Yeah, after the Lakers emptied their bench. Up until then he was just dropping passes for sure dunks and getting 24 second violations with the occasional strip of the ball thrown in for good measure.
Overall Francis has had a good series. I have loved his fire, his hustle, his will to win. He plays with a great deal of heart. If he were a bit taller, a better defender, and a better shooter he could be moved to the 2. If he were six inches taller he would be an incredible SF. The problem is he is not consistently a good playmaker (dribble, dribble) or outside shooter. Stevemania is in high gear at the moment but will soon fade. Then the team is left with a five year picture to look at. I just hope that whatever decisions they make will be based on an objective assessment of Francis' five year performance and team needs.
fa7999- I wasn't trying to compare Kobe to Steve just in this series, just saying that Kobe is the kind of player that has proven he can close the deal. He has made clutch plays in play off games a number of times. And you wouldn't expect Kobe to turn the ball over dribbling. I so want Steve to get to that point were there is fear in the eyes of the opponent because he has proven he can get it done.
Everyone that wants a "true point guard" should watch Mark Jackson when he enters the game. He stops above the 3 point line (like Mooch) and then passes to Taylor or Ming at the high post. NO MOVEMENT. During this series, Steve is getting everyone envolved which makes the entire team move and keep their eyes open for the easy bucket. Steve - Just keep driving the lane and envolving your teammates and next year we will be in the top 4 Western Conf.
Francis can carry this team, but only on partime basis, this Rockets team can go nowhere next season without major tuneup.
Steve - Just keep driving the lane and envolving your teammates and next year we will be in the top 4 Western Conf. There's the problem. Against any other team except the Lakers, there's 3 or so defenders in the paint doubling on Yao, and Francis and Mobley have no driving lanes. They end up taking outside shots instead of driving to the bucket. Let's face it, the best way to play the Rockets is to just pack it in inside and force us to shoot outside shots. That defense stops Yao, Francis and Mobley. Right now, we can't consistently make teams pay for doing that.
Right on. That's why we've managed to play LA so close in this series. We play like this against Dallas' zone defense and we get swept in four.
thats what im worried about now, I think people are being mislead. The rockets still do need major changes, this does not mean trading franics. We just do really match up well with the lakers and the lakers are disorganized right now. They will get beat by SA. Bet on it.
More food for thought: Uros Slokar set to declare for NBA draft Tuesday Added: 26th April, 2004 1:33 PM ET Draftcity: RealGM.com's affiliate Draftcity has been informed that 6-11 Slovenian power forward Uros Slokar--from the highly regarded Italian club, Benetton Treviso--will announce his intention to enter the NBA draft tomorrow. Slokar is a very aggressive and mobile post player who has been stashed away in Benetton's deep rotation for most of the year. But his talent and fundamentals (in particular, his versatility) have not been overlooked by the scouts. Slokar can post up on the low block, put the ball on the floor, or step out and hit the three with a beautiful lefty stroke--just not that consistently yet. He needs to put on some weight and improve his team defense, as well as gain some experience through playing time (which he has not seen that much of this season, on one of Europe's top teams). According to his agent, Roger Montgomery, from Momentum Sports, Slokar's buyout has been worked out already, so look for him to be added to Draftcity's mock draft somewhere in the early 20s for now. Slokar will certainly be an interesting player to keep tabs on once he makes it over the ocean. He joins what is turning out to be one of the deepest drafts in recent history, especially in terms of size, with 13 players listed at 6-10 or taller already projected among the top 30 picks.
I LOVE STEVE FRANCIS! In a non-gay way (not that there's anything wrong with that) I've loved him ever since we got him, and I've believe in him and the Rockets all along. The thought of trading him infuriates me, I'm thankful we signed him to a max contract, that will make it much harder to move him which is great. Steve, you are awesome, one of the best players, keep it up! Your play in this Lakers series is showing all the haters how truly good you are, I knew you were just starting out slow...for the first 82 games haha. But Seriously, Steve is awesome.
Alot of people here are clouded by Steve's playoff success into not trading him (even if the right deal came along). Another poster mentioned this before: If the Rox played anyone other than the Fakers, Steve would've looked alot worse and dozens of trade Steve threads would be put up after each game.
Saying what would have happened is only speculation. You nor anybody else has any idea what a player's game level would be like had we played a different team. We can only deal with facts. The facts are that come playoff time, Steve elevated his game, and he's been terrific. I don't know why some fans want to lookfor ways disparage one of our playoff leader's games rather than celebrate it. Our team hasn't been in the playoffs for five years, and I'm really enjoying watching them there. They are not only in the playoffs but our playing competitive, and one of the seasons question marks is responding with style, courage, heart, and leadership. It's really odd, that fans often look to make excuses when players perform badly, or below expectations. In this case people are looking to make excuses because one of our players has raised his game and is playing well above expectations.
This is what's not speculative. The Faker$ are the only playoff team that won't double Yao, Gary Payton is far from "the glove" he once was and has been on the bench the majority of Q4 minutes and Derrick Fisher is a below average perimeter defender. Cassell, Nash, Parker and even Bibby are all better 1on1 defenders that what the Faker$ are throwing at us. I'm enjoying the series, too in spite of being down 3-1 but Francis has realistically only been an efficient player in Game 3 when he forced tempo and kept TO's low. So I guess we've gone from speculation to opinion because your version is "terrific".
This is true, but why can't we make teams pay? We were third in the league in 3P% as a team. Perimeter shooting should force teams out of a zone defence, shouldn't it?
I don't think by "packing it in" aelliott is referring to a zone. He's referring to defenders shading the paint to provide help defense on Yao. Either situation has the same result...a population dense paint and it's much harder to drive. But you're still only going to get open perimter looks by moving the ball and not dribbling and driving. The latter of which we are able to do against LA.
And that type of defense when used against the Rockets, exploits Steve's lousy spot up perimeter shot, lack of shooting without dribbling the ball around first. I still say, we should only trade Steve if it get's us T-mac.
This is why we need a legit PF and some outside shooters. Pike was supposed to be an ace in the hole that way, but he lost his shot. We need an old style Pike plus a MoT with defense (KT comes to mind). But we don't need another star. If Elton Brand's available, let's talk. But I'm off the 'we need a real PG' bandwagon. One game's one thing, two's another, but after the last FOUR games, SF's first playoff games ever, I wouldn't trade Steve for Jason Kidd. Even if you threw in Kenyon Martin to sweeten the pot. That's right. You heard me. For a while now I've wanted Steve to show what a special player he could be so we could get value back. Well, he showed it and now I say screw that. We've GOT value. Steve's almost untouchable as far as I'm concerned. Fill in the blanks with some seriously decent role players and let's collect up the rings. But let's do that later. We're only down 3-1 right now. As a Rockets fan, those are my favorite kinds of odds. I previously predicted a Rox sweep but I miscalculated JJ's shooting percentage. It could happen to anyone. He makes that three and I think the series is over already. As it stands we've got to settle for Rockets in 7. Believe, babies.
