terrible post. why would you wish injury on one of our players ? he will play when and if he deserves to. if Steve worked as hard as Rafer or Mike James, he would be in the rotation. Luther is a better shooter and is in better shape also.
sometimes I think that the only reason why SF was signed back here was for marketing purposes. there's a lot of SF-only-fans here.
The boy is outta shape. He can still get up and down but he's fat and chunky. I was hoping he'd shed the weight before he got here but he didn't. I noticed it when I saw him playing for the Knicks. He was chunky up there and not the same Francis he was when he played for the Rockets the first time.
What a magnitudinous disappointment. I hope Francis does become a part of the team's plans. I hope Adelman knows what he's doing; I think Steve can be a significant contributor to the team...I jhope he stays positive...and proves Adelman and all the doomsayers wrong.
Kinda disappointing but not all that suprising, especially after watching him play in the system a couple times this preseason. As Adelman put it, nothing is set in stone. Unfortunately, us Rocket fans know all about injuries and very rarely will a team stay healthy all season long. Unfortunately for Francis...Rafer was the only Rocket to play in every single game last season. My prediction, we'll see Steve sooner than expected.
Francis comments are scary to say the least and his ego is poking out at the wrong time. Why not try something different since your current game is up to the challenge. I still hate Luther as the 2 guard coming of the bench and getting exposed on the defensive end, rebounding, turnover, and nothing inside the 3pt line.
I never thought of him as being chunky......He played for the rockets the "1st" time 3 years ago.....before he got traded, he played for us for 5 years....so if anything, I see him as being aged. definately not fat. Adelman wasn't the only one that thought that he would have probably start when training camp started.....I think everybody did. Following the Rockets throughout trainging camp, and preseason though, I'm glad that Adelman made the decision that he made. Everyone has played better than him. I believe it was out of Luther and Steve......Luther definately played better, and you have to find time for someone on the court that is as effective as Luther is on the 3 point line. Being the star here 5 years.....traded to orlando to be the star there....then going to New York to a sorry team.....he's used to being THE star....he needs to learn to adapt to being a team player....that's something he never has done, or never had to do......I wish him the best....we'll definately need him at some point this season/postseason
Francis not being part of the rotation isn't surprising in the least... we all saw the preseason. The only thing interesting in that column to me is that Adelman said (assuming he's being honest) that he thought Francis would be the starter to start out the season. Adelman isn't dumb. He's seen Francis' past play and his decline. He still thought he'd be the starter. That's a little surprising to me, but fits into why they were trying to dump Rafer's contract this offseason.
I am disappointed, Francis' skill set must have significantly declined. I can't believe that Rafer, James, and Head beat him out. I expected to see him at the SG position with TMac moved to SF. I just hope Rafer doesn't get most of the minutes. Frankly, I am shocked that he is still here, much less getting to start.
That's surprising to me as well. Maybe he was saying that to let him down easy, or maybe he isn't closely familiar with his game. I wonder what we would have done if we had trader Rafer?
What?? And Francis wont get exposed on the defensive end, and generate alot of turnovers? that is a crazy thing to say, luther came to camp IN shape, and ready to protect his spot in our rotation. I cannot understand how anybody could feel bad for Francis considering his coach said verbatim that he showed up to camp out of shape. He is last year's bonzi wells... nothing more. he will yap alot about not getting any PT, but the bottom line is that Francis has done nothing in the past few years to expect anything out of anyone. I mean, he was booted out of orlando, and then he was bought out of over 50million (unheard of) to leave new york.. and he comes back to houston expecting things?? that is a complete joke to me. everyone on this team knew coming into this years training camp (with exception of yao, tmac, and shane) that they would have to WIN a spot in the rotation due to the level of talent on our roster, and Francis is the ONLY one who showed up not ready to play. I say, Francis got what he deserved, and I wish we flat out cut him and kept Harris.
Its not that Francis' skill set significantly declined, he can still jump, take guys off the dribble and finish decently. Its just that ALL he knows how to do and nothing else. He never improved any facet of his game during his 8 year career and now its hurting him. We don't need him to dominate the ball, so he has to find another role on the offense. If he could move without the ball effectively he might crack the rotation, even being out of shape a little bit. The two most important qualities for a SG are jump shooting and movement without the ball, namely knowing where to go and how to get open in the motion offense; steve looks completely lost without the ball in his hands. Thats why luther is ahead of him in the rotation. Steve has lots of talent, I'll give him that, but due to his immaturity, ego or plain stupidity he never tried adding a reliable jumpshot or learning how to move off the ball.
But now we have Mike James to come in when Rafer is ice cold. When Rafer is actually shooting well, we can leave him in.
