Houston Rockets: Francisco Garcia Is Abysmal
The Houston Rockets have looked like major contenders for the NBA championship this season. The team has exploded out of the gate to start the year and have been an absolute force to be reckoned with early on.
Seemingly everyone on the team has been doing their jobs exactly the way they are supposed to and it has shown with the team’s stellar record. Everyone is firing on all cylinders and picking up the slack due to unfortunate injuries to Patrick Beverley, Dwight Howard and Terrence Jones.
Well, everyone except for Francisco Garcia.
Francisco Garcia has not been very good. In fact, Garcia has been absolutely abysmal. To start this year, Garcia has played in 12 games while averaging 14.2 minutes per game. In those games, he has averaged 3.3 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game. While being on the court, presumably doing nothing, Garcia has also managed to shoot 26.8 percent from the floor and 22.5 percent from long range.
Even when you’re not doing anything out there, you should at least be able to shoot higher than 26.8 percent. That is quite possibly the lowest field goal percentage I have ever seen out of a player who has played more than five games. That is not a good figure. Not even close.
I cannot stress how bad Francisco Garcia has been this year. If it wasn’t for injuries across the board for Houston, there is absolutely no way Garcia would be out there for as long as he has been this year. This is an unfortunate side effect of injuries.
While sometimes it does provide a stage for unproven players to shine (Isaiah Canaan is a good example of this), it also means that coaches are often times scraping the bottom of the barrel just to get their healthy players enough rest. Garcia’s case has definitely been the latter, as he has been ineffective in just about everything he has done.
Luckily for him, the Houston Rockets are more than talented enough to carry his dead weight production for a little while. Even without Howard and Jones, the team has managed to mask its shortcomings and highlight its strengths. It’s been impressive to see the play of guys like James Harden and Trevor Ariza. It’s been anything but impressive watching Francisco Garcia.
There is some hope still left for the 32 year-old small forward. It is still early in the season, so he does have plenty of time to start turning things around. Historically speaking, Garcia is a fairly good outside shooter, as he has shot a career 35.8 percent from downtown. That is a major upgrade over this year’s 22.5 percent from out there. Small sample size can definitely contribute to a role player like Garcia shooting so poorly from beyond the arch.
The good news is that Garcia can still get it going, as most long range shooters tend to be streaky ones. It could just be a massive cold spell for Francisco Garcia. Or it could mean that he is playing hurt or that he no longer is good enough to be in the NBA. It could be a number of things. Unfortunately, nobody can find out unless he is actually seeing time on the court. The way he has been playing so far, that might not be the smartest idea for coach Kevin McHale and the Rockets.