What is with the Francis love fest?

Actually, Rudy T favored ISO plays and was known to let his players freelance on the court. The coach, just like what happened to JVG, shoulders the blame on this also. I'm sure Steve would have no problems in an offense where you are moving the ball with players like T-Mac, Yao and Shane playing along his side.

 

And I'm pretty sure not turning it over 9 times a game would be a nice thing, too.

Francis is past his prime, despite his age. He is not a better player than Rafer, James, or even Aaron Brooks at this point. He is not an Adleman type of PG, either. Adleman's PG's typically can hit the outside shot and run the break...2 things Francis is not exacly adept at.

On the otherhand, maybe being back in a more comfortable situation will reignite Francis. He would have to be cool with coming off the bench and understand that he is now a role player. Oh, and he would have to sign for the vet min. for 1 year.

 

You know what's sad is that all the things you point out are true and yet he'd still be better than any of the garbage that is on our bench right now. That's really the main point. Rafer Alston is statistically worse in almost every category. Lower FG%, (higher 3 point% but steve doesn't shoot nearly the amount of 3s as rafer), much worse defensively (Francis consistently ranks pretty high in defense), much worse rebounder (Francis is probably the 2nd best rebounding PG)

Rafer doesn't turn the ball over but that's his one positive. Steve Francis at a cheap salary is far superior to Rafer or JLIII or Luther Head and even an unproven Aaron Brooks.

I'm not going to sit here and say Steve is the best but at a bargain basement salary and taking into account how bad we are at the PG spot, he's a definite upgrade and a guy I'd love to have.

 

I second that. Angkor summed it up perfect; Steve is the man.

 

steve francis' passion is an important part of the game. if kevin durant doesn't even turn out to be good... one reason he will always be valuble is passion. passion leads a team. its the reason that harry potter, whom has passion and love, will destroy voldemort

 

I want Francis at a cheap price because our backup guards aren't that special. Fault Stevie all you want, but can you honestly say and of our guards are clearly better than him, excluding Mike James and T-Mac? If you can admit that he is better than them, then what guard can we get better that Stevie with our meager $$$?

 

I really enjoyed watching Steve play while he was here and in Orlando. The game is entertainment, and that's what he provided.

 

When will SF3's waiver be cleard?

 

I think Wednesday.

 

heart passion blah blah that lead him straight to the lottery most of his career.....wake up people SF is not good. Their is a reason the blazers bought him out for 30 mill.

 

We will trade Alston, Sura and JL3.

Our back court (PG, SG, and SF) will have

TMac, Battier, SF3, Bonzi, James, and Head, Snyder, Harris, Novak for 144 minutes.

TMac 35 minutes
Shane: 30 minutes
Stevie: 25 minutes
James: 25 minutes;
Bonzi: 25 minutes

There may be 10-15 minutes squeezed out for Head, but his poor passing will really be exposed in the new passing oriented offence...
Between Harris and Snyder, only one will be left.
Novak may also be shipped out with hsi poor play in summer league.

I also want to make another prediction here: for all you guys bashing SF3, I won't be surprised that you will be calling Mike James's head by next Feb.

 

and exactly what has he done in the last 3 or 4 years?

that's what i thought.

i cant wait until he signs with the damn clippers and we can drop this asinine topic.... at least for a little while.

 

steve francis is the reason i stopped watching the rockets for 3 years. it was unbearable watching so many horrible plays. i still wanted the rockets to win, i just couldn't watch the games. it was so frustrating watching that guy ruin the team. i started watching again when he was traded.

 

I'm not aware of any irrational love for Steve Francis. Nobody says he's an MVP candidate. People are interested in brining him back partly due to sentimental value, but mostly becaue he's decent talent available at bargain basement price. That's something to consider when your team have only the $2.3 million left over of the MLE and $1.87 million of the bi-annual exception (a.k.a. the LLE) left to play with in free agency.

Sure, his game is flawed, but what kind of flawless player can you get at $2.3 million in free agency?

And there's nothing wrong with sentimentally wanting to bring Steve Francis back into a winning situation.

He was pretty much the only reason the Rockets even came close to 40 wins instead of 20 wins during the latter part of Rudy's years as coach-- remember the one season when he missed a ton of games due to the inner ear thing the Rockets ended up with something like 25 wins (and drafted Yao Ming). He carried the asses of guys like Mo Taylor and Kelvin Cato from embarassment to mediocrity, and that takes some talent and effort.

So, here we have a guy who worked hard carrying the team during some tough times, who has always said nothing but positive things bout the city, and who has been knocked around quite a bit since leaving Houston... nothing wrong with wanting to see him back on the team and winning.

In any case, I don't think the Rockets will end up with him... the Clippers team is just too good a fit right now-- Cassell is aging and injury prone, Mobley is there, Livingston is on the mend. The Rockets, on the other hand, will have to move guys to make room for him.

 

You will surely be disappointed when he comes back to Rockets and push us pass the first round for the first time in 10 years.

 

you've got to ask yourself what kind of player gets paid 10's of millions just to get the hell out of town.

 

Steve Francis plays with so much heart and passion that Portland wanted absolutely nothing to do with him and paid him 30 million to never suit up in a Blazers uniform. This guy has been a journeyman player since we traded him, and for a reason...he isn't that good.

 

I love the fact that people say we have arguably the worst starting point guard in the league when our point guard won 52 games last year and played in every one of them. You know that shooting percentage isnt the only thing that you can use to measure how good a point guard is. How about winning percentage, games played, assist to turnover ratio, turnovers, durability, and steals............ any of those categories matter to you? Marbury was a horrible point guard last year and steve francis played BEHIND him. Atlanta started speedy claxton, tyronne lue and anthony johnson last year. Jameer Nelson isnt that good. Steve Blake is an over glorified Rafer Alston clone who doesnt score as much. Smush Parker better than Alston? That's news to me. Jamaal Tinsley is the pacer's only point guard but he's sooo inconsistent that they dont even want him. Delonte West is also inconsistent. Chucky Atkins just plain sucks. Sam Cassell is too old and Shaun Livingston is injury prone. Cleveland trots out eric snow, damon jones and larry hughes as point guards. Rafer Alston does the things a point guard is supposed to do. Shooting is a premium in point guards but not necessary (its like hitting catchers in baseball). And the most important thing is that we WIN GAMES when he starts so dont give me all that bs about him being the worst point guard in the league and francis coming over here. If anything mike james coming over here is perfect because is gives you two different types of point guards, gives rafer less minutes so he can be more effective and can light a fire under his but to play better than he did last year.

 

At the very least he can be a Bob Sura circa 04-05 for us.