If you put this game and the Suns' game we seen Francis for almost a full game of playing time and so far he's looked better than Alston, at least no worse. While some are saying he's playing against inferior competition consider that in the Suns' game he went up against Barbosa and Nash and while he was on the court the Rockets pulled closer but with Alston they were getting blown out. While its true we need to see more of Francis to make a definitive determination if he should be starting or even at the number two PG spot but the debate should be settled that he has earned more time and shouldn't be languishing on the bench. Agree. I have no idea why Rafer is the starter and neither JVG or Adelman have shown any doubts about that.
Great game Steve tonight against Denver. Keep going and you will be a starter soon. Practise your 3pt shot mbre.
Well, since he is playing with Tmac now. I doubt he will ever have a lock down defender on him except for Parker.
During the 6 game losing streak Head was shooting at a very good clip while others were struggling with their shot.
I think Francis and Head would look good together on the court. Head doesn't need to handle the ball, Francis can guard the bigger two guards while Head chases around the speedy point guards. James, well, James can taste the bench for a little bit. Anyway, to sum it up, I really really think Francis would like some head.
Stevie still looks rusty to me and a bit uncomfortable running the offense, but you could see last night he was thinking team first for the most part and should only get better. He had mostly positives last night with the exception of picking up his dribble a couple of times before he knew what he was going to do, only took 1 bad shot, didn't get back on defense once and missed an easy layup another time. He got called for a foul that looked like a clean block to me and his hustle was definitely inspiring. I would say Stevie has passed up James on the rotation (even though Adelman may not agree) but his performance is still an incomplete. He is still a work in progress. Although he clearly is trying to think pass first, I get the sense he is fighting his instinct to want to take over on offense. So at some point will he revert back to offense first Stevie. I don't know but if he continues on course this new Stevie could be a great improvement over Rafer. He has better instincts on passing than Rafer although he doesn't look as comfortable running the offense. He already gets the ball to Yao better than any other point but that's not saying much. In the end someone has to go between Rafer, James, Head and Stevie. Stevie has moved up the later to at least backup point. Rafer seems to be more under control running the offense but he is not a closer and shouldn't be on the court in crunch time. Stevie should take more of Rafers minutes especially at crunch time. I still think Head's shooting has a role on this team. SO that makes the odd man out as James. I almost hate to say it but I think we probably would have been better off keeping Juwan.
I almost had an orgasm when we played small ball last night. I think at one point it was Rafer/Steve/MJ/Tmac and either Yao or Scola (I don't remember). I almost went nuts.
Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoEcKYUS_0Y&feature=related I never really followed the Raptors, but dang, Rafer looks frigging goood! We need this version of Rafer! I hate Rafer just as much as the next guy, but gotta give him props. Boy he can penetrate and when he is not shy of contact, he can be a really good PG. The big question is, what happened to him after he joined the Rockets??
Don't be fooled with 3 minutes of You Tube highlights. What the clip doesn't show you is that for every one highlight play, there are about 20 missed floaters and layups in between. Remember how excited we were when we saw the Stromile highlights?
You are WRONG! Skip is the KANG of floaterz! <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/utkf1DjIxUE&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/utkf1DjIxUE&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
Anyone who has followed Steve's career under Rudy-T, Van Gundy, Davis, Hill, and Isiah Thomas knows that he never lost that All-Star form from his days in Houston. He got bounced from Orlando for refusing to enter a game during garbage time. That was a personality conflict between himself and Hill. He was still putting up his All-Star numbers in Orlando under Davis had returned to his scoring average before Van Gundy. Under Isiah Thomas and Larry Brown, he was teamed with Marbury who needed the ball to put up his All-Star numbers. Both Francis and Marbury were the same type of player and in the beginning, Francis and Marbury both deferred to each other causing both their numbers to fall. Eventually, Isiah decided that the experiment wasn't working and started Marbury and wanted Francis to come off the bench. What that led to was Francis being benched for long stretches of the season and not playing. It wasn't that Francis couldn't play. The knee injury was real. It happened to come about when he landed on Bruce Bowen's foot and twisted his ankle against the Spurs from Bowen's dirty play. Then he favored that foot which eventually led to the knee tendinitis. He opted out of the Knicks during the regular season to go to Houston to rehab the knee. It probably had to do with not being able to play in New York and trying to get out of the mess known as the NY Knicks. Nobody ever heard a complaint from Francis about any knee problems until last year. He came back in the late part of the season and in his last four games put up his All-Star like numbers again proving to the world that he still had it. There is part of an overall strategy. Francis opted to not play for the Knicks and tried to get himself bought out. By not playing and having a supposed knee injury, he was calling out James Dolan and Isiah to buy him out. If he got the buy out he could basically call his own shots and go where ever he wanted to. He played like an All-Star the last four games of the year to prove to other NBA teams that he still had his All-Star Calibur game so that when the buy out came, he would have all his options and some negotiating leverage with teams. As part of the deal to Portland, the agreement was that Portland would get Francis, and Channing Frye for Dan Dichau, Fred Jones, and near All-Star Zach Randolph a perennial troublemaker with the Blazers. The Francis buyout allowed the Trailblazers to drop 8 MM below the salary cap which was a win for both sides. Maybe he showed up out of shape for the Rockets with all that living large on Lake Conroe. The 30 million dollars may have gone to his head and he got lazy over the summer with the birth of his child. But he has made strides to get back into shape since then and he still can bring it on any given night. He is still the All-Star Calibur player that we dealt for T-Mac. If he doesn't start, it is a huge mistake.
Great post poprocks, glad you took the time to point out what I was to lazy to..... Again,great post....
Honestly, what I'm really feeling about this situation is that we have a great luxury right now in regards to our point guard rotation. what we should do is change the rotation on the fly and play the points that aren't having an off night. I think we can all admit that rafer has played well in the past, especially in the face of animosity. It's when he gets comfortable with his role that he starts making mistakes. In order to handle this you need to make his job performance based by pulling him when he's missing shots/turning the ball over. As of now we have 2 very capable guards that are ready and willing to take his spot. Because all 3 are so streaky, we should be able to put our best foot forward every night by pulling the crappy guards. Who do we think is playing the best so far? Steve Francis, because his job and pride are at stake. All 3 individuals are prideful, and when their position comes into question, they will turn on their best effort. If we decided to start steve and he starts struggling, we have the luxury of getting alston back in there because we all know what happens when rafers departure seems like a forgone conclusion. And I know James, who is probably the most prideful, always steps up his game when there's something to play for. After getting traded from here, a place he really loved, he showed the league what he could do in toronto. After that he went to Minni after being offered a big contract, and really didn't have too much to play for, and his performance suffered. I say make the point rotation a night by night performance based rotation.
As much as I appreciate your share-the-love approach with the point guards, I don't think many of us would agree with your assesment of Rafer.
