sport's illustrated mid-season report marks Steve Francis most underachieving player

Lot of Franchise Haters this year....when he came to the Rox, everyone was ooohing and ahhing. Remember the slam dunk contest vs. Carter? What about all of the highlight reel moves and the excitement he brought to the game?

With the addition of Yao Ming, everyone can't wait to get Steve out of town!

Ahh the fairweather nature of so-called fans...

JVG's offense is BORING. He's running JVG's sets...and when he flips it to Yao...Yao's instinct is to pass first...not back down someone for position. He doesn't use his footwork that he displayed when he was a Rookie. We can thank Ewing for the flat-footed sky hook.

I hope the Rox don't do a Nolan Ryan and make a move they will regret. Keep Stevie and make Yao defect so he can workout in the summertime!!!! Together those 2 will be Batman and Robin!

The Chinese National team $uxxxx ballls......................!!!!

 

he has great athletic ability. He can jump. As we all know and have witnessed, this hasn't translated into basketball smarts on the court.

wow. profound. I'll say another profound thing...

move him to the two and get a big point guard...old news right?

 

I'll admit Francis is the best And1 player around.

 

LOL!!!!

 

Mr. Clutch, "new system" has nothing to do with it. It's about Francis not knowing HOW to play in ANY system efficiently. He just doesn't KNOW HOW. It's not in his nature. And he lacks patience to learn on his own. He's more interested in the "instant gratification" than the "hard road."

Want proof? Nash can play the slow down efficient "half-court" offense, but can also play the "fast break/up-tempo" offense while keeping a low turnover ratio.

Payton can play the slow down efficent "half court type" offense, but can also play the "fast break/up-tempo" offense offense while keeping a low turnover ratio.

Isiah could play the slow down efficent "half court type" offense, but can also play the "fast break/up-tempo" offense offense while keeping a low turnover ratio.

Francis is what he is, and wont change. He can't. Not because he doesn't want to. It's because he just can't figure out how. Maybe he needs a point guard coach that can teach him in the off-seseon (Lucas?).

Francis helps our team win as much as he hurts our team on losses. He's a contributor to our over-all system/team. But it's our TEAM that is playing better than last year, which gives us more over-all consistency which coverups some of Francis mistakes. This is NOT a leader. Leaders lead by examples of excellence.

So, lets not overstate his contributions. He's a shooting guard, playing the PG role. And he's not even that good at SG. He's a good "2nd banana." We'll just have to wait for Yao to get better. If he does, Yao will take the lead. We'll just have to wait and see...

 

14 TOs in 2 games? Ouch!
5 year veterant? Ooooooooouch!!!!!

No doubt he is talent but he still has a lot of room to grow just like Yao. 5 years of NBA, he hasn't chaged much. sigh.....

 

Rockets should use Steve in a pseudo-Iverson role. He's a very good player when he is going to the basket when the opposing defense is not expecting it. I have never seen a more predictable course of action in the NBA than seeing Steve with the ball and 10 seconds left in the quarter. The odds of him passing the ball to an open shooter is almost zero. Smart defenses realize that his tendency is to shoot the ball, so they converge on him when he makes a move to the basket. I'd like to see him get the ball and shoot the ball within 2-3 seconds. The more time he has the ball, the greater the odds of him turning the ball over.

 

Go back one more game and it's 20 TO's in 3 games!!!

 

Steve Francis is no longer a ballhog? When did this happen? It certainly seems that he is still leading the team in FGA despite having the worst shooting percentages in the starting lineup. It certainly seems like he is still out there dribbling down the clock. It sure looks to my untrained eye like he still goes entire possessions without ever passing the ball (and I am not talking about 1-on-0 breakaways, I mean half-court 5-on-5 possessions, or rather 1-on-5). Steve is taking the same proportion of the shots as he did last year, when most would consider him a ballhog. The only difference is that now the Rockets have fewer possessions, so he has fewer raw FGA's per game. That also dropped his scoring average so everyone ooohs and aaahs over the great sacrafices he has made. The sacrifices are a myth. He is really just playing the same game (you might remember him actually saying this in an article early in the year, I don't have the search feature or I would provide a link), only shooting worse and making more turnovers. In other words, he has not impoved but rather degraded. He is worse than ever before.

 

i don't think anyone's arguing this is his worst year ever. but the last 6 or 7 games have shown promise. he's shooting better and i don't think he's had fewer than 6 assists in any of the last 7 games and we're 5-2 and have scored 90 in 4 straight games (with jvg as our coach!!!) so things are looking up. but we should probably just keep concentrating on the negative to be safe.


edit: ok in the last 11 games he's only had 5 asts once and has had double digit assists 3 times. and add an extra win b/c we're 6-2 in our last 8. of course we went 8-2 to start january last year and then fell off the face of the earth for a while.

 

Maybe only those of us that didn't NAME OURSELVES AFTER HIM thought Francis was a ballhog last season.

 

Fudge SI, they have never done us any favors.

 

But Francis demands double teams for all of the wrong reasons. He gets double-teamed not becuase he's such a huge offensive threat but because it's been well documented that by doing so, you can get him to turn over the ball. This is a prime reason why their offense is so rikketty and uncoordinated. Francis' constant upchucking of the ball destroys what little offensive flow they possess. When you add the fact that his game is the epitome of inconsistency, it becomes easy to understand why they have looked so bad offensively this year.

 

He is still leading out team in FGA because he is clearly our best option on offense.

As far as him still dribbling out the clock and not passing, have you been watching the games? That is obviously not true. He has really cut down on that.

 

I know this but most people don't care about that. They just come here to bash Steve.

 

If Steve Francis actually played night after night like the max-contract, all star player he is reputed to be, I would be singing his praises. I have watched him for almost five years now; the proof is in the playing: he is a very poor playmaker, he does not have a consistent jumper, not the best passer, appears to lack court vision, over dribbles, struggles in a structured offense, occasionally plays defense, can't and I mean can't run a fast break, etc, etc, etc. Yes, he makes the highlight reels, yes he is a great leaper, and a fantastic rebounder, BUT, he may be the WORST point guard (in a classic sense) that I have ever seen.

Do you really think people are BASHING poor Steve just for the fun of it? Just to be mean? I personally would love to be talking about his excellent playmaking, lazer passes, incredible ball handling. BUT what do you expect us to say about the TURNOVER KING!? My word, get real! I am sooooo sick of seeing the guy in a Rocket's uniform and as a serious fan, I have given up on him. What you see is what you get, and you don't get much for a bizzillion dollars.

 

Exactly...I hope MarkJ signs so he can mentor Franchise into a truly great player and regain his confidence...

GIVE YAO THE DAMN BALL...

 

Did you see JJ come up and grab SF by the head and talk in his ear about jacking up a shot at the end of the quarter with 9 seconds left? Even though SF got fouled JJ pointed at the time clock showing him he did it too early....

 

Let's see. He has the worst FG% of any of our starters, and two of his teammates have had higher single season scoring averages than he has. What part of that makes him the best option on offense. People like to say that (like you just did), but the numbers just don't back it up. He is not really a better option on offense than Cat, nor is he a better option than Jim, and he is probably not a better option than Yao. The only reason he leads the team in FGA is that he starts off with the ball in his hand. Watch how much better the offense flows when Wilks, Cat, and Yao are all in the game.

I have been watching the games, and taping many of them to watch more than once. He is in fact still doing that, which is why I complained about it. It isn't like he did it every play before this year, he did it occasionally, just like he does now. I have seen almost every game this season, and I have not seen one facet of his game improve significantly. The only part of hi8s game that has maginally improved is his defense, but he still is less than mediocre at that.

 

What's your point??

Cat isn't the franchise's best player either.