Absence of Rafer Alston. Say what you will about his shooting, but he is the decision maker for the team. He is the person that you can blame for a horrific shooting night. Remember, last year when he got tossed in the LA Clipper game. WE got owned so bad. SO heres a message to Rafer, we NEED YOU TO WIN!!!
Personally, I believe it was because Yao just played terribly. Normally, when we have problems with our offense, we pound it in to Yao who scores or creates opportunities. If Yao plays better, I don't see there being a problem in the future.
I think it has a little to do with rafer,but I think they making to big of a deal out of it.The guy shoots like 20%.This time it is on the coach.
If we *need* Rafer to win, we're in so much trouble. Can you think of another team in the NBA that needs a Rafer Alston quality player to win?
Believe me, he's lost us more games in the lineup than he has out of it. Dude isn't the equilibrium of a contender.
Its not the fact that we needed rafer its the fact that we need a true pg in there to run the show and even with rafer i think we're not that much better. We need to upgrade at the pg position either by trade or via free agency. The fact of the matter is that to win in this league now you have to have a solid pg who can shoot and run the team. If you look at all the elite teams they have solid pg play utah has dwill s.a. has parker and so on and so on. So I believe if the rockets in the near future want to succeed their has to be a change at the pg position.
i believe the absence of Rafer has played a part in us looking so discombobulated. it's no coincidence that the two games Rafer is out we have our two worst games of the season. of course rafer haters will just deny this and say "t-mac sucked...yao sucked...etc", and when we look much better on wednesday with rafer back they'll say "put francis back in the starting lineup!!"
If Jeff Van Gundy just had Mike James as his point guard, with the rest of the squad the way it is minus the prima donnas bonzi and stevie, we'd of won by at least 10. and you know that!
I don't think you're seeing the big picture. This is a resistance to change ... or a lack of confidence in change. Rafer is just part of that. I don't know how anything can get worse than what we saw in Philly, so yeah, I assume they will be better with Rafer back (assuming he plays Wednesday) ... but they're going to go back to JVG's ways rather than Adelman's ways, and they're going to have problems until they all (new and old players) get on the same page. Right now T-Mac and Yao have problems with Adelman. That is at the core of this.
I think only Alston and Tmac knows how to get the ball to Yao on this team. But sometimes Tmac doesn't want to. In this case, Alston is the only reliable source to get Yao the ball. Without Alston on this team, Yao looks much worse.
Like I said before, no Rafer might not be the reason we lost or looked so horrible these past two games, but the other guards certainly didn't do anything to show they deserve to be starting ahead of him.
I think that IS what is going on right now. It has me tuning in a little more than usual thats for sure. I think part of the deal is Yao and Tmac and the rest of the starters were so spoiled by JVG and his assistants detailed game plans for each opponent, that they aren't sure what to do. The "just go out and play ball' option by Rick Adelman and crew is not a real good one right now.
Clutch, I thought TMac and Yao said (in training camp) that they liked the freedom that Coach Adelman and his system brought. Do you think it’s a personality conflict (between TMac, Yao, and Adelman) or is it just that JVG was so meticulous that the extreme coaching change is hard to get used to? In the first several games of the season, the team seemed to be running Adelman’s system and post game interviews indicated that the team enjoyed the new system. In your opinion, what changed? Do you see personnel changes (players) coming or does management think it will just take time to adjust? Thanks in advance, Chris
I love the losses. I like the way things are shaking. Only through changes and shakings will a leader rise up on the floor. If there is nobody rising up to the challenge, then the management needs to look for one. The Rockets need a leader on the floor, not on the bench. Team wont win big if it doesnt has a floor leader. Fixing accumulated problems for 4 years is not an overnight project. Fans that call for the returning of JVG is resisting to change and want to stuck in mediocrity.
If rafer is the reason for the last two losses, then this team will never win something big, see what is happening with the spurs, they do not have duncan.
