Chron: Rockets' Francis Invites Criticism With Celebrity

Sport franchises are not like regular businesses with buildings as their assets. Players can be moved very easily if there is an opposite party willing to deal. Look at the Kings and the Mavs. Bibby was attained in a trade. Christie was attained in a trade. Webber was attained in a trade. Vlade was acquired from the Hornets. Brad Miller was attained from the Pacers. Bobby Jackson was acquired from the Twolves. Steve Nash and Finley were acquired from the Suns for Jason Kidd. Trading makes sense if it brings back players who fit better on the team. As much as some folks enjoy getting the Rockets going to the lottery every year, I like to see some proactive moves rather than reactive moves.

 

My stats example was what I hopped he could achive. Not what he can achieve. As far as his TO. I don't think so. He'll continue to get 3.5 per game. I don't exepct that to change. He's had 5 years to improve. What's he need? Another 5 years? New system has nothing to do with it. The problem is that Francis just NEVER KNEW how to play like a PG. He's trying to learn NOW. But it's a struggle because "old dogs" can't learn new tricks.

Rookie PGs come into the league already effcient and then fine tune their games while in the NBA. Francis has been trying to improve his whole career, but can't. And I'm not talking about his ppg. I'm talking about his total game.

And the reason the team is winning is because JVG has digressed Francis role to lesser responsibilities. The system itself *gets* others involved. It's not because Francis is doing this. JVG stopped him from going ISO all the time. This had to be done. And because of this, it has harmed the team less.

Think about it. How does the team do when Francis is on the bench? Our talent pool is pretty good. Enough to get wins by defense. And enough offense to squeak by. I'm not saying that Francis isn't a valuable weapon. Realistically, he's just a little bit better than Mobley and JJ.

And Mobley's not even an All-star.

 

Yep.
It's going to be interesting what moves they make.

Players that fit our team. I still want Sheed. We still need a PF replacement for Griff.

 

I think you underestimate Francis' value to the team and the "system". We don't have a team when francis is on the bench, we dump it into Mo Taylor everytime down the court. How did Moochie do when he tried to run the show? Wilks is quick, but he will not hurt any defenses. The reason the system works is because of Francis' athletic ability, when he penetrates they collapse because they know he'll finish. They don't cheat off him because they know he can shoot. He rebounds well, in other words they have to constantly keep an eye on him. Where Mobley is having a better statistical year, Francis is much more valuable to the success of this team.

 

I think you speak the truth here. The defense has been winning games for us, and the offense has been allowing us to squeak by.

You can say Steve is a weak link on defense if you want. But a weak link on a defense who gave up 63 & 65 points in the last 2 games ain't all that weak. And just imagine what our offense can do when Stevie gets his game rolling on that end of the court again. We won't just be squeaking by. You say he's slightly better than JJ & Mobley now. If you think that, what will you think when his points go up by about 8 a game, his shooting percentage is up about 10 points and so is his free throw shooting?

You've all seen Steve play offense for years now, and you can't tell me you expect this is all we'll get out of him offensively. He'll start hitting his shots soon, and then watch out!