James and Alston present two different benefits for the Rockets. James provide the extra third scorer which is especially helpful when one of our top two stars are out. But when our entire team is healthy, James's tendency to take too many shots will not take us to the next level. Alston is suppose to be a better playmaker than James and T-Mac. With him handling the ball, our two superstars' potential can be maximized. T-Mac can handle the ball less, thus conserving energy for him to attack from the wing. Yao can get better passes, so he isn't just wasting energy trying to post up. I believe Alston's influence (if it ever materializes) will make us a championship caliber team. P.s. Regardless of whether you like the James trade or not, it is possible that if James were still here, Head would not have developed as quickly.
I don't understand the MJ hating in this thread. MJ played very well for us last year and I thought was very good coming off the bench. Yes he has shortcummings but that is why he is a bench player and not a starter. Right now I don't like the MJ for Raefer Alston trade. Reafer has not been good at all. Having said that I am willing to be patient because it could still work out if Alston picks up the offense and plays the way we thought he would. It's still early in the season.
mike james is not even a point guard for the raptors. his spot is taken over by rookie jose calderon, who does what raptors need their pgs to do, feed chris bosh good passes inside and move the ball to open shooters. once mike james hit his shooting slump, he'll be taken off the starting spot. just like jalen rose, mo pete, and other players who dont contribute much to the team except for their streaky scoring. the last thing we needed coming into the season was another short shooting guard. had everyone turned out healthy for the season, we wouldve been top in the standings.
First off, I personally like MJ, but still like the trade. MJ is a better scorer, and TRUE if we would have had MJ the past week or so, we'd probably have won a couple more games (or a couple OF games :-D) but the thing is, would couldn't have resigned him after this year, he'd have been gone. Because of this, even though RA is struggling right now, you can't really judge this trade even hardly at the end of this year, because what we gained wasn't just a playmaker over a scorer, but also a long term player (unless traded), which will add to the much needed chemistry in years to come, and develop with this team,...instead of a guy playing for one year and then taking the money somewhere else.
I liked it at first, but clearly the team could have used MJ while Tmac was out, they had no creator out on the floor and it killed the team. DD
I disagree and don't know how or why this myth continues to get purpetuated. If James would have opted out of his 06-07 contract, we still would have had his Early Bird Rights. That means our offer (175% of current contract) would have been higher than the MLE. Had he taken the POpt on 2006-07, we would have his full Bird Rights at the end of that season. Given these conditions, the only true competitors for James in the summer of 06 are teams with cap space...the Bulls (Hinrich & Gordon), the Bobcats (yea, right), and the Hornets (set already at PG). Those are the only 3 teams with significant cap space in 2006. All other teams are over $40+m already committed. It's arguable who is the better match or value for the Rockets. But there is no argument that only a handful of teams have cap space next summer. IMO, losing James was not the given everyone around here seems to think it was.
I still like the trade because I think Alston makes the team more versatile. Mike James doesn’t really give us anything different from Luther Head or David Wesley. They’re all short combo guards that are primarily spot up shooters. We needed something different. The team was already full of half court spot up shooters. Alston gives us a full court player that’s primarily a penetrate-and-dish player. To be a championship team, like the Spurs and Pistons, we needed a more versatile roster with different types of players that add different dimensions to the team. I don’t think it’ll be clear whether the move to bring in Alston (and Swift) was a good one or not until playoff time comes and we’re matched up with a fast uptempo team like Phoenix or Golden State.
I haven't observed any of this in the games that he played, he looked very ordinary. He mostly has dribbled around the perimeter, hasn't shot well, hasn't shown much on the break (what break), hasn't shown much at all. Maybe you have seen him play on other teams. Here, not very impressive.
Uhm.......yeah riiiiigghhhhttttt!!!!!!! Lets not forget that MJames is in a contract year AND the Toronto Raptors have THE worst record in the league and would be winless except for a fluke game against a Shaq-less Miami Heat where three Raptor players scored over 20 pts. OH and don't forget about the fact that T-Mac hasn't played for most of our games this year...
Hmmm, my bad. Thanks for the info. I'd still rather have the play-maker over the scorer,...if that's what RA ends up being. Obviously because of RA's injury and MJ's playing well, it's easy to say who it would be nice to have right now. But assuming Tmac was playing and RA was healthy, it might turn out to be a good trade. Anyway, sorry I was wrong about that, guess I was mis-informed.
It was a good trade unless Alston falls apart because of injury. He's not in the doghouse, he's on the bench because of a stress fracture of his fibula (unless someone can prove me wrong). We made the deal because we needed a distributing PG that can create for others, rather than a stockpile of undersized SGs (Sura, Wesley, James). Our team success hinges on a playmaker creating easy opportunities for the rest of the roster and McGrady was the only guy that could until we grabbed Alston. Head *may* learn to fill that role as well. We stunk it up the last few weeks because McGrady and Alston were out, leading to comically bad attempts by Wesley, Anderson, and others to play beyond themselves and create. Would Mike James have helped? Short-term, sure. He would be the only person on the roster capable of getting his own shot. But would he be able to set up Yao, Howard, and the others? Highly doubtful. He gets his at the expense of the team. Alston, on the other hand, sets people up as often as he calls his own number. Red flag #1: James is now on his 6th team in less than 4 seasons. That doesn't strike you as odd? He plays fair defense and can consistently ring up points, including 3s. He's got a fair contract too, so why can't he stick? James (this year in Tor): 0.13 Assists/Minute, 0.35 Assists/Shot Alston (in Tor last year): 0.19 and 0.52 James (for us last year): 0.11 A/min and 0.27 A/FGA Alston (this Yr for us): 0.13 and 0.51 I agree with the earlier post that Sura couldn't be moved because of his injuries. I would have preferred moving Wesley over James, but who knows what else was involved: JVG's preference for vets, the alledged TMac/James tension, Tor's desire for Wesley, etc. Again, if we simply go with Nov's results, this trade has been lopsided. However, if Rafer can rejoin us on the court soon, I believe that will change. Judging PGs by their PPG is extremely misleading. You need playmakers at the position that can run an offense. Evan
It's still a great trade Mike James is not a STARTING PG, he does not have the skill set to be a starting PG, Rafer Alston does. Rafer has the skill set to be the ALMOST perfect PG for this team, he just needs to get his health and head straight.
I don't. Mike James is capable of putting up impressive number on a team that has very little talent.
I am happy with Luther Head, but he's no Mike James, not yet. When TMac is down/out, Mike James would have been the 'other' guy that can carry the scoring load, based on his ability to create his own shot. However, now there is no one else who can do that. Luther Head is gradually becoming that kind of player, but he's not there yet.
Alston was a starter for one (troubled) season with TOR. He never started for any other theam. James started 55 straight games for the 03-04 Celtics and then was a dependable backup for the Pistons. Somehow it seems sort of ironically humorous that a bunch of you criticize James for putting up big numbers on a bad team when that bad team was the only team Alston ever started for.
