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I have thought about this a bit more. From day one after Adleman said that Francis would be the starter it has been rocky between the two. Adleman specifically said that Francis had the hardest time understanding the system. In preseason, Francis earned himself a technical in practice. Who the gets a technical in practice??? Then as the season wore on, Francis couldn't buy playing time. Finally he's diagnosed with a torn quadriceps.
Francis rehabs and cannot play in the preseason this year and can't play early season. Doctors say that his injury typically takes one year to heal. Comments are that his recovery is slow, he needs to show something in preseason. Adleman says that right now there are a lot of guards ahead of him. Reading between the lines, Francis would never get playing time with Adleman even if he was 100%. It's probably a combination of not being dedicated enough, not giving him a fair chance and the time to recover and Francis not understanding or buying into Adleman's system. It's actually unfair but hey, the Rockets are trying to win now. It would have been nice to give Francis some minutes to play himself back into shape.
Francis is a Marbury, Iverson and Wade type player. They would all suck in Rick Adleman's system. Isiah Thomas was this type of player too and Bob Knight ran the motion offense too but at least he let Isiah dribble and penetrate. If Francis couldn't play within Adleman's system and had some personality conflicts, it would not be suprising to me that Francis asked to be traded behind the scenes. I think this the most likely scenario.
Does he still have anything in the tank. I think he does but lets see how he does with the conventional NBA offense again. Francis needs the ball to be effective.
