I constantly read posts about Steve Francis and people trying to get rid of him. Has anyone noticed Dwayne Wade? It seems like everything he's doing, everyone is praising him. When he makes a spectacular play, he turns around and make a few bonehead plays. Of all the great plays he has made, Steve made all of those during his rookie year also. Even winning co-rookie of the year. My point is why do guys like Doug Collins, who I respect as an analyst, constantly say he can deal with the turnovers and boneheads plays by Wade because he will make great plays also, but when Francis makes a bonehead play everybody wants to run him out of town? I think everyone forget how much of a talent Francis is. Just don't judge him on one season after all the changes the Rockets made.
Because Steve has played 5 years and Wade is only a rookie. Those same mistakes will not be tolerated when Wade is in his 5th year.
Solid question. I'm not going to claim whether my next statement is true or not, it's not even really my opinion. But yesterday my roommate and I got to talking and he he said the athletic peak for anyone in the NBA occurs at age 27. He's not a Rocket fan or hater at all but loves the NBA, so his opinions are probably pretty unbiased. So I asked him if Francis was passed his athletic peak and he said yes. He further said that barring some players who defy age, people don't get better after 27, they are what they are, they will not evolve as a player. We came up with some examples: Rasheed Wallace, Brian Grant, and eddie jones. And some counter expamples, like Sam Cassell. Hence Wade can be excused because he still has a long way to go. But Francis has less of a window of opportunity to improve.
Clutch, would you agree that Francis never really had as much talent around him as Wade has in Miami? Wade had Odom who can take the load off with some ball handling. He also has Eddie Jones, Caron Butler, and Rafer Alston. Over the years all Francis had was Mobley. Francis only had Rice, Piatkowski, Anderson, Posey, etc..... Of all the guys listed, they had their own niche but none of them could get their point on their own. None of those guys were the type of guys that made the defense stay at home and not double Francis. Wade isn't getting doubled because teams don't want to leave those Heat players open.
Wade is excused for the same reason Yao is excused for making all the boneheaded plays he has made before. Because they’re young. If a couple of seasons go by and Wade is exactly the same player that he is now, I’m quite sure he will get quite a bit of criticism as well.
But Steve is also one of the most bashed player in realgm.com and *********************. Wade is a rookie and has room for improvement. People rave him just like they first saw Steve. However, Francis has improved a little from his rookie year. He still make a lot of rookie mistakes and the whole league has known that thanks for Yao. What you said does apply to Yao though. Rox fans know more about Yao's weakness. Familarity breeds contempt. But again, Yao is only in his second year. Other than Rox fans none has expected too much from him. He's not that great yet but has showed a lot of improvement. People are satisfied with that.
Given enough opportunity, players usually doesn't change too much in statistics after their second year. Yao is 17.3/9 with 12.5 shots this year. With 5 more shots he probably would get 22/9. I expect him to be a borderline top 10 center of all time when all is said and done.
Please take a look at what KG, Peja and Dirk did in their second year vs what they are doing right now.
I would agree for prior years, we did not having as many big names. But this year he had Yao to work with, which is much better than having Odom. Eddie Jones and Cuttino are pretty much equal, and Jim Jackson is much better than Rafer Alston. By the way, I'm not the real "Clutch."
Francis highlight-reeled and boxscored himself to All Star status, a masterful PR accomplishment. BUT his game to game performance over a five year period has been disappointing, far below expectations. He still consistently makes "rookie" mistakes, and the season he was "forced" to fit into a structured, organized, and disciplined system, he had his "worst" year. Francis is a consumate athlete who is fundamentally flawed and mispositioned. His skills set better fits the SF position but he is grossly undersized for that role. He is a flashy, sometimes entertaining, sometimes exasperating player who is more of a mirage than a mainstay. In his case, the best is past. "Let's be patient and give him one more year" is fool's gold, and the Rockets will regret it if they don't move him this year.
Mr. Clutch, I understand that some of them are pretty much equal, but I was referring to being able to take the ball handling duties and decision making abilities away from Francis and let him do his thing in spot duty.
It's funny you posted this b/c since I have been watching Wade play from early on in the season I thought his game was similar to Steve's with the exception that Wade doesn't dribble as much.
You know it funny that Francis is a fundamentally flawed pg when he's usually in the top ten in assists every year. There must be quite a lack of good point guards in the NBA.
You fail to mention he's always near or in the top 2 in TO's as well. Anyone can get 10 assists if they turn it over 6 times as well.
But he still gets assists and does more in scoring in rebounding than every other point guard, so he handles the ball more, so he'll get 1 more turnover than everyone else.
