Update: Rafer Alston out a week (part of playoffs)

His soul wasn't worth much

 

i remeber when they said landry 2 games, ill remain opptomistic but a severe hamstring takes more than a week, most likely will come back to soon

 

Haha this is awesome! Aaron Brooks will defenitely step up and do a lot more than Rafer, Aaron Brooks loves big games, he defenitely showed up in the NCAA tournament and took his team pretty far!

 

NCAA =/= NBA

 

I'd rather see Bobby and Aaron out there anyway.Brooks is about to drop the bomb and Bobby knows the offense,has had enough time to get integrated(and help get everyone else there),will D up,run the break,and hit threes.

I wouldn't wish injury on anyone or be too much of a conspiracy theorist,but I honestly think that Rick has a plan.We laid down against Denver and Utah.Expect us to pound the Clippers.Utah is who we wanted all along.
And when the playoffs start I see Tracy driving to the hole more( with more spring and purpose too) as well as accepting his role in the offense.Both he and Carl will be Skywalkers again soon.
Jackson will find Carl in the spaces of the defense and Brooks will be penetrating and busting from downtown.


This team is going to shock the NBA again.

 

I like what you are saying man keep it positive

 

Odds of Brooks lighting it up in the play-offs: Slim

Odds of (healthy)Rafer lighting it up in the play-offs: Slim

Odds of Brooks having several poor turnover games: Decent

Odds of (healthy)Rafer having several poor turnover games: Slim

Odds of Brooks limiting the opposing PG's effectiveness: Slim

Odds of (healthy)Rafer limiting the opposing PG's effectiveness: Decent

 

Now we will really see how good we are without Rafer.

 

maybe a blessing in disguise?

 

yes i never knew BJAX was that much of a better starter also

 

And that probably would not have been a good thing. Perhaps Aaron Brooks would have been starting instead with Mike James being the backup. It would have been quite interesting to see how Aaron would be doing if he was to play major minutes and carry on the load at PG when we consider that he has not been asked to do that at all this season. Even with the addition of BJax, I wonder how many people on this board would like it if Aaron Brooks was asked to carry on the load with Rafer being out.

The latest info I could get from ESPN concerning Mike James' stats with the Hornets is that he played in 20 games averaging 8.4 mpg, 2.8 ppg on 36.2 percent shooting. Last night, he played for 14 minutes, and scored 2 points on 1 for 6 shooting in his team's 111-98 loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

 

There's a problem with your logic as I see it. Vs Utah, Battier is normally on AK47 or Harpring. Battier is a none issue from a rotational aspect since they have range and can keep Battier on the perimeter.

As for Hayes, he's not a shot blocker and (assuming he's on Boozer instead of on the perimeter with Okur) Williams can just turn away from the attempted double team.

Personally, I think Williams mid-block with Boozer (who has range) weakside from FT line extended makes perfect sense.

 

Set all 5 of Utah's players and I'll tell you how we should defend it.

You're describing Dwill on the left mid block. He'll most likely have to work his way down there with the dribble. Then you've got Booz at the FT line on the right. I'm assuming Okur is at the 3 point line strong side? AK in the right corner? And Brewer/Price right wing?

I'll give you my thoughts here.

1. Drop Luis down from the topside to hassle DWill into giving it up back to Okur.

2. When DWill throws it out, Brooks can then use his quickness to release and come around and front DWill forcing him to run through the lane back to the top or Okur gets the opportunity to try to throw the lob pass over both Scola and Brooks, which would be a stupid play on the Jazz.

If this doesn't work..............go to next option.

Bring Hayes down a couple steps off Boozer to force DWill to give up the ball. DWill has to either try to squeeze through the double, or turn baseline for the shot with Hayes crowding his shooting hand, or throw the ball to Boozer. Boozer is in all likelihood going to cut to the basket. You trail Brewer's defender down hard on Boozer to force the pass to the perimeter to Brewer. This won't work if Korver is out there because of his accurate quick release. But it will work with Brewer.

Basically, what you are doing is going to force the long pass to either Brewer or AK standing in the corner or force it back to Okur with the defender running him off his shot and forcing him to put the ball on the floor. We want Okur dribbling the ball and we don't want Boozer and DWill shooting it.

Just a couple thoughts. I think defensively we are going to be much more effective with Hayes/Deke on Boozer this year and Scola/Battier on Okur. Because Okur actually plays outside all the time, we could probably get away with playing two small guards along with Tracy/Battier/and Scola at times to create our own offensive mismatches against them.

 

i hope rafer comes back in time for us to create some damage

 

Hopefully, he will be back for game 4 in Utah on Saturday....

 

What I find hilarious...

Daryl Morey is a draft day god....until his PG pick must now play bigger playoffs minutes.

Daryl Morey was given the keys to the Royal Palace when he traded the post up game of Wells for Bobby "I've got a valuable expiring contract" Jackson.


I don't have the time or inclination to check, but I have a strong suspicion that a lot of the gloom and doom posters in this thread have posted glowing reviews of Morey in threads thoughout this past season. Gentleman, probably a good time to address your schizophrenia.

 

I would rather him on the bench than play crappy.

 

Heck yes I will stand behind Morey.

Bonzi stunk he flat out STUNK....and with Rafer out we are lucky to have Bjax....a GREAT trade by Morey.....

And Aaron Brooks is a rookie, but he can be a game changer....with Yao out I am glad we have Morey pulling the trigger.

The Rockets are better without that dead wood Bonzi dragging the team down...he no longer draws double teams, is crap on the low block, can't play defense and doesn't hit free throws.

GOOD RIDDANCE !!!

If Morey wasn't the GM and able to get us Scola and Brooks and Landry...this team would be nowhere NEAR the top 4 seeds without Yao.....he did a fantastic job.....and it was not all $ball$ either.

DD

 

chill on the bonzi hate. i'd gladly welcome him back to this team but i'm also glad, in light of rafer's injury, that we have bobby jackson. you don't have to disparage ex-players and turn a blind eye to all the good things they brought in order to appreciate a new player. bonzi does draw double teams, is still a threat on the low block, has active hands on defense, and fits right in on this rockets team when it comes to free throws. criticize him for things he actually isn't good at (suspect jumper for one), instead of making stuff up.

 

only problem with this, is why would okur try to throw the ball back in to deron down low when he is wide open for the 3? the moment someone (scola in your example) drops down, deron kicks it back and okur shoots the 3. the ability of their bigs to shoot from outside is exactly why you can't double a guard in the post.