klar war francis in houston glücklich obwohl van gundys system gar nicht zu francis´ passt!! hier z.b. mal ein interview von van gundy über francis nach latzter saison :
"Too many times when the Rockets falter, people say it's Stevie's fault," Van Gundy says. "Steve has tried very hard. Not hard, very hard. And he's been very successful. Not successful, very successful."
Van Gundy appreciates that Francis became a star his first four seasons by playing a free-wheeling style but committed to playing a starkly different way this season, believing it would make the team better. It's a way that does not play to Francis' strengths, so, in the process, it has made him look worse.
weiteres interview :
Q: You lost Steve Francis, an All-Star point guard, in the trade for McGrady. Can you talk about your point guard situation so far?
Van Gundy: Steve Francis, you’re right, he meant an awful lot to us last year. He had a very good year despite what the fantasy league experts stats-wise want to say. He had a very good year and the reason we were able to trade for a player of McGrady’s caliber is because Francis, [Cuttino] Mobley and [Kelvin] Cato all had very good years and Orlando saw great value in them. So, replacing him is very difficult. We don’t expect Charlie Ward and Ty Lue to replace his numbers, just to make us function well at both ends of the floor
und aller guten dinge sind drei :
"I'm not really a big statistic guy with him," Van Gundy said. "I think he's done a good job involving his teammates. When Steve shoots, he gets criticized. When Steve passes, he gets criticized. People talk about his scoring numbers going down. At the same time, the same people talk about that he should pass more. Well, if you pass more, you're going to shoot less.
"He has played well this year. It wasn't really about his number of shot attempts ever. He's cut down on the number of dribbles he takes to create shots -- or shots for others. He really should get a lot of credit for making a lot of plays that lead to guys getting a lot of shots."
übrigens war francis in houston glücklich auch nach seiner (statistisch) schwächsten saison!! er wollte ja erst gar nich nach orlando weil er sich wünschte mit yao ein champion duo zu bilden!! nach einigen gesprächen mit weisbrod war er dann jedoch mit orlandos plan für die zukunft zufrieden und ist dort jetzt auch sehr glücklich wie er mehrmals betonte, auch wenn mobley jetzt nicht mehr an seiner seite ist
und orlando hat die playoffs nur aufgrund von verletzungspech (christie,cato,hill,turkoglu) und schlechten entscheidungen des managements (mobley-trade, DAVIS ALS TRAINER :idiot: ) nicht geschafft