Rafer has got to be the SOFTEST starting PG in the league!!

Kirk Snyder?

DD

 

it's not smart basketball to foul a jumpshooter. you learn as a kid in middle school and high school that you can't foul a jumpshooter. that's especially with 1 second left on the shot clock. the way he violently swung at larry hughes' shot shows me he wasn't thinking. i really can't understand why he did that. if the argument is that he thought the clock didn't reset to 5 seconds from 3 on the jump ball call, that makes even less sense. he needs to go up straight, not try to hack the ball out of bounds. that play pissed me off the most.

i agree with the original post, rafer really is soft. he cannot get to the rim and finish hard. that has a lot to do with his physical stature i suppose, but i want my pg to go to the hole with confidence and actually take a hit, draw a foul, and make them respect his drive.

 

all I'm saying is

TRADE HIS ASS!

I always said, Alston has a weak body and he can't use it right...He can't penatrate for ****, his layups are horrid and his shot is probably the worst in the NBA!

All he can od is run the court well, thats about it...

 

I actually think Rafer would be a decent BACKUP PG.......but I agree with this thread 100%.

DD

 

If we want a new point guard, we got to make loads of sacrifices in the team, which means, we will need to trade many of our "good" players in order to get a "good" point guard. And at this time, i dont know how u guys feel, but i am sort of happy with the roster. So i don't see much things that can be done without losing one of our elite players, or potential elite players.

 

cant he opt out or gonna be a fa?

 

Exactly. I have said it before, Rafer is not a starting PG. He never has been and never will be. When the Rockets traded for him, they thought they could turn him into a starting pg, when he never had been before in his career (except 1 year on a crappy Raptors team who couldn't even compete in the east). If he couldnt cut it for them, why would he work for us. He is a good energy guy off the bench, and can hit threes like he did for Miami. I think they used him perfectly. If the rockets want to move to the next level, Rafer needs to be the backup and they need to get a real starting pg.

 

1. Rafer has some serious flaw in his game, namely, his inability to finish around the basket-- and don't tell me having him shoot less floaters and drive more the way to the basket will help, it won't because he will likely get his shot blocked when he goes to the basket, that's why he shoots floaters in the first place.

2. But when Rafer plays intelligently, his one weakness doesn't hurt the team much. He usually takes cares of the ball, he passes pretty well, and he hits the 3s at a good enough clip. His defense is not as soft as people think, either. You don't play that many minutes and suck at D if your team is arguably the best defensive team in the league.


3. The real problem is that Rafer has his "Special Olympics" games in which his bball IQ drops about 30 points. You can tell when these are coming... Rafer seems to be a "momentum player." When things go well, he usually continues to do well; when things get stuck in neutral, he tries too much and thinks too little and makes stupid decisions.

This all brings us back to the need for another real PG who either starts for Rafer or subs in for Rafer. Someone with steadier hands and higher bball IQ than Luther, JL, and certainly Spanoulis.

Rafer is the Black White Chocolate Williams. He is useful, but you reallly need a quality replacement when he gets r****ded.

 

Rafer really does play soft. I wouldn't have said that before we got him, not having seen enough of him in games, but it really is glaringly obvious. Yes, his team defense has improved a great deal under Van Gundy, but as others here have pointed out, he shies away from contact. He really does. Rafer won't take it to the rack unless he has a freeway to stroll down. I don't recall Rafer making a habit of bodying up on his man. He certainly is better than Moochie, I'll give him that, although it isn't giving him much.

I just don't get it. Did he have a bad fall sometime during the last several years that has him freaked out? Has he always played like this? What gives? Physically, there's nothing preventing him from being far more aggressive on offense, and much tougher on defense.

 

I really feel for the guy. He has incredible handles, good distributer, BUT that's it. I don't think he is tradable. I believe the back up role would fit him much better. We don't need an All Star, just a PG that can at least shoot in the 40's, finish at the rim, and play defense. What were the Rockets thinking when they brought him here? He is not the only problem with the team, but, if he is starting next year, the Rocket's management is simply brain dead.

 

Maybe because he doesn't have much of a body?

Whenever he does bump bodies, it seems he always bounces right off of his guy for some reason-- even when he bumps into guys who you don't think are that much bigger than him, it happens.

I keep on thinking it would be great for the Rocket to have a Phil Jackson-style big PG, they have GREAT size at the 2, 3, and 5 with the likes of TMac, Shane, and Yao... If they can outsize people (while still having sufficient quickness) at the 1 and/or the 4 as well, it'll make life really difficult for opposing offense with all the long lims swining around.

 

Agreed. Rafer played the best basketball of his career when he was the Heat's backup point-guard in '03-04.

 

I do not see how we can afford to trade for a real pg during the off season without giving up more then we can afford.

Are we going to have to draft one and give him a year of two to become a starter. It seems that we do not have enough time for that.

 

What amazes me is there are posters still trying to defend Reefer!

 

All I know is i'm still scratching my head trying to figure out why exactly we made no trade deadline moves......

 

I agree that Rafer is soft, but he's actually a pretty decent defender... it's just not always easy on the eyes to watch. Several of his faults are much more noticeable than his strengths -- like he is easily backed down, has problems with screens, and those plays where he lets someone go by him to try and strip the ball look like he is clueless (this one is actually a decent play though, imo). But he does man his players well, rotates very well, generally gets a hand up in opponents faces, is a decent pass reader, and is probably our best player at making momentum changing defensive plays.

I do wish he'd use his body a bit more though -- even though he looks incredibly fragile... he's probably the least fouled-on-a-drive player in the league because of those stupid floaters, and a couple fouls a game on those drives would completely offset his poor FG%.

 

Well, with Rafer we are going to need Yao and Tracy to both play like MVPs to get past the 2nd round.

Can it happen, yes...but the chances are not good.

I really hope we can draft a pg or Span can find his handle over the offseason. After watching Rafer continue to play poorly and make the same mistakes over and over, I am afraid the pg position will be the death of our playoff run this year.

 

Sums up my thoughts. His bad decisions are the most aggravating part. He can't knock down the open 3? Fine. Jacking up 3's when it's: early in the clock, someone else is wide open, there's a hand in your face, or all of the above? No no no no no. How about running the ball up the court, looking down Tmac, Yao, or both, and then jacking up a shot outside or running in the paint? No no no no no. Like you said, he'll have stretches of playing solid bball. Dishing the ball, and not forcing an offensive game. But then the switch goes off for some reason and he thinks he's the only offensive option all of a sudden. And his floater sucks, period. In practice, JVG should run up behind Rafer and knock it out of his hands the second he goes for one.

The loss yesterday was a combination of many things. Rafer certainly had a piece of the blame. But Rafer is the best point guard at the moment on our team. Anyone care to take a guess at how many other NBA teams Rafer could start on?

 

The other sad part to this is Vspan. I have high hope for Vspan. But 3/4 into the season and he can't even steal some minutes from someone who is obviously not a championship caliber equipped point guard.

Is he not cutting it in practices? Is his shooting still worst than Rafer? Why hasn't he make enough progress to earn some meaningful playing time?