How shocking.......he quit on the team.... Sure he is frustrated, but his career is starting to look very Marburyish. DD
There goes Stevie's 2008 Summer Olympics hope. I am happy Stevie is not our problem anymore. Counting my blessings indeed......
Apparantly the 'rumor' that he had requested to be traded might be true, I heard it on ESPN radio and it sounds like it's true. In fact, they went on to speculate that Minny would be a likely landing place for Stevie (in exchange for Sczerbiack and Hudson, I believe they said).
Hmmm... a KG-Francis core is a pretty good one to build around. It will make a interesting challenge to Yao-McGrady. Francis is a lot like Marbury in that they both sulk when they don't have the ball in their hands. Can KG get along with Francis?
Yikes, that's a horrible deal for Orlando. We can do better than that! Swift and Rafer Alston? Or Swift and Wesley?
Of course, Francis usually gets along with everyone except authority figures, he and KG would be a handful to deal with, but not as good as KG and Cassell were.
Yes, that's true. I probably worded that poorly. I meant "get along" in terms of basketball chemistry.
KG is one of the most unselfish players to come around in a while.He is also a true leader. I believe anyone can play great with KG.
Then SF gets to play alongside a bigger PG in Jaric...not too shabby. Although I think Minny loses its main oustide shooter...
just throwing crap out there. i dont have to be a profesional journalist for espn to do that. i think they want to move paul pierce.
i know this is way out of topic but i was surprised that stevie's wearing nike's now. i think after he got traded to orlando, reebok removed him coz he's shoes wasnt really selling that much and that he's not a teammate of the walking dollar sign, yao ming. lol.
yea 1st the fat boys break up . . .now this On the real Obviously Orlando can suck the life out of anyone Rocket River
http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=52910 Francis' problems started long ago January 12, 2006 If you've watched many Magic games this year, you might be wondering why it has taken this long for the team to suspend guard Steve Francis for, "conduct detrimental to the team." Just about every time Francis takes the floor, it seems, he does something detrimental to the Magic. Francis has always been a good interview, and not a bad guy to be around -- when things are going well. He usually plays hard and, don't forget, he played (when he could) through those nasty migraine headaches in 2002, which won him a lot of respect. Because of that, and because he is a good talker who answers questions honestly and openly, I think the media has not come down as hard on him over the years as we probably should. He earned a bad reputation when he refused to play in Vancouver as a rookie, but that faded pretty quickly. Fact is, Francis' career is sinking fast at a time when he should be, at age 28, in his prime. He came into the league with a splash, averaging 20.1 points, 6.4 assists and 6.3 rebounds per game over his first four years in Houston. In retrospect, those four years might have been the worst thing that could have happened to him. Francis was absolutely pampered under Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich. With Hakeem Olajuwon continually missing time with injuries, Houston needed a centerpiece player, and it was Francis. The Rockets' entire offense revolved around Francis, and when he wasn't shooting, his best buddy Cuttino Mobley was. This spoiled Francis. It may have even ruined the rest of his career. When you are treated like a superstar at age 22, you don't want to hear people telling you that you need to share the ball and work on court vision at age 26. In Houston, all Francis had to learn to do was dribble for 14-20 seconds, then create a shot. The Rockets became masters of the isolation offense, running play after play that featured Francis on one side of the floor, and his teammates on the other side, hands on their hips and bored looks on their faces. Francis never had to learn to involve teammates. He never had to learn to feed the post, or to find cutters or to get inside a defense and find the open man. He simply dribbled the ball and shot it. Remember when Jeff Van Gundy went to Houston in 2003 and told Francis that the old isolation game wasn't going to work anymore? Francis averaged just 16.6 points and shot 40.3 percent that year. And he pouted. He was shipped to Orlando that summer. Francis posted good numbers last year, but in general, his time in Orlando has been marked by disappointment, and his immaturity has been increasingly revealed. He pouted, nearly in tears, when Mobley was traded last year. From 2002-2005, he led the league in technical fouls -- he often puts whining at referees after missed shots ahead of getting back on defense. He bristled at the notion of being moved to shooting guard this year, despite the fact that he clearly does not have the court vision to be a point guard. He seems resentful at the increase in minutes and fourth-quarter opportunities given to Jameer Nelson. Francis seems to have taken the New Year as a chance to play lazy. He is passing up shots. He is averaging 11.8 points, 4.4 assists and 4.8 turnovers in 2006, while shooting 34 percent from the field. That is pretty detrimental to the team. I don't think Francis is going to be saved, either. It could be that he just wants out of Orlando, and this might be a Baron Davis/Vince Carter ploy to force a trade -- hey, it got Carter out of Toronto and Davis out of New Orleans. But no one wants Francis. The trend is toward point guards like Steve Nash and Chauncey Billups, who get others involved. One general manager I talked to said, "The days of point guards like Francis and [Stephon] Marbury are just about gone. With hand-check rules and the way they're calling things, if you're a point guard who sits on the ball for most of the clock, I don't know how much value you have." Whatever the value is, it's not $60 million, which is what Francis will make over the next four years. If Francis' act is about getting traded, he can probably forget it. Even before he was suspended, it was obvious that he's a spoiled player who shown no interest in becoming a better all-around player.
Wow! "Not much value for these types of point guards anymore"? Amazing, considering that almost every GM out there a few years ago wanted a guy like SF or SM. Anyways, I truly and honestly don't see where Francis could go, I just don't see any teams taking him, even the crappier teams like New Orleans and the Hawks have plenty of cheap, young talent that are coming along nicely, so they certainly wouldn't pick up a $60 mil contract for a player that in all honesty won't help you win big. The only possible solution is if he's traded to another team with rediculously overpaid players who have little to no value left. Even a digruntled Pierce is twice the player Francis is, so no way Boston will move him for Francis in a head-to-head trade, not unless Orlando gives up a prospect or a first-round pick (which figures to be a lottery pick). Feel bad for Steve-O, but in all honesty he brought this on himself. The real problem is, IMO, that while Steve gets paid like a superstar, he really isn't one (he's more of the Michael Redd-caliber of players). So basically he's in a different situation from Vince Carter and Pierce and even when McGrady was in Orlando: those guys are big-time star players and almost every team will show interest if they're on the market. I think Orlando might just be stuck with him and have to work something out to keep him at least playing and producing.
