If Luther Head could handle the ball like John Lucas

I'm not a big Alston fan but I give him credit for getting the Rockets running in a play quicker than any of our current available guards at the moment and in years past.

Francis had a tendency to not run plays til there was around 13 seconds left on the clock. Same for Mobley. Luther isn't as bad but he eats up the clock with his inability to make a clear open entry pass as well as Alston. JL3 has a tendency to dribble the air out of the ball sometimes and kills possessions doing that. Alston usually has our half court set up and running a play usually with 18-20 seconds left on the shotclock. I think that's one of his most underrated values to the team.

 

More than likely, he'd still be in the same role he is now. Right now, he's our only scorer off the bench. Now tell me, do you want our bench points to come from Luther or Rafer? At least when Rafer is in there with Yao and TMAC he has to defer to them most of the time. I'd much rather have Luther as the scoring punch when the starters rest instead of Rafer.

 

a better ballhandling would not make him a good point guard. he lacks the court vision, passing ability and the speed of a real point guard. a better ballhandling would make him somewhat better as a part time backup point guard. that would be fine because the rockets need his scoring off the bench. so rafer remains starter no matter what.

 

John Lucas III + Luther Head > Rafer Alston

 

I chose the second option. I considered the third option ONLY because I consider V-Span the PG of the future. With solid minutes, I think Billy could be the best PG of all the guys on the team. I realllly hope he and Novak get some time here. Then again, no I don't. With those two, they'll probably only be in due to a big injury to you know who. I hope they work hard in the offseason, both could be huge next year.

 

Giving Luther JL3's handles won't catch him up to Rafer in Basketball IQ, court vision, and defense.

 

Sorry but rafer's not a passing machine either. I give him credit for bringup up the ball, but the distributing is in the hands of T-mac.
But luther won't get his ball handling up to that level, so im gonna stop thinking about it.

 

I prefer Rafer to shoot like Luther...

 

Winner.

 

That is a big IF.

 

What can I do with a plastic straw and a Maloney rookie card

 

lol. well pointed out

 

The only thing I can figure out is that 1 says Rafer is our best choice for now, not necessarily that it can not be upgraded. 4 says that one can be complacent with Rafer. But I'd admit, there is not much difference.

Regardless, I don' t think Head can be a very good PG and it is not due to his (in)ability to handle balls, but due to his poor decision making and passing ability. To me, that is much more important than ball handling and is much harder to improve. One almost was born with it or not.

 

Rafer's D and BB IQ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Luther's D and BB IQ

Luther can shot very, very well but that's all he does well

 

Luther's passing skills are terrible. Even if he could handle the ball like Lucas, I wouldn't play him as a true point guard.

 

Just because you can handle the rock doesn't mean you're a good point guard. A good point guard has to be able to make precise passes, to keep the ball flowing, to set up the offense, to run the offense, to see where all the people are on the floor and make the right pass, to keep all his teammates happy, and all of the above in pressure situations.

Did you see what happened to Jason Hart last night when Smush Parker started pressuring him? He couldn't set up the Clippers offense and they crumbled. Of course the Clippers ended up winning but that was largely due to the fact that Sam balled Smush over. A good PG is extremely valuable to an NBA team, even if he isn't Steve Nash, Chauncy Billups, AI, etc.

Sometimes, you can't teach the PG values to someone who is not one. I realize Luther played HS PG but, come on, that was 5-6 years ago or whatever and it was high school...not exactly the same situations as the NBA.

Luther doesn't have the court vision or passing ability to really be a good PG right now and i'm not sure if he'll learn them. Better ball-handling would better equip him to be a good PG, but it doesn't make him one. He should stick to shooting and being our scoring off the bench. I also love how he doesn't ONLY shoot 3's. He drives in sometimes and he's getting really good at the stop-and-pop and his pull-up jumpers.

 

Heh - last night featured two jokes at point guard pitted against each other.

Anyone who watched the Lakers/Clippers game on TNT last night appreciates the value of Rafer to our offense. Jason Hart is an even worse ballhandler than Luther and he's starting for the Clippers (wonder why they're struggling to make the playoffs?).

You know, there's one thing I love about this team. Pressure defenses absolutely don't work against the Rockets. I haven't seen them work ONE time this entire season. Especially with Alston at PG. The scheme is set up so well, it is defused within 5 seconds or less...and if the other team is cut sleeping, it usually ends up in a wide open dunk/layup at the other end. Opposing teams usually try it once and give up immediately.