In an interview at a practice before the 4th loss, Rick Adelman talked about how AB needs to play better pick and roll defense and said that Rafer Alston was very good at it. Rafer is available since he has refused to go to China. The Rockets are moving JT to make room for newly acquired ED. Maybe they can find room for RA, too? Some blame Adelman for decline in D and talk about brining back JVG, but the D was fine for 2 years under RA when they had better defenders like Rafer Alston and Ron Artest running it. Now that we replaced one RA with KM and the other RA with AB, the D isn't what it used to be when RA had RA and RA at his disposal. Ron is a Laker now, but Rafer can be had and still live in Houston, I think. Why not bring him back?
Rafer was a huge part of the Orlando Magic playoff run to the finals a couple of years back. Chemistry problems arose when Jameer Nelson returned, but there was no question Alston helped the team. Rafer isn't as bad as most people here make him out to be. The guy had passion, something nobody on this team is showing.
Rafer Alston was playing significant minutes before being traded. Francis was hardly being used by Adelman. This would seem to indicate that Adelman finds Rafer somewhat useful and not so much with Francis. That was a couple years ago and Alston may be washed up now, but if the team is taking a shot with Dampier and Brad Miller, Alston is not older than these two.
I recall Rafer pretty much owning Brooks in one of the games we played against the heat last year too. Both offensively and defensively. If only he could've played like that in Utah for us.
Actually, back in 2008 when we were up against Utah and Yao was injured during the playoffs, Rafer was also injured for the first two home games against Utah. We lost those two. However, Rafer returned for the third game, which we won. We almost won the fourth game too had the refs been a little more objective (which is almost a never in Utah). We blew out the Jazz in game 5, but eventually lost in game 6. Had Rafer played the first two home games, there is no doubt in my mind that we could've gone second round.
CH joking about RA liking RA. Not the RA @ Lakers, but the unemployed RA. Or we could trade Jordan Hill for RA. Or we could unemploy RA and then sign JVG. Clever.
Rafer looked alot thicker than Aaron but was listed at about the same weight. He definitely got height over Aaron. Problem is our offense would be worst because this guy has no ability to finish whatsoever... Even on a break away Alston repeatedly couldn't perform a simple lap drill. You guys remember right?
<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/f3OuzKpQ3jM?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/f3OuzKpQ3jM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object> Best defense ever. No sarcasm.
i brought up in another thread that this team went too far with it's youth movement and needed some vets/experience, especially at point, but this isn't exactly what i had in mind....BUT, Rafer would provide better tips than anything Ish smith learned in college and high school.
