Francis negotiating buyout, may then sign with Philly?

Ironically, as the league has started to reward players who are hell bent on getting to the rim, Steve has done less and less of it.

I think SF would thrive as a 3rd option, and would welcome him back.

DD

 

What's funny is that Isiah the Coach is now dumping all the "clutter" acquired by Isiah the GM.

 

but the word coming out of new york now is that brown wanted francis because he didn't get along with marbury. that's really where the clutter lies. francis has no spot on that team if marbury is gonna play heavy minutes unless you're gonna push robinson to the end of the bench.

 

Thanks Clutch (and thacabbage). I missed that.

 

I posted something similar that was obscured in a long thread in the GARM.

For everyone who says that Rafer has better handles than Steve they need to think again. Here is a ranking of PG's in the league using Hollinger's Pure Point (Guard) Rating (PPR) for the 2006-07 season thus far (latest data from knickerblogger.net). PPR is a more sophisticated version of looking at player ball distribution efficiency vs. assist-to-turnover ratio because it:

1) accounts for the fact that assists do less good than turnovers do more harm and
2) adjusts for per minute played



Looking at PPR for this season Rafer (ranked 33/43) is at best on par with Steve Francis (ranked 31/43) in efficiency as a distributor both with a PPR of about 3. Francis is actually ranked ahead of Alston. The median PPR is 4.2 so that means Francis and Rafer for that matter are both below average compared to other PG's in the league in terms of ball distribution efficiency. (Rafer was 10/30 with a PPR of 5.2 just behind Sam Cassell last year).

Furthermore Rafer's Assist-Ratio (assist per 100 possessions) is around 23-24 while Francis is at 28 per 100 possessions so for Francis is actually producing more assists than Rafer. Career-wise Rafer's AST-r is around 30 while Francis is at 22.

So why the change distribution efficiency (PPR) and Assist-ratio (AST-r)?

1. I think Francis' PPR and AST-r improvement demonstrates that he can adjust his playing style to be much more of a distributor and basically has done so this season with the Knicks.
2. Alston's drop in PPR and AST-r are due to the fact that on the Rockets Tmac is also shouldering the burden of being playmaker while Alston's job playing with Yao and Tmac has become more of a combo-guard who needs to either hit the open shot or get into the lane when Yao or Tmac are doubled. In otherwords his job is as much to score as it is to distribute the ball.

Of course there's the whole offensive side of the equation that needs to be considered as well that can be discussed but I'll leave it at this for now.

 

and the Sixers are even worse... the Knicks are actually playing decent ball, enough to keep them 1 or 2 games out of the pathetic division leading spot....

well, they have won their last five at the Garden, so its a start...

 

Knicks deny buyout rumors

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01132007/sports/knicks/isiah_tries_to_spin_c_webb_knicks_marc_berman.htm

There's a very strong possibility rehabbing Steve Francis will join the team in his hometown Washington when the Knicks face the Wizards on Wednesday at MCI Center. While this looks like it's headed toward a buyout, the Knicks and Francis have yet to discuss one.

"We're not in negotiations with him," Thomas said. "There's absolutely zero talk. I don't foresee it."

However, the sore-kneed Francis appears to have no role on the team and Thomas prefers to give rookie Mardy Collins more minutes. Francis left the team Jan. 1.

 

I like to read a blog from a Knicks fan- A-3P0 intraoduced the board to this guy- Thanks A-3P0. He is a fan- not an expert- I wanted to know his feelings about the Francis buyout rumors. BTW -I would love to get Francis back at a reasonable price.

the link is : lfs404.blogspot.com
************************************************

we'll start this off answering our first ever djqa. this question comes from tbar:

"DJ- Do you know about the Steve Francis Buyout- We in Houston want him back for the vet minimum. What have you heard??"

"bringing francis back to houston is a great move...for me to poop on!!! all jokes aside, there were rumors swiriling as peter vescey in the ny post said that francis and the knicks were working on a buyout. these rumors were both denied by francis' agent as well as isiah thomas. which probably means this is going to happen within the next 6 months. the knicks have been going crazy trying to trade francis. but of course, with $40 mil left on his deal, there are no takers. so he's now at "home" rehabbing. considering allan houston used to travel with the team after microfracture, i call bullsh*t on the francis "rehab." chances are he won't get bought out until AFTER the all star break (after exhausting all efforts to trade him). most likely, in the summer."



"I just wonder what will happen with the Francis situation. Marbury is shining without him, but the notion of a buyout otherwise sounds nuts (and I heard that Francis and his agent have said that this rumor is nonsense)."

I hope we can get him.

 

One thing the numbers wouldn't tell you is that Francis has always been terrible playing off the ball. In case nobody has noticed, the guards in the Rockets' system play off the ball A LOT, either because Yao is posting with the ball or TMac is running the offense. The ideal PG for the Rox would be a lockdown defender with good catch and shoot abilities to 3pt range who can also bring the ball up and not have a lot of turnovers. That is to say, pretty much the exact opposite of Steve Francis. If we were running a system that depended on our PG to focus on offense at the expense of defense, try to create his own shot and get to the line, that would play to his strengths. Kirk Hinrich would be perfect for the Rox. Steve might be able to help if he plays when Yao and TMac are off the court, and could be worth taking a flyer on for the minimum, but not getting him would be no great loss.

 

Francis would only be useful as a backup PG who is in the game when one of Yao and T-Mac are out.

I don't want to see possessions where Francis dribbles for 20 seconds and doesn't give the ball to Yao.

 

Steve Francis still has good chemistry with Yao right? Add Tmac into the mix and you get the Dynamic Trio.

 

At this point in their careers, I'd rather sign Francis then include him in a trade (maybe a 3-team one) with the Sonics for Earl Watson. Watson is young, is a solid point guard and probably the best defensive PG in the game right now. He's not a great outside shooter, but then neither is Rafer, and at least Watson seems to realize his limitations. And for some reason, the Sonics seem to favor Ridnour over Watson.

 

If you look at the stats I posted above Watson has a better PG rating than Ridnour in terms of distributing the ball (PPR, AST-R, etc.). The biggest disparity though is on the offensive side.

Watson eFG: 39.4% FT: 74.2% TS%: 42.9%
Ridnour eFG: 49.3% FT: 81.1% TS%: 53.4%

Ridnour obviously is much more potent offensively vs. Watson. I would say that gives us some indication of why they like Ridnour over Watson.

 

Francis to Philly...I could see that...

on a side note, went to my daughter's cheerleading thing on Saturday at San Jac Central...Sloppy Game, great arguing with the refs, etc....

Well, opened up the progam, and there's an article on Francis and Sam...Pretty cool to read it...

 

so you're saying they both suck?

 

well, what's the point of pointing out the obvious??!! The question is how much do they suck relative to each other because chances are we aren't getting any of the other guys above them!

For others who can't see the tongue-in-cheek of all this, here's another view. For guards that are primarily scoring PG's, their PPR ratings and AST-R ratings rank them low in these categories because by definition they are looking for their shot primarily therefore their PPR and assist-ratios will be much lower compared to other PG's. Cases in point:

Arenas PPR: 1.1 AST-R: 17.6
Iverson PPR: 0.7 AST-R: 18.6