At the start of the season Francis said he feels fine health wise and he doesn't know why he is not playing. So he felt fine , at least at the start of the season. Adelman said he though Francis would be the starter , then he said Alston is the perfect fit for the system and James got the backup minutes over Steve , so I think Steve being the worst fit of the 3 point guards is a good guess.
I would put both Ron and Francis on the bench. Ron at the top, Steve at the bottom. I would say Rafer plays, uh, 35 minutes a game. Wait, more like 40. both Shane and Mac will see their minutes reduced - Artest will likely play 30 minutes or more. I hope Brooks is ready to contribute, which seems not, but in case that happens, we'd have to rely on Barry and yes, Luther Head. That says something, huh? I don't get this, let's go high on Francis and Artest, and ditch those scrubs Alston, Head, Hayes and Battier mentality. Hello? By the way, I miss Jeff...
Wow this thread is pumping me up!!!! Wow!!! 5 all-stars!!! Raefer gets benched after he keeps shooting 17 shot per game in pre-season, in favor of Steve Francis. Rick gets fed up with him as Yao, McGrady, Artest, and Scola can't get enough shots with Raefer shooting so fricken much. Steve starts the season as the starters and becomes an all-star all over again. Five all-stars next season baby!! Yao - 20 pts. 12 rebs. Scoal - 15 pts. 10 rebs. Artest - 17 pts. 7 rebs. 4 asst. McGrady - 20 pts. 6 reb. 7 asst. Francis - 16 pts. 5 reb. 7 asst. Battier - 9 pts. 5 reb. 3 asst. Barry - 7 pts. 3 reb. 2 asst. Alston - 6 pts. 2 reb. 3 asst. Landry - 6 pts. 5 reb. Yeah baby!! The Rockets will average 116 pts per game!! And they will play tough A$$ defense as well. They'll get 55 reb. a contest. And they will be getting 26 assts. a game!!! Here's to the 70+ win campaing onto the Championship ring.
Ha. Ryan Bowen was an all-star. Jeff preferred Ryan over Francis, anyways. Rick made Chris Webber, Brad Miller, and Mike Bibby look like great stars. What happened to Webber? (Old... but still, ineffective) What happened to Bibby? (Shots gone way off...) I'm sorry, but Sook is the same poster who quoted himself and said, "Best post."
Rafer has proved that he was an important piece in our offense, we saw this when he was out during a couple of games in the playoffs. Francis, hasn't played for a year and hasn't proved anything yet. I consider him as a Rookie.
Webber and Bibby were great stars without Adelman. Francis will still struggle grasping Adelman's offense next year. Right now the team already has a year of Adelman's offense under their belt, and I doubt Francis is spending his nights studying tape of his offense. Francis will be even further behind than the rest of the team.
Webber and Bibby were great? Really? Webber was sent to the Sixers and was absolutely trash. Then he went to Detroit, and was an OK role player. Then he went to the Warriors, and didn't crack the rotation. IMO, he pretty much sucked after his stint with the Kings. Bibby was on his decline in everything pretty much, especially shooting. (including his last few seasons with the Kings) With the Hawks, the only reason that team took Boston to 7 games was because of two players, Josh Smith and Joe Johnson. I guess Barry and Dorsey will also have a hard time grasping Rick's offense. And since Ron wasn't playing for us last season, while Rick was changing up his offense, he too will have a hard time grasping the offense. Especially since Rick changed his offensive plan for us compared to the one he had for the Kings.
This is just ignorant. Webber was a great talent and flourished in Adelman's system because of great court vision and a high basketball IQ. He ran the offense out of the high post for years and excelled, and his ability really propelled the Kings and not necessarily the other way around. His career deteriorated because of injuries, not because he was 'trash'. I think the point was that Francis has never played in an offense that required an understanding of a true motion-oriented scheme like Adelman's. As a Rockets fan you surely remember the Rudy T years where it was iso after iso and an occasionaly high pick and alley-oop. Francis has never played well when he wasn't allowed to dominate the ball and use his crossover to make plays to the hoop. This has always been the knock on him. It's not to say he can't or that I hope he won't. I love the Franchise, but its unrealistic to think that he can adapt to an offense like that and learn to play off the ball, without seeing significant game time.
Prove me wrong. Any team with francis on it doesn't win. Rockets didn't win much when francis was here in his prime. Orlando didn't win with francis. The knicks didn't win with francis. The stats back me up.
There are three types of lies; lies, damn lies and statistics.... so your stance holds no water.... Francis has played with crap his entire career. In houston Yao was young, in orlando howard was 18 and in NY, hum..do I need to go any further?
The difference though is that francis has been to the playoffs 1 time in his entire career. Let that sink in for a minute....1 year of playoffs for his entire career!
Have you seen the teams hes played on? He has never been on a team as good as these Rockets. Hes been on lottery type teams for most of his career. The Magic were in rebuilding mode and Knicks are the Knicks. You act like Stevie was suppose to take them to the promise land.
Once Francis get's healthy he is going to be a hell of a player off our bench. For alot a fan faviourte.
