Los Angeles Lakers: One of these ESPN announcers should be coach

When Jeff Van Gundy was in Houston, he shipped Steve Francis out

In his last NBA job, Jeff Van Gundy had a vision of how he wanted to play and which players were needed to play in his system. More importantly, Van Gundy knew the players that needed to be on the front lines.

That scenario was never more evident than when he was the coach of the Houston Rockets. Before Rudy Tomjanovich retired from the Rockets for health reasons, the offense was uptempo and the keys to the offense were handed to Steve Francis.

Let me tell you, if there was any player that needed the keys, it was this guy. After the Rockets had gotten old and were in transition from the Clutch City championship days, Francis was the star to bring excitement back to Houston.

People always talk about Allen Iverson‘s crossover but forget that the entire Rockets offense was based on Francis’ killer crossover. Lakers fans and players alike remember the headaches he used to give out at that time.

Then Jeff Van Gundy came in with a new game plan. Something that the franchise player did not like.

Jeff Van Gundy took the job in Houston knowing that he had a young center in Yao Ming. He knew that an offense centered around Francis doing isolation plays and passing the ball to his partner in crime Cuttino Mobley would not work, so he slowed the tempo down to take advantage of the matchup problems a 7’5″ Yao Ming would give to opposing teams.

Despite setting records, being one of only four NBA players at the time to average 15 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists (Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson and Grant Hill being the others) with three All-Star appearances, Steve Francis was the headliner in a trade to Orlando for Tracy McGrady.

It was a shock to some around the NBA, but it’s the essence of Jeff Van Gundy.