How is it JVG's fault that we couldn't stop Boozer? NO ONE on the team could stop him. It was a personnel issue, not a coaching issue.
So because 2 of Boozer's best games were losses, that makes everything OK? We couldn't stop him, and he killed us in Game 7. Enough said. Actually, except for Game 4, Deron was relatively contained, compared to how he played against the Spurs. Rafer didn't do a bad job on him at all. His defense on Williams was not one of the key aspects that cost us games. You really think Alston chose to add SG to his role? Uhhh... not even close. He didn't have a choice. As the PG who was playing 40+ minutes, he had to take more shots. He was assigned by JVG to take those shots, because no one else could. V-Span couldn't. Head can but is a terrible PG, Novak can but he can't do anything else, T-Mac's shot was off, Battier only shoots off of set plays run by T-Mac/Yao usually, etc. Who else? Now that we have more shooters, he won't be taken advantage of. I didn't say don't blame him for anything. But he's not the sole reason why we lost as some people would suggest. Like I've said, he's not even the main reason why we lost.
Didn't Rafer bank that 3 in? Morey says a lot of things. I remember him saying that the Rockets had no chance of getting SF, but he was signed the next day. Rhetoric is one thing, but lets look at Rafer's actions. This is when it gets ugly. From the worst fg% in the entire NBA to getting torched by opposing pgs to not being able to create and finish to missing wide open jumper after jumper to choking during crunch time. Also, lets not forget his legal troubles. I hope the Rockets are tying to showcase for him a trade.
who freaking cares if it was banked. it went in. 3 is 3. he didnt say "no" chance of getting SF, if memory serves. Just that it was unlikely, or something like that. worst fg%, but you ignore the fairly decent 3pt shooting. Plus, like i've mentioend before you are pointing out rafers weakness, he isnt a scorer, but you are ignoring his benefits. He isnt a scorer yet was forced into that role because after tmac and yao...there wasnt much. He is a distributor, pace setter, ball controller. Torched by other pgs? legal troubles? ohhh, you mean those 2 instances that nothing ever developed? someone making a completely false claim against you is "legal troubles"? because jvg didnt get a hand in his face, he let boozer get position by bodying him up and he did a horrible job of denying him the ball. Didnt you see the games? poor jvg needed chuck or yao to come over and help him on the double teams
If you're just looking at that game, it doesn't matter. If you want to use that game to determine how he'll play for us in the future, it does matter. It was clearly a luck shot.
Why do you think Daryl Morey and Rick Adelman both call Alston a good defender? Why did Daryl Morey call Rafer the best team defender on the roster? Why are the Rockets 4.2 points per 100 possession better DEFENSIVELY with Rafer on the floor? Why do opposing PGs, allegedly "torching" Rafer, have a TS% of .494, which is well below league average?
i'll take lucky from 3 so long as its over 35% of the time. to build up trade value...duh! someone has to be the whipping boy. I dont get it, but people feel the need to blame someone for all the problems. with jvg gone, rafer is the "easy" target...at least to those people who don't fully understand all aspects of the game
You two need to get a room and do some cuddling over a nice poster of JVG dangling from Mourning's leg.
I bet Morey instruced Spanoulis, Lucas, and Head to suck whenever Rafer comes out in order to make his +/- look better last season, too. Opposing PGs are also in on the conspiracy. They deliberately miss shots to elevate Rafer's trade value.
Keep on relying on comments two games into the preseason. I'll rely on Rafer's less than stellar track record. Do you really believe that Rafer is the best defender on the team? LOL. I hope for your sake you're just trying to be contrarian or playing the devil's advocate. I'm sure you had to dig hard to find these obscure stats to show Rafer's "positive" affect on the team. So according to basketba-reference.com (where you got your ts% stat) Rafer's stats last season were most similar to Winston Garland's in 1988-89. So the modern day reincarnation of Winston Garland is going to lead the Rockets to the promise land. LOL I'll take my chances with Mike James and SF. If the 2007 version of Winston Garland is the best you can do, I'll rely on my own analysis. However, if you want to see representative examples of Rafer's "defense", I would suggest watching Indiana at Houston last season(which was on TNT) where Jamal Tinsley schooled Rafer and of course there's the playoffs against Utah. The whole point is that Rafer is a liability out there on the court. He has many more weaknesses that he does strengths. Opposing teams will always rotate off of him, because it's no secret that he has the worst fg% in the entire NBA. He cannot create for himself or others. He cannot finish. He can't even handle the ball during crunch time. He gets broken down by opposing pgs, which forces our defense to collapse thereby leading to wide open shots and opportunities for others on the opposing team. His decision making and mental toughness are suspect as well. If the Rockets believed Rafer was the answer then why did they go out and get 3 different pgs in the off-season? Also, why was (and hopefully still is) Rafer being shopped around like crazy by the organization as well? It says a lot when the Miami Heat would rather end up signing Smush Parker as opposed to giving up a little more for Rafer Alston.
kwame posts like kwame plays. sporadic and not with a whole lot of sense...he tries and has some of the tools, but at the end of the day he just cant put it all together to really produce anything significant.
but rafer is still in houston isnt he and darryl said they were not gonna trade him for scraps so he must of thought highly of rafer and you keep bringing up % but he did other things on the court you prolly never even played basketball
I rather like what Morey said early this year. Do you really think the situation has undergone a 180 and made a new point guard out of Alston? Has Alston gone through the transmutation machine and turned into Steve Nash, the perfect guard for the Rockets? I think not. http://sports.sohu.com/20070709/n250967088.shtml MOREY: That's correct. We shall continue to revolve around both Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady as our nucleus/core in the new season, but at the same time, we will strive to upgrade our point guard position; after all, we were fully exposed on that point guard position last season. Perhaps you know by now, we have nailed down Mike James in the point guard position; Bonzi Wells is now both healthy and in good condition, and he has expressed his willingness to stay with this team. Steve Novak will also be in his sophomore year; normally speaking, a player fresh from the university will only be able to help the team in his second year. I think Carl Landry might not be able to help this team much this year, but definitely Steve (Novak) should start to help this team in the new season.
yup, only having one adequate pg and then forcing him to play 44 minutes because there was no real option on the bench...thats exposed.
A bad translation of a badly translated interview. Even assuming the original English to Chinese translation is correct, the Chinese to English translation is wrong. All the Chinese text says is that "We exposed question/problems related to point guard" not "we were fully exposed on that point guard position."
I have a very hard time believing that a savy general manager would publically make a comment as loaded as "we were fully exposed at [x] last year."
