Buyouts for Francis, Webber ongoing, and may interest Rox.

How bout actually being able to hit a shot... any shot. Right now, our starting point guard cannot do that (and frankly, hasn't been very capable of doing that for a long time). The one pg that can actually hit a shot (Lucas) is so small and still so inexperienced that he is effective in stints only.

You say he's not a great defender, but he's not gonna be any worse than Rafer. He's more athletic and he did play good defense under JVG.

You say he's not a great passer, but we don't need a Steve Nash here. We already have McGrady and Yao to pass and setup teammates. His passing won't be any worse than Rafer's in this offense.

 

Just as much!!

 

What in the world are you talking about man? JVG DID get Stevie to play D under him. We're not talking about "what if's" here. This actually happened.

Another example... T-mac never played much D in Orlando, but it wasn't until he got here that he really took pride in improving his defense... under Van Gundy. The point is that a lot of defense is about mentality. Van Gundy brings about that mentality in his players.

Stevie has the physical tools (assuming he fixes his knee) to be a good defender and has been in the past under Van Gundy. You don't need Bruce Bowens at every position in order to play good team defense anyway... you just need competent defenders, which Stevie is.

 

Here's a differing opinion on Steve's D. All I know is he was putting up near trip-dub numbers every night under JVG.

http://www.82games.com/rosenbaum3.htm

 

Rafer is NOT a spot up shooter, he is not a great D player, he is not a great passer.

 

the title is misleading!!

where the hell is it noted that the Rocks have any interest.

Lock this up I say.

 

Maybe you're being sarcastic, but the title says that it MAY interest the rockets.

 

not sarcastic at all.

the title doesnt say do you think the Rockets are interested?

It says Francis, Webber buyout, and may interest Rox.

 

"May" does not mean "will". May stands for possibility, as in "Rafer may shoot 9 for 9 on his tear drops tomorrow." Hella unlikely, but possible. Rockets may be interested, they may not.

 

if either of these twos expresses any interest in signing for this team you must do it. webber still has a lot left in the tank and if he wishes can be a great contributer to this team with his size, rebounding, decent midrange and passing.

stevie is what he is, he brings a lot of hustle, toughness and heart to this team. i think he has become a better decision maker in his time away from houston and can be an efficient playmaker in 20 or so minutes off the bench backing up rafer. steve already knows the system, has played with yao and would be the easiest to transition in. now if he has a problem with jvg thats a different story.

 

If I recall correctly, it was during that whiteboard photoshop scandal on this board. CD mentioned Francis calling him up about wanting to come back to Houston which CD plainly stated was just very very hard to do.

 

I think bringing back Francis is a recipie for disaster. Everytime he goes on about the Toyota Center being "his house" and being responsible for it being built makes me question his sanity. I worry about what he would do to team chemistry. He has to know that he would be a role player in Houston. He would be less important to the team than Shane Battier. Could he handle that? Is his game worth it at this point anyway? Would he be willing to accept a reduced role on the Rockets?

As for Webber...he might be worth a shot, if only to get some low post offense and maybe be that sweet shooting 4 to pair with Yao.

 

Francis would be real steal for a league minimum. He is far superior to Rafer Alston in virtually every aspect of the game.

Now, as for the Assit/Turn over ratio, Nike pointed out, I feel this is largely due to over-abundance of guards Knicks have in their roster, and hence diminished role Francis has in terms of ball handling. In retrospect, a lot of his turnovers, was actually largely due to one of his biggest attributes, trying too hard. With McGrady on board, initiating the offense, I suspect turnover werent be so much of issue. Obviously, shooting isnt one of Francis' strenghts, but his rebounding should more than off-set his liability.

Beside, getting Webber and Francis is a good insurance policy in case McGrady goes down. A lot of talk about Chemistry is based on the premise Tracy stays injury free rest of the year. From a risk management perspective, this is highly dubious given this past history, and stock piling of talent isnt necessarily bad thing to do IMO.

 

So you're saying that Stevie is like your pubic hair? Lonely, confused, and short?

 

Francis will lose some of his quickness of the dribble with tendonitis of the knee. His game is so reliant on quickness to rebound, get position, etc, that he will have problems.

I recall dribble, dribble, dribble, panic/ desperation shoot....

Will not work-league minmum =good price, but damaged goods.

 

Hey Chris Webber -how is Tyra Banks doing??

 

Per pollaxt:

"Anyone who says Stevie wouldn't be an upgrade over Rafer is delusional. My pubic hair is an upgrade over Rafer."

I'm not hatin' here, but I would much rather have Rafer bringing the ball down the floor and distributing the ball like a point guard should- even paying Rafer more at 5 mil per year-compared to the league veteran minimum of 1 mil per year

 

But Rafer isn't doing that.....is he? He is bringing the ball up and handing off to Tmac and then going to spot up as a shooter.

The point is that the Rockets DO NOT NEED A TRUE PG...they need a SG who can dribble and finish.

They need a Kenny Smith type of player......

And Steve Francis > all our PGs.

DD

 

I think you people are hating RAfer because he's been missing his shots lately. If he's not distributing the ball well then how come we have a balance scoring. SF makes a lot of TOs than Rafer. I think that's an important aspect for a PG.

 

You guys are forgetting something, bonzi is inactive and synder is out, sura is not coming back and Yao is still in rehab.

If we want to go far in the playoffs, we need as much vets and players with experience as possible. Cwebb and SF sure does have their own problem and limitation, but ask yourself, would those two be an upgrade over any of our players right now.

SF >> lucas3, span, on bar with head and alston (conversatively speaking)

Cwebb >> padegette, on bar with howard and hayes (again conversatively speaking)

you know two will come cheap as they both just got paid for the buyout and anything would be chump change to them.

We trade away sura, TE, cut padegette, signed both or either one of them for a year or two for min. Cwebb may be able to take over deke's role next season. SF can be a player for 20 mins a game for us.

If we are serious about a title run, then we need to add as much as possible to help us in the playoffs. If not, then I am expecting something to come up from CD. No way with our current roster we can match up with the top 3 right now.