Top > Sport > 2006 > February > 2006-02-20

Houston Throws its Name to Mix

There is a lot of excitement in the air for the people of Houston Texas and it has to do with than just the All Star game taking place later today. Newspapers all over the country have been reporting that the Rockets are in the mix for retaining the services of who was once pegged to be the future of the franchise ? Steve Francis. The Houston Rockets are ready to blow up the team. Anyone not named Tracy or Yao is completely available. They are particularly interested in moving Juwan Howard and/or Stromile Swift.

The Knicks are unwilling to throw Channing Frye into the mix. If they were the deal would already be done. Instead we have Francis to Denver, David Lee to Denver, Watson and Martin to New York, Magic get Ariza, Crawford, Raptors` first round pick. If the Rockets are in the picture, they can get Penny Hardaway and David Lee, while sending out Howard and Swift. Swift goes to Denver in place of Lee in the preceding deal.

Bringing back Francis would probably be a sign that Jeff Van Gundy is on his way out. You may as well start talking about that, while we`re at it. Van Gundy has lost hope that this team will get into the groove defensively, and the Francis suggestion would be a sign that they`re going to go out and try to outscore everybody and forget about defense.