Pffff... Chad Ford..... Steve Francis overrated and Parker underrated?????? tony Parker is the weakest pure PG on the NBA. He only thinks on "score score score" He sucks... and look at his assists. But Franchise will give more assists with Jeff. He can put up 20 + points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and a great direction. Of course in the playoffs 25 points or more. I can say that with Rudy Steve have been underrated. How can give assists a man who is always playing the 1on1? This is THE YEAR of the confirmation of Steve Francis like the BEST PURE POINT GUARD of the NBA. You will see.....
Yeah, you're right, he never sets up any scores nor draws defensive attention. He never makes anybody better. I know this because its true, because I am a genius and can judge things like "no basketball IQ" and "not making anyone else better." Yes, he is overrated, all those awards and stuff that he gets? undeserved. He shouldn't have made the olympic team over Bibby or been selected all NBA first team. So very overrated.
Pass first, shoot second isn't good enough either. He's gotta be able to pass to players in position to score, not throwing the ball into the stands and dribbling it off his foot. Steve has to become efficient offensively and a force defensively. If he does, he will be a top 5 player and this team will be a top seed. No more A/TO ratios of under 2.
Bottom line...Chad Ford is an idiot......... Steve Francis is an NBA All Star.....PERIOD.......... Nobody just comes to the NBA and becomes an All Star by default.......It comes from your play.........and Francis is a Star in this league period It was coachin more than anything....we don't know how good Steve's point guard skills will be until this year.........Rudy did not make steve play pure point.....he let him do whatever he wanted, that was the problem I know 28 other NBA teams that would want our "Problem" at point Guard guys....seriously......Steve will be alright Steve is more than capable of playin point in this league....everyone calm down and chill We have a special player that averages 20pts, 6rbs, and 6ass. a game....thats far from horrible...and its elite company that only a few people are a part of( T-Mac, Kobe, Garnett, etc.) I feel steve can only go up....not down so lets see what happens
Sometime this bbs saddens me because the fact that they dish out so much *#($ to their own players.. so he hasn't taken the team to the playoffs yet, no one player can take a team to a finals series and win it.. unless your name is maybe Mr. Jordan.. I think alot of fans take Franchise for granted, as soon as him and Yao start getting into some kind of a groove.. then everyone will just jump back on a bandwagon and think hes the greatest.. its unbelievable the lack of loyalty fans show
egn, i just don't understand how you feel that you or anyone on this board really, can judge the "basketball IQ" of any player in the nba. why? 1. none of us has EVER played pro ball or coached pro ball. we are just not qualified to judge good basketball smarts. we see the games, as spectators, and build opinions based on the obviouse. 2. we do not know what has been asked of the players by coaching staff. we do not know the plays, or can truley evaluate talent. as far as the examples of "good basketball IQ" most of those players you guys mention are hall of famers-to be, and have more experience playing traditional pg roles. i wonder what yall will say about steve's IQ once he's put in 10 yrs in the league. all i know is that steve francis could start for any team in the NBA at pg, his versitility is respected around the league, by people who know better than us, and that he is not overrated. i am not really a "steve fan" as i am a realist. that article was bad, and not very valid. that guy sounds alot like fran blineberry. stating his personal opinions, and then trying to validate them with specious reasoning.
Steve is not your typical or proto-type PG. Steve is a scoring machine. He's a score first and pass second PG. In this (our) case he is your best scorer until Yao can be a consistent force in the paint (which he will). Then we hope to hear "Francis to Yao" or vice-versa in years to come. Just curious how many PGs (today) are on the receiving end(dunking) of an alley-oop pass? Personally, I think the got robbed on the slam dunk contest were he finished 2nd to Vince Carter. Steve jumps higher than Vince b/c he is shorter to Vince. Francis caught more air. But nobody ask me. The best way quiet the critics or shake da haters off is to "Win Baby, Just Win..."!
You're reasoning is flawed because egn obviously knows everything there is to know about basketball. This is evident in the fact that he can refute all of Steve's stats with "Numbers aren't everything" or "it's in how you get the numbers" while at the same defending those of the likes of J.R. Bremer. Also, he knows Steve has no court visions whatsoever because he can sit and watch from a bird's eye view and know this. And of course, Steve doesn't make his teammates better in the slightest because the Rockets are obviously better off without him. It doesn't matter that the Rockets win far more games with Steve because "Numbers aren't everything." Anyone who disagrees is obviously outmatched.
First of all, why don't we just forget that idiot Ford's comments for a second? It is quite obvious that his reasoning to label a player overated/underated is completely flawed. The real issue is if SF is better/worse than what he is projected. Forget about Bibby, Parker, etc. SF has always been projected as, at best, the 3rd-4th best PG in the league by anybody who is ever listened to on TV (analysts, etc). Is that overrated? I don't think so. The real issue it seems that make people so frustrated with Steve Francis is how much better he COULD be with some real coaching. Yes, as has been said multiple times, he is a phenomenal athlete and basketball talent who has put up very impressive numbers, but so have guys like VC, Shareef, Stack, Bid Dog, etc. None of these guys have ever led their teams anywhere though. Yea, SF may be ranked a little higher than these guys, but who cares? Anybody that follows ball regularly can see that SF is great player that has a lot of room for improvement, all of which have been mentioned a million times on these threads. Now that he finally has some real coaching and boundaries on the court, I think he will show improvement in those areas. If, however, he continues to reach EVERY time on defense and get burned, continues to average like 3.7 turnovers per game, and continues to make the same mistakes he has made over the past like 4 years, it will be harder and harder to defend him as one of the top 5-15 players in the league. I don't think that will happen, though, I think he will show how much better he can be this year. YAO and STEVE 4 ever!
Never said numbers were irrelevant, only that there are a lot of other things that make players great.
15 is probably stretching just a little, top five is rediculous. O'Neal Duncan Garnett McGrady Kidd There are 5 better player off the top of my head without even duplicating a position. Let's go for 10 more Nowitzki Pierce Bryant Webber Payton Allen Brand O'Neal (Jermaine this time) Marbury Carter Yeah, Steve is not in the top 15 players in the NBA.
If Stevie is overrated, then Gilbert Arenas is overrated and over payed, Right??? Stevie doesn't have the best court vision, but he has as much talent as any point guard in the entire league!!
Wait a minute, Stephon makes the playoffs one time and now he's top 15. I dont like the mathematics of this one...He still isnt better than Gary Payton!! And when did Carter even become important again?? If I recall he hasnt did anything since, hmmmmm 2000 Playoffs and here were coming up on the 2003-2004 season. He must have had a nice rest, but its time to play atleast 50% of an NBA season because weve forgotten what he looks like.
Shouldn't "court vision" be counted as a contributing factor for "talent?" Especially for a point guard!!!! Or are you just talking about one-on-one athletic ability?
not that kahn is the end all be all of rankings, but he had steve ranked #14 (in what seemed to be one of the better overall top 50 lists in a while). in fact most lists have him in the 12-14 range. so what exactly is so hilarious about it.
