the link to the articles don't work ... i too am skeptical to whether francis can play in an adelman style offense. however, it's definetly true that he's an upgrade on offens at pg. he'd b the 2nd guard on the rockets that is capable of creating his own shot.
to this day, I still believe only thacabbage truly gets the fact Francis cannot run a fastbreak. Yeah, let's run a fastbreak from the wing while hip-hopping up court. sigh now, if I could just find someone who agrees that Wesley, James and Barry were horrendous at it in '05, as well...Barry was nightmare. At least they tried to go up the middle, but they couldn't figure out who should be the one in the middle and no idea about tempo. sigh. Alston is so much better than all of them at it...sigh. VSpan gets it except for that whole thing about wanting to leave his feet with no plan and passing to trailers or wing guys who aren't there. sigh. sigh man, there is only one thing i like better than defense, and it's a fastbreak. and you know, they can go together. sigh
lots of bad play at the point. im not really sure at all if francis would do better for this team then alston next year. if i had to bet on it i would probably say francis. but one thing is for sure i would enjoy watching francis a lot more. ive had enough of alston. its to the point that i get pretty surprised when he even knocks down a shot. but then again maybe im forgetting what it was like to watch mr. franchise.
well, stevie does have a midrange game from the gods. that's pretty awesome. actually, he would be very good 6th man.
"With Lamar running the break, and me and Stevie on the wings...it's over." -- Cuttino Mobley, circa 2002.
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It was sure fun watching Francis play for the Rockets. Plus he was really good. Haven't seen him in a long time, if he's even close to what we saw on the video then we should get him (if bought out of course). Almost any PG is way better than that Alston. Francis >>>>>>>>>> Alston. Moreover, Alston is BORING.
Stevie going on on one against Rafer would blow Rafer away. Streetball skills and all. If they played 20 games, Stevie would win 18 of 20. lol
The biggest issue with Rafer is the huge minutes he played because we had no back up (those SpOF's will say we did but didn't play him). His shot was awful, but he did a good job dribbling up the court and handing to TMAC, which apparently was all he was asked to do to earn minutes. I haven't looked up shooting percentages, but my feeling is that Stevie missed shots with high degrees of difficulty, and may have been bad shots, but Rafer missed EASY shots, and threw up teardrops in order to avoid contact, not to try and score. If you could calm Steve down, he would be A MUCH BETTER offensive player. He had (and may still have) heart and toughness. On that video above he was attacking the rim. Rafer hasn't done that once since he got here. BOTTOM LINE: we need help at the point and Steve is the best player we can get that we can afford, assuming a buyout, home town discount MLE type of contract. If the two of them can co-exist (a big if) then play big minutes for whichever one on a given night is giving you what you need. We need help folks, Steve ain't perfect, but we cannot pay 14MM to get Bibby who would be perfect for us.....So, Steve is our best hope for a good player to end up here. He wants to play here, let's hope we can be so lucky to get him, warts and all.....
Oh Francis what happend to you? I can remember it was not too long ago where it would have been ridiculous to argue that Baron Davis was better than Francis. Whatever happens I just hope the end for him isn't rotting away on the Knicks bench. Having said that putting him in the position to make decisions in a free flow offense is not a good position for him. So I would basically have Tracy play PG if he actually does come back.
Maybe this should be in another thread, but how in the hell did Rafer Alston end up being on the "And One" team?? You would think that someone who played streetball like that would be better than throwing up ugly teardrops, handing the ball off to McGrady, and missing wide open 3's, lol. I guess what I am saying is I read someone say that Alston was "boring" which should be the last thing you would think of someone who made a name for themselves in streetball like the "And One" thing. Maybe a lot of the change was due to Van Gundy and his offensively challenged schemes, but with him gone, won't Rafer be able to be that attacking, slashing point guard we would desperately need? I'm guessing not, but it bothers me that the dude was an "And One" player and now he can't even show why.
No, Rafer killed his "And 1" game long before JVG coached him. He did it so that he could be the first street baller to really make it in the NBA. As far as finishing goes - the defense in streetball doesn't exist compared to NBA defenses. Rafer can still easily get into the lane in the NBA just like in streetball. The difference is that in streetball he could lay it up with little contest or shoot with little challenge. In the NBA he has to worry about getting his shot blocked or being bodied into missing a layup. That is why he gets rid of the ball so quickly (ugly teardrop) - he lacks the strength and/or evasive creativity to finish at the rim in traffic.
Streetball moves don't work for the most part in the NBA, they call traveling and palming. (Well sort of). DD
but god doesn't he just over dribble. even in that vid. ewww. if adelman can tighten his screws then maybe...
the magic led the league in fast break points the first of half of francis's first season. hp and thecabbage truly don't get that francis can't run a fat break is a misnomer because they believe the total responsibility of the fastbreak on the pg. its hard to run fastbreaks when you have to make up for mo taylor's ineptitude in rebounding.
That video really made Stevie look awesome, but it also made the old unis look all right, which is my indication that maybe I'm not watching it objectively.
imo, stevie, would be defenitly our 3rd scorer. especially with tracy's back, makeing him inconsistant, we could rely on stevie. aldemen doesnt have an ego, so i'm pretty sure when tracy is having an off game, he'll change things up. too many times, yao is tired in the 4th quarter, and tracy was off the whole game. we look good coming into the 4th, but then we lose, or win by few points. for example,: chicago, clippers, and lakers games. (maybe not the lakers since they have kobe) if we can't get stevie, the only way we can find a true scorer, is if we trade battier. i rather have him and the 3rd scorer.
Stevie was good with the dribbling with Rudy's offense and isos. Reason being if you watch those vids, Stevie uses the driibble to get a defender to overcommit and then he just steps around them for the open shot. Works when you have a freewheeling offense but I can't see how that would ever work on Van Gundy's passing offense.
