I agree. SF3's stats were a result of being a point guard and the first option. It says a lot that Tmac gets the same stats being the second option and NOT the point guard. I don't mean to knock on SF, I think he had a lot of heart and played hard every night. His stats were good. I just don't think he was a good decision maker overall and couldn't let go of the ball sometimes to the detriment of the team.
I agree too on TMac playing like Magic. He grew up idolizing magic so thats pretty cool as long as he still sprinkles an occasional MJ peformance here and there.
I don't want to get into a francis argument the notion that francis's numbers aren't legitimate because he's a point guard is bunk and stupid. much like mcgrady, francis was the best player on the team at the time so he had to do what the team needed of him that he could do, much like mcgrady is doing now. mcgrady is playing some good ball right now, but isn't he supposed to score? does him not scoring in bunches make his contribution any less, of course not. some of you guys hate francis so much you can't see the forest from the trees and make idiotic statements.
Also don't forget Yao+Francis also bring Rockets to playoff. If they play together 2 more years, Rockets won't be a championship team, but still a very good team.
It's a sin to compare Tmac to francis. Francis is like Marbury. Someone who can put up nice stats cause they dominate the ball, but their teams go nowhere. It's pretty nice to see them together now getting benched in New York.
I think that you are wrong here. The Knicks have discovered that you can't put two scoring PGs side by side and expect to win. Both Francis and Marbury need to ball to be effective. Plus, in New York, they have to pass the ball to Jamal Crawford. Steve Francis is just a guard. Not a PG or SG, just a G. You cannot run a traditional offense with him at the reins. You will live and die by Stevie Franchise. He can't hang as a spot up shooter. He can't really dribble like a PG should. But he has a mid range and attack the basket game that would make him an uber-6th man.
Francis was never a franchise player and the only reason he has that nickname is cause it went with his name. Orlando didn't want him and now the knicks don't really want him either. He'll go down in history with marbury as one of the most overrated players to play the game.
Stats dont lie. SF3 wasnt as bad as people claimed to be. Tmac averages 20/6/6, people says he is the 2nd coming of Magic. Francis gets 20/6/6, he is still a bog hogger. Folks say Francis was a pg and Tmac was sg/sf, and SF turned ball more. Well, SF turned ball over 3.5 time average as rocket and Tmac is turning over 3.2 times so far. So while being a full time pg SF took care of the ball similarly as Tmac. Now, of course Tmac aint SF. I take Tmac any day over SF for obvious reasons everbody knows here. But obviously we need Tmac do a little bettter than a Steve Mac to win it all for us. I think he will.
Francis got the majority of his "production" by dominating the ball, getting isos, and breaking down his man 1-on-1. Maybe that had a lot to do with Rudy's lack of motion in his offenses. T-mac gets his passes/assists by running the set offense, and rarely having to "improvise" or make up stuff on his own... tuns of motion, good ball movement, and always attempting to get the best shot possible (a lot of them being wide open 3's). T-mac executes the offense to perfection... if he wanted to jack up 25 shots and get his 30 points, he probably could... but winning basketball like this is much easier.
Tmac is averaging 20/6/6 with TO 3.2 times on 41% shooting Francis averaged 20/6/6/ as rocket with TO 3.5 times on around 42-43% shooting. Nobody is saying Tmac INHERENTLY same as Francis. But stats dont lie, production wise this new Tmac and old Francis are similar. Now, it will be interesting to see what their opponents scored on them to measure their defense. Also it will be interesting to compare their winning record with similar players around against similar caliber teams. The 1st season of JVG's a coach and this season, Roster wise is comparable, except Ming is a lotter tougher. I remember then the record against sucky teams were pretty good too and cant beat Spurs or Dallas either.
This is a case where just looking at stats don't tell the whole story and is fooling you into believing to players are playing equally as well as each other.
Just look at Marbury's stats. He's averaged a career 20/8 I think is one of only a few players to do that. Yet his team never wins. If you just go by stats, you'd think Marbury was better than Nash.
The old Starbury in Phoenix was averaging 20/8asts a night, and for that reason the suns were playoff teams. Nash as suns averages 17/11-12asts a night with a more potent cast around, for that reason suns are a 2nd round to 3rd playoff team(maybe not this year)
Then why does this thread have 2 stars instead of 1? Stats just tell a small part of the story. There is no good reason to compare these two very different players. It is a stupid thread.
