I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed this, but I really love the fact that the Rockets take advantage of other teams problems so well. We take an unhappy Francis from Canada, an unhappy T-mac from Florida, and now an unhappy Alston from Canada,...it seems like Dawson is best at taking advantage of teams bad situations, and making his team better for it. (Ron Artest anyone ) I love it.
Yao avg 17.5 ppg, 13reb against the Suns and 23, 9 against the Kings last yr. Yao is not that slow and you don't fast break everytime nor you have to have 5 guys on the break either. I think we have the best combo. We can play fast as well as slow. What more important is whether Rafer will get along with the coaches and teammates.
Thats a good point. That does seem to be the way it has worked out. another thing about Rafer is this. How often do you get a non-superstar player that just signs a large contract who then has a career year the next year? I'd say not very often. Most players tend to slack off once they get that financial security. remember Kelvin Cato? I thought that should be recognized.
Night Pray (of Rafer Alston) Now lay me down to sleep square in Houston on my feet thank you Lord for landing as I go out to play NBA standing. Keep watch on my behavior and thanks to Tracey for the big favor. When I dribble and pass up the court real fast never be an obvious fool keeping in mind the big rule Yao is the major tool. If I start acting weird and French Jeff will glue my butt to the bench. When I think back on Toronto I can thank God for the factor I’m a Rocket, not a Raptor Amen
Give him some time. Toronto was the team that gave him his first real NBA salary and they showed alot of faith in him. But if he thought the city and fans were great in Toronto, wait until he gets here. (of course it could be response bias, and he's not telling them how he really feels. At least till he gets down here)
You're right, that is much more common. Don't stop with Cato though....Moochie, MoT,....although often in the Rockets case it was giving a guy more money than he's worth in the first place, it is nice to see we are getting a guy who actually rose to the occassion.
Love the deal....Skip gives us a playmaker at the point can shoot from the perimeter and can give us a couple of easy baskets just by pushing the ball up the court, a luxury that the Rockets have lacked for years. On a side note, who wants to bet that Skip will be in the JVG doghouse by mid-season...I pray that I am wrong. Bottom line: The Rockets are starting to look like a very, very scary team.
I'm so excited about how we have filled out. I don't think I am going to be able to sleep until the season starts!
Read this from a toronto chat room: A formula teams often use to show how much offense point guards create for teammates reveals Alston got assists on 29 percent of the possessions in which he was statistically involved last season. The average for point guards was 25.5 percent. James finished at 22.2 percent, while Steve Francis, the Rockets' previous point guard, was at 22 percent. Here is the link: http://www.raptorschat.ca/index.php/topic,34644.from1128480612/topicseen.html
so where does SKIP rank among point guards? top 15? should we be this excited for a top 15 point guard?
I think we're not excited just because of HIM, but for the fact that we finally complete the puzzle. Point guard was our weakest link (after Stro came), wasn't it? Now we have no weak part. Just have to make them a TEAM.
Remember, Jeff LOVES a PG who can penetrate to the hole. He wants a guy who can drive and dish... SKIP can do just that. He should be a nice addition. Now, can he do a better job of 'dropping it down' to Yao than Bobby, Mike, and Wesley did? It seemed that Barry and Howard were the best at dropping it in. Yao has GOT to touch the rock a LOT! I could start a diatribe about Yao and his touches.......but I digress!
Do you think the Rockets were trying to deal out Moochie in this trade? Salary wise I don't know if Skip would match up with Moochie but maybe, I'm not sure. CD was praising about how Moochie was in the best shape of his career a week or two ago. I wish they took Moochie instead but who would want him.
This is a Beautiful thing... I love this... Now we really have some one that can push the pill and pass it... I am loving this trade... I really hate to see Mike James go... When T-Mac was hurt or on the bench, he was the only guy that we had that could get his own shot besides Yao! See you guys in the Conference Finals against San Antonio...
