James was a no show for all but like three games in that Dallas series. Not to mention that the LAST thing we need on this squad is a shoot-first point gaurd (who's really a 2-gaurd in the body of a point gaurd). Mike James is definitely the more talented of the two, but he is NOT the better fit... Even though I still would have been thrilled to have had him sign with us this summer to fill in some scoring need at 2 or spend some time as back-up 1. Either way, whatever your opinion on James, I don't know why that's even a topic of discussion anymore. That ship has sailed and anchored at it's new destination. Let it go. Rafer is just fine. He's no All-Star, but he is still an asset to this team and will continue to improve as he gets comfortable with this squad. The only real question mark I have left about Rafer is his defense, as I'm convinced that he will continue to shoot well on a healthy Rockets' team. So we get a great playmaker/passer, ball-handler, and shooter at the price of a little perimeter defense. He plays the position where defense is probably the LEAST important, anyways. Besides that, he's not even all that bad at defense. He's shown before (like against Terry) that he can hound someone all night, and he's always been good at playing passing lanes. His defense is just glaringly inconsistent. Our great team defense makes up for his weaknesses at PG defense, which (like I said), is the least important position as far as defense is concerned anyways.
If the last thing we need is a "shoot first point guard", why are you backing Rafer? He's taking 12 shots a night, and as of sunday night, led all PG's (and 3rd overall) in 3 point attempts. He's taking a lot of shots, that's the way the Rockets offense works. It woudl be nice if we had a PG who could make them, which is why the Rockets wanted James - to start at PG, not SG.
You say James was a no show in 3 of the 7 games of the Dallas series, but those games that he did show up in were the 3 games that we WON. Without James's positive contributions in those games I don't think the Rockets would have won any of them, particularily Games 2 and 6. You are right that Mike James is more talented that Alston, but that ship has sailed a while ago. I still feel the Rockets need to address the PG situation, someone who CAN HIT THE OPEN 3 consistently. I totally disagree with your statement that PG defense isn't that important. First of all guard penetration has been the Rockets' achilles heel the past two years including this year. Guard penetration was the MAIN REASON we lost the Dallas series. I thought out of all our guards in that series, Mike James was actually the best defender due to his quickness (recall that clutch Mike James steal at the end of Game 2). Alston is one of the slowest and worst defenders I have EVER seen! The opposing PG usually has a career night against him (ie Chris Paul and Deron Williams/Derek Fisher). Did you ever consider the possibililty that one reason Yao Ming is unable to keep out of foul trouble is because of guards attacking the rim and challenging him CONSTANTLY. This is due to Rafer and Luther's inability to stay in front of anyone. Rafer I think actually makes our team worse than better! There is no way a championship caliber team will have Alston as the starting PG unless the other starting 4 are the most dominant 4 players in the NBA! Maybe a lineup of Alston, Kobe, Garnett, Duncan, and Wilt Chamberlain in his prime would win, but then probably not because the other teams PG will overshadow everyone. I dread the playoffs when Alston's weaknesses offset any supposed "better fit" strength that he has to this team. Rockets need to find a better PG now!!!
Houston needs a better perimeter defender and 3 pt shooter. Find a way to get Steve Blake. Or accelerate KillBill's progress. Pair him up with Head at guard and Rockets are good to go.
James was 0-9 from 3 in that series, people who keep citing James' outside shooting in that series as evidence that he is superior to Alston because of Alston's "poor shooting" are obviously forgetting what happened in that series. I seem to actually recall JVG actually telling Mike James to stop shooting, then T-Mac yelling at him to give him the damn ball. Like I said James would have been great as a 6th man off the bench, but let's STOP revising history and distorting it just to punk on Rafer. if you don't like Rafer fine, say so, in fact that seems to be what Clutch is doing I suppose, but SamFisher seems to be going beyond that as are some others in trying to skew stats and what James actually did in that series.
Mike James, PG in 23 minutes 3-11 shooting 3 TO 3 AST what a stat line, i bet KG is going to choke him, come season end
The difference is that Rafer doesn't explicitly look for his shots. They always come within the flow of the offense. I know many fans suffer from the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately syndrome, and the last few games haven't looked so good on the box score, but if you watch the games, Rafer is only taking spot-up jumpshots and always looking for teammates. He hasn't hit at an extraordinarily high clip lately, but overall, 37.5% is not half bad from three for the season, and I suspect that he can shoot at least that well all year long. I understand the advantages James has, and I agree he'd be better even for the pure shooting that we're asking for from Rafer, but I think the advantages we get with Rafer are a fair compromise -- especially considering that that compromise allowed us get VSpan and Bonzi.
Yeah, use one bad game to show how James is crap. In the previous 3 games, James shot 8-13, 7-15, and 6-13. His effective FG% was even higher, since he shot well from 3pt territory as well. Over his first 5 games of the season (including his 2 bad games), James has an efficient TS% of 55.39 (league average last year was a bit under 53).
Still fighting that fight huh? Watch the games. James takes his shots, Rafer receives his. There is a difference. And, as I remember, the thought of Mike James as their starting point guard was the reason he was shipped. Also, please stop trying to force your assumption that the Rockets pursued Mike James to replace Rafer as the starting point when James and JVG both made statements that would imply the contrary.
Time to revisit Mr. Lopez' article. Rafer Alston is now at 4.4 assists per game and his turnovers are actually higher than they were last year. He's 92nd in the league in assist-turnover ratio (right behind Allen Iverson) and he's 33rd in the league overall in assists. He's second on his own team, and by a lot. Mike James is currently averaging more assists than Rafer and that's in 7 less minutes a night. And if you take out Rafer's perfect game against the Mavs, he's averaging 3.6 assists in the other 10 games. Three. Point. Six. But wait, Rafer does still rank in the top ten in something, and that's three-point attempts. Rafer is currently 10th with a whopping 5.9 threes a night. That's a higher average than Michael Redd, Mike Miller, Jason Terry, Chauncey Billups, Vince Carter and Steve Nash. Rafer Alston is this team's "third scorer"... atleast based on shot attempts. Now, I have to give Rafer a lot of credit for knocking down those shots at a much better clip than last year. I did not see that happening. Improving to 41% from the field and 38% from long range is a big improvement for him. However, it's time for those in our group who thought Rafer only needed to pass all day to open their eyes and admit they didn't truly understand the Rockets offense under Jeff Van Gundy (to think there were some who said Rafer didn't need to shoot well for the Rockets to succeed - wow). You can't have it both ways: Either Rafer is way underperforming as a passer and/or way overstepping his bounds as a shooter.... OR, this is what the offense calls for from his position. Half-court sets, limited possessions, star wing player who sets up much of the offense ... so play tough defense, be able to take care of the ball, penetrate as needed and be ready for a lot of open threes. This is exactly why most of us wanted Mike James and felt he was a better fit for the team. His strengths fit the needs of the position on this team in this offense perfectly. He is a very efficient scorer, penetrator and long-distance shooter with more than sufficient playmaking skills for an offense set up by McGrady much of the time. Props to Rafer for upping his percentages, however, if his shooting averages decline to closer to what we saw last year, the Rockets absolutely must come up with another solution.
I like this part of the article.. I found it to be quite humorous. "EVEN" released Rybo?? As if he was some kind of a sacrifice.. hahah
Someone said last season that Rafer Alston's could average 10 assists per game if he plays with healthy Yao and T-Mac. It just shows you how delusional people could become. It is hilarious.
His role has changed, he brings the ball up and hands it off to Tmac or Yao.....and then camps at the 3pt line. DD
reefer does what he needs to, i think he's fine. i prefer the ball in tracy's hand over anyone, let him rack up the assists. if he can keep knocking down clutch three's in the 4th, i'll be happy.
Rafer may be our primary ball handler, but he is at least second or third down the line in playmaker duties, behind TMac and Yao. TMac is running the point more often, and the offense running through Yao more regularly and for longer stretches than before; we are becoming even more point centerish and point forwardish of a team. (Aside: Yao isn't racking up the assists like McGrady is, but Yao has has some sweet assists to Head and Snyder in the past few games showcasing the possibility. Maybe next year Yao will start having really big assist games on a regular basis, this could be the area to develop to put him on an entirely different level.)
Yeah, that was me. I don't mind stepping up to the plate on that one. I really felt this would be the case especially with Battier spreading the floor, not to mention the addition of Novak. To be honest, I am quite shocked that we have gone to McGrady as basically the offensive point so much. I figured we would save that stuff for crunch time in the 4th quarter, not run it the whole game long. And I still have to feel like with a traditional spread the floor offense and McGrady operating as a shooter/scorer that Rafer penetrating and dishing could easily yield him 9-10 assists. And I really don't think that long term, the offense as being run right now with McGrady handling the point all the time is in our best interests as a team. Although a great passer and great decision maker, to me, McGrady is still most effective when he sets all that passing/playmaking up by first scoring the ball. And really, McGrady saying that he has been relying on Yao too much instead of going out and getting his is almost an admission that he needs to score the ball and let the playmaking come to him as the game progresses along. I still think we are best going to Yao early, then going to McGrady in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, and then going back to a less worn down Yao in crunch time in the 4th quarters, partially off the PnR distributions from McGrady. So, yes I did say that. I admit it. And I felt we were going to spread the floor and let Rafer penetrate and dish. Obviously, that has not been the case up until now. First of all, the defense broke down or at the very least wasn't up to JVG's standards, so Battier was moved to the perimeter and Hayes was brought in. That cut down on the floor spacing offensively. And secondly, McGrady wasn't shooting worth a flip and really is just now 10 games in, starting to shoot better, so he became a playmaker/distributor by default because he was hurting us shooting the ball. Also Novak winds up riding pine. I also mistakenly believed that we would be more uptempo with the addition of Snyder, Spanoulis, JLIII than we currently are and that we would average over 100 ppg offensively. That hasn't happened either. We are NOT a fast paced team. We are still slow. We are fortunate to run two fast breaks a game........which I think is not good for us and guys like Snyder to excel in either. So, I am shocked, yes. And I was wrong in my assessment that we were going to spread the floor and run more. I still think we should do those two things, even more especially when Yao is out. When Yao is out, we should go small ball, and get up and down very quickly, running out on everything. And I still think Novak should be in for at least 10-15 mpg and Howard should be sitting the bench. I do not understand JVG giving Howard minutes. Howard's minutes should be split up between Novak, Hayes, and Padgett to a lesser degree. With Hayes out, the PF minutes should be distributed to Battier, Novak, and Padgett. But that's just my opinion. So, once again, I was wrong in how I though our season would play out.....at least so far.
Van Gundy needs to do something about the pg situation. Thank god that Alston has improved his 3 pt shooting, because, so far, he brings little else. As pointed out, he really isn't doing much play-making, and I doubt he will ever be better than an average defender. The worse part of the pg equation is Luther. He is horrible. He has hit some big threes, but is the worst on the team getting to ball to Yao. He is not a good defender and has made bonehead fouls several times already this season. (Fouling Crawford on a 3 point jumper to give him a 4 pt play at the end of the game is his most recent.) He is able to bring the ball up the court, now, but when he tries to penetrate, it usually turns out negative. Luther needs to play the 2 and forget about him running the point. As an aside, Kenny Smith, who I am really starting to hate which is a topic for another thread, commented in the forth quarter that he thought Luther had hit every shot he had taken. His play by play guy pointed out that Luther was 4 for 8. Nice work Kenny. In all seriousness, a great job of shooting by Luther. The obvious and only course of action at this point is to give KillBill more playing time and hope that a: he keeps his turnovers down like he was able to do last night, and b: either improve his jumper or just not use it and try to set up a play for someone else, like he did last night. If you noticed last night, for the first few minutes when he came in, was definately off-guard, camped out at the 3 pt line. He was basically ignored. Rightfully so. However, when he started handling the ball, the offense flowed very well. He easily makes entry passes to Yao. He made a beautiful pass to Padgett cutting down the middle of the lane that Padgett made the weakest attempt of a shot from a power forward I have ever seen. I think it was Fry that blocked it without even jumping. Of course, if Sura comes back playing like his old self, that would be a tremendous help. In any case, 35 to 40+ minutes of Alston is way too much.
