Whit Watson on Francis
I despise to write something that is a total qoute from somebody else. But in this case I have no choice but to qoute the whole statement by Whit Watson on the latest posting on his blog since the rest of the article is irrelevant to our interests:
"Wondering why the Orlando Magic continue to put up with Steve Francis, despite his bizarre funk of the last month? The answer is found in the first line of his bio on his NBA.com web page:"In 2003-04, [Francis] joined Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson and Grant Hill as the only players in NBA history to average 15 points, five rebounds and five assists in each of their first five seasons."Francis can play this game, that's why. Go back and read that again: The Big O, Magic, and the pre-injury Grant Hill. Francis is a member of one of the most elite fraternities in the history of pro basketball. He can play. Say what you will about John Weisbrod -- he knew a gamer when he saw one. The trick for Brian Hill is to figure out how to get inside Steve-O's head.There are two, and only two, motivating factors for NBA stars today -- money and minutes. Steve-O is signed up for $16 million-plus over the next couple of seasons, so remove money from the equation. What's left is minutes. By taking away his playing time, Coach Hill has drawn a line in the sand: "You want to play, you play our way." This may well prove to be Brian Hill's defining moment in his second go-round as Magic head coach. I've already stated it on this site, and I will not back down now -- the Magic are a playoff team in the East, because the East is terrible. If the Magic can get to Francis via this suspension, the rest is gravy. But I admit, it's a big "if.""
I am not sure that coach Hill can force Francis to play his way by taking his minutes away without risking resistance on his end. But he can definietly communicate with Francis to bring him to his side, only if knows how, and that is a big "if".
"Wondering why the Orlando Magic continue to put up with Steve Francis, despite his bizarre funk of the last month? The answer is found in the first line of his bio on his NBA.com web page:"In 2003-04, [Francis] joined Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson and Grant Hill as the only players in NBA history to average 15 points, five rebounds and five assists in each of their first five seasons."Francis can play this game, that's why. Go back and read that again: The Big O, Magic, and the pre-injury Grant Hill. Francis is a member of one of the most elite fraternities in the history of pro basketball. He can play. Say what you will about John Weisbrod -- he knew a gamer when he saw one. The trick for Brian Hill is to figure out how to get inside Steve-O's head.There are two, and only two, motivating factors for NBA stars today -- money and minutes. Steve-O is signed up for $16 million-plus over the next couple of seasons, so remove money from the equation. What's left is minutes. By taking away his playing time, Coach Hill has drawn a line in the sand: "You want to play, you play our way." This may well prove to be Brian Hill's defining moment in his second go-round as Magic head coach. I've already stated it on this site, and I will not back down now -- the Magic are a playoff team in the East, because the East is terrible. If the Magic can get to Francis via this suspension, the rest is gravy. But I admit, it's a big "if.""
I am not sure that coach Hill can force Francis to play his way by taking his minutes away without risking resistance on his end. But he can definietly communicate with Francis to bring him to his side, only if knows how, and that is a big "if".
posted by Matt @ 3:50 PM
12 Comments:
At 4:32 PM,
Matt said…
Just a quick note. After posting "Whit Watson on Francis" I went back and looked at my earlieir posting under "When does the Communication Start?" and some nice comments from all contributors. Once again, it is in the best interests of the team to resolve this issue, and coach Hill could play a major part in it. What happens in the future with Francis, is not something that I want to concern myself with, at this time. I am just concerned with what happens at present time.
At 5:08 PM,
Matt said…
I welcome Big Figure to the blog. Big Figure has enlighted us with his detailed knowledge of the game in analzing matches, on Sentinel's blog. I was after him from the early time that I joined this blog, and I am happy that finally he is aboard.
At 5:59 PM,
Big Figure said…
Well matt since i finally have a forum with no limitations,i can give my opinion on steve,first let me say that i like steve,but the fact is he's not a great shooter and his game is reckless to an extent(turnovers),if you've watched steve's game over the last 6 years,he's never been a high assist guy and thats a point guards primary job,coupled with the fact that he's always been turnover prone,what you have is a guy who would be great at the two position if he were 3 inches taller,b/c we know with career averages of 15pts 5reb 5ass the boy can ball,but those arent point guard stats,those are small forward numbers,which means every team steve has been on even though he's listed as the starting point guard he plays like a two guard,and that means coaches have to bite their tounge and deal with the "good" and the "bad" (the "points" and the "turnovers",while the team isnt being run by a traditional point guard with the mind frame of a steve nash or a chauncey billups,who can both hit the open three,dont turnpover the ball alot,and most important,always finish with high assist numbers!Now who do you think is closer to those two,steve or jameer? I think thats an easy one!
At 6:41 PM,
Matt said…
Big Figure, I cannot discount your points on Francis. I think Cuttino was more than a security blanket to Steve, especially on the court, when he could bail him out with timely shots. Granted Steve is not a true point guard, and in one of my postings on this blog (I don’t know where since we have been busy, and they are spread all over), I have admitted that Steve may not be the future point guard for the Magic, but neither is Jameer. He is not a point guard in the mold that the league is looking for, and in my humble opinion, if we are looking for a point guard to complement Dwight, we have to start the search now or in the near future, so that they could get acclimated with each other, as soon as possible. Now Jameer may prove me wrong should he himself turn into a true point guard (pass first, shoot second), which he is not at this time. In the meantime, devaluating a player with a large contract is not a smart thing to do for the team, even if you don’t forecast him in the team’s future. Is it?
At 7:02 PM,
WeRDevos said…
Don't forget the Stephon Marbury trade from Phoenix. They got nothing for him except a.) salary dump & b.) bad locker room dump.
If (IF) it's time to dump Francis, that is the likely outcome. Anyone who take him is probably going to look to dump a bad contract back on the Magic. He will be very tough to move, unless there is another motivated team that needs and thinks they can handle a crazy point guard.
At 7:25 PM,
Big Figure said…
Well put matt,and no, devaluating steve wouldnt be in our best interest,so when steve comes back,we should see if he can find his way out of this funk and be the old steve francis,and raise his trade value back to repectability,but while he's doing that,we can speculate! The magic currently have four point guards,two that you would consider combo guards (dooling,francis)and two you would consider traditional (nelson,deiner),if francis were traded the magic wouldnt skip a beat,and team turnovers would drop dramatically,dooling amerging as the eventual starter,who has a pass first mentality,and jameer and travis being good depth! Me personally i would offer steve for a couple of second round picks,you wont get bad players back or bad contracts,and bad teams always want to get better without giving up first round picks,their's teams that would jump on that!
At 7:39 PM,
Matt said…
Big Figure, I am in for a ride if you don’t call Jameer the Magic’s future point guard. The idea of Keyon as a starter is also an innovative one that I would go for. In all fairness to Steve, as I have posted before, the coach should not have ordered him to go in for mop up time without asking him first. In your coaching experience, would you order one of your top players to go in for garbage time? Pete said it well that resistance is most probable when an order is not expected (or something to that effect).
At 7:56 PM,
Big Figure said…
Well,nothing is set in stone matt,"magic's future point guard" i dont know about that,i mean keyon is 6ft 3 and has a pass first mentality,most of my comments comparing jameer and steve,were just because jameer's the starter now,last year we all could see that keyon was better than damon jones,but in the heats system,damon could hit that open three,and you need that b/c shaq aint moving out the paint,keyon needed a team like this to show his true talents,when was the last time the magic had a guard get double figure assists in a single game,keyon could be that guy! I still love jameer's game too,he could be the one who can give us outside shooting from that position,to complement keyon off the bench!
At 2:53 AM,
OVERWADED said…
Everyone has good points on here, but in the matter of talking about PG's, this is the first year Billups has averaged over 5 and change in assits, this is his 10th year in the league. Nash hit that mark after 5 years in Dallas. But Billups has always been a shoot first PG. Just now, after playing with the same group of guys for many years have they developed the chemisty for him to pick up his assists. Francis can get to that level, if not higher, it'll just take time with the same group of guys. The only problem is, nobody has patience, and Francis might have issues.
At 7:46 AM,
Ken said…
I would vote for keeping Francis, if for no other reason, (when his head is in the game), I like his willingness to put the team on his shoulders. And because he's a veteran. Granted, neither him nor Jameer are much in the passing dept, but Nelson is young and will only improve with age.. As far as Dooling goes, I never saw him play while he was in Miami, and have onle seen him the 3 minutes before he was suspended, so I can't say i'm completely sold on him yet...
At 9:27 AM,
Matt said…
Excellent views from all on the point guard issue. Introvert316 hit it on the head when mentioned the element of a group of players playing with each other for a long time. I think that's where the repeated overhauls hurt us most. Watching the game last night, the commentators were speaking, as a matter of fact, that Steve would be reinstated and will play on Wednesday. It seems that Grant is questionable again. I don’t understand why did he choose (assuming that it was his call) to play 37 minutes last night.
At 9:47 PM,
Matt said…
Just a quick response to Omar's inquiry on Dooling. I watched him play for Miami in their playoffs' bid. He is a very good defender and lightning quick, although looked erratic at times. That is not a knock on him, though, since he was playing limited minutes. His shooting is not as reliable as Damon Jones but he is a decent shooter (last year with Miami 40.3% shooting but 25.3% from behind the arc although he shot 3s much better in the playoffs).
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