Pray tell, what else is that would even remotely help us as much as Francis is out there? I am sure that everyone is aware of the fact that Steveis/was/will always be a polarizing figure on this board, but he does seem to be the only guy that MAY be available that could help. Aside from his salary, which is very large, whats the problem? JVG is gone after this season from the way things look at the moment. TMac at the very least could use a quality running mate, at worst we need someone who can step in and score when he is out for long stretches. If Francis could be had for anything other than Yao/TMac/next years first rounder it would be foolish not to at the very least investigate the possibility, I mean, we are trying to win now right?
I'd prefer to have a guard that actually knows what to do on a 3 on 2 fast break. Bring back Stevie??? Are you kidding? Look, the guy has heart and is a good person/teammate...but he is a terrible decision maker, has an extremely low IQ and is a very streaker shooter and a mediocre defender. Oh yeah, and he is way overpaid. If we get rid of Juwan and Rafer, who runs the point? Stevie? And Chuck Hayes starts at the 4? B/C Battier should be guarding 3's unless it's a Nowitski/Marion type of 4 Terrible idea, just terrible
The salary problem with Steve, tradewise and amount/length can not be overcome. I also like Steve's heart (and heart on his sleave). I enjoyed himn when he was here. MY QUESTION. Has Steve lost a lot of his game. He seemed not very good in Orlando last year, a diminished figure with the Knicks. Has anybody seen him play last year and what does he have left. I would like to see him thrive in New York.
I actually think it could work too. The only problem is we had our window of opportunity for a move like this before this past season's trade deadline when we still had the expiring contracts necessary to pull this kind of deal off. We passed despite the rumored interest. Now, I consider a move like this to be simply unrealistic. In my eyes, there's absolutely no way JVG allows a 3-for-1 considering how depleted our depth already is and the fact that its a bold, risky move. With how disasterous this offseason has been, I don't think JVG and Rockets brass would feel comfortable relying on the MLE and TE's to acquire the kind of depth we lose in a deal like this.
ouch did not know the contract was that bad, but would it be worth it if we could get rid of jho and get a legit starting 2 guard who is young enough to give us 4 or 5 good years of play?
I was really wondering how this "rumored interest" got started last season. I was thinking that there was absolutely no way Stevie would ever be back in a Rockets uni, I really wonder how interested we were, if we were interested at all?
Dude, I seem to remember getting to the playoffs with Steve running the point. I'll admit that he's not the greatest pg in the world, but he can play both of the positions in the backcourt. IMO, Francis is a better starting pg than Alston, and a better 2guard than anyone we could realistically put on our roster. And with regard to Howard, Battier is probably a better PF than Jho anyway. I am not suggesting that Chuck Hayes be our starting 4. However, I think between Battier, Novak, Hayes, and some scrub, there would be little to no drop off from losing Howard.
wow whoever thinks Francis has low ball IQ...should be shot.... As you see, when we had him Yao, and Mobley we were doing quite fine, until JVG....Steve is a great passer, great dribbler, and a good scorer lest we forget he was the starting point guard for the WESTERN CONFERENCE all star team 3 years ago... he was a very good shooting guard, but could also be a very good point Im all for bringing Franchise back...if you ask me, he has more heart than McGrady
Man, I'd do that in a heartbeat. I think NY would want more, especially since this is Isiah's do-or-die year though. But, next offseason, New York will be having a fire sale as the new GM tries to clean out all of Isiah's mistakes so that he can build a decent team 5 years from now. I'm pretty sure that we can get Francis then for expiring contracts or whatever.
Anyone who (a) is in favor of bringing Francis back; and (b) has ever complained about "Jeff Van Dummy" grining washed-up Knicks to the Rockets, deserves a severe c*ck-punching.
And we got there without him as well. Last seasons injuries shouldn't count. I agree he is a better option at 2 than what is out there, but if we need to trade we should set our sights to someone that fits our team better. Steve is a good shooter off the dribble but not a good spot shooter, which is what we need if we play the inside/outside game. Alston fits well with this team, but he needs to knock down some outside shots. He's a much better decision maker than Stevie, but isn't half the scorer that Steve is.
You could tell the Rockets are cheapskates when they trade players that don't produce what their contracts call for for cap relief (trade exceptions that always expire) instead of another player with similar contract that might be able to produce. It's like they want to recoup some of their losses instead of just taking them as losses and that's fine, it's their business, but don't feed us this win now crap when it's really win now on our terms. The fact of the matter is that the Rockets have two max contract players and need upgrades almost everywhere else, those upgrades cost money, like Mike James. It's almost impossible to stay under the luxury tax threshold and build a quility championship caliber team around two max contract players. They need to either bite the bullet and take money risks, like the Heat and Suns, or trade one of those superstars and build around the remaining player like the Spurs, Mavs, Wolves, Lakers, etc. are doing You obviously never watched his first year with the Magic, when they were one of the best fast breaking teams in the league with Francis running the point. Either way it doesn't really matter, the Rockets two superstars are half court players, so is Francis for the most part.
Yeah defenetly, I rather have Francis,Tmac,Yao,Battier,Hayes on the floor than rafer,mac,yao,howard,battier. Chuck is young and is full of potential and maybe he is not a scorer but he know what to do when he gets the ball and another thing is that Battier can do the shooting and so can Tmac.
It's in reality a 2 for 1, because Sura is all but done. If the Knicks want to save a lot in luxury tax, we could offer Howard, Sura and Mutombo for Francis, and keep Rafer. The salaries would fall within 25% of each other, so it would work. Maybe they would send us David Lee, a PF, as separate simultaneous deal for our smaller trade exception, making this in reality a 2 player for 2 player deal, and not hurting our depth. But this would have to be a deal Dolan force feeds on Isiah, signifying he is tired of paying so much luxury tax. It would save them 8 million this year by virtue of taking back 4 million less in salary in the deal, plus 4 million in luxury tax. It would save even more in the next two years when Mutombo and Sura's contracts expire. It has already been reported that the Knicks might not trade their expiring contracts of MoT and Jalen Rose this year, and let them come off the cap. But the Knicks only do this deal if they are in salary reduction mode, and there's no way of knowing if that is the case. Plus, this deal will make Isiah look bad that he in effect traded Penny's expiring contract for our scrubs. I guess his out would be the previously asserted position that Larry Brown wanted Isiah to trade for Francis and Rose, but then changed his mind about a week after they showed up and did not play them. If we sent Rafer instead of Mutombo, at least they could argue they got some talent back. But nonetheless, I don't see our management wanting Francis back.
If injuries didn' count Well . .scratch off his migraine season Scatch the season his team won 43+ games and still didn't get into the playoffs Scratch the season that Rudy got injured There are three season that NORMALLY one would have been in the playoffs but 'other things' happened Rocket River
wait, did you just say Francis has a high bball IQ? Ahahhahahhahhaha. he's not a great dribbler (maybe if he'd dribbled less), his vision isn't all that great either. sure, he was the starting point guard for the WC but only b/c the team was getting publicity b/c of Yao. where's Francis been the last 2 years? he hasn't even sniffed the Allstar game. and how do you measure Francis' heart with McGrady's? they both want to win just as much.
