Do you think Houston gonna trade Steve Francis? No this guy means so much to the team.. He has heart as big as TEXAS, and he put basketball back on the map in Houston, remember when we made the trade for w/ vancover people in Houston was going crazy, now that he had a bad season yall want him out. Thats sad for a SPORTS TOWN to turn there back on Steve. This guy loves Houston and the team and you don't find that to often he has done everything to make Yao Ming feel comfortable, he has cut back from his stats to please JVG and he led this team to the playoffs, he had the heart in the playoffs, when nobody was stepping up he literly put Houston on his back in game 3, and almost did in game 4. He did all he could do in game 1 to make up for his horrible 1st half (he basiclly put the ball in Jim Jackson's hand but he missed) Francis has guts he is the fire on this team. When Amare dunked on Yao and embarrased Yao in is stadium who was the only player to take up for that 7'6 pushover? (Francis) yes i agree Steve makes me want to VOMIT at times but when you look at what he brings that makes you realize if we traded him would we get someone who has this team in heart? I don't think so.. Now with that said I do believe we will see some changes but not that crucial some making it seem. The players that really has a chance of getting traded is : Mo Taylor Kelvin Cato Trade Exception Adrain Griffin Eric Pike and what everelse they have... the players that I think is part of our nucleas Steve Francis Cat Mobley( but I think he will be moved to the bench) Jim Jackson Yao Ming Boki Nachbar(just because he showed heart in Playoffs) Thats how I see it happing this summer, please leave so omments or opinions
So essentially, your idea would be to move our garbage to a team and recieve high caliber players in return. Of course! How simple!
Dude, Trade Exception is my favorite player after Boki. I hope we don't trade him. Seriously, I agree. I think Steve has never had to think about playing too much, but this year he has been forced to think about his game a lot while he plays. I think he has done a great job considering. Yeah, he makes a lot of mistakes, but I think he has shown a lot of class and effort this year.
Yeah we should definitely start TE at the 3, move JJ to the 2 and let Cat be the 6th man off the bench!
i agree with you almost entirely. i think small forward is the position we need to improve the most. we need more length and athleticism from the 3 and TE fits the bill. i think cato and taylor hold down the fort at the 4. where i disagree is that cat should start and jj should back up both the 2 and 3.
Man everyone knows tight end doesn't play the wing. He blocks so therefore he's a 4 or 5 in the paint
Trade Exception, or as I like to call him, the X Factor, is a great second option. I think if we surround him, Steve and Yao with the right role players, we will have a solid core that will compete for years. Actually, maybe we need to focus more on which players complement X's game.
I don't like the idea of breaking up this team at all. After Dream moves on, the one puts Houston back on the map was YAO, not Steve, when Yao gets here, Houston gets on the map globally. I do agree with you that we should not trade Francis, and he has a lot of heart, he just doesn't have enough skills or good PG instincts for us to become a championship team. Don't kid yourself that we're ever going to get another Athlete with heart, just ask yourself if you got pay a million bugs and you don't have to worry about your future, will you give your all for a basketball game? Not a lot of NBA players do that, just look at the lakers. If we can get someone like Steve Nash, it's time to let Francis go. Cat is just not too useful right now I don't think he'll fit in well with our building plan. Mo T and Cato is definitely on the block. It's a business, I don't think our opinion matters at all. They (GMs) are going to do whateve the heck they want, they don't need our approval. Future of Rockets all rest on Yao. If we're ever going to win a championship again, it's going to be on Yao and no one else. Not on Francis or Cat or JJ or JVG. Let's all root for Yao to be even better next season.
I agree with you BigRay about the loyalty the Houston fans have for their sports teams. Perfect example is the 94' playoffs where everyone, including the media, wrote the team off. Then, when they went on to win the championship, everyone jumped right back on the bandwagon. I love Steve's desire to play and his hustle from start to finish. Like you said, he drives me up the wall at times, but he brings so much in terms of fire and determination that he does alot of good things that does not show up on the stat sheet. I believe he thought too much about what to do on the court instead of just playing by experience and instinct. It's just like in baseball. If you swing with all your power and try hard to hit a homerun, most of the time you will just hit a weak fly or even whiff. But if you just put a good swing on the ball just using your natural ability and instinct, you hit the ball much, much better. Steve was trying too hard to make the right play every time down the court and I think it hurt him, he would then get fustrated if he didnt make the play or hit the shot and lose confidence which made it worse. I think another training camp under JVG we will see a big difference seeing as how we saw some progress already in the playoffs. Trade him or not, I will still be a fan and hope we got something great in return. (ahem, McGrady!)
Only problem is that TE's contract expires in September. It's a pretty hefty contract, too, so hopefully he'll sign for a little less in the offseason.
