Francis has to go for this team to win consistently

This reminds me of "The Family Guy" episode in which Peter is made the boss of his company and the board of directors give him his own "company suck-up guy". Peter intentionally says contradicting things and it causes the guy's head to explode (revealing that he was really a robot). That is what I am thinking is going on with Francis - changing roles like he has had to do has been too much for him to handle.

Obviously, I have come into this thread a little late, but I think the reason why so many people (myself included) are so hard on Francis is we all see his phenomenal talent but all it has equated to is a couple of all-star appearances for himself and ZERO playoff appearances.

When you demand a trade like he did when he was drafted by the Grizzlies, there are some lofty expectations that you are going to DELIVER and it hasn't happened yet.

Seriously, can anyone else give an example of someone who made 2 or more straight all-star starting lineup appearances but had no playoff appearances on their resume?

I used to never think I would type this here, but we can't trade Mobley; we have to trade Francis. I like GATER's deal with the Bucks.

I used to look forward every time the Rockets played; now, I find myself not knowing when they are playing simply because I abhor the way Francis plays. Sorry for saying this, but I enjoy watching basketball being played "smartly" and I don't see that or ever will see that with Francis.

 

Look, people. See the record?

Trade Steve now to Chicago for what you can get. That's the only place left that will take him.

 

He's got a point. Steve always puts in 110% or more.

Also, I thought steve played to his potential today, hitting his shots and passing well (except into the post).

 

Washington or Chicago.

Chicago? Give me Kirk Hinrich and, uh, someone else.

Washington? Steve/Mo/Pike to Washington; Kwame/Brevin Knight/Jarvis Hayes to Atlanta; Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Gilbert Arenas to Houston. (Maybe the trade exception will cover it.)

I'll imagine these scenarios because this team is unwatchable and even if it improves, we won't go anywhere in the West, especially when Phoenix reloads, and Denver adds more players next year, and Seattle finds a solution to its PF problem, and Kobe joins the Clippers (if he's a free man) and...

 

where are all the trade Yao threads? steve had a great game today. It wasn't his fault Yao couldn't gain position on Jason Collins.

 

Yao did get slapped around by a scrub. I kept looking to see if the refs would call all the obvious holding and such. I guess the refs look the other way when the All Star starter can't shrug it off as Shaq could.

Steve had a decent game up to a point. He played well in the first half. Like the rest of the team in the 2nd, he went to sleep. Thought the game was over and that it was time to go snuggle with Beyonce.

 

If you guys find the team to be unwatchable, stop watching and more to the point stop posting. Look, Steve is here for the foreseeable future so deal with it. Winning a title in the NBA is a marathon not a sprint. We have the major pieces in Steve and Yao. Cat, MoT, and JJ are good supporting players to those pieces. Its the rest of team that needs to be tweeked. We have some players that do not fit into the long term plans of this team in my opinion and those guys need to be dealt with. It is a shame that Yao has such problems with stamina because Cato is really the only player we have that has any value and is expendable. We need a 1990s Oakley type at the 4 (scrapper who can hit a J)and an Horry type at the 3 (good defense, good outside shot, ability to feed the post). I would really like to see us do a Cato for Harrington/Croshere deal myself, but I do agree that we need to make a deal just dont even think about getting rid of Steve.

 

Let's reach the playoffs first before we start talking about titles.

Agree with you on the banger at the 4, but Jimmy Jackson is doing okay at the 3 (even if he is a little undersized). But why such a strong statement at the end? Other than making some all-star game appearances, what has Francis done to make you think he is untradeable?

 

Now you're dreaming man.

First off, you're just throwing out players names without taking into consideration salaries. Trades like this aren't even worth discussing because they can not happen.

 

Which one, ours or Chicago's?

Looks to me like ours is better than Chicago's...even though they supposedly have all these players who are better than Steve.

 

Manny- We definitely have to crawl before we walk so the title mention may be a little excessive, but shoot for the stars and you never know what might happen...

I agree that JJ has done a good job, but I think the future of this team is with Mobley playing off the bench. He has earned the start and now we have the best five starting, but I see Mobley as a Bobby Jackson type for us. JJ is a better complimentary player for Steve and Yao, so I'd like him to be at the 2 and have a Horry/Bowen type 3.

About Francis, aside from his scoring, he has to have been a top 3 1 in the west this year. I believe (but most here probably dont) that this year has been for Steve what last was for Marbury. I really believe that Steve will be a 20 pt, 8 ass, 5 reb player in this league for years to come. I know that I am in the minority on this point, but I do believe in the Franchise.

 

Bu Marbury had those kinds of assist numbers as like a 20 year old. It wasn't like Marbury suddenly turned it around in A or A/TO. Every years Francis has had an atrocious A/TO ratio for a PG and modest APG at best. Different systems, different quality of teammates, different roles, over what a 5 year period?--the one constant in SF's performance in these aspects to his game is Steve Francis.

I believe in Francis as a super talented, outstanding, yet inconsistent NBA star. I also believe he is the kind of talent that can make a crummy team respectable (Atl, Chi) almost all by his lonesume (deserving of the "Franchise", and there are only 12 guys or so in the league I can say this about.

I don't believe in Franchise however as a player, and especially a PG, who can make a good team great. Just doesn't have the mind or mentality to make his teamates better, or do the little things (defense, playing within the context of a 5 man team) to make a team better than the sum of their parts.

I am not Steve hating--I respect him as a guy who is so offensively gifted he can make that crummy team entertaining and competitive on any given night, I just want him to do it elsewhere so we can get nearly equivalent talent in return that better fits where the team is going. Thus of you so emotionally attached to SF as a rocket may very well get a rude awakinging by late of of next summer when he no longer is a BYC player if not sooner.

 

To save the Steve lovers the trouble:
20-6-6 20-6-6 20-6-6 20-6-6 20-6-6 20-6-6 20-6-6 20-6-6 20-6-6 20-6-6 20-6-6 20-6-6 20-6-6

 

If I had to choose between Steve Francis or Steve Nash/Mike Bibby to win a one-on-one game, I'd take Steve Francis every day. However, if I had to win a 5 on 5 basketball game, I'd take Steve Nash/Mike Bibby over Francis in a second. Francis plays a kind of ball that is conducive to winning in the Eastern Conference, but he sticks out like a sore thumb in the Western Conference like when he got beaten like a rag doll against a potential Western Conference playoff opponent in Bibby and the Kings. Going into a game against the Mavs and Kings, the Rockets are automatically spotting the other team 10 points just due to the differential at the point guard position.

 

Would someone please tell me why we SF uses 12-14 seconds sauntering upcourt, then dribbling for a while, before we even get into our offense? Too many times we end up flinging up a hurried shot or simply use up the 24 second clock without even taking a shot.

I know that JVG wants to control tempo, but I can't believe that this is how he wants our offense run. No other team I've seen does this. Look at Nash & Kidd - they push the ball at every opportunity and if the break isn't there, still have plenty of time.

D R

 

I think it's bad clock management by Steve, sometimes by Cat, and then other players to some extent.

1) After we push the ball up quickly and do not find a good shot, we pull back and run a play. We have plenty of time and it works out just fine.

2) We have problem when we slow to bring the ball up court, especially after the opponent press full court and we have to swing the ball back and forth to take it up court.

We barely beat the shot clock crossing mid-court, then spend a few seconds getting the ball back in Steve's hand. As if we have lots of time, Steve then proceed to dribble around on the outside, he might pass to Cat or someone else who does basically the same thing.

Our guys have no sense of the clock. All of a sudden, it dawns on us that the clock is running down and we hurrily rush a shot. It happens almost every game.

I look at the stat at 82games for many teams (not all) and we rank very high among teams who shoot the ball more at the end of the shot clock.

 

Team Leader?


Rockets G Francis suspended one game for missed flight


February 2, 2004
PHOENIX (Ticker) - Houston Rockets All-Star guard Steve Francis on Monday was suspended one game for missing the team's flight to Phoenix on Sunday night.

Francis will not be with the Rockets for Monday night's game against the Suns - his first missed game of the season.

Voted a starter for the Western Conference's squad in next week's NBA All-Star Game, Francis is Houston's leading scorer with 16.6 points per game and is averaging 5.9 assists and 5.6 rebounds over 46 contests.

 

I just have one question. If/when this ship turns around and Steve meshes his offensive game with his improvement in distributing the ball, will those of you that want to trade him relent and admit that you were wrong? This whole thing has gotten out of hand. Half of those bashing Steve do so for personal reasons at this point. I really would not be surprised to see Steve come out of his slump after sitting tonight (although it looked like he was starting to in the NJ game).

On another note, if the Rox do trade Steve Imight be done with them. As a fan, I was really hurt when Dream was traded. When Rudy left I almost walked. If they trade Steve it is going to be hard to stick with them. I understand that that is the business, but if Steve is traded I think it has more to do with the fact we are forcing Yao to be the man when he isn't there yet than anything Steve could have done.

 

I will be the first to admit it. But the odds are pretty unlikely of it happening.