I mentioned you supported the deal, but my comments weren't about the Rockets. Point being that Ray Allen's weaknesses made him not worthy of being traded for Francis ... while people pointing out Francis' weaknesses are ignored by you with a simple response of "12-6", as if this is all we need to know. Meanwhile, Allen is 17-3. Oski - I actually disagree. I don't think every team would improve as drastically as the Rockets by adding a few good role players. Those players are going to fill roles around who on other teams? Yao and McGrady do in fact need to do more, but the other three players on the floor at any given time have played so poorly that it is indeed a huge factor. The lure of having two such high-profile and potential impact players is when the defense focuses heavily on them, they create wide open shots for teammates. What would Drexler/Olajuwon have done without Robert Horry, Kenny Smith, Sam Cassell and Mario Elie? Can you find a team in the league with a worse situation at the one or a worse situation at the four? I haven't even looked, but my guess is that is a tough proposition. Did you see Sura airball that wide open three last night? Goodness gracious, I doubt there was a guy within 15 feet of him. We're so desperate for some light outside of Tracy/Yao that Andre Barrett is the second coming of Calvin Murphy to us. Regarding the other stuff.... out of curiosity, do you think Steve Francis wants the Rockets to struggle? His comments the other day about change being good for some and bad for others (cough, cough) I thought was a little telling. I don't wish ill will on Steve, but I could see a small reason for fans to come back with "Up yours, Steve". I personally lean more towards, "Up yours, Orlando Sentinel", but to each his own. Rocket fans have had to listen a LOT of talking heads about how this was a bad trade for Houston. Also, the Rockets need for a rebounder and the Orlando Magic having a healthy Grant Hill .... huge, huge difference. I don't know what to make of Grant, but he's playing closer to the level that he did with the Pistons than he ever has before with the Magic. We're talking about at that time, arguably, a top 3 player in the game. Signing McGrady was nothing compared to landing Hill at that time. Francis and Mobley are excellent players, capable of playing very big. We've seen that. I also know that they are very capable of coming up very, very small. Mentally they have made a lot of mistakes that drove me nuts and they showed no signs of maturing past them (actually I thought Mobley made more progress last season though). If the Magic have the players around those guys to cover up those weaknesses, they can go very far in my opinion. But please, lets not pretend these guys don't have flaws, or that only Rockets fans would be so hard on them. Charley Rosen may be "out there", but I think some of his comments on this (with the exception of overrating McGrady) are accurate: http://msn.foxsports.com/story/3222202 <UL>In retrospect, did the Rockets make a big mistake in trading so many front-line players for Tracy McGrady? — MD Their single biggest mistake (and they were not alone) was in overrating McGrady — any player who collects outstanding numbers on a woefully bad team will never perform nearly as well for a legitimate contender when every shot and every game count. Also, Houston did not (or could not) find an acceptable replacement for Steve Francis at the point guard position. As it is, T-Mac is the only player with ball-handling responsibilities who is capable of creating his own shots. Dealing away Kelvin Cato also left a power vacuum at the No. 4 slot and put too much pressure on Yao Ming to rebound and play interior defense. In addition, Van Gundy the Shorter is having a difficult time establishing a balance that doesn't emphasize either Yao's or T-Mac's offense without neglecting the other. Given that the Houston front office failed to fill the holes left by the departing players, there's little doubt that they did indeed give up too much for McGrady. But it was still worth taking a shot — and I'm sure the Rockets are not finished tinkering with their roster. Do you think the Magic are for real? Are they a threat to advance to the Eastern Conference finals? — Charles They're a solid second-round playoff team. Both Cuttino Mobley and Steve Francis are too erratic to be counted on when the elite teams meet deep in the postseason tournament. Their big men are limited and lack the ability to post up effectively — this inadequacy prevents the Magic from playing the kind of inside-outside game necessary to win championships. Also, Dwight Howard might be a precocious rookie, but he's a rookie nevertheless. Grant Hill is their heart and soul, and if he should go down with an injury, the Magic's season will vanish.</UL>
This statement maybe somewhat true, but its not any mind blowing insight. If Yao or McGrady go down, the Rockets have virtually no shot of making the playoffs. Does that lesson either one's ability? There maybe five players in the NBA who can make the playoffs without having another all-star caliber player on their team. Grant Hill provides Steve Francis with a stabilizing precense he has never played with. That's going to help him more than anything he got out of any teamate he had in Houston. But Steve Francis is still the best player on that team, so you can substitute Francis for Grant Hill in that statement and its still probably true. It might be even more true.
Don't tell me Hill's hurt?? Awesome. It just seemed like you thought it was one way or the other, which made me sad.
1. I am a Steve Francis Cuttino Mobeeley .. and yes even Cato Fan anyone that has wore the uniform . . except pippen I will defend them against blind hatred 2. I was against the Trade - I said we gave up TOO MUCH Esp considering the play of Gaines, Lue and Howard 3. I am happy to see Orlando Succeed . . .i wish the rockets will succeed more [orlando is now my 2nd fav team] Honestly I don't think Hakeem and Barkley were the calming influence on Steve. . . I don't think they related to him like Hill does. . . Barkley seems more the LISTEN TO ME TYPE and Hakeem was a bit more reserve in his latter years Folx say if Hill goes down this team goes down . . so will orlando I say this .. . As long as Hill is on the bench . . . they will be ok The heart and Soul of the team does not necessarily need to be on the floor. . . .They will continue to do well with out hill [not saying championships] 4. I think we here need to just breakdown and give Wieisbrod some props. . . for a hockey guy he did good this off season look at all the other trade possibilities he had. . artest etc can u honestly say any other team REALLY offered him something better than what he got [hindsight now] he maybe an *ss but h*ll so is JVG Rocket River
How is that a long-term project? The team got more than equal value back in trade. The team has BETTER players now than they did last year. When you have multiple dominant players, obviously your supporting players are going to be weaker - LA won a championship with a 40 year-old AC Green at PF and a Ron Harper in his late 30s at guard. Rick Fox was no better than Jim Jackson either. When people bad-mouth the supporting cast, they seemingly aren't understanding that NOBODY has TWO players as good as McGrady & Ming. No one. You need to look at it in terms of Ming's supporting cast and/or McGrady's supporting cast, b/c no other team in the league has multiple players of their caliber. When you consider that Ming's supporting class includes McGrady, and McGrady's supporting cast includes Ming, the supporting cast suddenly looks damn good!
good to see other fans think like me also.you took the words right out of my head. I think we can argue about this with other sf,cm,and cato haters forever, but they will never admit that we gave up too much.I just wish the rocket's could do better then what they are doing right now.if francis was off, cat was on .if cat was off, mobley was on and we still had yao mo and jj to back them up .now if t mac is off, we are just out of luck for that nite.
the thing that is funny to me is everyone keep saying the rockets have two superstars, we don't the rockets have to media stars, One is overated and the other has proved just as much a steve francis. the rockets trade a star who value went down because of van gundy, a good player on certain nights can explode like a star and a solid big man who for the past two season started to earn his contract. for mcgrady and scrubs.
