Fellas, not worth fighting about who's better (ahem, or worse ); we can have them both. Please see LLE.
Not a do or die case scenerio with Steve. Would he help us? Sure. Does it mean getting to the 2nd round? hmm...I don't see it. He doesn't solve the source of pain that we have on the team. (PF) It used to be PG, but I truly believe Mike James sufficiently alleviates that necessity.
I'm not going to argue that SF is better than TMac. I'm pretty sure TMac is better, but that's just my opinion of course. I'm just saying that labeling Francis as 'not a winner' isn't a good reason not to pick him up since when we got McGrady from Orlando, I wouldn't consider him 'a winner'. And in my eyes, he hasn't changed that . . . yet. And yes, we can have both, and that's the whole point of this thread isn't it? I also agree with Navman that PF is our biggest hole. Nevertheless, picking up SF would allow us to trade Alston for a PF. It won't be the end of the world if we don't pick up Steve. I'll be happy if we get him; I'll be pissed if the Mavs pick him up; and I'll be ambivalent if he goes to Mobley and the Clippers.
Steve is actually the same mold as Mike. While there's nothing wrong with having two aggressive PG's, one would like to have a PG that offsets their mentality and get others involved as their topmost concern. Rafer, despite my dislike of his shooting and soft finishing around the rim, provides that distinction.
Yao needs call Steve Francis to ask him to be here. Trade Rafer or Lucas to a spot for SF3. SF3 can help this team just by playing with the heart.
SF is a decent PG who can control the ball and penetrate. With him as a Rocket, we can trade our extra pg to get a decent PF.
That's why we move Steve to SG. That way we have: James/Alston/Francis/Brooks TMac/Francis/Bonzi/Head/Snyder Battier/TMac/Bonzi (new PF?)/Hayes/Landry Yao/Jake/Landry Alston, Head, and/or Snyder can be traded along with JLIII, Sura contract, and VSpan contract. If we don't get Francis, we'll just have to give Brooks more PT and keep either Head or Snyder. Right now I feel that the Rockets are holding quite a few trading pieces to get a PF and bringing back Francis will only give us more trading leverage.
I see where your thought process is going. But ask yourself if Francis will really want to play off the bench when he can be offered a starting role in LA or Miami? Not just that but he would be severely undersized to guard western conference SG's. It's possible, absolutely. He would be effective either way but it just doesn't solve the equation of success we're looking for and may confuse matters. Plus there's no point in having James, Francis, and Alston all at once. All of them require heavy minutes to be effective these days.
MLE?@#$! No way. He just got bought out for 30M. I can't believe anyone voted for sf3 for the MLE when we have no power forward. wow.
Yeah, I know what you're saying. I want Francis mostly because of his heart and passion, but from a purely basketball standpoint Francis and James are very similar. Although having Francis, James, and Alston at the 1 sounds great (lots of depth at PG), none of them will be satisfied with their PT. If we knew for sure that we would get Francis, then we shouldn't have picked up James IMO. But we didn't know and still don't. The main reason I don't like Mike James is that from interviews I've seen of him, he seems cocky (mouthing off to the media that he deserves more playing time) and only interested in himself off the court. I have almost no doubt that he will ask for alot more money 2-3 years down the line, and we will most likely have to cut him at that point. I think he fits us well, just like Francis would, but he won't stay. I'd rather have Francis because there's a good chance he's willing to stay in Houston for fairly cheap until he retires.
James is only similar to Francis with his mouth. If anything James is worse than Francis. In terms of Basketball..sorry to break it to you but Francis is >> James.
Actually I did not mean Mike James and Steve Francis. I meant we can have our cake and eat it too. We can have our PF and Steve Francis. Why not?
based on? hype? height? Steve Francis is a PROVEN allstar who can perform at a Baron Davis level. Darko is so far a BUST.
It should be pointed out the it is very likely that the demise of SF's skills/athleticism is exaggerated. As a rule, guys who are unhappy tend to overhype injuries and play poorly. At 30 years old I seriously doubt knee tendonitis (that he exaggerated) has made him a shell of what he was just 2-3 years ago. I say bring him here. Even 75-80% of the old Franchise is certainly worth LLE. Give him 28 minutes a night and he'll give this team 15/5/5. What's wrong with the third best guy on your team giving you that?
