If you truly think that you have never coached basketball before. At any level. I can tell you with 3rd grade girls which ones have high sports IQ and which ones don't. It's the same thing with co-ordination. Some people are just born with the ability to see more on a court than others. If fact it's true in any sport. A player can be taught anything by repetition , but those players who understand what they are learning are harder to come by.
I hear ya DD. I've admittedly been one of the biggest supporters during his first 3 years in the league then turned one of this biggest haters during and after his 4th year in the league for many reasons. After that year, REGARDLESS of the 'system' that Francis was best in (because any team would've been a championship team they if they played in 'his' type of system, right... ) it was easy to see that the dude simply did not feel that his skills needed any improvement...period. Watching him make the same mistakes and get worse in shooting, passing, maturity, hell, almost every aspect of the game was torture. I've said many times that Francis would make a great bench player, which I still think he can. But all this talk about his 'heart'? WTF. If the dude really cared about the game you think he'd care about improving SOME aspect of his game...does that not matter to anyone? Puhlease RR, we all know that Francis could drop kick yo momma and you'd say your momma deserved it for one reason or another...you defending Francis is like watch Traitor Jorge defend Bush. Of course the same could be said about me and my Francis hate... So I suppose you think the other 4 teams that so desperately tried to get rid of the 'Franchise' just 'didn't like him'? Yeah, that's it...he was too dumb, and thuggish...they're 'hatas'...cmon that's crap and you know it.
I believe there IS a such thing as BBall IQ but i also believe it is waaay overrated. People always try to lump everything that's not athletically based as bball IQ. DD rattled off names of some of the greats and some current stars of which Francis just doesn't compare skill wise. It wasn't just an understanding of the game or reaction time that made those guys good they had an impressive skill set. Stevie's current skill set is not very great for playing off the ball. He's a penetrator, he finishes around the rim and dishes to the open man (kinda like a certain Greek player). I just would like to see more people separate bball IQ from non athletic skills like shooting, passing, defense. Francis understands the game plenty its just his skills aren't great for someone to play off the ball.
sometimes its not all about basketball I.Q. sometimes you also gotta have heart and steve is one of the perfect example of having heart, if anyone remembers he choose houston not for money but for the love where he started, and to see that they can win. hes willing to bust his @ss off if he had to for the rockets and see some playing time.
LOL. Hopefully he's learned a thing or two, it'd be nice see him rely on some new skill other than the 'how many times can I cross over my man' move...I hate that .
At 31, Francis is PAST his athletic peak and has little else to rely on. I still can't believe a team paid him a gazillion dollars NOT to play for them. Francis is an outcast, at this point, taking his last few sips of life in the limelight.
He's 31 years old and you are still holding out hope that he will get it? Ok, go ahead and give him another chance.
so ... in conclusion we're still waiting and debating. i think most of us would agree that we hope the best for him. however i must say that from the games I've seen him play for us in the past year (what 10 games?), where he wasn't severely plagued by injury (most of those games he started while rafer was out ...), i saw his "bball IQ" higher than I remember it in the past. I've watched the suns game that he won for us a handful of times to see that in good health (though still not completely healthy), stevie played a much smarter game than perhaps I've seen him play in a while. He made the right passes (some particularly good passes), made the right shot selection ... even played decent defense. on an injured leg he still had his playmaking ability with the exception that the francis of the present has increased his tendency to pass off his penetration than to take it himself. multiple times he's found the open man simply by his penetration and some of his passes were right on the money. it's not like he's jason kid bball iq, but has he improved some? i think so. he's not going to correct every flaw he ever had in his game (there are quite a few ), but what he does bring is something the team has needed ever since we got rid of him ... a player that's not afraid to take it to the whole and be another playmaker. it's just a skill of his to get to the cup ... he gets there far easier than any other pg we got (though I think rafer should consider that he has the ability to do this more). that's been his #1 strength since we got him on draft night. in every steve francis fan's dream, he's the starting pg of the championship houston rockets. is this realistic? the houston rocket fan in me says prob not and hopes that he becomes the 6th man of our team (like dwade on the usa team? :d) that continually brings that contagious fire to this team that desperately needs it. i think most francis fans talk about stevie's heart a lot of the time because we simply haven't seen much of any of that since he was gone ... (2 more first round playoff exits later). the fairy tale ending would be that he makes a huge comeback and we see stevie (and artest) bring that fire and toughness that the rockets haven't had for a long time ... that our role players continue to be solid, our superstars do they thing, and our rooks make huge leaps and bounds ... mesh it all together and hope to have deke on the sideline cheering that he's going to get his first ring .
The only way Francis will be a viable rotation player for Adelman is if he loses the And1 playing style and learns how to plays off of our main guys, which is the ATM trio. Slashing and driving is fine if he comes back healthy, but his outside shot has always been suspect and we need shooters just as much. And not holding on to the ball massaging the hell out of it would be great also. And there's still a big chance that he's not on the roster when the season starts.
I think that had to do with the fact that he came into the league later in his career thus avoiding the amount of "wear and tear" most 31 year old NBA players have on their body. It seems the guys that come in early seem to lose a step sooner than the guys who come in later due to the the extra "mileage." I 100% believe the human body reaches it's athletic prime in the mid 20s and stays there until the early to mid 30s provided the body is allowed to rest and recouperate. That's why it isn't uncommon to see sprinters, decathletes and other elite athletes in their prime and setting records past the age of 30. NBA players flat out destroy their lower bodies with what they do and wear out earlier. They are like a car that is driven 50,000 miles a year while most athletes are closer to a 25,000 miles a year car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMxzrI09yis This is another element that Steve can contribute to the team. The Rockets are largely regarded as a soft team. Even Chris Paul eluded to this when he spoke on the Ron Artest trade recently on the radio. If anyone has ever played a competitive sport you would know that the game is really all about emotion. Look at Kobe Bryant's face at the end of close games; he looks like he wants to kill someone. Then think of the face of Tracy McGrady's at the end when the games is close. I've been in a room at the end of close games and then they show Tracy's expression and the whole room would say at once that Tracy looks worried. In order to survive in this game you have to have a killer instinct. Unfortunately the level of competition has picked up so much that if you don't have a hint of "thuggary" (as I call it) in you, you're toast. The Rockets need Stevie as much as they need Ron Ron. They need a player that makes other teams weary of punking us then feeding on that emotion to up their own game. Shane, TMAC, Scola, Hayes, Yao, Head, and Brooks ain't it. Basketball is no longer a gentlemen's game. It's war. But that's just my little opinion
im new her 2 clutch fans enjoy reading some post and some post i just laugh at but for Steve Francis returning to the Rockets.....It could happen....pain free i dont think he will be healthy at the beginning of the season. Its gonna take steve some time plus games to get back into shape. Like JVG said theres no way to get into basketball shape then to play in a live games.
Steve Francis would wag war like they fellow waving the big scimitar in Raiders of the Lost Arc. Heart and flash only takes you so far if your tools are outclassed. His mind and skills were never his strength, without his former superior athleticism he just doesn't have any weapons to bring to the battle. BTW Artest is as far from soft as it gets. Scola, Battier, Hayes, Landry and Alston are not soft either (neither are Deke and Landry if they come back). Yao sure didn't look soft the other day--he looks ready to impose himself. The Rockets did not have the #2 defense and a 20 win streak playing soft. Now I don't mind at all adding an enforcer, Artest, but I hope he uses some judgment, he is too talented to waste on plays that can get you suspended. I want him to be a subtle bruiser/enforcer.
