see, this is what I mean. Sure he sucked later on after the injury but there were people here that just hated on him for no reason. Weren't you the guy that wanted him to like break his leg or something?
Rafer got tons of hate, which makes his trade thread all that much funnier. People were freaking out that we had traded him for a "bench scrub" like Lowry, blaming Morey for ruining our potential playoff run.
And who rose to the challenge and led the Rockets to and in the playoffs? Brooks. Yet people like choujie have grilled him constantly. I don't have a problem with cirticism involving his final time here, because the guy just proved to be mentally weak. After having such a huge run he just couldn't take in his recovery slowly and mesh with the team again. Lowry has been crap lately too, toronto fans hate the guy.
Exactly my point... I always loved AB and thought he received way too much hate. At the very end, he did become a whiny, annoying b**** and you could even see the pouting show up on the court, so I was fine with us trading him. Not to mention Lowry was breaking out. Still, I'll always have good memories of that guy.
Rafer got a LOT of hate. So did Brooks and, to a lesser extent Lowry. Clutchfans has maxed out expectations for PGs and PFs.
No problem with the trade, AB played bad, Lowry could shoot lights out (which was essentially his only weakness and makes him better), and if he wanted to remain mentally weak then he only has himself to blame for his whinny ass being shipped out. There are certain poster(s) in this thread that think Rafer was better than Brooks which is complete bull****, that is what I have a problem with.
Man, not me. I was doing cartwheels over the Alston/Lowry deal. Just loved it. Kyle surprised me with how much he improved, but I was excited that we got him, and even more excited that we'd finally traded Rafer.
Every Rocket player worth a damn has gotten tons of hate from Rockets fans over the years at one point or another. It's natural part of fandom. The difference between hate of Lin vs any other player is that Lin love is so extreme that only the stance of "Lin is perfect and any imperfection is result of Morey/McHale/Harden/Douglas/everyone else on the Rockets hating/destroying/ignoring/holding him back." And everything that doesn't reach that level of love is considered hate. If LOFs didn't exist, I think Lin discussions would become so much more objective. Just as Rafer discussions would also include his strong points: doesn't turn the ball over, good defense/transition D, good set 3pt shooter, runs the team fairly well. But pointing out that Lin has some positives and some negatives and you will get blasted.
The LOH was a myth invented by the LOFS because they need something to "balance" their absurd view points. LOF: IT wasn't his fault Mchale doesn't get him minutes and doesn't make the offense go through him. Normal Fan: WTF Lin shot 3-10 from the 3 pt land. LOF: STFU you Lin hater racist! Seriously why will someone register on a Houston board just to hate on Lin? Tinman's the only dude who comes close to that with Tmac, and even he posts other stuff from time to time.
Rafer and Lin are completely different players. Like comparing apples to oranges. Below average scorer? Try bottom of the league. Everything else about him was either average or above average. Overall the guy was a below average PG at best. What starting PGs do you think were worse than him when he played?
Their games are very different, but production wise they aren't that far apart than Lin having a better FG%. If Lin was asked to take twice as many 3's per game as Rafer did in the inside out offense, even that might look more similar. Interestingly enough, Rafer's adjusted FG% was 45% his first year, which was 1% better than McGrady's 44%, and 3% less than Lin so far this year, who is at 48%. Adjusted FG% definition: Spoiler Adjusted FG% factors in the amount of points accrued per field goal attempt, thereby underscoring which players are helping and hurting from behind the arc. Adj FG%= (Total FG+0.5*3ptFG)/Total FGA To use ESPN.com's example nearly verbatim: If Shaquille O'Neal makes 3 of 5 field goal attempts, all 2-pointers, for six points, his ADJ FG% (six points on five attempts) is .600. Meanwhile, if Ray Allen is 2-for-5 shooting, but both field goals are 3-pointers, his ADJ FG% (six points on five attempts) is also .600. Rafer averaged between 11.5 and 13.3 points per game as the 5th option, that's not bottom of the league, or at least not any more bottom of the league than where Lin is right now. Rafer's FG % was near the bottom among starters, but his adjusted FG% was closer to average and he did other things well which is why he kept his job even after the Rockets brought in multiple PG's who they hoped to replace him with. Van Gundy said he considered Rafer to be a very good defensive player, both as a team and help defender, definitely above average. Nobody is going to argue that Rafer was better than average over all, there is a reason they kept bringing in players to try to replace him. Still, the difference between him and Steve Blake, Earl Boykins, Mike James, Smush Parker, Brevin Knight, Eric Snow, Bobby Jackson (by the time he was with the Rockets) and other average non-all star PG's at the time was trivial. Many of the hate threads liked to compare Rafer's numbers against all star PG's that he was matched up with when blaming him for losses. The thing is he was expected to lose that match up, and Yao and McGrady were supposed to make up for it by winning their match ups.
