obivously i meant if Phil Jackson and Greg Popavich had this team's current personnel. however i wouldnt be surprised if Rafer would be starting over Fisher.
Rafer is shooting 32% on the season, if now its not the time to get his ass out the line-up than when. My guess is when he gets down to about 22% RA will play Steve. P.S. WE WANT STEVE NOW DAMN IT
I could get on the floor and pass the ball to Yao, so do that mean I should be the starting PG for the rockets? I mean I can't do no worse then Alston, I think I can put up bricks all nights and never drive to the basket. P.S. WE WANT STEVE NOW DAMN IT
You on drugs if you think Phil or Popavich would start Rafer. I think he would get cut quick as hell on one of there teams. P.S. WE WANT STEVE NOW DAMN IT
I don't think Steve would do that with Tracy and Yao on the court. He would know better than that, I would hope so
Raefer sucks - period. We saw it all last year (worst % of any Rocket ever - or somesuch). James is more of a 6th man spark plug. Want Stevie in the mix? all I gotta say is... AMEN!!!!!!!
For all the people defending coach decisions on rotations that it's like "the coach is ALWAYS right" seems to be the only thought they can ever muster I give you this: Luther Head this year: 10.8 MPG 35.7% FG 12.5% 3 PT 2.2 PPG 1.2 RPG 1.8 APG .2 SPG Per 40 minute #'s 35.7% FG 12.5% 3PT 8.1 PPG 4.4 RPG 6.7 APG .7 SPG Vassilis Spanoulis last year: 8.7 MPG 31.9% FG 17.2% 3 PT 2.7 PPG 0.7 RPG 0.9 APG .2 SPG Per 40 minute #'s 31.9% FG 17.2% 3PT 12.4 PPG 3.2 RPG 4.1 APG .7 SPG Both players on the same team being used as backup shooting guards. And don't give me the BS nonsense about Luther did jack before and look at earlier 3 point shooting, etc. because Spanoulis was over 40% the last 5 years in Europe from 3 point range. The FACT is that any coach can make any player look like garbage if he does not play him, or plays him very limited minutes like Spanoulis and Head example above. He can REALLY make a player look horrible if he decides to bench him totally for an awful player as in Spanoulis last year and Francis this year for Alston. And all these stats experts here don't even get that stats only count if the players get good minutes. You can never ever judge a player based on 8-10 minutes a game but stupid fans don't have the brain cells required to grasp this and never ever will because they are just too damn stupid to do so. Van Gundy benched Spanoulis for a horrible horrible point guard in Rafer Alston and by doing so, then also playing Spanoulis ONLY LIMITED minutes made fans "believe" Spanoulis was horrible and Rafer was "decent", this then is "confirmed" when FAKE stats (stats that are designed to look bad by the coach from only playing the player limited minutes to skew his stats) and causes the "expert fans" to believe this crap to cover the coach's actions, which are really based on something else. Rick Adelman is doing exactly this to Luther Head and Steve Francis now. And to all the "expert fans" that don't get this they are now completely exposed because now they can see what playing Luther Head normal minutes versus limited minutes does to a stat line. But these fans are so damn stupid and arrogant that they can never even attempt to grasp this. If any coach decides to make ANY PLAYER even Michael Jordan look bad he CAN. He can then convince at least half of ANY fan base this is true. The people who think Rafer Alston is not only better but even as good as Luther Head, Vassilis Spanoulis, or Steve Francis live in an imaginary world of make believe.
Just being hypothetical Is it possible that Adelman and Morey are playing Rafer and Luther to give the illusion that they are better then Francis? Doing this, would boost the trade value of both of them. Maybe Adleman and Morey always planned and still plan to let Francis start, but first thought it would be a good idea to stretch Head's and Alston's value to maximize the amount they get back from a trade. If this is the case, being that this is a marathon of a season, I think this is a great move! Let Francis get back into shape and learn the offense better. Maximize our return on those two players. And at the end of the day, we have more “helpful talent” that we could surround Yao and McGrady with. We have a healthy Steve and Snyder ready to contribute. Although I really don't think this is their real agenda, it would be pretty smart if it were. CRT
The problem with this line of reasoning IMHO is that if Morey thinks he is getting someone to trade anything of any value at all for Alston, his numbers need to be re-run.
Luther and Rafer were exposed for what they are in the playoffs. And Luther is horrible on defense. How can Rockets fans watch the games and not see that? The other team's coaches and shooting guards get lit up like it's christmas with smiles a country mile wide when they see Little Lu enter the game. It's basically an auto 2 points every time another two guard takes him. It's scary the way the same "we were 52-30 stop complaining about JVG's rotation" argument last year is STILL being used this year "we are 5-1 SHUT UP". It's like the playoffs taught these fans nothing.
I would hope so too, but lets give RA the benefit of the doubt and assume he knows a little more about the situation.
their roles on those playoff teams were vastly different. steve was the team leader in his lone playoff series and luther is a backup guard.
What the HELL are you talking about? If rafer was on that knicks team im sure as hell he would of been 0-4 and he would not have put up no where NEAR the numbers steve did. The ONLY reason rafer looks so good and wins is because of YAO AND TRACY. everyone knows rafer is our weakness, so why defend him? We have never seen yao, tracy and steve play so you cant put judgement on how well steve will do with them. Maybe theres something RA might know about steve in practice...but from What the pUBLIC has seen...we have nothing to go by. Did you ever think that RA migth just have somehting AGAINST steve...just because hes a pro coach doesnt mean he does not have any sort of bias against other players. RA might even be trying to turn our headcase around like he did with players like bonzi. If so i think steve got the point...
Unfortunately, that is pure speculation and has no basis in fact. I would be very suprised if Rafer started over Fisher.
Yeah! Thats what he does (has done) every posession his entire career. Give me a break and stop the hate. SF is not a prototypical PG, but he is not half as bad as all his critics on this board. Funny thing is, in his worst statistical seasons, he is still better than Rafer, or at least on par with Rafer in almost every category except TOs, and 3pt%. I am not saying start SF, but he at least derserves a sniff of playing time to see what he can do with the first unit. Besides, Rafer has sure proved himself, hasn't he?
