Yes Clutch ! Even though Alston seems to be a decent passer he isn't a decent playmaker, he is lacking in court vision and determination to pass to a scorer in an open position. Often he gets caught bringing the ball down the court without a focus on anyone else except himself and his shot. Possibly he is following instructions from JVG. If so then JVG is the...... Alston used to be a good penetrator, he could still do this and pass off to open players near the basket, this would help boost his assists and improve his status in his position as starting Point Guard.
I'm in agreement with the lack of court vision part. How many times have I seen T-Mac make a pass to a wide open teammate and think "Why can't Rafer make that kind of pass??" Too many times...
I never said rafer's shots end successfully. My point was that he can get a shotoff with decent looks when he wants, but hes not a really good finisher. Battier? other then his baseline drives and his occasional postup(which are both easy to prevent), he relies on others to get him his shot. Everyone else basically cant create their own shot and not every play ends in a open catch and shoot. You dont see anyone else creating their own shots consistently because they can't, thus they can only score when they are setup. Rafer is able to get by his man and throw up his assortment of tear drops, flipshots and layups(if hes close enough to the hoop). Id like to see any of those guys you mentioned try to create a shot by themselves. Imagine luther trying to drive by his man and throw up a shot, his shot beyond the arc is significantly better then inside. I wont even bother with the others you listed. Yeah the players you listed are better shooters and what not, but they have to be open or theyll have similar percentages to rafer or worst. As someone already explained rafer has to take those open shots because theyre open. You cant expect rafer to pass it to a covered man just because theyre a better shooter. Rafer with a wide open look is always a higher percentage shot then a covered battier, padgett, tmac, head, novak. This team needs a 3rd option who can score by himself (bonzi) to be considered amoung the elite. If both yao and tmac dont play well together then our chances of beating the elite teams are slim. Im not saying rafer should be our 3rd option, but hes the best we have. JVG knows this, why else isnt rafer being benched, scolded by jvg, or instructed to shoot less.
Why isn't the assist leaders list dominated by men 6-8 and above then? Magic Johnson was unique, and those who finish near him on the list were all considerably shorter, prototypical PG's. Steve Nash, Chris Paul, and even TJ Ford make passes that Rafer cannot. The point is that Rafer's court vision is surprisingly lower than what you'd expect from a starting point guard on an NBA team, especially with his kind of assist-to-turnover ratio, which is quite good.
Because guards that are 6-8 are better used to score. They naturally have a mismatch every game due to their height. If rashard, tmac, kobe, vince and all the other tall guards and small fowards played PG for their entire lives they would be getting all the assist numbers. But they didnt, they always had the scorer mentality due the mismatches their height creates. Those PGs you listed are the BEST point guards in the league, maybe except for TJ Ford. Theyre the best because of their vision and ability to create shots for others. Why doesnt rafer have better "vision" or higher assist numbers? Thats because he isnt asked to penetrate the lane and dish it out. His role is to setup the offense, which means get the ball to yao or tmac to create the shots. Rafer is what he is, a pointguard whose not a particularly good shooter, but has some of the best handles in the league and an above average passer and decision maker. It would be nice to have a steve nash or chris paul on our team, but PGs like that dont grow on trees and the best we have is rafer(or vspan, but he doesnt play much so it doesnt matter).
Err. Rafer has pretty good court vision, especially in the open court. Where I see his game has a deficiency is the ability to penetrate *and dish*. I really don't have a problem with his three point shooting. Most of the threes he takes are open shots given to him by the defense or created by design on the offensive play, or bail out shots as the clock winds down. And even though he is not consisent enough (bad shooting nights every now and then), he is making them at a fairly respectable percentage, and unlike previous years he is actually showing some clutchness in the 4th. The only real issue I have with Rafer's offensive game is that he has trouble finishing around the basket, and doesn't dish the ball out to the open man often enough when he drives. He definitely needs to improve in this area. As far as his shot volume is concerned, I don't think we really have much of a choice there. He and T-Mac make up our starting backcourt, and right now Rafer is a better jumpshooter than T-Mac (plus T-Mac is never left open anyway). Someone's got to take those perimeter shots the opposing defense gives up, and often that someone has to be Rafer. Until T-Mac really gets his groove back, that is. Spanoulis, on the other hand, he makes good things happen whenever he attacks the rim. Hope he continues to mature and solidify his game quickly...we *will* need that when we get to the playoffs. Right now he and T-Mac are the only two guards we have who are particularly good at driving to the hole (Kirk is the other guy, but he's gone for a while -- and unlike T-Mac and Spanoulis, he doesn't know how to pass out either).
A few too many shots for Rafer this time. Haven't watched the game yet, but 9 has to be too much. he did a great job distributing though, 7assists and 2 TO's. He seems to turn it on a bit more in the 4th the lastfew games. That's a good thing. 10 threes from our PG spot a night is ok. I'm just not sure Rafer should be taking 38 of those minutes. We really need someone who will allow us to cut Rafer's minutes to 30. He stays fresher, and he always plays better when he's fresh. Throughout his career, he's been a better shooter with less minutes. I'm glad Spanoulis is getting 10 minutes a game, even if it's from the SG position. The more he plays, the more comfy he'll get and the more he'll be able to transition to PG. Clearly, he has the passing skills to do it, he just needs to learn the speed of the NBA and the tempo of our team. During those minutes where T-Mac is hardcore distributing, as in bringing it up and everything, Luther should get some minutes as well. Rafer does a great job for 30 minutes. But I feel it's too much on his shoulders to be the man for 38 minutes.
I feel that the way the rockets ran their offense tonight is what made rafer shoot so many shots. IF the rockets made a few adjustments to their offense tonight, then maybe they could have gotten the ball to TMac or Battier a little bit more. The first adjustment would be having TMac cut to the basket from the baseline after his post entry pass to yao. If he doesnt get the ball, have him go across the weakside and set up on the wing. Rafer would then replace TMac on the strongside wing. Since KG was double teaming yao most of the night, chuck hayes should set himself up around the ft line area, battier would be on the weakside baseline, and tmac would be on the weakside wing. When KG doubles, have Yao kick the ball out to Hayes. Hayes has a couple options. first, he could cut to the basket and shoot a layup or kick it out to battier or tmac if the defense collapses. Or secondly, he could reverse the ball around depending on how the defense rotates over. If TMac's man shifts over then reverse the ball to tmac, or if battier's man shifts over, kick it to shane in the corner. This puts alot of the decision making in chuck hayes hands, but it would get battier and tmac more shots, and limits the number of shots for Rafer. Sorry if this post is hard to follow, but I remember running something similar to this in hs, and i believe the rockets ran something similar to this during the Dream Era.
You are really hitting Rafer hard. Here are some other facts: Rafer plays more minutes than Luther by alot, I'm pretty sure their shots per minute are about equal. Rafer gets left open alot, if he is open I say shoot. Making it 1 out of 3 times from 3 point land is PLENTY good. Rafer gets more shots than Battier because Battier isn't willing to shoot alot of times. (There is 3% difference, I don't think that really matters too much). Rafer hasn't gotten alot of assists because the Rockets have been playing VERY GOOD team ball, making the extra pass to try and get an open look. Our overall team assist numbers are up from last year, and no thats not just because of TMac, our whole team is passing for better shots. I believe Rafer is playing his role perfect, he brings ball up court and passes to Yao when he needs to otherwise just lets TMac create, and as good as TMac creates he is finding the open shooter or taking it in, if the open shooter is Rafer then Rafer is going to shoot and at 36% from 3pt range is not bad.
Whats with all the Rafer-hate? The guy does a good job of getting Yao the ball and ITS his job to shoot the ball when Yao or TMac kick it out to him. You can't hate him for doing what the coach asks of him. AND he is doing a good job of hitting the clutch 3's when we need him to. Did you guys forget Derek Anderson? I hated him last year b/c he thought he was the superstar on this team. Difference b/w his mentality and Rafer's is Rafer doesn't try to go one-on-one against the defender like he is a superstar on this team. The reason he gets some many shots off is b/c Yao and TMac are doubled and he gets open looks. Thats why Rafer can't be accused of the "superstar mentality." If he didn't shoot the ball and acted scared, the Rox would be in a load of trouble b/c teams wouldn't respect him in the late stretchs of games and no shots for Yao or Tmac.
It's obvious that a lot of you guys that are criticizing Rafer are not watching him play. He did shoot poorly tonight, but he still played well overall and hit a clutch 3 when we needed it. Regarding his assists numbers being low, his role doesn't seem to be that of the playmaker (see Tmac). He had an off shooting night, but most of his shots were within the flow of the offense and were good shots.
Everybody that says Rafer shot too much tonight wasn't watching the game. The TWolves spent most of the night double and triple teaming Yao. Most of Rafer's shots were open shots that were kickouts from Yao. He should and did take those shots every time. Unfortunately, he started out 1-9 before he got hot. I can't believe you guys are picking on Rafer on a night where he also had 7 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks. On top of that, he and Luther held the opposing team's PGs, Mike James and Marco Jaric, to 4 and 3 points respectively.
Rafer Alston is a connundrum. The good thing about him is that he brings up the ball quickly and does not cause turnovers- In JVG world that gurantees him the minutes. The problem I see is that although he does bring up the ball quickly- once he reaches the top of the circle he dribbles and demurs while Yao is begging for the ball- not all the time, but it happens a lot. I do not have a problem if he shoots wide open 3's- but he definitely has to improve. Last minute heroics are great but at one point he was something like 1-12 from the field. Can we do better? I think so. V-Span definitely needs more minutes- his defense and passing skills are good. I did not see him make dumb mistakes and he is the slasher that could help. The knock on Rafer I have is- time and again he misses layups, when a quick pass to yao or a cutting Hayes to finish the play. His defense is getting a lot better ( as compared to last year)- but I would rate V-Span higher in the little action we have seen. A "real " Starting PG would make those entry passes to the middle a lot quicker. Open 3's are wonderful- but we need to have a higher percentage, there is a reason these shots are open in the first place!
This was not the first "off shooting" night Rafer had. There will be little need for his 'clutch' shooting if he makes those first and second quarter jumpers and layups. I will take a win though!
Many times, Who is defending Yao? Madson, what a huge missmatch! But, what did we see? Head and Rafer are shooting.. I do not mean that head and Rafer are not good shooters. It is that sometimes, we need to play resonably! Especially when the big Guy can have a high shooting percentage!
Rafer is an excellent dribbler without doubt and can keep his TOs at low lovel. But he really is not that good as a passer and playmaker. When Yao gets his position down in the paint, his passing is okay. But when Yao gets his defender front him, Rafer and Head cant pass/lob the ball to Yao.(while TMac and Battier can do it sometimes) When he is wide open shooting the 3pt, he is good at certain positions. But his layup around the basket is terrible 'cause he loses control of his balance easily. JVG should use him more when Yao is not on court and limit his minutes down the stretch.(Just let TMac be the PG)
Clutch, I don't know why you said the bolded part. As far as I observe, Yao doesn't lack that quick trigger. Actually, we often see him making a jump hook immediately after he catches the ball, if he manages to post low enough (and others manage to deliver him the ball in time). And that kind of shoot-on-catch has been Yao's most efficient weapon--the ball goes in almost every time he does that. When Yao's pushed out, he will "hesitate" a bit sometimes when he catches the ball. But his intention's to observe the defense, especially when he suspects a second defender's coming to him. That actully can help him reduce turnovers and find the open player more easily. IMO, that should be deemed as a smart play for players like Yao who has no Iverson's speed but affects defense at every possession.
If you're playing the Rockets right now, the first thing you write on the chalk board is that you want Rafer taking as many shots as possible. From the Rockets' standpoint, that's not bad. The worst you can do to us is make Rafer shoot. It's a hell of a lot better than putting Ryan Bowen out there. If we're able to trade him for somebody with a better shot and still keep enough ballhandling on the team to get us by, great. Otherwise, the best option is to hope Rafer can squeeze an extra 2 or 3 percent accuracy out of his 3's. That may sound small, but as we saw last night, it can be the difference between missing all your shots and hitting the one at the end that puts your team up 77-70.
