I saw Brooks had a great game as well as Jackson. Prior to Rafer's injury Brooks was not getting any minutes and Jackson seemed to be uncomfortable and inconsistent. I think we all agree that Rafer's inconsistent shooting is an Achilles' heel for this team. His disappearance in the playoffs last year killed us as well although I will concede that everyone but Tmac and Yao did the same. My thought here is that RA is being forced to give Jackson more minutes and Brooks went from out of the rotation to getting some serious minutes too. If both of these guys can get into a rhythm and in Brooks' case get some confidence as well as earn Adelman's trust perhaps the Rockets just gave themselves some quality, change of pace options at PG for the playoffs. Certinaly, PG is still a weakness for this team but if either one of these two guys can give the team a shot in the arm it is a huge upgrade from last year.
lol, why is it that every time a starting player goes down people think the team is better without them?
yeah...the clippers didnt even play any defense. They were playing against dan dickau and smush parker for gods sake. The sonics don't play defense eiter. They have played well vs a bunch of scrubs. You just hate rafer. Just say it
Sorry. I was not clear in my original post. I was trying to say that on the nights when Rafer is giving the team a 2 for 13 shooting night it will be a luxury to have someone who can come off the bench and take over PG responsibilities (in a way Head cannot) and also hit an open jumper consistently. Last season this team had to have Rafer on the floor because there was not a competent backup on the roster. This season the team may have two come playoff time. I am not saying the team is better without Rafer but rather it is better with options outside of Rafer in certain situations.
Who knows.. This team has been able to learn from all the major injuries this year. Tracy Mcgrady goes down - the guys found out that they CAN play well without #1 Yao goes down - the guys pull together and we witness one of the best team basketball ever Rafer goes down - Bobby J and Brooks become comfortable enough to be huge options in the playoffs, stopping Rafer from taking 16+ shots a game?
This one is actually interesting, as opposed to "better with Yao/T-Mac injured". Jackson has run this offense for a long time and was still getting his legs back at first. Now he's getting his rhythm within the team back. Brooks is surprising me. But Adelman cuts down to 7.5 players in the playoffs, so I don't know if there's even a chance anyone but Rafer and Bobby see playoff minutes at PG.
while i sorta get what Dave78 is saying, rafer seems to be amazingly underrated. not that he's good in a league-wide sense, but how much better he has been than the alternatives for so long. he was killing it during the streak. when aaron brooks was our backup and couldn't shoot, run an offense, or not force passes and commit turnovers, rafer was actually running the offense and guarding people. and when bobby jackson got here and started off doing his best moochie norris impersonation, rafer was carrying the PG position to keep the streak alive. yeah it sucks that the guy can throw a 3 for 15 game up there and you're not even surprised, but he pretty much runs the offense and plays fairly good D every game, and when he adds in the shot we're damn tough. when he doesn't, we struggle. the problem is, it's hard to tell when to take him out or not. and while brooks has been shooting well the last few games, he was at 30% on 3's coming into this stretch, so counting on him for buckets in the playoffs may leave people disappointed.
This is how the injuries will probably pan out when we look back. It won't be that we are any better without a particular player, but rather it gave other players a chance to play and allowed us to grow better as a team. In playoff basketball, it will be important to have a deep bench that can come in and play in the case of scoring droughts/injuries/matchups, but only if they have experience. With so many different ways to play (learning to play without Tmac/Yao/Alston) will also give us several styles of basketball to throw at other teams, making it harder for any given team to grow accustom to our defense/offense scheme. In the end, all that matters is that we win.
I'm ready for our 3 headed monster of Rafer+Bjackson+Brooks to take on Deron Williams in the playoffs. Last year it was just Rafer all by himself getting used and abused for 7 games at about 45 mins per. Especially with No Fisher to back up Williams our 3 pgs can really give D.Williams several different looks. Especially if any one of the 3 are on shooting wise I love our chances.
I remember JGD said that he played Rafer 40 min for Yao's sake. Since Yao is out now, I don't think Rafer is essential for the rockets.
I like brooks because he actually knows how to shoot a floater That floater Rafer takes is soooooo ugly. He has to pray for that to go in most of the time.
I don't think we can win a series without Rafer playing a large role in the playoffs. He's done a respectable job up to now so I won't dare to disrespect what he's accomplished for himself and for the team. ... But that's not to say Brooks shouldn't play either. It might just be me but I see him bring a sense of urgency every time he runs the point unlike Jackson and Alston. I knew the rotation would get jumbled up after the trade for Jackson, but I didn't think Brooks would only come in for the final 2 minutes most of the time. Aaron as proven himself time in and time out so he deserves more play.
If we can play the Blazers (without Roy), the Sonics, and the Clippers in the Western Conference Playoffs, I think that might put us over the top.
Always bothered me when a player plays really well for a while, then he gets hate when he doesn't do it all the time. Rafer has played amazingly well this year. The good point of this thread is that Rafer had to play heavy heavy minutes last year b/c we didn't have anyone else to run the team. This years playoffs will be different. Rafer doesn't have to play heavy heavy minutes every night. But it seems fairly obvious he will have to have some big games if we are to advance.
Okay, let's see if you're right. These last 3 games without Rafer, the combination of Brooks, BJax, and Luther have scored a combined 106 points on 77 shots. That's right at 1.34 points per shot. That is VERY GOOD! Sure it was junk teams, and junk defense. So, let's go back and pick out the last three games that we played with Rafer in the lineup against junk teams. Let's take the Minny game on March 26th, and then look at the Charlotte game on March 14 and the Atlanta game on March 12th, when we were on a roll. During those games the group of Rafer, BJax, and Luther scored a combined 67 points on 87 SHOTS!!!! Do you understand now? That's about 3/4 of a point per shot. OH, THIS INCLUDED A DISMAL 3 FOR 18 GAME AGAINST ATLANTA FOR RAFER! So, let's throw that one out and include the previous game against New Jersey. That would make those 3 guys scoring a whopping 72 points on 79 shots!!! Still below 1 point per shot and terribly inefficient! Look, you've got to be able to understand this point. IF RAFER IS MISSING BUNCHES AND BUNCHES OF SHOTS, THEN HE SHOULD SIT DOWN IN FAVOR OF SOMEBODY ELSE! In fact, the truth is, if any of Rafer, BJax, Head, or Brooks ain't hitting, you gotta sit 'em down and try one of the other options. Because, for this year at least, McGrady is the playmaker and distributor. We might as well accept it and work with it. When McGrady is on the floor, the other guard is, for all practical purposes, the OFF GUARD!!! So, the off guard needs to be able to shoot efficiently, and penetrate and finish as the opportunities present themself, and defend the opposing point guard to some degree of competency. So, who qualifies? Look, we know what Rafer is gonna bring, a steady hand, safe passes, low turnovers, very streaky shooting, horrible finishing, and decent team defense. In my opinion, if Rafer comes out of the gate cold, and misses his first 2 or 3 shots, he should be sat down pronto in favor of BJax and Brooks. Head should be last in line because of his crappy defense and his tendacy to turn the ball over. Here's the truth about Bobby Jackson. HE'S OLD!!!! Dude was great in the first half tonight, knocking down shots, taking his time, played a great half. But he came out 2nd half and you could tell after about 6 minutes that his legs were gone. From there on, it was a heave ho famine for him and he turned a good shooting start into a 4 for 13 night. So, whatcha gonna do? Hey, you gotta go to the kid man. Too much quickness, too much ability to break a single defender down and beat them to the hole. And realistically, Brooks is a better shooter than both Rafer and BJax at this stage of his career. AND HE'S ONLY GOING TO GET BETTER! One more really good game out of Brooks and Adelman is going to have to bring him into the rotation, I'm telling you. He's sat over there on the bench for several weeks now, getting his head together and you can see it coming together for him now. It's not about how good the guys are we are playing against. It's about who is playing the best for our team. That's who we gotta play.
