Is RA really our PG of the future?

[michecon]

Let's get away from JH sucks, JVG sucks for a moment, realistically evaluate those who will likely still be on the team next year.

Rafer Alston, he can handle the ball, penetrate very little, can't run a fast break, plays no defense most of the time, shots below average. Is he really the PG of future for the Rockets.

So, I watched mavs game again, and here's my notes of RA:
(btw, From watching the game again, I kind of find JVG doesn't play anyone who can defend a bit of a myth. Alston can't defend, Head can't defend, JH was on the floor way too long)

1st quarter:
7:18, Yao ferocious reb, RA fast break, blocked by the rim.
6:40 Alston to throw in from baseline, He skipped JH, passing to someone further up court, intercepted, TO.
6:24 RA on defense, somehow guards Yao's man (yao's there), lost JT. Terry for 3.
3:52 Go baseline, gets ball swap out by Marshall, TO

2nd quarter:
6:49 Nice penetration, scores.
6:35 Doesn't try to guard anyone after he lost his man on a screen. Easy basket for mavs.
4:39 Alston stand near stripes for no good reason, completely neglects his man in the coner again. Wide open 3 for Jason Terry again.
4:26 A good 3 point play by RA
3:21 After a sequence of dribble, throw up a wild shot, air ball. Yao cleans it up.
2:46 In a fastbreak, blocked by the Mavs.
2:26. Pump fake, again
0:25 Lazy pass to JH on the parameter, TO.

3rd quarter:
10:34 Hits an open 3
9:06 RA completely loses his man again. His man misses shot, fast break, RA goes for the layup although Yao's right with him. His layup shot is blocked by the rim again, luckly he gets the ball back, pass to Bogans for 3.
7:45 Two steps behind JT now
6:11 Goes 1 on 3, loses ball. TO
5:42 Lazy pass to Head, intercepted. TO. Luther steals it back, RA for open 3, miss.
3:29 Passes up a 3, steps in for 2, miss
0:01 not aware of the clock, pass up a shot, end of quater.

4th quarter:
10:05 Yao in. RA goes 1 on 3, wild shot, but goes in.
9:07 Fast trigure 3, good.
7:10 Another 3. 6 point game.
6:33 Lazy foul on RA, and 1 Mavs
0:47 Armstrong offensive Reb, because RA is in no-man's land on defense, at least 10 feet away from anybody.

There you have it. Discuss.

[SamFisher]

Originally Posted by michecon Rafer Alston, he can handle the ball, penetrate very little, can't run a fast break, plays no defense most of the time, shots below average. Is he really the PG of future for the Rockets.

No he's not. It's doubly disappointing in that the player we traded for him was/is strong in all of the areas that Rafer is not.

[Samar]

He had a bad game. But he is the Point Guard that we have been looking for. He runs the offense pretty well.

Only problem is his shot and his defense. Fortunately those are things that can be worked on. One summer under JVG will atleast get his defense going. His shot is supposed to be good, so maybe he will get that back too.

Once those two things are corrected, he is the future point guard.

[wnes]

RAFER ALSTON

(on how the Rockets can snap their losing streak) "You've got to defend first. The only way other guys get involved is if we defend and rebound and we run and race it up the court. We have to put more energy into getting fast break points. Other than that, we're going to go to Yao (Ming) and go to Yao (Ming) and go to Yao (Ming). We have to knock down open shots when Yao (Ming) is drawing double-teams and triple-teams and he's passing the ball out. We have to find a way to knock down open shots for him."

(on whether or not the Rockets are relying on Yao Ming too much) "If you've got a dominant big guy, that's the game, inside out. You're posting him and he's scoring. He's playing at a high level right now and we're going to continue to go to him. I think for the rest of us, we have to find a way to help him out. We have to knock down basketball shots and open shots that we're taking, we have to find a way to consistently knock them down."

(on why the Mavericks are so troublesome to the Rockets) "They pose mismatches all over the floor and they're a smart team. They're going to go to the mismatches and make you defend that. They're going to put you in rotation situations. If you can't close out to them and stop them from catching and shooting the 3, then you're going to be in for a long night."

(on what the Rockets are doing wrong during this losing streak) "It's tough, but I think we're making it tough on ourselves. We're giving up fast break points, we're letting guys do whatever they want to do on the floor, we're not making it tough on them, we're not bumping them, we're turning the ball over at a high level, especially myself. We're making it tough on ourselves as well as playing tough teams. When you're playing tough teams, you have to find a way to make it easy on yourself and try to get shots at the basket every time down."

[durvasa]

Alston had a poor game against Dallas, no question. Like all our perimeter players this season, he's been up and down. Unlike many, I don't think he's our PG of the future. He's not getting younger, and his only real strength (penetrating) is bound to get less and less effective from here on out. He probably won't get any better defensively, either.

[pradaxpimp]

1st. Dallas Runs and move the ball fast and efficient. Everyone's man hit open shots with the exception of Yao's since all 3 of Dallas' centers suck.

2nd. He had a bad game.

3rd. His defense is about average, not terrible.

4th. He can drive and dish a bit, evident with his 8-9 assists a game during February.

5th. He needs Tracy a bit for the assist total since its rafer hittin tracy when tracy runs around his screens.

[michecon]

Another thing I noticed is that Rafer doesn't go through screens hard enough. I don't know if his coaches told him that.

[ShadyMcGrady]

Originally Posted by pradaxpimp 1st. Dallas Runs and move the ball fast and efficient. Everyone's man hit open shots with the exception of Yao's since all 3 of Dallas' centers suck. 2nd. He had a bad game. 3rd. His defense is about average, not terrible. 4th. He can drive and dish a bit, evident with his 8-9 assists a game during February. 5th. He needs Tracy a bit for the assist total since its rafer hittin tracy when tracy runs around his screens.

I don't know man. Apart from Steve Nash and Allen Iverson lighting us up, we also had: Sean Blake, Carlos Arroyo, Andre Miller, and Jason Terry all having field days. He's fine for now, but I don't think he can be our championship starting PG the way he's playing right now. No clutch, too incosistent.

[Rockets34Legend]

Hell no, I hope not!

[slowmustang]

Other point guards have ALWAYS lit us up. Skip has been the best PG we've had in awhile. Funny how judgements are always in the present. A month ago, he was fantastic.

[jopatmc]

I think he's our PG until hopefully Spanoulis comes in and is able to take over down the road a couple years. Rafer's game really is running and passing. When we've got an inconsistent Luther and and an ice cold Bogans who has never been a shooter on the floor, a lot of Rafer's passes are going to turn into bricked shots. Combine that with the fact that he is overplaying to try and overcompensate for a lack of firepower from our 2 and 3 positions and his game starts to frazzle out. It's like asking a Corvette to pull a trailer loaded with bricks. Before long, you've got a breakdown. He ain't designed for it.

All that said, he needs a shooting coach desparately. His jumper looks totally different to me than when he was in Miami canning all those 3 balls off the dishouts from Shaq. Of course, that team had Eddie Jones and Wade that teams had to concentrate on so he looked very good as the 4th option, just like Udonis looks very good as their 5th option canning wide open free throws from the baseline.

I just hope that Spanoulis is as fast and as quick and as good of a passer and offensive player as they say he is. And I hope Spanoulis is big enough, long enough, and quick enough to be an upgrade defensively over Rafer. If he isn't then we are going to have to find that somewheres. Rafer cannot stay with any of the leagues top points. He doesn't even slow them down.

[ShadyMcGrady]

Originally Posted by slowmustang Other point guards have ALWAYS lit us up. Skip has been the best PG we've had in awhile. Funny how judgements are always in the present. A month ago, he was fantastic.

Ahhh true but I have said that he has no clutch performance very often. He doesn't make the right decisions in the clutch IMO.

We need a defensive minded PG, if Skip becomes that, then we're fine. If he dishes out the ball at the same level, makes better decisions in the clutch, and plays good D, I don't mind seeing him here for a while.

[wnes]

I think to his own benefit Skip should value his time playing with Yao -- the most dominant center (as least offensively speaking) -- and learn to form a special bond with the big man like Stockton with Malone (hey cc.net fans don't flame me, I am not a jazz fan). Once this priority is set, I am sure we'll see far fewer boneheaded plays and far better assist numbers from him.

[tiger0330]

Don't agree he can't run a fast break, he can, we just don't have anyone that can finish save T-Mac. I remember that fast break he ran with Yao in the preseason where he left a bounce pass right at Yao's waist for a jam. He had a streak of games where he was making steals left and right with those quick hands of his and he was running the offense pretty well, during that streak everyone was on his wagon and it was "who Mike James". He is not a great shooter and probably never will be but thats not what he was traded for.

I say bad game and give him a pass to see how he does with the new Yao and a healthy McGrady.

[m_cable]

Hard to say. Rafer has shown he can be good PG if we have Tracy and Yao on the court. But whenever he feels the need to be more of an offensive option, his game deteriorates. When he tries to go beyond his means, then we get the over-dribbling and shaky play out of him.

But we could probably win a title with him starting if we had a healthy Mcgrady handling the ball down the stretch.

[xcomputerman]

We've already seen him with a semi-healthy McGrady and Yao. In case you've forgotten, he was averaging like 10 assists/game during that stretch. There's no doubt that his defense and clutch decision making are big deficiencies for him right now, but I see those as things he can definitely improve on as he grows with this team. (For instance, look at the inspired defense he played on AI during our first meeting with Philly this season). There are few players in the league who can run an offense better than Rafer ... once you get past the Nashes and Billupses and a few other allstar-caliber point guards, you realize that Rafer's definitely a keeper on this team.

[solid]

I think he can be excellent coming off the bench. He pushes the ball well, good handles, nice passer. On the other hand, he should not be getting the major minutes at this position. He is a liability defensively, inconsistent shooter (poor technique), and a bit fragile. Although he looks like AI, he doesn't play like him. He does not strike me as an NBA starter at the PG position, and I have said this all season. Almost all players have good and bad games. Evaluation must be done over the long haul.

[apostolic3]

We won a championship with Kenny Smith. The Lakers won with Derek Fisher. If we improve the rest of our roster, we could win a championship with Rafer starting. To say he can't run a fast break and penetrates very little is just silly. Rafer has big flaws but he'll do for now. His return from injury is one of the reasons Yao gets the ball more and has improved. His defense will never be above average and other players will have to compensate. I expect him to work tirelessy on his shot over the summer and come back a better spot up shooter. Another thing he will never be really good at is finishing because he's just too small and not strong enough. At best, he could learn how to draw more fouls when he goes to the rim (Maybe look at some AI tapes).

If we get lucky and can upgrade the PG position, we should, but it's not a priority with our sorry SG & PF situtations. We must get a better backup PG or Luther will have to develop his skills big time over the summer. The idea Spanoulis will be our future starting PG is a pipe dream, IMO.

[ivanyy2000]

His ball handling skill is solid and his passing is inconsistent.

His shooting and defense are atrocious.

He made many poor decisions in clutch time during recent games, either ignored Yao in the post and threw ill-advised shots, or made unnecessary pass resulting in turnovers. So I doubt his decision-making ability.

No, he is definitely not our PG for the future. Backup PG? Maybe, but his contract is too expensive for that role.

[anitasri]

Originally Posted by xcomputerman We've already seen him with a semi-healthy McGrady and Yao. In case you've forgotten, he was averaging like 10 assists/game during that stretch. There's no doubt that his defense and clutch decision making are big deficiencies for him right now, but I see those as things he can definitely improve on as he grows with this team. (For instance, look at the inspired defense he played on AI during our first meeting with Philly this season). There are few players in the league who can run an offense better than Rafer ... once you get past the Nashes and Billupses and a few other allstar-caliber point guards, you realize that Rafer's definitely a keeper on this team.

Frankly after McGrady was absent- those 10 Assists did not seem to really show up in the game ( meaning it looked great on the stat sheet)- but you really wondered where all those assists were!

He has routinely been outplayed by the opposition PG's.

He has routinely Missed Lay ups ( especially on fast breaks where he goes out of control)

All that said- he is the best PG we had. But heck if we can upgrade why not?