I gotta believe this is the case. Francis certainly isn't the Franchise but he showed in the few games he's been in he's still got heart and wanted to compete. Even Adelman said that he had been working hard to get into game shape.
SF isn't what i am concerning right now. he's cheap and that he's out of shape. What I really concern about the rockets is MJ not in our rotation. even that game against the wolves he wasn't showing any flashes or sticking out to the coach. he looks like a third tier bench warmer. MJ's contract
francis has tendinitis and is out indefinitely. wut the hell is up with these francis haters ?he cant play cuz he is injured not cuz hes been slackin wtf? yall need to get your info straight before you start sayin stuff bout the most electrifying and entertaining player the rockets has ever had
Oh and by the way, I found another Francis comment although I cannot find the original USA Today article, it did turn up in the google search results when I searched for Francis scared of surgery. And this is why he hasn't been successful in Adleman's offense. He needs to do something about those knees to be an NBA player again. Fantasy Basketball - USATODAY.com"Mentally, I'm scared to make different cuts on the court when I am working out. ... Steve Francis, G, Out, Dec 19, quadriceps, Out indefinitely http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=Steve+Francis+scared+surgery
M'bad, found that was a statement by McGrady on the same page as the Francis statement. Found the Cached article in Google.
but here's the real stuff directly from Francis mouth in a quote while still with New York. Is it a sideways remark at being scared of the knee surgery? http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cach...+boots+steve+francis&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us Knee Tendinitis Worries Francis By Alan Hahn Steve Francis said he is "shaking in my boots" about his troubled right knee, which he thinks could keep him out at least another week because of tendinitis. Francis has never had surgery and reached down to the hardwood floor at the Knicks' practice court to tap it when he revealed that information. In any event, Francis projected return is right about now from tendinitis. http://stats.washingtonpost.com/nba/notes.asp?type=inj 12/31/2007 Steve Francis, PG (Hou) Injury: Tendinitis in quadriceps Francis sat out Monday's loss to the Warriors with tendinitis in his quadriceps. The Rockets said Francis was out indefinitely and would not travel on Houston's next road trip to Boston and Orlando. Return Date: 1/15/2008
Theres no way SF3 or Mike James will get playing time the way Aaron Brooks is playing right now. We found our back up point guard which is working. Why do yall insist on playing SF3 when he doesn't fit this system and has terrible knee problems? I mean, he's SCARED to dribble the ball up court! That was a big part of SF3's game, and now he cant even crossover anybody anymore, can't really finish anymore, and has NEVER been able to play off the ball. Why play him now? I'm not a SF3 hater at all. He's one of my favorite Rockets from 1999-2004. He was a fun and exciting player to watch back then, but since RudyT. retired, his weaknesses and lack of basketball IQ have been exposed. And now, he's no longer the highlight reel he once used to be. I love his heart and passion for the game, but lets face it, he's done and he's washed up. If the Rockets want to do something good for him, let him retire as a Rocket and let him get a chance to have some fun in blow out games for us in the next couple of years. He shouldn't be ignored or cut or traded away for nothing, because he did help out our current superstar, Yao Ming adjust to America and the NBA. But as an everyday player for the Rockets, forget about it. He simply has nothing left due to injuries and lack of basketball IQ.
As much as has happened to Francis, he's smart to be quiet and just roll with it. He made the decision to come here although I'm not sure it'd be much different for him had he gone to San Diego. He'd still have the quadirceps problem and he'd probably still be injured right now.
TO SET THIS BOARD STRAIGHT: Steve Francis is D-O-N-E! Those of yall that think Francis will contribute anytime soon for the Rockets have lost your mind. Why I say this? It should tell you something when the Rockets traded Francis to Orlando along with Cato and Mobley for T-Mac. Then Orlando trades him to New York because he is on the decline and then you get traded from the Knicks to the Blazers (HINT HINT, when you get traded from the Knicks, your done!) and Portland pays him 30 million dollars and indirectly tells Francis "Get your ass outta here!" and the Rockets get him back for free for the veteran minimum $1.5 million dollars. Should tell you something. Francis will NEVER EVER be good in the NBA again and WILL NEVER be the Stevie Franchise Bill Worrell once proclaimed him once he got to Houston. Francis will be on the first train marked "Route to Hell". He is NOT better than ALSTON and BROOKS. So, all the people mad about Steve not playing... my message to you is this "GET OFF HIS DICK!"
Ouch, I only bumped this thread because of its glance at the past status of this board. Back in November, 55% of the people who saw this thread thought Francis was being held back by Adelman. It wasn't to continue asking the question why isnt he playing, as of now, he isnt playing because he is hurt, and at the time, he wasnt playing because he hadnt worked himself into both the lineup and game shape. I used it in conjunction with my other poll that asks an equally thought provoking(though much more fans seem logical about it) question of basically did Rick Adelman change the offense, or did T-Mac just go out and start hogging the ball against the coaches wishes. According to the viewpoints of many before I made the poll, they all thought T-Mac was just a ball hog(like Mike James) who wasnt doing what the coach wanted. That poll turned out that most felt Adelman did alter the offense rather than T-Mac just changing the play at the line of scrimmage. So the sanity of this board was saved, at least for a while.
I feel bad for the guy. Huge fan of Wink ever since he landed here in Houston. Loved the passion, drive, commitment. You can see it on his face when he plays, and he is all heart. I don't think Rudy T was the right coach for him out of the gate. But (always one of those), I think this was Steve's chance to return to Houston and make a big impact. I was under the assumption (as Im sure he was as well) that he was going to be the starting PG with Tracy, Shane, Chuck, and Yao. Unfortunately, he was his own worst enemy when Alston, Head, James, and Brooks were outplaying him left and right. I kept hearing that the other 3 guards ran the Adelman system better, but I guess, like Steve, I was in denial. I think Steve needs to have a long look in the mirror this summer and ask himself if he is truly dedicated to the game and wants to commit himself to it 110% (sounds cliche - but it has to happen). At 30, he can still be a valuable player in the NBA (maybe Sam Cassel would be a good mentor), but alot needs to change for Steve to prove all the doubters wrong.
Steve is a score first guard. He plays better in a conventional NBA offense but with his knee's he's lost a step. Without that athleticism, he's not going to be able to do much of anything. It's like Iverson without that first step and being able to get into the lane and penetrating. If Francis can't penetrate and finish, then he's of limited use. Fix the knees and he might be able to resurrect his career. He's a Baron Davis/Iverson/Wade type player and these guys get injured a lot.
He is injured, although Head is playing reasonably well, i still cant see him playing instead of SF3 when SF3 finally recovers, as the only advantage of head over SF3 is his 3 pointers, which is not really needed when AB is as capable of taking them. Call me pessimist, but maybe just maybe, its the starting of the decline of RA. His layups is getting bad, and his shots % are slowly dwindling down again. Over the last 3 games, his at 4-10, 4-13 and today 7-17. There will be a need of SF3 later on.
Steve still hasnt really got a real chance to play f you ask me, were talking about a guy use to playing 40 mins +, RA has got SF3 out of his element. Head,AB,RA even MJ have got more chances than Steve to play. I wanna see SF3 play atleast 3 games in a row with 35mins +. If he cant do nothing, then I will say he's done. But until RA really gives steve some pt PG TOTAL MINS PLAYED Rafer Alston 1,208 Mike James 517 Luther Head 729 Aaron Brooks 236 Steve Francis 199
We could really use a healthy Steve Francis right about now. http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=30 The contenders: Player Win% WARP TS% Pass Pos% Alston .486 4.3 .496 2.79 19.6 Francis .513 2.5 .570 1.61 19.9 Head .474 2.6 .584 0.55 18.7 James .441 1.0 .529 2.36 20.8 Wells .343 -0.9 .446 0.07 23.7 (WARP is Wins Above Replacement Player as measured by my personal rating system; Win% is the per-minute incarnation. Basically, it is looking at the player added to four league-average teammates, a la Marginal Lineup Value from Baseball Prospectus. TS% is True Shooting Percentage, Pass is my passing rating (assists per minute squared multiplied by assist/turnover ratio multiplied by 50). Possession percentage is what it says, the percentage of team possessions used by the player while on the court.) Obviously, this doesn't include McGrady, who will account for about 36 minutes a night, most at shooting guard, though he might also play some small forward. Beyond him, you have a lot of average players. Based on these numbers, James and Wells appear to be the odd men out; both dropped way off from 2005-06, when James had 9.2 WARP and Wells 4.9. Rafer Alston was a perfectly adequate point guard last year, if an inefficient shooter. What hurt the Rockets was having to play Alston 37 minutes a night with few other alternatives. Luther Head played backup minutes, but he is much better suited for the other guard position. James is just two seasons removed from the career year in Toronto that earned him a big free-agent deal from Minnesota, but he could not repeat that performance for the Timberwolves. There was no shortage of signs that James had lost a step or two at age 31 (now 32). At the same time, James is a better outside shooter and defender than Alston, and those are the two most important qualities for a point guard in Houston. Alston shocked almost everyone by re-earning the starting job during camp, but he and James should end up splitting minutes more or less down the middle. Amidst the turmoil of his lone full season in New York, Francis quietly had a pretty nice year. We think of him as a high-volume, low-efficiency gunner, but Francis settled into a smaller role last season and was actually very efficient despite shooting just 40.8% from the field. Francis hit 37.8% of his threes (a feat he'll be hard-pressed to duplicate) and got to the free-throw line more frequently per field-goal attempt than ever before in his career. Still, Adelman seems to have factored him out of his regular-season rotation, and Francis may not handle that well. Wells is the biggest wild card after playing just 590 minutes a season ago. He was a great fit in Sacramento because Adelman's offense asked his guards to play close to the basket. That played to Wells' strengths, posting up smaller defenders and crashing the boards (he averaged a remarkable 7.7 rebounds a game for the Kings), and minimized his main weakness, outside shooting. Figure Wells to be much more productive this season, though it's tough to see where he's going to get many minutes with Head likely to back up McGrady at shooting guard. Overall, the backcourt has gotten a needed infusion of depth that will prove especially helpful if McGrady misses time due to his troublesome back. Francis and a motivated Wells give Houston two players who can create shots in McGrady's absence. It's still worth cautioning that the improvement is more in terms of quantity than quality.
