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

any chance this happens? he loves houston we all know that.

 

I vote for Steve, if he becomes available. Whatever his flaws, (A) he's far better than any PG we have now and (B) you know he'd do anything to make it work here.

If there was room on this team for Mike James, there's got to be room for Steve.

 

You sure you watched those games? Because I saw the same Steve Francis from a few years ago, just slower. He wouldn't hesitate to drive into three defenders once he got the ball. He dominated the ball less, but that's because they had him playing the off-guard position a lot of the time. He has crappy teammates, but he just doesn't know how to run a team.

But he doesn't suck as much as Rafer. The Clutch's article on Rafer's shooting woes makes that abundantly clear. Rafer plays the same damn way as Stevie sometimes, but doesn't get the finish.

 

i always felt francis was destined to come back ..... if his contract expires it'd almost be like the stars are aligning for him to be a rocket again. im a huge fan of the guy.... it would be big.

 

Yao will say: I wanna see SF3...

 

okay im guilty of going to the knicks forum..to see what they fans had to say, and whats the latest news on if they going to buy him out or not

so here is what a few fans of the Knicks are saying...

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I say we need to let him do his thing so he can get his knee better and we'll have a rejuventated Steve Francis. Again this guy has mad heart and he roots for his teammates regardless. Does anyone remember that 3OT game? Steve was the guy on the court celebrating Frye for the jumper and on the bench rooting for his teammate, that's more than what we can say for marbury at times. Francis is a team player and he can still help this team. When healthy he is better than crawford because he doesn't jack up jumpers off a hesitation dribble. He take it to the whole hard and gets to the free throw line and shoots well from the line might I add. I'm all for a healthy Francis because bringing him off the bench with nate is excellent because francis can still slay starting SG but if he plays against a 2nd string SG...it's easy picking. HURRY FRANCIS!

Chemistry comes in time, an in time Francis will be healthy, Richardson will be healthy and the team will be more use to playing together! The main thing killing us right now is our defence, and decision making down the stretch. If we can get a defensive minded team like the Van Gundy knicks which I gotta add wasn’t a great defensive team individually we will be fine! An don’t kill me now! When I said Van Gundy’s knicks weren’t a great defensive team individually I mean we never really had Ben Wallace type players, only person that was that close athletically and defensively was somebody like Camby. Van Gundy got everybody to play TEAM DEFENCE that’s what I loved and hated about him because that’s all we did!! Scoring never seemed to much of a bother to him for some odd reason. well looks like we arnt the only ones van gundy drove crazy on the offensive side lol

there are alot of Knick fans that want to keep Steve, just like we want him back.....hope it happens

 

How cool would it be to see Steve and TMac throwing alley-oops to each other? With Yao setting the picks?

 

Francis for MLE, Will be awesome! With nearly 50 Million on his bank account by the end of the month. i don't think the guy would mind to lead the Rockets into the PG position. But then again it's got to be " Pass first and shoot second"! Intiende!understand!Got the message!Got your role!

GO ROCKETS!

 

I cannot believe the poll results on the home page or the amount of people in this thread who want SF3 back here in Houston. I just have one question to ask all of you who think this way.......ARE YOU HIGH????

I mean c'mon people why would you want this guy back? He did absolutely nothing when he was here, nothing in Orlando after we traded him there and nothing in New York after they traded for him and now the lowly Knicks don't even want him. In short, he is a cancer, a ball hog and the last guy I would want to make any kind of move for.

 

I wouldn't mind SF3 for the vets min. for the rest of this year. Lets see if he's willing to accept coming off the bench and being an energy player.

 

I suggest you read my post above from the Knicks forum, they love SF, they love how he is on the bench and his heart, way more than SM...but everyone is intitled to their own opinon

 

This is the NBA not Cirque du Soleil.

 

IICC, SF had finally come around the season before he was traded. IMO (and JVG’s also), he was not traded because he was hopeless, but because we had the chance to get T-Mac. JVG just "implied" recently, that if he had the chance to get Wade or LBJ, he would trade T-Mac. Therefore, if we could get SF back and IF he could still be the guy JVG had groomed into his last season here, then this would be a steal. Just imagine SF being left open and him driving to the basket. I am certain he would not finish with teardrops, but rather monster dunks.

 

They are old junks. Why bother cosidering about them? You wanna sign ppl who will be on the injured list all the time?

 

HELLO????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!>>>>>>>>>>>>>??????????????/ What the f is wrong with everyone saying we shouldnt take francis. i know the fact he is injured, i know that ya'll think he dribbles too much and doesnt make good decisions. but we are talking about a back up point guard here. BACKUP! i dont know why you guys are assuming that he's gonna play 48 or even 28 minutes for us and screw up our chemistry. steve francis loves houston, he loves the rockets probally probally as much as all of us do and would do anything to get back here. he's a vocal leader, good rebounder can bring the ball up the court and a stronger defender than rafer (35lbs stonger at least). we can sign him for a minimum contract for half a season, and your legit complaint is WHAT??????? "bob sura is worth keeping on the injured list?" "ummmmm i dont want the rockets to have a healthy veteran who can help them opposed to inexperienced rookies?" "i dont want a point guard who already knows the system and the type of coach that van gundy is......" Come on its risk free to sign him under the minimum for half a freakin season. Anyone who can argue that is a moron.

 

RED ROWDIES CHANT REQUEST:

"BRING BACK FRANCIS - BRING BACK FRANCIS!!!"

JUST TO LET JVG AND LES HEAR IT FIRST HAND...

 

Isaiah is denying the talks of the buyout, but Steve's agent is confirming them... Sounds like the Knicks, to me.

The more I think about it, the more I love the idea of Stevie coming back. His heart is something this team could really use, like what Cassell brought back in the day.

 

Maybe instead

"Bring Back Steve!!" ??

either or...

 

Time to dispel some myths as usual with facts. Tired of all the Rafer talk. It's time to bring some data to the discussion.

Here's a list of PG's and associated stats for the 2006-2007 season. (The list came from PG's meeting the criteria for being assessed as the overall list of league leaders stats-wise). The list is ranked by Hollinger's "Pure Point Rating" for guards of how effective of a distributor they are. It's a much more refined form of evaluating assists and turnovers. PPR basically converts assists and turnovers into a per possession figure as well as adjusting for the idea that assists as do less good than turnovers do more harm. Here's the formula for anyone who's interested:

PPR = (league pace / team pace) * ([(assists * 2/3) - turnovers] / minutes)




#1 Rafer is at best equal to Francis in distributing the ball. Francis has an equal if not a better rating than Rafer this year looking at PPR. 2ndly notice the Assists Ratio as well. Francis is actually at 28 assists per 100 possessions vs. Rafer at 24. Careerwise Rafer has an AsR of 30 while Francis is at 22.6. This show's me 2 things - 1) Francis this year with the Knicks has switched to be much more of a distributor and 2) Rafer's number going down is indicative of TMac picking up the load as a playmaker.

The fact that Tmac has taken on more of the play-maker role really makes the next couple of stats stand out as well. We need a PG that scores buckets as well which bring us to…

#2 Francis is much more potent offensively than Rafer. Looking at the point per 40 minutes you might think they are the same but Francis is much more efficient in getting his points. What really stands out is Francis' True Shooting % which accounts for field goals + free throws. Francis gets to the line a lot when attacking the basket. If you look at offensive efficiency ratings from their careers you find the following:

Francis: 106 vs. lg avg 104
Alston: 103 vs. lg avg 106

Career PER you find (remember avg is 15):
Francis: 18.6
Alston: 13.9

#3 Defensively, Rafer is at best equal to Steve. Career defensive efficiency ratings:

Francis: 105 vs. Lg Avg 104
Alston: 106 vs. Lg Avg 105

Interestingly enough if you compare defensive effeciency ratings for Francis' year with JVG compared to Rafer's defensive last year under JVG we find the following:

Francis: 99 vs. lg avg 103
Alston: 104 vs. lg avg 106

This suggests to me that Francis is a better defender under JVG's scheme than Alston.

If we got Stevie back, he would be an upgrade to Alston.