Francis has to go for this team to win consistently

What's with the selective memory? Prior to this season, Steve shot as well as anyone outside of the pure shooters(Peja, Dirk, etc...), though it doesn't show in the percentages. He had developed his stop and pop to the point that it was becoming a forte. Steve did have the shooting ability of Cat, just last season, in fact. He wasn't unstoppable then, and he won't be now.

 

He plays for Dallas now. Was on Golden State until this season's trade. SF's value is hopefully still high now since he's an "all-star". The max contract is a bummer.

 

Shaq would probaly eject himself if he is not getting the good touches, let alone running with the little guys. Yao was out, because JVG decidied it's 3pt contest from then on, and protect Yao from being exhausted.

 

Sometimes, it's not enough you see it. You need to see it through your brain. Yao was out because they needed faster pace game and 3s when they were doewn 6 with under 3 minutes to go.

 

You know what? I wish that Steve would be traded to a city that would appreciate him. Here we have a guy who has started in three all-star games in his brief five year career, is one of like three players to avg 20-6-6 and by all accounts has bought into playing team ball. Whats not to like about that? Is he going to continue to shoot so poorly? No. Has he become MUCH better at making plays? Yes. Does he actually care about winning and losing? Yes. I dont know what many here expect, but Steve Francis is a top 20 player in this league when he is playing normal and maybe the most impossible to guard this side of Shaq/TD when he is on. Many of you need to grow up and realize that what we have here.

PS-About him yelling at Boki, he screamed right at Boki in transition that he needed to pick up Bibby and Boki just flat out quit on the play fouling Bibby as he made an easy lay-up. I would much rather have a guy that gets fired up than just accepts anything less than 100% from his teammates.

 

Many of you also need to check out Clyde's stats, Drexler put up basically identical stats for 12 years as Steve has in his first 5.

 

Nice post, Sydmill.

 

SHEESH...!

 

Not really. Drexler played marginal minutes in his first three seasons and then reeled off 6 consecutive 20+ ppg seasons, then two at 19+, and a 12th season again over 20. Drexler had a career efficiency rating of 22.42, was a monster at finishing a fast break and had a career assist to TO ratio better than Francis's best season. My guess is you're not old enough to have seen Clyde when he was Francis's age...no comparison.

 

"Monster" is really an understatement. One of the best in the history of the league is not.
That's a part of Steve's game that has always mystified me.

 

That's awfully bold. As a qualified scout of high school and colligiate basketball for more than 3 years and as a person that has seen and dissected Francis' physical abilities and talents on the court over his years with the Rockets, I am appalled with the latter part of this statement.

 

SF is a great player going through a slump, hopefully not permanent. To me the broader question is SF playing out of position at the point, will he ever attain the qualities of a great distributor and ball handler? There is enough doubt in my mind that I would seriously consider putting together a blockbuster deal to include either SF, Cat and Cato for a franchise PG. In fact, how did the Rox not get into the action for Marbury since he was obviously available. I don't know any of the facts on salaries and caps and such but I think that a package of either SF/Cat and Cato would have been a better deal for Phoenix than what they got from NY.

 

You are so bias to come up with such garbage!

1) When did I say Yao was highly efficient in this game?
I posted Yao's rating at 15 and Steve 9.

2) Yao didn't win the game for us but even when Yao sucked wind, his performance was average. He didn't lose this game! You would dispute that but do you have anything to back it up?

3) Other posters had offered the reason why Yao was benched. Is it good enough?

4) I did not invent the efficiency rating. If you don't like its use, make your complain to the NBA office.

5) Brad Miller's efficiency ranks him 5th and that is why a lot of people think he deserves to be an all-star. What do you think?

6) "Let's trade Yao and Steve for Brad Miller?" You think this is sarcasm but it is very weak. Before you throw out something like that, look at my posts.

7) Is being "abbreviated" a legitimate excuse these days?

 

False! If Francis gets rolling, it will be in an up-tempo run&gun west coast shoot out which coincidently brought four years of lottery and landed Yao. If your logic is true, trade Yao and let Francis who's got too much mad hops and bring back Mad Max or Ricky Davis (Yao to Boston, LOL). Hehe, that would be entertaining if you can stand the losing.

 

1. Responding to the "Steve doesn't fit into JVG's system" argument:

Then trade Yao. You really have to make a choice about which player you'd rather conform to. Sure, Steve could always play iso ball when Yao's on the bench.. but that'd be it, without diminishing Yao's ability.

If you're chosing between Yao and Steve, it pretty much has to be Yao. He's taller, younger, and already more productive.

2. Responding to the "he needs more time" argument:

The problem with this, is that even if he does "adjust" to the new system and start shooting a bit better... he's still not going to be playing up to his potential. Steve was not meant to be Kenny Smith, which is probably what we need at PG. He'd be wasted, in that capacity, to be fair to him.

Umm... VJ... you're usually pretty accurate about stuff like that.

But you're just flat wrong here. Francis has never had good 3 point range. Essentially, he was great at driving and the midrange jumper, until this year. But at the perimetr, he's never been Cat's equal. Or even good.

 

Hmmmm, lets see...you give Francis points for assists and Bibby points for assist. You give Francis points for points and Bibby points for points...ok fine...

Yet, you don't take points away from Francis after shooting 17%. You know, that DOES take away OPPORTUNITIES and TIME during the game. The game is a timed event....So, when shots are taken and missed, that hurts the team because it runs time off the clock. Those missed shots are missed opporutnies that you don't get back. Bibby used his time wisely and efficiently. Francis did not.

If Francis shot 61% like Bibby, yet only scored 7 points, then fine. He would have offered more positives than negatives. But that's not what happened.

Your numbers above do NOT tell the whole story.

Francis missed 14 shots and hit 3 shots. Bibby missed 7 shots and hit 11 shots. Those missed 14 shots should be accounted for, and subtracted from Francis's 33 assumed points.

It's also important to note that Bibby shot 75% from 3pt range (3-4). Francis shot 0% from 3pt range (0-3).

 

That's right. There are some fans of Francis that think the dunk is equal to 4 points; i.e. that the spectacular dunk makes you a better player.

It's the fascination with the athlete and not the basketball player.

 

I think it's where you said that Francis is about as unguardable as Shaq/TD is when you lost all credibility in that post. I don't know what the solution is for Steve but his future with the Rox looks bleaker and bleaker everyday as his game has been molding into that of a bench scrub.

 

I just noticed Steve's 03-04's PTS is 738(260-668),and yao is 734(273-509)!So close.
cat is 690(251-601)