The knock on Francis has always been his inability to take care of the basketball and run smart plays. I haven't gotten a chance to watch more than a few Magic games. How annoying has his turnovers been this year? Is this a major problem for the Magic right now? So far, he's averaging 4.6 turnovers per game, and the team is averaging almost 2 turnovers more than opponents. He struggles particularly on the road, with 5 turnovers per game and only 4.4 assists per game.
Okay, so he's averaging 4.6 turnovers but his other numbers back him up.He's had a couple of 30 and up point games , I dont think he had any in houston last year[i could be wrong]and he hasn't had a game with him under 10 points. He has made 2 gamewinning shots, he averages 8.25 rebounds [pretty good for a point gaurd] and is averaging 21.50 points per game, .15 less then his highest scoreing season in 2001. I'd take around 5 turnovers per game for all that. His turnovers hurt the Rockets last year because they were a half court team, Orlando is a running and gunning team, so your bound to get some turnovers from your point guard.
The magic have an offense where they get lots of points on the fastbreak but they also cause lots of turnovers.
Every analyst on the planet predicted that this would be the problem at the onset of the season for the Magic (esp. Francis). I've watched every minute of every game, and honestly I must say that the turnovers are really not as bad as they seem. They are a direct result (most of the time) of Francis trying to push the ball hard and fast. I'll take that (with an eventual decline in to's) anyday over the boring half-set isolation plays set up for Me-Mac from the past couple of years.
It's as simple as this: the Magic will go through spells on offense where they'll try to run the ball when they really shouldn't be or Francis will force something that he really shouldn't. As a result, the Magic end up turning the ball over rather frequently in most games.
