Is Yao the reason Steve Francis made it to the playoffs?

My post to this whole thread:

Stevie is Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the good the bad and the ugly....

He is filet mignon with a big helping of stinkin' skunk cabbage fresh from the swamp.

He is consistently inconsistent, even from play to play.

He is like that boyfriend your daughter marries who is great in the sack but can't hold down a job.

Steve is the reason Jeff doesn't have as much hair as Stan.

 

I never said anything about Francis - other than he should be credited for the Rox making the playoffs - but he was also clupable in the team not doing any better than 7th.

As for Cat. If you can start for 5+ seasons in this league at a position ... you are above average.

Just because a team has a SG already, doesn't mean that Cat is below average... or wouldn't start for that team if the current starter were out. Does the fact that Yao wouldn't start for the Heat diminish his abilities

Cat will never be an all star - or better than a 18 pt a night player - he's not Michael Redd... but he's also not Shandon or Derek Anderson.... and he is a pure shotting guard - not one of these undersized SGs that play PG/SG - and he is capable of starting and playing on many NBA teams


...oh yeah, and he would start over Miller - because Miller is about to retire

 

since u like to correct people.. you should improve your grammar and spelling. have a nice day!

 

If I may interupt the bash Francis and praise JVG show here may I point out that the 45 wins the Rox had Rudy's last year would've been enough to make the playoffs last year. So with JVG the Rox only improved by two more wins in a weaker Western Conference over a team that lost its head coach with a quarter of the season to go.

Why do I bring this up because in a large part all of these comparisons are ridiculous because the context changes each season but most of the time people seem to bring these up to bash Francis.

 

Pizza Da Hut: Yeah but do you want to pay your son-in-laws bills for the next 30 years?

 

in case you lost the link

http://forums.espn.go.com/espn/forum?room=nba_hou

 

a forum with postings about gay chinese boys... hmmm.. no thanks.. not my style.. try someone else.

 

3, 2, 1...

 

JJ had better years true, but this guy was so much picking up the slack in the offense more than he had in some time of his journeyman career, due majorly in part to Steve's own offensive deterioration.

Those who can't see Cat>Francis in improvement and better play last year, are just utterly blind. It's just there in the entire season.

Add to all that Steve's stats of nearly 39% FG and below 30 3pt %
6/4 TO ration and it's hard, nay, DAMN impossible for anyone to give Francis All the credit or even part in the majoral credit for last season's regular season accomplishments.

The playoffs, are another story, showed up true. But, against the only backcourt he was completely consistent against that entire regular season.
I don't know why people can't see all this, no one's hating, it's just facts. Stop taking it so damn personal, be objective.

 

Well if we take T-Mac off this team and replace him with a lesser player, can Yao carry this team to the playoffs? T-mac carried worse Olrando teams to the playoffs.

Also, we won 45 games to get to the playoffs last year. That's exactly how many games we won with Francis in his 2nd year on the team. Before Yao, Francis was here 3 years. Obviously, we can't hold his rookie year against him. His 2nd year, the one I just mentioned, we set a record for team with the most wins to not make the playoffs. Third year was the year he was out for most of the season, somehow people like Gater still blame him for how poorly we did that year. Let's not forget that if he was healthy that year, we probably wouldn't have been in the lottery and we wouldn't have gotten Yao Ming.

Yao's first season, we won 43 games. So the addition of Yao doesn't improve the team, the healthy team from 2 seasons before, because we were 2 wins shy of matching that record. Of course he's a rookie, so we don't hold that against him. Van Gundy comes aboard and we we win 2 more games than the previous season. Of course that's the same amount of wins as 3 years prior and that team was without Yao and without Van Gundy.

Now at the beginning of this season, we weren't doing to great. I think T-mac is the most important part of this team, but he couldn't get it done with just Yao. When did this team get really hot? When guys like Sura came back and when we traded for players like Barry and Wesley. Oh, and of course T-mac improved to being the player he was in seasons past.

 

Cuttino is definitely not below average, especially defensively.