I think i know why Rafer failed to perform well this time around as oppose to pre-season. You see....he was fighting for his job ...that's why he's playing well during the pre-season..but now his job is secured...he tends to relax and therefore explain the low shooting percentage...i think it's time to replace this fool for making bone headed plays and turnover the ball, can't do a wide open tear drop shots....can't attack cuz he's too small....can't dunk...can't defense leaving his man wide open for unnecessary help that's why the Jazz's guards are killing us in the Playoffs!! It's time to replace Rafer...opponents are licking their chops when they see Rafer in there. Rafer's weakness is being protected by Yao constantly in every game because nobody can penetrate when Yao is inside but Rafer's man beat up constantly driving to the hoop only to get block by Yao. So what i am saying is Rafer weakness is being disguised by Yao...Rafer should be replaced..i don't care give me Francis whoever. It can't get any worst than this with the way Rafer is bricking up shots. RA should know by now that the Rockets are lucky to be up by 6-2. They should have lost to Bobcats as well. If these games don't send you a signal that something need to be done...you should wake up...enough of preaching patient already! Francis might help out this team.
I do not mind going to Yao and Tmac because that's your bread and butter play. Why do anything else. The FACT that they DON'T go to Yao and Tmac IS THE REASON THEY CAN'T SCORE and not able to produce.
no ones said he's definitely going to be awesome because he's sucked now. try reading it again. i realize that rafer's been mediocre his entire rocket career but he's not a bad player for 20 minutes a game, IF, he gets back to at least being a decent shooter. durvasa specifically said it's getting harder to support him being in the starting lineup but we should give him at least through the month. i see nothing wrong with that.
I don't buy into the whole "Coach sees him in practice therefore he knows best" mentality. Case in point, even though Bonzi Wells was out of shape last year and was responsible, JVG didn't help matters either. I would have rather had Bonzi play his way into shape and eventually start contributing. By not allowing Bonzi that chance, everything went haywire and I'll be damned if anyone says we couldn't have used an integrated Bonzi last year. Both player and coach are responsible, but it's the coach's job to put a championship capable product out there. Seems like we have the same struggles as last year - Yao and Tmac play well, but where is the supporting cast? And somehow we have probably our 3rd or 4th most talented player nowhere to be found. Ridiculous.
In this case, even though Steve or AB are not in shape. I'll still give them at least 10 minutes a game. At least, the truth can tell them how horrible they are and then they probably can make some improvement. We want to go deep in play off time, it is obvious we have to develop a better PG other than Rafer
As much as they need to be, these Steve posts wont get locked because the mods will get tired of locking 2 full pages worth of threads each day. And who really needs to "man up" here, perennial winning players coach or lazy pouty player who's hasnt won much of anything?
I don't think anyone here knows exactly what's going on with Francis situation, only the guys in the locker room know. But I do remember Adelman gave Francis a T during a pre-season practice, which sounded so odd, I don't think that has ever happened before for any team.
I have been on that train since preseason. It started with Rafer still starting. Then "someone" in practice claiming TMac and Yao get the fluff in practice, to heated words, then the T in practice. Hey I don't mind if Steve was letting Rick know that Tmac and Yao were getting the fluff calls in practice. So far they have a history of melting softly into the night during the playoffs. I don't mind a practice getting heated that just shows you have heart, and care. Getting a T in practice sounds just terrible. I can't imagine hearing a story of how Riley T'd up James Worthy, or Phil Ting up Rodman during a practice. It just seems like you have a chip on your shoulder towards someone. The point is, not about getting STEVE time. Its about the fact that we have Scola sucking it up getting minutes, Chuck is non existant on O. Battier is completely a feed off of Tmac player to the point that he does nothing but wait for Tmac to give him his points and Luther Head who is just lost on both sides of the court. You add Rafer and how can ANY coach justify sitting a player of Steve's caliber on the bench. Seriously can someone tell me what it would take before Luther or Rafer got the pine? I have said this for the last year. The Rockets are built to win during the season, but NOT for the playoffs. Not with Chuck, Battier, and Alston as 3/5ths of your starting lineup playing O. Keep playing Rafer and watch the Rockets go quietly into the night come playoff time. I can't stand even ONE more year of having 2 of the best position players in the league and not one playoff series win. Did anyone notice that in the Bobcats game Yao and Tmac accounted for something like 71% of our offense. That the next closest player had 6 points. How about after tonights game. They consisted of 64 percent of our offense. They took 18 of our 24 Free Throws. Steve is very capable of at least getting to the line, putting pressure on the D and making the freebies. Look at this team and it is a carbon copy of last years team. Scola is nowhere near what Juwon Suck Howard was giving us, Mike James is giving us back Juwons points, and Bonzi giving us back Howards rebounds. And Bonzi is giving us back Luthers points from last year. It is going to be a rough playoffs for alot of homers around here.
It was 8 games into last season we sat with the same starting lineup, and same record. I don't know, doesnt seem THAT ridiculous a comment.
Great analysis Dreamshake. I do think that SF3 will eventually start getting major minutes, hopefully sooner than later, and those mins will come at the expense of Rafer. However, wait until he has one bad game or even one bad play, people here will be freaking out. Francis has to be allowed to play and he has to be allowed to make mistakes if he's going to be our 3rd consistent scorer - something the Rockest dont have right now. Adelman can't yank him after he makes a mistake. You gotta allow Steve to be creative. I don't mind a player making a mistake when he's trying to make something happen, but what does anger me is when a player like Rafer makes mistakes because he's just not good.
The Rockets can't afford playing SF and Scola at the same time. Coach might see the pf spot as the weakest link, making easing Scola into the rotation a higher prioity than SF. So Scola gets to play. After Scola settles down, SF will get his share of PT.
Might be a good point, Panda. I agree right now, you def. can't have SF3 and Scola in the game at same time.
