You know what Golden State fans called Derek Fisher when he was playing for the Warriors? "Dreck Misser" Enough said, no?
I gotcha. The problem with Rafer is his inconsistent/streaky play. He's doing great now, and hopefully he can keep that up, but I worry about his crummy averages catching up with him at the wrong time (when we are fighting for a playoff spot). We need a stabilizer, someone who can shoot in the 40's, and can finish. Rafer's idea of finishing is jumping from the free throw line and shot-putting up one of those ugly runners (damn I wish we had a percentage on that!). We need someone with playoff experience, confidence, and a dead-on shooter at the 1. AB is still getting his feet wet, James is in the doghouse, and Francis is out. In order to make it DEEP in the playoffs, we need need that extra cog in the wheel.
rafer's doing well lately. if, and a big IF that is, he can maintain this level of play, i'd say our pg issue is at least semi-solved. true, ideally we'd like a chris paul or tony parker type of 1 on our team, but we've already have 2 superstars. can't have star player on every position.
Not that Fisher is great, but he falls in one or more of those categories and you need that from your PG to win in the playoffs. Derek Fisher was able to consistently knock down open shots created for him by Shaq, and he wouldn't make terrible decisions on offense in the 4th qtr. This is something Rafer is Wafer thin at doing, so no, I wouldn't put him in Fisher's class.
Its not a matter of needing a star at every position, but you simply can't win if one of your players is a huge liability. Particularly when its your pg who is supposed to set the tone w/ smart, controlled play. We don't need a star pg, frankly i think a cp3 would be wasted on the rox. What we don't need however, is a sub-40% shooting pg who takes contested 3s with 22 secs left on the shot clock and pulls up for long jumpers in 1 on 3 situations. Thats the part about rafer that drives me nuts. Its ok that you suck, just don't exacerbate (sp) it by taking r****ded, difficult shots when you are barely capable of making an open, uncontested shot.
we don't need an elite point guard, we just need a consistent point guard. rafer is playing well, but i'm worried about consistency.
I'm ecstatic that Rafer Alston has moved up from "sucks" to "not as good as championship PGs." That's as much as I could have expected this year. If he keeps it up, we might even be able to trade him for somebody with a higher ceiling. I defend the guy a lot, because most of the criticism heaped on him here is garbage. But his complete inability to hit when it counted is a major reason why we lost to Utah.
BINGO! He's an offensive liability just like Chuck Hayes. How many wide open looks has he missed this year?
these rafer alston haters need to stop being so ignorant and start paying attention to the games. SO he took a lot of shots yesterday, his fg% was high so who cares.......it's actually when he stopped shooting in the 4th that the kings started to come back. TMac was not looking for his shot last night so what do you expect?? someone else has to take the shots and they couldnt always get the ball to yao and plus yao gets doubled. These Rafer haters would rather see tmac got 4-17, and rafer not take shots than to see TMac go 3-10 and rafer go 9-20
no we lost last year because of yao and everyone else's inability to at least contain carlos boozer.......i swear these delusional rocket fans are worse than Yankee fans.....you already have the top center in the NBA, you have one of the best swingmen in TMAC, now you want a deron williams type as your PG?? this isnt fantasy basketball.
I swear nobody on this board actaully watches the games. Almost all of Rafer's shots last night were within the offense--i.e. good shots. Sure, he took a couple ill-advised jumpers in transition, but you can't really blame him too much when he's the only guy that runs down the court on every fast break opportunity (Scola does this well, too, but he didn't play much last night). Rafer played a very smart game last night for the most part. My only big criticism was that he was trying to force the ball into Yao in the 4th quarter, which resulted in turnovers and a stagnant offense.
What are you talking about? Offensively, Rox was the worst team in that playoffs. On the other hand, defensively, Rox played very well in that series. .
Dude I just want someone who can: KNOCK DOWN AN OPEN SHOT Rafer's FG% is 4th worst among ALL (30) NBA starting PG's. Is it wrong of me to want to add a player who can freaking shoot the basketball in the basket and not miss alot of shots? Rafer does many things ON PAR with other starting PG's in the league, he just can't shoot - and we need someone who can CONSISTENTLY knock down shots.
In general, I don't have a problem with Rafer's defense or shot selection. Compare him to others on the team, and he looks damn good in terms of shot selection. I really think he's solid. And his quarterbacking instincts and passing skills are terrific. The lethal thing against Utah was that Sloan could always send extra guys to smother Yao or McGrady, knowing that if Rafer had to be the one to shoot, the numbers would work out in Utah's favor. And they did. Oh, what I'd give for Alston or Hayes to be an offensive threat. It would make life so much easier for McGrady and Yao. Look what Scola has done for Yao and the offense just by being able to shoot from 15 feet.
Remember that off season when the Rockets had a full MLE and Derek Fisher was a possible target? What was that...2...3 years ago? He went to GS and sucked, then to Utah and was decent, and then to LAL where he's doing well. Is that the year we got Stromile Swift with the full MLE? Anyhow, most agree that Rafer is okay for 30 minutes a game is most reasonable people are hoping for someone else to pick up that 18 minutes of good PG play. The options are as follows: Brooks - he's hit the rookie wall for 2 weeks now. Mike James - great first 5 games, terrible for the next 30 and has only played spot duty since then. Head - probably will never develop PG skills Francis - old and hurt The Rockets rally tried hard this off-season to either get a Rafer replacement or at least get him help to spell his minutes. The problem is all 3 alternatives are having one issue or another. There's really no one else out there that the Rockets can get unless they want to give up some great future talent (Brooks, Landry, Scola). It's a tough scenario. I hope Mike James finds his shot again...that seems like the most likely scenario in my opinion. James ability to run an offense is inconsistent at best and down right terrible at worst....non of this really matters if he can put in a solid 15 mins per game during the playoffs and hit 40% on treys and 45% from the field. I really hope that will happen and then the PG situation would be pretty solid.
One area Rafer has undoubtedly improved in is making his teardrops. It has gone from a sure miss to a sweet look. The rest of his game has maintained steady but at least he's better than last year in at least one aspect.
