Stevie Franchise vs. A.B... don't forgot about Mike James too, ha ha.

It was announced today that Steve Francis (click here for full story), who's contract was just bought by the Blazers, has been picked up by the Rockets. I'm not sure what this means for Aaron Brooks, probably less playing time though Francis isn't strictly a point guard and neither is Brooks for that matter. Houston just has a ton of guards right now but it seems to me they'll either cut or trade some of them before the season starts and Brooks is their first round pick, there's always pressure to play your first round pick. You'd also have to assume the Rockets aren't really satisfied with the point guards they already had prior to the draft and the Francis acquisition. Rafer Alston, John Lucas III, and the recently acquired Mike James are all in contention for the point guard spot, though Lucas has said he wants to be traded or released if he's not going to see more minutes than last year, so probably he's out. I just watched the Rockets press conference from last month introducing Mike James to the team (further evidence of my summer sports withdrawl) and Adelman and GM Daryl Morey get asked what adding Mike James means for the other guards, specifically Rafer Alston. Adelman's response is that Alston's "a solid player for this team but...". He added, "You can do a lot less on a really, really good team and get more credit." But then he follows that by saying, "People earn their minutes." Morey then went on to say that they were looking to add scoring punch and improve the one spot, but they need to improve at the bigs and they have some tradeable assets. James did average 20 ppg in the 2005-2006 season for the Raptors, but he's 32 years old now. So bare in mind all this happened before the draft.

Okay so what does all the have to do with anything? except prove I'm beyond ready for some kind of meaningful sport to start back up, I'm honestly getting pumped for the U.S. Open, (tennis not golf, I'm not that desperate). Well I guess it gives some context to the kinds of personnel decisions that are made in the NBA every year that ultimately decide the fate of former Ducks basketball players, which is supposedly the point of this blog., though be warned I'm going to report on the current team too because I have to.