Head and James fit better when the Rockets want T-mac to be creating plays... Steve/Rafer are better at creating situations for others so T-mac can also be the finisher/shooter...
After hitting the 3 Rockets were outscoring the Suns in the second quarter by 14pts but then Bonzi missed a couple of shots and played bad D a few times and suddenly that lead was down to 5 or so.
Has anyone noticed that Alston has been driving a lot more recently? We already knew that Francis/James could do this. I think this is Adelman's coaching that has contributed to this change. He specifically ordered Alston to drive more, so he can play a bigger role on offense as far as playmaking goes. He's done a solid job of this. This is very important to have a playmaking PG that can set up plays for T-Mac, rather than the other way around (since the goal here is for Tracy to finish plays under Adelman). If this continues, then T-Mac will actually be the finisher.
I wondered what will happen if we play Francis (over Head) during the 6 losses. I am pretty confident we could have won the game against Memphis, Lakers, Dallas Game 2 (Jason Terry could have been stopped/slowed), and maybe Miami. We would have been 13-3 (0.8125)
Possibly. Francis may be in shape and playing well now, but that doesn't necessarily mean he was in shape or playing well then. There is reason for excitement and I can't wait for the GS game tonight, but I am going to remain caustiously optomistic for now. I mean Mike James looked like the savior the first 2 games of the season and has struggled horribly since then. Certainly Rafer can't be expected to shoot over 50% on a consistent basis, or Francis either for that matter. I do like seeing Rafer drive and finish, particularly on regular layups rather than floaters and Francis has played much better in the context of the team offense than I expected. We just can't get too high on wins or too low on losses.
I was thinking about your possibility also that Steve was rusty back then. Then I recalled he said 2 weeks ago he's fit aand in shape but I still then he still have some rust back then. But with Rafer shots was bad or Head making unbelievable errors, rusty Steve will still contribute better and we lost some of those games by a small margin.
I am not saying you're wrong. Certainly Steve has played better than I expected so far. I am just saying it is no sure thing. One great game doesn't necessarily mean all those games would have been great games. But I think we all can agree that Steve showed he has the capability of making huge contributions. Here is to hoping he can do it consistently, starting with GS tonight.
It is hard to judge longterm performance based on one game so Morpheus is right that Francis might not perform this way night in and night out but looking at career long trends it seems obvious to me that historically Francis has been a better player than Alston, James or Head. So its true that we haven't seen Francis that much this season but we know what he did before and we've seen the other players vying for the PG position quite a bit too this season to extrapolate that Francis is likely to be the better player.
Steve Francis is this year's Mario Elie. During those great championship runs Dream was the engine but Elie was the spark plug. There were many games where it looked like the Rockets were flagging and playing without energy and Elie would make some tough play and get the Rox going again. From what I saw of last night's game that seems like what Francis did. So while Francis is older and doesn't have the hops that he once did he certainly seems capable of coming in for spurts to put some passion into the Rockets when things are going well.
The good things Francis had done in the past has to be counterbalanced with his struggles in NY and Orlando, and the fact that he was beaten out by Rafer, Head and James at the start of the season. I mean does anyone really believe Francis was playing like he did last night during preseason and camp and practice every day, but Rick thought "nah we don't need that sort of play on this team cause we have Rafer"? Especially the way our guards were struggling up until the last week? There is no doubt Francis played great last night, and I sincerely hope he continues to play that way all year. At the same time James had 2 great games to start the season and has since struggled. If we judge off of 2 games, Rafer has been awesome the last 2 in alot more minutes than Francis. Francis has shown he is capable of big things, now he needs to show he can do it consistently and build up his endurance. He would have played more last night but he was sucking wind. The most likely senario is that Steve was out of shape and playing poorly, now he is starting to get in shape and to his credit he is making the most of his opportunities. Here is to hoping that continues.
This is probably more appropriate in this thread: An interesting stat that JVG referenced last year when asked about Rafer's shooting is adjusted field goal %. Last year Rafer was at .470% which is just barely below Tmac's .474%. In comparison Mike James was at .480% and Francis was at .469% This year Rafer is at .446%, James at .426% and Francis is at .397% Because so many of Rafer's shots are 3's his overall FG% tends to be below average, but his AFG% last year was 1 % more than Francis and 1% less than James.
Its true Francis wasn't "Franchise" in NY and Orlando but, I don't have the stats, still had a higher scoring average than Alston. That can't be ignored either but given his performance so far it does look like he has worked his way back in shape. While Alston has had two good games we know what Alston's average is and its not good. Francis had a bad October and early November but we know what his average is too. It seems to me more likely that Alston's few good games are the aberration while Francis' rough stretch is the aberration for him. I agree and I'm not saying that Francis should be taking all of Alston's and James's minutes but that Francis has definately shown he deserves more playing time and can be very valuable to the Rockets. He's shown in these games that he still has the fire as he had before and while he has lost a step he still has skills.
I think Houston can use Steve instead of Rafter Rafter always hit air ball Houston need a guy who can attack, I think James and Steve are good in that area. I hope Steve + TMAC+ YAO can be another big 3
Francis has always had a scorer role even when not starting, Alston's always been the 4th or 5th scoring option. Rafer didn't start last year or this year because of his scoring or shooting. He needs to make a decent % of 3 pointers and anything else is gravy given his primary role of distributing, limiting turn overs and providing solid defense. Some posters discount that defense, but it's unrealistic to think a defense first coach like JVG would give Alston compliments on being one of the best defenders on the team if he didn't mean it. JVG pretty much tells it like it is, at least in his eyes. Now if Francis can consistently limit turn overs like he has AND provide better offense while at least maintaining similar defense then I have no problem with him taking Rafer's minutes. I just want to see more games before I make that decision, especially considering Rafer has been even better than usual lately. I agree Francis deserves more time and there is no reason to think he won't get it. That being said Rafer's shooting % isn't as bad as it may initially look in the context of adjusted FG% based on the high number of 3 pt attempts he takes. His 3 pt % still needs to improve, but he is streaky and I expect it will. I expect James to improve his shooting too for that matter. I completely agree there. I disagree with the idea some people have thrown out there that Rick wasn't playing Steve based on some vendetta or that Francis was being treated unfairly. That being said, it doesn't matter the particulars of why Francis wasn't playing before, all that matters is that so far he is making the most of his chance now. Personally I just want the Rocket's to win and could care less if it is Francis, James or Alston that is leading us to the victory.
Rafter is very unstable, he just perform well in some matches. I can bet with you, he will play worse tmr. Rafter have more time on the court, his statistic must be better than James and Steve. I dont really like Rafter
Here's my theory about Rafer's ups and downs. Pay attention, class! It's NOT the competition that brings out the best in Rafer. In fact, it's exactly the opposite. I think Rafer plays his best ball when he feels the least pressure. Think about it: When he knows he's the go-to guy at PG and he gets lots of minutes, he doesn't do so well. When he realizes that Mike James and Luther Head, two SGs in PG bodies, are the only other PGs in the rotation, Rafer feels the pressure to perform well at that position. He knows he's the only guy of the three who can competently run the point (well, sometimes competently). When Steve finally cracked the rotation, though, Rafer could relax. He now knows that there's someone else to help carry the load, someone who actually has some PG skills and has played the position. So with the pressure off of him, he relaxes and plays much better. This theory also explains why he plays so well in preseason -- because those games don't matter. That's why I've always thought it would be dumb to trade him. We just need to make him a backup PG, or at least split his PG time with Francis. He's better than 90% of the backup PGs in the league.
So basically he's used to the looser less pressurized environment like in streetball where he shines. And in the real deal he's exposed a little. I'll take that explanation.
