The way steve handeled the adversity that was thrown his way was magnaficent. any lesser person would have starting throwing tantrums and effect team chemistry. but not steve. atleast not the version 11 mature francis. he's a credit to this club. Just hearing that interview finally confirmed how mature he is now. he said he's role now is to do the little things like get the steals. hustle. try to set up our big two superstars. he has accepted he's limited role incridibley well.
nice segment. the francis part was boring....i was mostly curious about what kenny and charles had to say, and they nailed it. francis is talented as anyone out there, but he never knew how to play. he couldve been as good as baron davis, deron williams, and even billups....but he just didnt know how play the right way.
i am just hoping that SF saw what chuck and kenny said about him. They are so right and dead on. We need SF to be that floor general, he got talent to finish around the hoop, he got heart and he can lead the team. SF is a better locker room leader than Tmac and Yao.
Before this year I would have agreed with Kenny and Charles about Steve, but with 19 assists and only 3 turnovers and watching him play under control but make good passes in the offense and in transition has me thinking that he has finally GOTTEN it. DD
The sample size is a little too small to know for sure, but I hope you are right. He has been quite good so far.
The sample size is small but it certainly deserves more than 8 minutes to get a better sample. Personally I think he will get better with more time and this is 1 thing I don't get about Adelman. It's almost like he is thinking, "well Rafer may suck at shooting but at least I know what I am getting. Whereas Stevie is a mystery who had an attitude about benched early on". My biggest problem with sticking with Rafer over Stevie is Rafer's history shows he only gets worst under pressure. The more important the shot the more he chokes and the bigger the game the more he sucks. He will only get worst come playoff time. Whereas Stevie has shown to come up big in big games. We need Stevie are someone else besides Rafer to get past the first round. Stevie seems to have been be humbled and is towing the company line. He deserves more time. If he fails and the Rockets fail then it's on him but show the coach what you got and play the game like a true point and let the chips fall where they may. That's may advice to Stevie even he isn't listening to me. I think he is hearing it from others and maybe he really gets it now.
It might be to small in a bubble but when watching the games you can see his creation and amazing passes. He gets the ball to Yao very well on the low block. Got it to Scola so well Scola could not even believe it. Ran the offense with a high IQ. Good clock managment.
With the talent Steve has, once he doesn't need to put everything on himself, he can be our number one PG. He can create, pass the ball, and run the offense very well. I believe if Francis knows his role and play smart, he is still the top 10 PG in NBA. Go Francis!
he always had, people's expectations were too damn high his first go round here. I've never seen a player get so much criticism while being hampered with such suck ass teamates. I remembering arguing with you in one thread about how much mo taylor sucks. you thought he was a borderline all star. where are they now?
Agreed. He no longer has to worry about carrying the team like he did when he was first here. Think of all that pressure, but this time around, it's gone. Instead of being the team, he's now part of the team. He won't have to do everything like he did before. He can play his role and for that, he is a better player. Dude just had too much to carry on his shoulders. Now, he doesn't have to worry about that and is free to play his game. Like DD said, 19ast and only 3 TOs. That is pretty damn efficient in limited minutes.
Yes and Rafer had really good clock management too in the Grizzlies game. Loved how he dribbled the clock out at the end of the game and got the TO.
Rafer Alston has been performing well in our pracitces. I see no reason to give Francis any more playing time just because he helps us win games. I still don't understand why everyone is making such a big deal about this situation... Next question?
That was a great segment, I really hope Francis gets more playing time because he deserves it. And Charles complimenting Francis put a smile on my face
Count me in among those campaigning for Steve win the starter job now. Steve Francis now leads the team in +/- by a large margin and has even eclipsed Chuck Hayes in terms of defensive impact. Also interesting to see that Chuck has indeed become an offensive liability this year -- this is the first time since he joined the Rockets that I've seen a negative rating for him on offense. Code: Houston Statistics by Player Overall Rtg Off Rtg Def Rtg OReb Rate DReb Rate Teams Player Min On Off Net On Off Net On Off Net On Off Net On Off Net HOU Brooks, Aaron 3.57 55.56 2.13 53.43 111.11 104.13 6.98 55.56 102.01 -46.45 0.0% 30.8% -30.8% 100.0% 74.5% 25.5% HOU Francis, Steve 116.48 11.42 1.06 10.36 107.90 103.61 4.28 96.48 102.55 -6.08 35.5% 30.0% 5.5% 77.0% 74.2% 2.8% HOU McGrady, Tracy 629.72 4.21 -1.68 5.89 106.58 98.69 7.89 102.38 100.38 2.00 30.3% 31.5% -1.2% 74.5% 74.7% -0.2% HOU Alston, Rafer 567.38 4.28 -0.75 5.03 104.65 103.37 1.28 100.36 104.12 -3.75 30.2% 31.5% -1.3% 74.4% 74.8% -0.3% HOU Battier, Shane 658.13 3.56 -0.60 4.15 104.66 102.88 1.78 101.11 103.48 -2.37 31.4% 28.9% 2.6% 73.7% 76.9% -3.2% HOU Hayes, Chuck 409.97 4.21 0.91 3.30 102.82 105.26 -2.44 98.60 104.35 -5.74 30.5% 30.9% -0.4% 76.4% 72.9% 3.5% HOU Ming, Yao 699.03 2.53 1.97 0.56 104.40 103.42 0.97 101.86 101.45 0.41 30.6% 31.1% -0.5% 76.0% 69.9% 6.2% HOU Scola, Luis 376.03 2.61 2.26 0.35 102.61 105.27 -2.66 100.00 103.01 -3.01 29.9% 31.3% -1.4% 72.9% 75.7% -2.8% HOU Wells, Bonzi 397.27 1.41 3.19 -1.79 106.56 102.39 4.17 105.15 99.20 5.95 31.7% 30.0% 1.7% 72.0% 76.3% -4.3% HOU Landry, Carl 4.15 0.00 2.41 -2.41 125.00 104.07 20.93 125.00 101.66 23.34 50.0% 30.6% 19.4% 80.0% 74.5% 5.5% HOU Head, Luther 194.28 -0.86 3.27 -4.13 101.36 104.92 -3.57 102.22 101.65 0.56 31.2% 30.6% 0.7% 77.5% 73.8% 3.7% HOU Snyder, Kirk 49.38 -5.08 2.84 -7.92 112.63 103.68 8.95 117.71 100.84 16.86 33.3% 30.5% 2.8% 75.7% 74.5% 1.2% HOU James, Mike 387.13 -4.80 7.78 -12.57 100.80 106.68 -5.88 105.60 98.90 6.70 29.3% 31.8% -2.5% 74.2% 74.8% -0.5% HOU Mutombo, Dikembe 67.47 -13.03 3.56 -16.60 85.37 105.59 -20.22 98.40 102.03 -3.63 29.5% 30.8% -1.3% 68.2% 75.1% -6.9%
Steve probably was on his way to more minutes after the PHX game. Unfortunately, he got hurt the next game and may not be back fully yet. Hopefully, he gets back on track again. There are things that he brings to the team-- namely penetration and the ability to finish around the basket and draw fouls-- that the other small guards do not.
It was even funnier when they edited it to show the end of the play as Kenny always says that Francis didn't make the shot.
Kenny said that Robert and Sam came in and fell right into place with rudy and their role. They forgot to mention that Robert and Sam werent drafted to lead the team and be superstars Steve was, the rockets were depending on his high talent level to lead them back to glory during the post hakeem era. I think that is important to consider when talking about the franchise and his "attitude."
