This is why I think it is important to have a legit passer come to the team who is not vulnerable to this kind of AND1 mentality at times. The guy handling the ball 90% of the time should be the strongest mentally as far as being able to assess the court situation and understanding what the coach wants. Look at Bibby, Nash, Parker, and Sam. I think they all represent their respective coaches pretty well on the court. I don't think Steve represents Van Gundy on the court as the floor general.
for an allstar pg, steve is a horrible transition player. the rockets could really thrive with a pg who performs offensively and defensively every time. it's strange to think steve is still the player that can gel this team. he's been given 5 years already to mature and there have been numerous hints that his mentality has affected the performance of the team. (the cliquish quote for instance, how much did his little clique mentality impede the team's progress? how about his misguided arrogance on occassion. again, it's speculation, but everything points to a disgruntled TEAM the last few years. if people couldn't get along with him, they were probably shipped out. we signed players around him. thank god for JVG. so now that JVG is here, we wait? maybe, maybe this i can understand (where was this patience with griffin?)
I should have been more specific. I didn't mean he has had his chance to take the team all the way or even to the playoffs. I meant he has had his chance to prove that he is the "franchise," an impact player that can really make the players around him better, someone who can truely elevate their game. In five years, all he has proven to me is that he can consistently make the highlight reel, pad his stats., and dominate, and often bog down, the offense of this team. That is why I would not be sad if he departed the Rockets. I am a Rocket's fan; anyone who makes them better is a favorite of mine. I am not interested in the career of one player even Ming. They are all very wealthy and live a charmed life. I want the ROCKETS to prosper.
So he didn't do those things in NY, Boston against Minn? That's just too general a critique. He does make others around him better. Until recently, the system itself was more to blame. Not that he shouldn't and can't improve. I just think he is and will. I am not his biggest or even a great supporter, but this board rides him a bit much, especially the run him out of town trades. Reasonable trades - OK, but......
remember that first half of the season last year, where he averaged 25+ pts a game?? I remember them winning a few of them....
if you want impact player, just look at two seasons ago. Just find out the record with francis and without him...
I agree that the frustration with Francis sometimes goes beyond reasonable, but to address his play at NY, Boston, and Minn., he played relatively well, some clutch shots and passes. BUT, too many turnovers and too much dribbling really hurts the team. The offense seems to run better when JJ has the ball. Francis, unlike leading point guards, seems too often to bog down the offense instead of accelerate it. I have never liked that about him. He always seems like he is trying to go one-on-one. When he sometimes goes one-on-five, it is really ridiculous. He is just not my kind of team player. He trys to get away with individual play that only MJ could pull off. As a Rocket's fan, I'm really tired of his game. I would much rather have a less talented more team-oriented player at the point guard.
why would you trade francis if you know he plays big in big games??????????????????? this team is possible of beating anyone in the lauge on any night.francis draws double teams that allow mobley to shoot wide open shots.........if we had a tidnsley no onw would double team him and everybody would double team cat.I DONT TRUST TIDNSLY TO COME UP BIG FOR ME IN BIG GAMES.
sometimes iam sure jvg lets steve iso his man specially when were winning by 20 and 30 points.let the man break him a ankle or two of his opponet its fun to watch.
It is no secret that the Rockets will play better when Francis is under control and playing more of a tuned-down role, deferring to everyone else. That is what a point guard (in the traditional sense) is supposed to do. What everyone here in this thread is over-looking is the fact that he is getting paid 86 million dollars. It is for this very reason that he is expendable. The bottom line is that we do not need Francis to win. I believe the Rockets brass has realized this and I expect a move to be made following the season's end. This team needs players to fit Yao's strengths. I feel that this is not the right fit for Francis at this time in this system. He needs to be involved in a more guard oriented team. A deal that I would like to see done following the season would be with Orlando if they have the first overall pick. I would like to move Francis and Cato for: #1 overall pick in draft Gordon Giricek Pat Garrity Tyronn Lue With the first pick in the draft I would take Emeka Okafor to play power forward alongside of Yao. With Okafor, we would essentially still be getting the same presence in the paint, but we would get a better shot blocker, younger, and someone that has more moves, speed, a better ability to cover the power forward and better range than Cato. The positives for the Rockets include: -Okafor -flexibility in terms of money money to spend and players to keep or move -players to fit around Yao We would still also have the trade exception and the MLE to bring in more players, perhaps veterans or a solid starting point guard. 04-05 Line-up: Yao/Okafor/??? Okafor/MoT JJ/Garrity/AG Mobley/Giricek ???/Lue
The Memphis game is a perfect example of "vintage" Francis. He had some "stunning" plays, incredible shots, excellent passes only to later cancel them out with poor shot decisions, turnovers, and other bumbles. Old Story: he plays hard, but not smart. Bottomline, boxscore great for him, bad for the team. Just fact. I wish it were differrent, I like his hustle, BUT it isn't. Even when we had less that 20 seconds, he slowly dribbled the ball up the court, something he did for most of the game. Why waste clock? BUT he made the highlight reel again with the incredible put back. It is all in how you look at it.
This team is not in need of deconstruction, but it is not perfect either. By filtering out all of the sarcastic responses in this thread, it is apparent to me that there are a good number of intelligent, earnest posters who have read this page and understand what the original intent of this post was supposed to be. No one is saying anything new here, but the fact remains, even with the addition of Yao(who should be making more of a difference in his second year) and switching/changing of a few role players (Griffin, JJ, Moochie), this team has basically been stuck in the mud the last 3-4 years while Francis and Mobley have been the core. When is it time to panic? I will say I have been very pleased with the defensive improvement, but to ultimately fulfill its potential, this team must become the efficient, lethal style of playoff team that it has never even hinted at becoming. To say that trading Francis/Mobley is ridiculous is in of itself ridiculous because you all know that each of us has a limit of patience with allowing our "young" team to develop. How many more seasons/games/days are enough to finally call it quits on keeping the core together? What if the Rockets, as they are now built, never become more than a playoff pretender who occasionally sneak in, or miss out altogether? My point is, I have been a member of this board for a long time, and I've heard all the arguments for and against trading Cat or Franchise. To me, the best argument is made by time, which we are running out of.
That is bullsh-t. If we don't have Steve we are down by 15 at that point. Christ, he has a good game, distributes the ball well enough (a couple of KILLER assists to Taylor and Padgett), has a decent if not spectacular shooting night (9-19), doesn't turn it over, plays good defense (Williams had 10 pts, he had 10 assists, but thats because their shoooters shot lights out) and you still crap on him. Did you even watch the game? Did you see how much more effective we were when we were driving and cutting with the small lineup in the 2nd and 3rd quarters? Who do you think orchestrated that; I'll give you a hint, it wasn't mike wilks. Francis had a good game, statistically, and visually. Same old story? The biggest problem in this game was the inability of the big men to do anything early or grab a rebound late, and Memphis' lights out shooting. Seriously, blaming Francis for this loss reeks of pure hatred plain and simple. Francis is not a perfect player, far from it, he has much improving to do, but to watch tonight's game and finger him as the problem is an ignorant thing to do.
If Yao didn't play like a wuss we would have won that game. Steve kept us in it. John Thompson knows a hell of a lot about big men than ANY poster on this board basically was calling Yao out all game saying that the honeymoon is over, Yao has to show results now, and I agree. Every time we put Yao in the game, Gasol went nuts on him and we would lose the lead. Every time I think Yao may turn the corner, he lays an egg like tonight.
milos - great sensible post juugie, sam fish, it's about the marginal difference at both those positions. Yao isn't being paid much yet, and still learning in his second year -> he's also some of the best you can get at the C position in the NBA. francis has been given the time and not shown success and is paid the max where most mediocre PG's in the league could perform close enough to benefit this team. yao is a wuss, that's why the perfect compliment for him is a star PF. i'm not saying we should orient the team around yao, but there are enough instances that show a star PF is better than a star PG for the rockets. almost every team in the western conference has a star PF. cat with his shortcomings, marginally is good because of his contract. ideally, those guards would be shipped for a good PG and a star PF, moving jjackson to SG and starting MoT at SF.
