If there is a sixth man coming off the Rockets bench to average 13 pts, I dont think the Rockets need Rafer Alston to shoot 42% to be successful. Facts: - only 4 Rockets averaged double digit in regular season. Yao, T-Mac, Alston (only after mid-season), & Scola (not until the end of season). - the Rockets are offensively challenged. 1st Adelman team to rank below 15th in offensive rating. 1st Adelman team to have only 4 players averaged double digit. Basically, the Rockets cant score and people like to put most of the blame on Alston. WTF! Alston is a career 38.9% shooter and it wont change much. Alston is also a 5 millions guy and he gives the Rockets a good bang for the buck. To be honest, I wish Battier could average 15 pts instead of 9.3 and Chuck Hayes finishes his f**king wideopen layups in a higher rate too. Keep dreaming.
The Rockets as a team shot 44.8% from the field. For the season, they were 29-3 when they shot at least 46.8% from the field, and 26-24 otherwise. The difference, of course, is that the average PG shoots 43.7% from the field, so hoping Rafer can shoot 42% in a given game isn't asking for a lot. A 46.8% team FG%, on other hand, is very strong by league standards (only 7 out of 30 teams averaged that much for the season). You asked about whether Rafer shoots better against weaker defenses. I haven't checked that, but since we're just look at how his shooting corresponds to our Wins/Losses, we might as well just look at how his shooting changes based on opponent overall strength. Interestingly enough, he's actually shot better against teams with .500+ records, compared to the sub-.500 teams (41% and 38%, respectively). I don't think I need to. That Rafer only needs to shoot a modest 42% for us to be really good shows that he must bring a lot of other things to the table. I think I've tended to defend Rafer quite a bit over the last couple seasons -- he's an underrated perimeter defender, he's vocal on both ends of the court, and he knows how to organize the offense. I've said before that he's arguably our most valuable player, and I still there's a case to be made for that. But if he's slumping from the field, that tends to offset all the good things he does. On the other hand, if he can just shoot semi-respectably, we're very good with him. If Rafer is running the team but he isn't shooting well ... it's a toss up on how much he'd really help us. I don't know how to separate the two. With our current team, we need him running the team AND we need him shooting well if we want to contend.
We need the whole team effort with Skip direct the traffic and T-Mac post up his opponent. Scola and Landry are here where is Luther Head? He needs to bring his three tonight to open up the lane for T-Mac. Rebounding and rebounding running after the ball not away from it. Make your free throw it is free of charge. Look out for the flopper on the road. If you have to foul make sure they learn the lesson not to go in the pain and make they earn at the line. Control your temper just walk away from trash talking. Let us make this series the best of 3 and we have home court advantage again.
Correction, we need Rafer Alston, to play like he did last night and during the 22 game winning streak, to be successful. Considering how inconsistent he is, I wouldn't put the weight of the team on him. Even with Rafer playing, if he gets overconfident and starts jacking up shots, its going to hurt us more than help.
Again, it's not just the statistics that say Rafer needs to shoot well, but it's because shooting well allows other parts of the Rockets offense to work. The Rockets are not the Spurs. If Duncan is off, they can go to Ginobili or Parker. They are 4 parts, the big 3 plus the bench. Their big 3 enable their bench. Their bench can suck but big 3 be on and they can score a lot. Parker can suck but the other 2 can play well and enable the bench too. The Rockets without Yao are as follows: T-Mac enables Rafer enables Bench Scola has some independent ability to get his own points. Landry does not...he needs an enabler, mostly T-Mac. If T-Mac is sucking badly, it makes it harder for Rafer to get good looks....same for the bench. If Rafer is sucking, it becomes very hard for the bench too. If Rafer and T-Mac both suck, then I'm 99% sure the bench will suck, because that's how the Rockets offense works. I haven't looked up the stats, this is just my opinion based on my basketball eyes. So honestly, I think T-Mac being at least decent with his ability to score is most important, then comes Rafer, then comes somebody from the bench hitting their good looks.
I wouldn't put the weight of the team on him either. However, he is important in running our offense since Bobby Jackson is more effective coming off the bench. It takes some pressure off T-mac as well since he doesn't have to do all the driving and dish outs. I think that at this point, given the team that we have, Rafer is an extremely crucial part of the team. He might jack up shots every now and then, but that's a risk I am willing to take as we do not have anyone better to run PG.
Rafer is the most important player Rafer is the most important player If Rafer is good we win, if he is bad we lose. It is really as simple as that and has been that way the entire year.
If anything it's probably just an indication of how important the point guard position is to the team. I don't think it's Alston per se. If the Rockets could just get a decent, consistent, veteran point they'd be set.
Rafer Alston's floaters are still falling short and hitting the front of the rim, you'd think with all these misses, he would shoot a bit harder
Yep. At this point in time, we can't change our team. Rafer Alston is the playmaker for us right now, and we have to live with his inconsistency.
Rafer plays with heart, but he is back to his inconsistent self. Plus he runs his mouth a lot, the opposing PGs (DWill, CP3, etc）get fired up playing against him, not good.
The title of this thread still holds true today. To me, digging up this thread is a lot like starting a new one. I'll agree that Rafer is off to a slow start this season (21.7 percent fgs in the first three games), but I think that things will come around for him. I think that we need to root him on for as long as he is still with the team. After all, when he is being successful, so is the team itself. Rafer can also shoot his way into being successful as well. If he can start hitting more of those open threes, then he'll be doing his own thing in keeping opposing defenses honest.
Look at it this way. Rafer can do no worse and we're winning games. He won't see more than 7-8 shots per game. All I ask is he knock down 3 or 4 of those.
We need Rafer Alston, to be successful. or We Need Rafer Alston to be successful. I'm gonna go with the second one.
