Look I sure hope I'm wrong as I love Stevie - dead set love the guy. But the feeling in my waters is not great.
We all saw how athletic he can still be. That rookie-like preseason dunk, the phoenix game. All that was when he was out of shape and pre-surgery. So just imagine Francis at full health.
A healthy francis even with he's knees can crack the rotation, but how big of a role he gets is still the unknown. we can allways hope for the best.
Penny in he's prime was the third best player in the league behind jordan and olajuwon.he was a monster. injuries just destroyed him. he could have been a great.
When will reality set in!? He's done. It's over. There won't be a return to glory, not even a return to mediocrity. He'll be bench fodder this season, and should see about 60 DNP-CD or be on the injured reserve with a bunch of made up stuff like "flu-like symptoms" and "strained lower abdominal". Of course I hope I'm dead wrong on all of this....
REALLY? or is this come kind of disclaimer so as to not just be viewed as a 'complete hater' Sorry but so many people are doing it .. . . [throwing that disclaimer on the end of totally negative commentary] I just don't beleive it any more Rocket River
No. It's in the best interest of the team that he does well. We're not wishing for him to fail, we're just being real about the situation. I'm just not about to give myself false hope like so many people here are doing. We all know T-Mac won't be back to 03 form and dropping 50pt games in 3 quarters, but we all want to be wrong. I know Yao won't develop a mean streak, but I hope I'm dead wrong.
Are all the Steve haters still spitting out garbage?, and saying but maybe, but just in case, I hope "he does good". Please say what you want, but don't say that a "unproven ,undersize Brooks would be a better backup than a motivated and healthy Francis". The fact is that if this is gonna be a Championship team, I'd rather go to battle with Francis at my side. Francis is > Brooks. Has Brooks had more than two minutes of playoff time? Will Brooks fold under pressure? While Francis was getting surgery on his knee, Brooks was be replaced by the old timer Bobby Jackson. Was than Brooks that won that game for us against Phoenix? Oh, it was a old Stevie Franchise move, on bad knees.
That's the problem...he hasn't been healthy in years. He is a shoot-first PG that relies on his athleticism to do what he does best, which is get to the rim. Since that athleticism has declined due to constant knee problems, he has gone from a volume scorer that shot 43-44% to a volume scorer who now shoots 33%. Not only that, but his style of doesn't exactly fit the mold of the kind of system Adelman wants to run, and he doesn't have the talent that T-Mac or Artest have to counterbalance that negative. Everyone wants to see Stevie succeed...but the skepticism is well-deserved.
Not u in particular but alot of folx come here and just ***** on Steve then want to throw the weak *ss . . 'i hope i'm wrong' line at the end of a 6 paragraph diatribe of venom and bile Rocket River
No disclaimers here. Steve will be a contributor this season. I can't say how much but it's not DNPs and scrub time. He will shine in a few games and relief pressure on Alston in a few more. He will be "useful". Now, I really wish he will be a huge factor but this is a rather deep team now so for him to a huge factor means there might be some health issues and he had to step up even more than a back-up needs to. I sure don't wish I was wrong!
He hasn't had knee surgery in years neither, (oh) I mean ever had knee surgery. I personally don't know his numbers off the top of my head so I won't argue with his shooting 33%, but I will add that was on a "bum knee". I noticed you quote me in your post about "Brooks being undersize and unproven", but you failed to to deny this. So you must be willing to have a Championship team with a "undersize and unproven youngster running the team as backup. or a 3 time all-star, former face of the franchise, veteran PG? I'm not a numbers guru, but does anyone have their stats(brooks and francis)? How about minutes played in the playoffs?
that's my entire point. Francis was on his way to become a monster, but njuries have destroyed Steve Francis as well....
Overstating that a bit don't you think?? I think there are a few hall of famers still playing at that time who were still better that Penny. Malone and Stockton, Drexler, Barkley, and Robinson to name a few...
