point guard and he has to score on his defender..what else the hell is a guard gonna do?

 

Great post sjackson. People blame Steve too much. It's not all his fault. I know people who don't like him coming back. The pessimism kills me. I believe in Steve and am hopeful that he's changed and will contribute positively.