There should be no reason now for The Franchise not to score 25 a game. Now with Olajuwon out of the picture, Francis don't have to wait any longer to take over the reigns of this team. This WILL be Francis' breakout year. This is my predictions for Stevie this year: 25 ppg 8 assist 4.5 rbs (slightly down due to more responsibility Allstar starter ( due to Kidd going to the East) 2nd round of the playoffs. How many agree?
His points will go up in my opinion, but I don't think his other stats will go down much if at all. I think he is that good of a player that wants to continuously improve different facets of his game.
good point Roxran about the All Stars, Francis does have a much better shot @ it, it would seem....but I wonder if the Kidd/Marbury swap cancels each other out, as they both made the team last year....
so, does that mean his "Wave Off Shandon" number will increase, too. seriously j-bone. Name me the last player to post those numbers. Discounting Michael Adams' year of the 20-62 Denver run and gun silly ass offense, the last player is <b>Michael Jordan</b>. Before that: </b>Larry Bird</b>. No one posts 25/8!!! No one. Further, the only 22/8/4.5 players out there beside Jordan and Bird are Scottie Pippen (once) and Magic Johnson. So j-bone is Francis ready for Jordan/Bird/Magic numbers, or do you want a distructive offense like Michael Adams ran in Denver.
itd be more like 21 6.5 assists 6.5 rebs 4 triple doubles, and a couple really close ones he better be an allstar, how many pgs in the west are better???
what would impress me is if Francis didn't get torched by other opposing point guards as badly as he have int he past. I believe the points, rebounds, & assists are a given, its his defense i'm worried about.
Kevin Johnson never scored 23 a game, and never had big rebound numbers to boot. Tim Hardaway went over 23/8...once, with no rebounds.
rockbox, yeah Payton was the closest to 25/8/4.5, while he was destroying his team. thx for picking that up, my stat site stops at '99, and I didn't bother looking at current players except Marbury, as I new Payton was under 22 all those Kemp years.
If I remember correctly Franchise averaged 23ppg in games when dream was injured. I think he even had a 4 game average of 27ppg(I'm not sure if this is true it could of been Cat). I definitely think SF numbers will go up and so will Mo Taylors also(at least +15ppg).
If anyone has a tape of it, watch the Portland game from April 13th. THAT, is what Steve will have to do. Every game.
What are you saying? Steve will have to be guarded by a 5'nothing to shoot over all game long. Just because Rudy wants to exploit the short guards any chance he gets does not mean that is the way we should play against other teams. ZRB, that is the way we play Portland. We turn Francis into a scorer over Damon. duh! Against Phoenix, we run Mobley down Delk's throat until they put that scorer back on the bench or move Marion over to play the mismatch game.
The point is that I want Steve to be more assertive offensively. I would like to see him take at least five more shots per game, especially in the fourth quarter. The ideal situation would be to have both Steve and Cuttino average around 23 points. That would take a little pressure off of our pitiful front court. I don't want Francis to be a 16-9-7 player. He needs to be a scorer. When Steve scores, the Rockets win. I predict that the Rockets will win over 50 games, despite Hakeem's absence, if Steve can become a better scorer.
well said, I can't remember many games where francis scores over 25 points and we lose (okay there were 4) and we only lost one game (to the...gulp clippers ) when he scored 30 or more. pretty good percentage compared to last years mvp.
Who else thinks that "assertive" is a ZRB euphemism for "25 ppg" in this thread?? nice stats Severe Rocket Fan,,, We were 13-7 in games Francis scored 25 or more. We were 16-9 at 24 or more. That makes us the 53 win team ZRB wants. nice useless stats though. Because no one in this leagues puts up 25/7 numbers, much less 25/8. No ONE!!! If you want to even get close to that, you will have to iso Francis in the block like Gary Payton and watch our wins plummet. Francis is not Jordan or Bird. He will not produce 25ppg and 8 assists within the flow or as a goto player. You would have to cheat wins and design a stupid offense like Seattle, for him to produce like that. You guys are setting yourself up for disappointment, imo. We don't want Francis to have those numbers...he doesnt' need them, and it would hurt our team.
Heypee, would you consider 21 pts 8 assists and 4 rebs a strong possibility for Francis? Thats only 1.5 assists and 1 pt more than last year. I really don't see his points dropping and if we run less ISO's this year then I could see his assists going up. I do not see his shots per game going up with Cat and Mo on the floor but I do see his f/g% improving slightly.
crash, Honestly, Calvin Murphy says it the best. I am 100% behind Calvin's take on how Francis can improve. I do stress the fastbreak more that Calvin, but that is merely because Calvin is trying to call a game, and if there are no fastbreaks how is a commentator supposed to yell about it like me???? Calvin wants Francis to stop driving all the way to the basket and to mix in the stop and pop. Use his midrange to pull out the low post defender after burning his man. The moment he learns to do that, both his points and assists will go up. Instead, Francis is forcing the Jordan play all the way to the rim and not using his teammates. Not only is he not as fast off the dribble as Jordan, he is not as tall. He cannot do that as effectively. Stop trying. All Stevie has to do is threaten the stop and pop, and that will open up his game. Aside from that, forcing uptempo via fastbreaks will naturally improve his production on points and assists. Yes, he can easily produce your numbers within the flow of the game.
I don't know why people are so big on having a "One Man Scoring Machine", but the key to the Rockets success isn't if Francis can score 4 or 5 more points per game, it's whether he can dish out 4 or 5 more ASSIST per game. Francis is going to have to get OTHER people involved. A team with two 19 to 20 per game scorers, and a PG getting everybody involved is much better then a PG scoring 25 ppg and limiting how much he can get everybody else involved, because the more Francis has to score, the less touches Cat is going to get, and Mo is going to get, and Griffin is going to get, and in the end we're going to be a one man show. It'll turn into a situation where teams can shut down Francis and in turn shut down the Rockets. It would be easier if a team had to concentrate on shutting down 4 or 5 guys instead of one guy.
first off cat will likely lead the team in scoring this season. after starting he was the highest scorer for the rest of last season. why would that change this year. steve will likely add another point or so. a solid 20ppg. maybe flirt with 22. Cat will be more like 23/24 i make this assumption based on cats 22+average after becoming a starter as well as the likely added free throw attempts as this year cat/steve will get calls there way. cats rebs up near 6 steves fall off slightly, i mean like.2 but one full more assist. its a dynamic duo at guard, but these are the things i see as likely, however the players performance around them can greatly affect what they will produce as individuals. if somehow Griffin is a super freak ROY, than i see steve getting 17/10/6 ya just never know peace
