Well, it's called common sense. Why the hell would Steve Francis accept anything like that when me and you both know he thinks he's getting cut because he wasn't given the opportunity to shine rather than because he just wasn't good enough. He was getting 26 minutes in New York and he was unhappy about it. There is no way someone with Francis' lack of 3pt range and midrange J would get 30 minutes on this team. Would absolutely destroy us. Francis has played some this year, and has played decently. I think he could still be very good on another team. But backup PG on JVG's Yao-centered Houston Rockets team, where the ball is dominated by Tracy Mcgrady? Wishful thinking. As for the Rafer comment, I was reffering to the constant criticism of Rafer's shooting... Now we're looking at Steve Francis? If going to the basket was an easy thing to do for a Rockets PG, V-Span would've done it by now. Does he look like he enjoys launching 3's?
So you're saying that there's no chance Penny plays better now than he has in the last couple of years HOWEVER Steve Francis will magically accept a reserve role playing 15 minutes and be able to do something he has failed to do his entire career - be a decent distributor? Francis is 29 years old. Why would he accept 15 minutes off our bench where he wouldn't be a leader, he wouldn't be a main scoring option, the ball would NOT be in his hands a lot of the time... You think he'll be happy with that? Seriously? Penny can pass the ball. Throughout his career, when he's played PG, he's put up asst/to ratios better than 2:1, something Steve francis couldn't do up until this season despite basically playing his entire career at PG. He's got size, which will help him pass into the post. While we're on that, he has experience and success playing with a low post guy, even though that was years ago. He will not clash with the coach, and he will be ecstatic to get 15 minutes on a contender.
if its common sense then why are people disagreeing with you? personally i would prefer chucky atkins, i think he fits in perfectly. however comparing francis and penny is what we have been doing and francis would love to come home and play in houston again no matter what the circumstance or role he would be given. He has made it clear that he would like to come back here. its pretty evident that rafer can get to the hole based on the number of "tony parker" floaters he puts up on a nightly basis. And yes he does enjoy chucking those 3's, because he avg's the most on the team. Francis can easily get to the hole, and remember he would be playing majority with the 2nd unit such as hayes, mutombo, head, mcgrady or bonzi. instead of francis chucking 3s, he used to knock down those 18ft jumpshots regularly the last go around here. the only way vspan gets to the hole is through pick and roll...cmon man you know that.
Where else would francis go and be the number 1 option? i dare you to find one team that would make him the number 1 option! Why can't francis be ecstatic to get 15 min on a contender considering he has never been on one?
except that they're in full on rebuilding mode. They're even looking to unload Gasol. That being the case, they'd probably love to be rid of Cardinal's albatross contract and Atkins is too old to be a part of their rebuilding plans.
not lately. He dribbles the ball the entire time and then hoists up an ill-advised shot circa Cat/Steve days...
Well, the thought being we've already got a deal in place to get Atkins for the TE as part of the Battier trade, if we want him. Then we offer up expirings to take Cardinal's contract off Memphis. Salary cap space for them which could allow them to totally rebuild next year, especially if they land Vince Carter, and somebody like Oden or Durant, and they wind up trading Pao for some other young talents/picks. Memphis is going nowhere and they are bleeding dollars. And Cardinal does not fit in there with the uptempo game they want to play. Is he that valuable that they wouldn't want to dump his contract? What else could they get for him? Memphis could VC or they could add two significant free agent talents, along with their pick and possibly more talent or picks for Gasol.
Uh, Steve Francis wasn't a three time All-Star simply because he could rebound. Your analysis of him is way off and since you seem so focused on what you claim is his apparent COMPLETE inability to shoot let's take a look at some career numbers....... Francis is a better career shooter than Baron Davis, Kidd, Marbury, Tinsley, Jason Williams, Eric Snow, Darrell Armsrong,..the list goes on.... Those were some of the better PG's during his prime and he's a better career shooter than all of them. With the exception of Nash, Cassell and maybe one or two others Francis was one of the better overall shooting PG's we've seen in the past five years. Hard to believe, right? He was a better shooter than Payton at everything except from the field by a slim margin and was about the same as Nick Van Exel. For some more recent comparisons: Francis has very similar career shooting numbers to Arenas and the only edge Tony Parker has on him is from the field. His career shooting numbers are actually much more comparable to a player like Bibby -- a guy everybody used to consider a lights out shooter. My point is not to make Francis sound like some kind of great shooter because he's not. However, this little "OMG I SWEAR HE CAN'T SHOOT TO SAVE HIS LIFE!!!" crap needs to stop. Francis can still help us and let's not lose sight of the fact that you don't bring in a talented, aggressive and versatile player like Francis simply to make him a spot-up shooter. His ability to attack the basket, penetrate/dish and finish at the rim combined with that crazy passsion we all loved him for are all qualities we could use and currently lack from our backcourt.
Quote: Originally Posted by jopatmc Atkins and Cardinal for Sura, Padge, and the TE. QUOTE=durvasa]That would be robbery on our part, unless I'm severely underestimating how valuable that TE is.[/QUOTE] It is actually doable from the perspective that Griz iz (reportedly) hemmhorraging $$$. For the Rox gto take Cardinal, a good move IMO, it should be for Sura. (Forget Atkins. Please.) This must also include this year's #2. At a minimum. They want to say buckets'o bux? Then pay up with more than a bad contract for a good contract.
No way Rockets management takes on Cardinal's contract. Since Van Gundy came to the Rockets, the team has done an excellent job not taking on any terrible contracts. Juwan's contract has been the most onerous, but that was necessary to get T-Mac. Cardinal's contract is actually WORSE than Juwan's (both full MLE contracts, but Cardinal signed his later at a higher starting salary), and Juwan is a better player by far. No thanks.
I agree with Bimathug. For us to take on Cardinal, who makes as much $ as Battier, they would have to give us picks (and they, like us, don't have their 2nds for 2 more years). Atkins for TE Cardinal for Sura & Padget As much as I'd like Atkins (who is in his last year and will leave), have to say YUCK to that trade. Since Memphis doesn't have 2nds, they would have to give us a conditional 1st from 08 or 09--unlikley they will do that. Atkins for TE, with VSpan, JL3 or Novak thrown in makes a lot more sense to me from both parties.
The only reason I bring up Cardinal is he is a distance shooter and probably one of the best distance shooters that would possibly be gettable for the power forward spot. I would still like to see a lineup with Battier and a tall PF spreading the floor alongside 111 and Rafer/Head. As it has turned out, Batt is spending most of his time at the 2/3 and very few minutes at the 4. What I would really like to see is Portland buy out Raef to keep him from picking up his option and turn him loose. Then we sign him for minimum. He is owed about $22 or $23 million over the next 2 years if (WHEN) he picks up his option. He could probably get very close the the MLE on the free agent market if not more, so I would think they could buy him out for about $13-16 million, which would make sense for them......and him. He's not going to have any trade value to them until after next year, so next year he's just $11 million of dead salary to them anyways, not to mention a dead roster spot that they could use to develop a young player, plus there's no guarantee that they could move him for anything decent come his expiration year. It isn't likely that they could dump that expiring contract on somebody without taking back contracts. Rafer/Head, McGrady, Battier, Yao, Raef (on a decent contract) would be a very intriguing unit to me. Or at least putting Raef in the big rotation with Yao/Deke/Juwan/Hayes would give us a very solid 5 bigs to go along with real good punch at the 2/3 spots. I can dream, can't I? Round out our rotation with Raef and Francis signed to league minimum deals. Or at the very least Raef at the league minimum and Chucky Atkins behind Rafer.
