Ok I know, I know EVERYONE has written about this and yes its kind of another Rafer Bash, but something I have to say. I personally LOVE the Rafer for Mike James trade, I thought James was overrated and he took shots he shouldnt when he definately was not as good as he acted to be. When we got Rafer also, he was much more of a TRUE pg. Pass first and he rarely looked for his shot. I dont know what has changed but he has become a shoot first PG and he is TERRIBLE at shooting. He shoots this ridiculous tear drop shot that he NEVER makes, and I honestly mean NEVER. I think Rafer should still get 10-25 minutes a game (yea big variation but I dont know yet how necessary he could be). But Mr. John Lucas III should start. This guy is an undersized Tony Parker. He looks for his shot also, but he looks for DRIVES and TEAR DROPS (that go in .) He is HELLA quick and Pushes the ball (which makes Rockets more than 1 dimentional). When you see him on court Rockets have more energy (in 1/2 court set and full court), and he is not at all a hurt on D. (He played very well when JVG put him on Tony Parker). I think it is something to consider, but if starting is based on how they play (Like Juwan took out Hayes, which I agree 100% watching Juwan play these last few weeks have made me very happy Rockets didn't do what 95% of CFans wanted to happen and trade Juwan (I was one of these people no lie, I thought he wasnt good for more than 10 minutes a game). Lucas deserves a chance to start, I think JVG should test it out, couldnt hurt. BTW, everyone that says Luther should start at PG, NO THATS NOT THE ANSWER. Luther is TERRIBLE at controlling the ball and if Tmac has to control the ball it takes away ALOT of what TMac is (pick and rolls that he picks, moving w/out ball (he is great at this), spotting up and getting a good shot) + TMac would have to work way too hard and we need him whole game not just 30 minutes.
HOW ORIGINAL! Don't say John Lucus because he is a mini Mike James, not the true PG you are trying to refer to. Oh and i guess this kind of threads come with Wins too!
We have been beating Scrubs for teams. I know its come out before also, but not enough people mention Lucas to start everyone says Head, also Lucas isnt "True" Point Guard but he drives and grabs attention to himself and he isn't bad at setting people up.
The bottom line is our team's main weakness is our PG position..this hasn't been apparent recently since, as the above poster mentioned, we've been playing NBDL teams disguised as NBA teams lately..(okay, so there was Ray Allen and Joe Johnson - but they were surrounded by scrubs) .. For this team to go deep in the playoffs we need to use all of our PGs during the regular season and see which one can blossom into a competent and respectable PG fit for the superstars (Yao, T-mac) we have on our team. Yes, this means JVg will have to use Vspan and JLIII more
Our solution is to take the genes of Lucas's shooting, mix them with Head's clutch shooting and Alston's ballhandling, have Yao impregnante any WNBA player ,and take the person that comes out as our new 7 feet, clutch shooting, And1 freak point guard.
Well, Rafer didn't do well today. But that doesn't mean Lucas can start for us. We still need to stick to Rafer till we have better choice, which I don't think is Lucas because of his defense. Lucas can have his role in rotation according to recent performance.
Rafer Alston can control the ball much better than anyone on this team at the guard position and can at least get the ball to his teamates safely. John Lucas 3 has a problem doing that under pressure and so does Luther Head. When the defense picks up on them late in games Lucas and Luther have trouble getting a good pass to a teamate (T-Mac, usually) while they are trying to get position. Yeah Rafer's not the best shooter we have on the team but he is the best ball handler and tempo controller. I love that John Lucas got good minutes and Rafer wasn't exhausted. We actually got a boost while our ball handler was on the bench and that was nice. Lucas should keep getting these kind of minutes as long as he isn't off that night, but Rafer should still start and should not be benched.
As JVG said, it took great mental strength for Rafer to come back from a bad first half to a good one. I don't think JVG will bench Rafer nor should he. JVG should not hesitate to play VSpan or JL3 more. Rafer should practice his dribble, pullup shot from the FT line distance because he's taking them during games and making a low percentage. I can live with his catch & shoot 3s and yes, tear drops.
I was going to start a thread about this, but I might as well throw it in here since its a Rafer thread... Do you guys think with Yao and TMac on the floor, Rafer would shoot that much? I was just wondering this b/c I think Rafer is good for this team. We need his interior passing skills. Thats more important to me than his shooting b/c we have Shane and Luther to take those important shots. So it will be interesting to see how Rafer plays with Yao, TMac, and Bonzi all healthy b/c they are obviously our go to scorers! If Rafer can lower his attempts to around 7-9 then that would be good!
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jummped over the lazy dog. My typing skills are improving. got only one typo error.
So one ok half quarter play is enough to become starting PG? 7 minutes, 7 shots, 8 points, 1 assist, is that you want for your starting PG when Yao and Tmac both on the court?
I agree he is the Best PG we could have if he STICKS TO PASSING. His handlings IMHO are some of best in league (cuz of his street ball days), but he needs to pass more EVEN NOW. We have shooters: TMac, Battier, Head, yes and even JHO!. I think if he lowers to 7-9 shots he would be PERFECT PG for rockets.
come on now - enough with the Rafer bashing. he's not a superstar, but all people do is complain... if Lucas started, he wouldn't be that effective IMO... he's a defensive liability because of his height.. every team would take advantage of it and we can't cover that up with Yao on the sideline... I like Lucas as a spark plug off the bench
I think you are way off track. This is NOT the time to change the starting lineup. Why make this change after winning 4 games in a row? Rafer should continue starting but his minutes should be determined by how he plays. 36 minutes tonight was ridiculous, IMO. When Snyder gets back, that should cut specifically into Rafer's time since Luther can move over and guard the opposing PG while Tracy plays point forward on offense. This should give JVG the flexibility to dial Rafer's minutes down to as low as 15-20 per game if necessary. I vented about Rafer yesterday in the other thread and today's game confirms it. Bottom line: Make a trade. After Yao comes back AND gets integrated into the team, Rafer's status as starter can be addressed. Before then, hasty moves should be avoided. The damage done by Rafer can be immediately addressed by reducing his floor time. OGKashMoney, did you see how much Rafer shot the first 20 games when Yao and Tracy played? Too much.
Aside from the fact that JL3 hasn't shown himself to be better than Alston consistently at ALL.. how about remembering the fact that he KNOWs he's playing between 10-20 mpg..and that's it. If he started and knew he was playing 35 mpg...I don't think he'd be running things at the same pace. I think most guys that rely on speed/quickness/hustle who know they're getting 10-15 mpg will go all-out for those 10-15 mins. Which is perfect..it means you know your role. But it also means you can't really extrapolate that into more minutes.
I agrees with most points in the original post. The problem is that JL3 is not a really PG, he is a quick SG. When he drives to the basket, he rarely passes out. He does not organizes the plays either. The reason he scored is due to his quickness and the surprise for the other team. If he starts, other teams can design plays to prevent his drive. As he is not tall, it will be really tough for him to both drive and organize plays. So far, Alston is still best at organizing plays, of course, worse than T-Mac. The alternative is to let VSpan play more. He is a real PG and should deserve more minutes. I don't think his shooting is worse than Alston, but his penetration and passing are solid.
Vspan might get more minutes when Yao comes back. Right now, points off the bench is much needed, JLIII does a better job in that area.
