your pg shouldnt have that many shots period and there were other players on that team who he could have created for like morris peterson,charlie V and be the "playmaker" people think he is.........and yes i see now that he played more i was looking at the wrong year stats
I have never been a Mike James fan...especially since he got benched by a rookie last year in Minnesota...hes not a team player imo...
Isaiah Thomas, Pistol Pete, & Gilbert Arenas would disagree with you. If your PG is also one of your best shooters then by all means he should shoot. DD
Go see how many shots a game Magic Johnson put up in 86-87. For all intents and purposes LeBron was the point guard on the Cavs this year. Morris Peterson or Charlie Villanueva as a scoring option ahead of Mike James? Now THAT is a good one. Morris Peterson as your #3 scoring option is about as bad as Rafer Alston.
yes they are mike james had that one good year scoring wise he isnt some scoring machine and magic johnson was the best player on the team mike james wasnt
Not sure what's so funny about that statement. He's a shoot-first guard, but he's still going to rack up assist numbers if he has the ball in his hand a lot. He was still considered the "point guard" of that team. James had 0.4 more assists that year than Rafer last year. You left out that Rafer had a better assist/turnover ratio. You also didn't bother mentioning that due to the way JVG's Rockets played, they would have a lot less possessions than a team that plays a fast tempo like the Raptors. Also didn't take into account that Rafer's assist numbers would've been higher had T-Mac and Yao not gotten hurt. I know you don't like Rafer, so it must suck for you that Adelman and Morey do. Adelman called him a "perfect fit" for this team. Morey recently called him the best defensive guard on the team. I'm sure they've said some good things about James too, but nothing of that magnitude.
Dennis, we have taken this into account about the first million times we rehashed this argument last offseason. Trust me, it has been accounted for.
I've always wondered about the assist stat as an indicator of passing ability. Not only is it arbitrarily given(hence why assists in Euro leagues are lower), they also only give credit to one player when several passes are made during an offensive posession. This is why it's hard to differentiate between good low-post passers from the bad ones without watching games, because there tends to be one or two more passes before you see the results, and the post player's pass doesn't get noticed in the box scores. It's also why those who dominate the ball, regardless of whether or not they're good passers, get assists because the only time they give up the ball is if a teammate is in position to give him that assist.
Nobody is denying that James shoots the ball better than SF and Alston, the knock on him is his decision making as a PG, I just cannot get ride of this picture of him dribbling all the way from one end of the floor to the other with his head down, and through up an airball over two defenders, while rest of his teammates just crossed the mid-court. Mike James is not a starting quality PG, but can be helpful off the bench. I expect both him and SF to play about 25mins each, split the time on PG and SG. Alston will be the starting PG, playing ~30 minutes a game. Neither Head, nor Brook will get much time this year, which is sad considering they are really young, and need the playing time to develop.
Of course you're not sure. You're a newbie who's entering a debate that has raged here for nearly 2 years and you somehow think you're telling us something we don't know. No one gave the overall assists or assists-turnover battle to Mike James over Rafer (hence the irony, Mr. Chuckles). It was by how much that is debated, and if the difference is not major (which it isn't), was it worth the potential major difference in shooting efficiency? After all, when playing in the system of the guy you miss so much and alongside a primary playmaker like Tracy McGrady, the point guard position placed a high premium on outside shooting/scoring and less of an emphasis on traditional point guard playmaking. Simply based on what Rafer was asked to do last season, Mike James' skillset was the better fit. It always was. This will be a little embarrassing for you, but having T-Mac on the floor kept Rafer's assists down in JVG's system, not up. Proven fact.
I prefer Mike James as scorer so I would rather have him come off the bench with Rafer. That way, Skip can get the reserves going and Mike James is free to chuck as many shots as he wants playing the 2.
I agree with this point, we do have options when MJ goes into his scoring mode. However, we all know the MJ has the tendency to pout when things do not go his way. I believe MJ has a boulder not chip on his shoulder and wants to be no less than the 2nd option. Check out tonight games and watch as he runs to get the ball from Yao even though Rafer is PG.
No one said he was, but you said you didn't want the PG taking all those shots.... My point is there are plenty of cases where the PG shoots a lot, because he is one of the better shooters. DD
You made a claim about assist numbers so I responded to that and that only. I gave you reasons why those assist numbers don't accurately reflect the truth because of different tempos and injuries. I never suggested that James wasn't the better fit. Having both would be ideal. I don't understand why you're changing the subject. I thought we were supposed to be comparing the assist numbers of Rafer last year vs James two years ago. And what about when Yao was hurt? That does make sense though about T-Mac, seeing that he basically played point forward. Embarrassed? Meh... not really. You know what would be embarrassing though? If I constantly attacked one player for a long period of time, only for the new coach to call him a "perfect fit" in the offense. While we're talking about assists, look for Rafer's assist numbers to increase dramatically, thanks to all the depth and offensive talent we've added, like your boy James.
I know you were responding to moses, but wow... are you freakin kidding me? Rafer Alston is a role player. Only an idiot color commentator would confuse him for an all-star player or anything of that nature. What was the Rockets' record last year when Battier played but not T-Mac and/or Yao? How about Hayes? Howard? Head? Mutombo? See how ridiculous that sounds now? OF COURSE a team is going to lose games if its best players are out and they're stuck with role players trying to step up. Geez Clutch... maybe... just maybe, that had something to do with T-Mac and Yao actually playing.
That is exactly the point. The reply was to someone who, in essence, said Rafer wins and James doesn't. James alongside T-Mac and Yao also won, in fact at a greater rate. Rafer, without T-Mac and Yao (like James), did not win. You are officially dumber than a bag of hammers.
"officially". I like that. If I type that you are "officially" an ******* does that make it official?
