It is quite evident,by looking through all these posts, a great majority of Houston Rockets fans still love Steve Francis...(myself included)!!! This season will be more than interesting(extreme understatement) if he regains 75-80 % of his "Franchise" form//
Funny thing is . . .ISO BROUGHT US TWO CHAMPIONSHIPS ISO HAKEEM . . .and everyone fed of the double teams Hakeem was POST AND DISH Steve was DRIVE AND DISH Hakeem - if the guy missed the shot .. he was off Steve - if the guy missed the shot . . .well he didn't pass the ball perfectly for the guy to have the optimal ability to hit the shot . .so it is steve's fault the guy missed the shot HAKEEM had these people shooting the threes off his ISO KSmith Horry Cassell VMax Drexler Steve had: CUTTINO MOBLEY JIM JACKSON ERIC PIATKOWSKI SCOTT PADGETT MOOCHIE NORRIS JAMES POSEY GLEN RICE [old Glen Rice] Which set would you rather have? Roster Changes make a difference . . . Rocket River . . . just the Facts Man
I did say it depends on what you use as qualifications. This arguement comes up every year for the MVP, do we base it on what they did to help their team or individual stats? Funny thing is very few "great" players played with the Rockets for very long. Pippen (I hate him too but he is top 50 all time), Barkley, Drexler, Hayes all had very brief stretches. No one other than Olajuwon and Drexler brought a championship so yes Francis has to be at least top 10 and I would put him top 5. Mainly because those that should be above him played so briefly. That aside his stats for those 5 years he was here easily puts him there. IMO top 5 Rockets of all time would be Olajuwon, Malone, Rudy T, Murphy, and Francis. Obviously Hayes, Barkely, and Drexler were better players but there legacy lies with other teams. T-mac and Yao have played here long enough to be in consideration as well. Just an opinion while we wait for the season to start.... October will never get here!
Fixed it for you. Even though nothing was wrong with it originally, I just thought maybe if we exchange some words, it proves nothing at all. For Heaven's sake, McGrady had the worst record in the worse league.
Tmac might not have gotten out of the first round yet, but he's been to the playoffs 7 times now. Sorry try again.
now that BJax is gone our only pg's are Rafer and Brooks. im going to venture a guess that francis will be packaged along with head for a backup PG.
Please spare me any Hakeem - Steve comparisons. There are none. When Steve dreams about playing hoops he isn't as good as Hakeem.
a lot of these arguments end up contradicting themselves anyway. yes steve has only appeared in one playoff series. no he hasn't one any playoff series. neither has tmac and yao. those are facts. is steve the greatest rocket of all time or up there? if you're talking about hakeem olajuwon, clyde the glide, calvin, rudy, moses, elvin hayes ... probably not. but if you wanna make the argument that he sux because he hasn't gotten outta the playoffs ... c'mon. not many on the current roster have ... steve doesn't suck nor has he ever been a garbage player. was he ever good enough to lead a team and be the "Franchise?" I'm more on the no side. There really was a potential of him being great (i regret that he didn't get the proper ppl around him to teach him the essentials to mental preparation of studying the game. perhaps he was too stubborn as a young player to listen ... perhaps not?) but ... he was slowly developing how to translate his freakish athletic ability with decision making. however, circumstances kinda closed that window real quick and he has fallen real far real fast to the basketball world. he doesn't deserve the hate he gets on this board, nor does he really deserve to be deemed as one of the best players in rocket history (though he possibly could have been in that elect group). we don't know how much athleticism he has left ... but fans of stevie and fans of observing/learning the game can definitely see how he's made huge efforts to reshape his game for the betterment of the team. did he fail sometimes? oh boy he did. he didn't shoot enough in my opinion ... at least in a handful of games. but did he also show us how good he could be? the phoenix and golden state game proved that to us. i'm buying more into the 6th man role for him. generally stevie is most effective as a leader/primary ball handler of a team. i mean in stretches he could prove invaluable playing alongside yao/tmac but i dont know ... i mean it's like having a.i. and melo combine ... just doesn't work out. i just see him being an awesome 6th man ... if all goes well. and any rockets fan will tell you his biggest strength is getting to the hole. His endurance was very good and at the end of games ... he was just relentless getting to the hole. not even the games' top defenders could stop him from getting there. but it was his decision making that prevented him from being in the upper echelon of the greatest players at the time. sometimes i ponder if only ... tmac and stevie coulda combined ... sigh. well late game decision making is still an if in that scenario anyway. but ... it's all about how stevie preps mentally and physically. i do believe he's come a long way. i've seen the small nuances that he's really added to his game (anyone else notice how rafer starting swatting for the ball over the top of his man after francis did?). I do believe physically, he'll be ready and it's only how much he's really learned about the game and combining that with his health which will determine how effective he'll be. it's never bad to have a point guard that can give opposing point guards fits (not to mention actually have them guard him). Hmm, and stevie will help artest bring the toughness we've lacked. i was surprised in how fond i was of his hard fouls ... not to mention some smart fouls he made. but stevie ... SHOOT WHEN YOU'RE OPEN. You're too good to not make the defense pay.
If Tmac did not pair up with Yao he would be the same way. And if Steve had had Yao all these years, dare I say we would be out of the first round?
Why in the world would you think that? What has Steve done since he left Houston that would make you think he'd have this team in any position better than T-Mac? I've been a Rocket fan my whole life...lived in Houston my whole life aside from college...I don't get the Francis obsession. We literally have "2nd greatest player in francise history" being thrown around in this thread. That's just amazing to me.
well Dream is a winner, Steve is not... BUT in terms of pure "WOW!" of what a basketball player can do, they are 1-2 of all the Rocket players I have been able to see live. That includes CLide, T-Mac, Yao, but does not include Moses, Rudy and Calvin
Steve cant even hold tmacs jock straps for talent or accomplishments. tmac took a team of Andrew declerc or what he's name was, pat burk, pat garrity and jaque vaughan to the playoffs and pushed the pistons to seven games. steve couldnt even win ten games as a leader with that lineup.it's utter stupidity to compare a two time scoring champ and one of the best allround offensive talents like tracy to francis.
Good post dude. I agree with what you have to say about Steve as well as a couple of other good posts that some others made. I don't understand why there is so much Steve Francis hate on a Rocket's fan board, unless there are a lot of non-fans lurking on here to stir the pot....hmmmm...go figure. Also like you, I think Steve will be the perfect 6th man type on this team, like some think Artest should play; although I strongly disagree with that. I think putting Steve in with the second unit will really help the team to keep it's aggressiveness if Steve is given the go ahead to do so. Rafer starting with Tmac, Artest, Scola and Yao will be "sufficient" if we don't bring in anyone else. But I also think that if Steve is back in shape, he will probably be the one closing out games although Rafer is starting.
It's true. Steve hasn't choked away anywhere near the amount of first round opportunities McG has. It takes something special to blow a series lead just about every year.
4 of those times, it was in the East. And 2 of those 3 he had with us, he choked. "I was tired." "It's on me." He was playing the Mavericks, who were no where close to a team that we were. We had the best chemistry in the world, and for some reason, Jeff's offense worked. What happened? McGrady and Yao couldn't do anything under a little more pressure in Game 7, and ... we got blown off by 40. FORTY. Then... against the Jazz, who shouldn't ever beaten us. This time, Game 7 was in our hands, but... Tracy was tired. End of story. Ha. In terms of accomplishments, he stands as one of only four players in NBA history (Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson and Grant Hill) to average at least 15 points, five rebounds and five assists in each of their first six seasons. Now, out of that group, he is the smallest. And one thing I always loved Bob Sura and Steve was (besides the heart) their rebounding. Again, if Tracy McGrady is such a GREAT Leader, why did he get the worst record in the East. Why did he choke twice for us in Game 7s? By all means, when Stevie was with us, it wasn't like he choked. 44 minutes (he must be tired too, especially with scrubs on that team) 429% on overall Field Goal, 41% on 3 pointers. 8.4 rebounds per game, and 7.6 assists per game. At the same time he scored 19 points per game. And... that wasn't against some team that was less talented than the Rockets. We had Yao. Mind you, he wasn't any where good as he is now. Maurice Taylor, Cuttino Mobely, Cato, Jim Jackson, Clearance Weatherspoon. And this team didn't get blown by 40. How the hell do you get blown by a rookie coach with Dirk. This Lakers team had, Gary Payton, Karl Malone, Shaq, Kobe Bryant. And, we were competing for most of the games. We were always there but lose at the end due to lack of firepower. Anyways. Please stop trying to use Tracy McGrady in reference to Steve. It makes you sound like a Francis Hater, and makes me sound like a McGrady hater. I'm not. Now, if you just came to this thread, read all the posts before you cause the same bashing happen over and over and over again.
