All I know is -it could be worse- I support Alston and this coach. We have had worse point guards before. I agree with the earlier poster about attitude and "fire " from the point guard. We had that with Sura-I hope he can return part time. For now I will settle for Rafer- we have other problems...
Alston has to believe in himself. Why can't he finish off his drives? Why can't he become a Bob Sura type player? Why can't he try to be better on defense? He needs more fire. He should look to drive more, and if it isn't there, keep his dribble and try to make a good pass ala Steve Nash.
I'm personally fine with Alston. You have T-Mac, Yao, Battier, and soon to be Wells hopefully. We already have enough shooters, Alston just needs to distribute. That's what he does for the most part, and that's why I like him. Plus, I get to tell people we have Skip to my Lou from AND1 Steetball on our team. He's good at that, no matter what you guys say. He's freaking Skip to my Lou.
Yeah, for me his shooting isn't needed either. My problem with him, is that he's not a good defender, and the PG position is integral to a teams play. If you can play good defense on an opponent PG, you might be able to cut(somoe of) his distribution to the opponents guns and therefore gain an advantage to win. Else you have to rely mostly on the rest of the team, but a little help from the point always helps.
That article is ignorance. I'm now doubting that Lopez even watches the Rockets. It ignored the defensive problems that Rafer had against the Jazz point guards and downplayed the importance of his role as a shooter. Spoke nothing of his 4 total assists in 43 minutes nor of his 0-6 shooting in the first half when the Rockets trailed by double-digits. Skip took the second most shot attempts in the game.... including 8 three-pointers. EIGHT. That's twice as many triples as any other Rocket attempted. McGrady, Yao, Battier, Snyder -- all on the floor. So I'll ask again the question that no one has been able to answer while still claiming that his three-point shooting isn't important: <B>Is Rafer taking this many shots as part of Jeff Van Gundy's offensive game plan?</B> If this is what the offense calls for, it's pretty important to have a three-point shooter there, no? If he's going outside of the offense to take them, can we then drop the Mr. Unselfish routine? No matter how you answer that question, you've got the wrong point guard for 43 minutes <I>unless</I> he's hitting efficiently. I'm going to give Rafer the benefit of the doubt since in the preseason he looked to have improved his outside shooting this offseason. He did bounce back in the second half. It's only one game. I've got <I>some</I> hope... more than I did in September. But please... stop the routine that Rafer's shooting isn't important and he's "all this team needs" out there strumming a harp and collecting dimes all day with this insane arsenal of weapons. This current offensive game plan, centered around Yao Ming and based a good deal on the playmaking of Tracy McGrady, flat out requires the point guard to knock down open threes.
A PG who can't shoot is a liability no matter how good his handle and his passing is. Opponent can just sag and you have no where to drive and no spacing to pass.
Any player who can't shoot is a liability if they are being called upon to shoot it no matter how good any other part of their game is. Once again, shooting is not Rafer's greatest weakness. He has been below average but overall, he is an average shooter, when you consider eFg%. Rafer's greatest weakness is he is an average shooter who makes every point guard in the league an excellent shooter when they play against us.
excellent post clutch, i feel the same way... personally id like to see a kenny smith type point guard starting...one that can knock down the shots and keep the defense honest, and be able to set up the post feed as well as run a well organized fast break... but you are correct the way the team is set up (i don't necessarily think its jvg's offensive system, it might have to do with the way tmac and yao get doubled) our point guard needs to be able to knock down the open shot
I actually had high expectation of Alston, dating back to the beginning of last season. Unfortunately he disappointed me time and time again. IMO, his shooting is OK overall, he is a good ball handler whom you can count on to bring the ball up across the half court in almost any situation, and he protects the ball more than adequately. But my positive assessment of him stops right here. When he had on his team a dominant 7'6" center as the leading scorer that shot 52% from the field and 85% from the FT line night in and night out, no way should he be satisfied with the fact that he barely made it to the top ten in assists. If he habitually failed to see the elephant in the room, people will naturally question his judgment and (basketball) IQ. Things get a little trickier when TMac is also on the court. It's anybody's guess whether TMac can be his formidable old self again. In the not-so-unlikely scenario, Alston may have to be the man to shoulder a large share of the burden to slash to the hoop, attract double teams, and break down opponents' defense, just like what Tony Parker does at his best. Well it doesn't appear to me Alston is capable of doing many of those consistently (or even at all), despite his Skip-to-My-Lou reputation. To this date, he has yet to dazzle the crowd with his fancy streetballing. The obvious alternative is to play VSpan, but under JVG it's quite impossible. I am not even gonna touch on Alston's defense issue, something everybody seems to agree on.
Unlike any other position, a PG has to be able to shoot because he is the one who has the ball in his hands most. He is the one who creates offense for the other players. You can say that TMac is the one who does that for us. Than TMac is the real point man, not Alston. However, TMac is not the point man all the time. Our PG has got to be able to shoot. Ironically, this also go with Spanoulis. As much as I like his grit, if he doesn't develop a reliable outside shot, he won't be a good starting PG. But at least he can play better defense than Rafer.
With Alston and JVG, it's like teaching old dogs new tricks. I am not sure it will work. Fingers crossed.
The article is nonsense. Alston is not all the Rocket's need at point guard. He is an inconsistent shooter and poor defender. He is too fragile to effectively drive the lane or rebound consistently, something that both Francis and Sura were able to do. He is handles the ball well, but seem tenative in running the offense. From the first time I saw him play, it was easy to see that he wasn't the answer at the point. I think he would be fine as a bench player, sort of what is expected from Lucas, who is another disappointment in my view.
by far the #1 part of JVG's plan for a PG is to not turn the ball over. A distant second is defense and 3pt shooting. Yes, the JVG plan calls for defense and 3pt shooting from the PG. But primarily, it calls for not taking possessions away from Yao and TMac by playing outside the offense and being a turnover machine. Let Yao and Tmac make the TOs. I do not want a PG doing that. That said, dude better hit is 3s at a good clip. It's tough. It is not black or white. Alston is by far our best PG based on JVG's #1 requirement. Doesn't mean we can't make a trade...and it doesn't mean that I agree with Lopez. like thacabbage said, the article was garbage...even coming from us guys who don't think Alston is worth fretting over.
Rafer is ok. you cant have the best players at every position. we have a 5 times bigger hole at 4. even JVG himself is a bigger problem to the team than Rafer.
Nothing like a win and great performance and leaderhsip by Rafer to shut up all these Rafer haters aka fairweather fans Where did yall go? Cat got your tongue?
LOL, they'll be in here griping about 4 for 10. I predicted after last season that Rafer would flirt with double digit assists this season. I still think he has a legit chance to do it.
