I never minded too too much the label of Rafer, poor offensive player but decent guard, even if the offensive is an 8-scale of importance and all the other stuff a 4. Its okay for a frontcourt player to a big meathead throwing his body around hitting 40% free throws & cant catch a pass. But a guard is expected to be a sharpshooter and offensive whiz. Thats just how it goes, the inverse will never be the expectation... But its appearing an average backup creating average offense is helping the team just as much. And looking to improve on top of that. Keep Brooks at backup, fine. But you cant hold back his progress so it doesnt effect Rafer's ego. And you can't pile on all kinds of accomplishments Rafer's done to be considered THE man. Cuz you really can't think of all kinds of plays he's created...
Well, sure... they're also scary good when Chuck Hayes starts hitting three-point grannies. The point is Rafer's body of work offensively is very, very poor. My feeling is Rafer should start but see less time. Brooks should remain the spark off the bench, and if he continues this resurgence (he's been off the past 2 games), he should see as much if not more time than Rafer. However, Morey should continue to keep his ears to the ground for improvement here -- Do not fear trading/replacing Rafer Alston because of the myth that the Rockets can't win without him.
For now,Rafer is our best PG.we need a guy to pass the damn ball to Yao,this task Rafer did better than anybody else
The significance of Rafer is basically this: Familiarity - He is Yao's and Tracy's Linus Comfort Blanket basically. Just a good excuse for them to avoid having to lead this team. They just throw Rafer over their shoulder and suck their thumbs. And then they can let him take the brunt of the criticism when he throws up a 2 for 13 night. Tracy and Yao have made Rafer the Defacto Leader of the entire team because of their lack of leadership and unwillingness to step up and aggressively shoulder responsibility (Tracy, especially). Yao is just a pansy that won't retaliate on a consistent basis. He just lets all the hacks and crap accumulate until he very mildly boils over about twice a year and gets the refs to pull the whistle out of their buttocks for a quarter or two. He never demands the ball, just always tries to play "within the system" and meld in with the rest of the guys. If once per game, he'd pull a Karl Malone and intentionally unintentionally run over his defender or some other midget hacking him, and if he would DEMAND the basketball in the low post, he'd be a 30 point per game scorer and the MVP. But I've come to the conclusion it's just not in him and never will be. McGrady is just a mealy mouth baller that will only step up to the plate a couple times per month. He likes to talk big but inside he is a shrinking violet. Before we got Artest and Barry, Rafer has been the only guy on the court that would retaliate on the opponent for unnecessary roughness. He is the only guy that will stand up to the refs and take a T. Now we've got Artest, but he's crippled out there to do anything because of his past history. So we are really still relying on Rafer to bring the spunk and not only hold our own guys accountable but also keep the opponent accountable for cheap shots, etc. There is nothing else of significance that Rafer brings. He's a great defender? My eye. Sure he's disruptive. He's played starters minutes for what, the last 4-5 years now. He knows Van Gundy's defense like the back of his hand and he's gotten the minutes to make whatever adjustments Adelman has asked for. Sure he looks great defensively out there disrupting things. We ain't got nobody else that's been given anything close to his minutes to develop. But the facts are, up until this year, every team that has a stud point guard drives us nuts. Good defense my right upper thigh. It's all persona with Rafer. Don't get me wrong, I actually like Rafer's spunk. Skills wise, he's got a great handle and very good court vision and awareness. He brings nothing else. He's simply a by-product of two superstars with poor leadership skills. (Ahem, see my signature.)
By the way, George Hill is going to be a very good point in the NBA. He is already on his way. I was hoping beyond hope we'd get this guy in the draft somehow.
Exactly, he is their crutch. Sometimes you have to toss the crutches away to make Forest run. Time to toss Rafer away, his celebrated mediocrity has run it's course. There is a reason that Jamal Tinsley and Rafer Alston are untradeable, because teams do not want PGs that can dribble, but not shoot....you have to be able to score the ball at a decent rate to be an effective PG. DD
Yeah... nothing says we don't need Rafer Alston quite like beating a Hornets team that didn't even feel like showing up yesterday. This is the same team that also lost on the road to the Bobcats. I guess the 2008 Playoffs where we couldn't win a single game without Alston is already erased in your memories. Our two wins against the Jazz were with Alston starting. Go figure. Since apparently we don't need Rafer anymore, I guess that means we don't need Battier anymore using you people's logic. Both players' main contributions are invisible in the box score, and therefore are not needed Lets just trade both of them and Head for a "real" PG. Lets see how Morey feels about that. Did anyone notice how T-Mac was playing point forward for a lot of the game because Brooks got into foul trouble? You guys really want T-Mac to be forced to play some point for the rest of the season and throughout the playoffs? That's really going to work out well to save his energy. Even with him playing the point, we were forced to make Head handle the ball, which is SCARY. Luckily, Head actually did a relatively nice job of not turning the ball over, considering how many touches he got. If we want to win a championship this season, we NEED Alston healthy.
Like clockwork. Lose, and the Rockets can't win without Rafer. Win, and the opponent was a total scrub.
What I saw against the Hornets is that Brooks, somehow, was able to play off Paul and use excellent team help to shut down Paul. I never would have expected it to work as well as it did, so kudos to him. On offense, I think the Rockets relieved him of the typical PG duties that Rafer would have had. McGrady was setting up plays and orchestrating the offense much more than he would have with Rafer. So, Aaron's two weaknesses (relative to Rafer) were masked well by the Rockets. I don't know if it will work so well in the long run.
Some people will defend any player that wears a Rockets jersey. Case in point: David Wesley Some people used to act like he was a credible NBA guard. Dude sucked, plain and simple. Rafer sucks, plain and simple.
I dont think anyone is afraid of trading Rafer. What bugs me is the people who just want to discard him for nothing like that is going to help improve our team somehow. Or the ones who bash him and hope he can somehow be the main peice in a trade for Hinrich or another solid PG. Without question, we need Rafer right now just for the fact that Brooks cant play the whole game. And dumping him for a scrub (ie: Tinsley or Marbury) will hurt this team not help it. Clearly you are not a fan of Rafer, but at least you see that starting him is best for now. Brooks is perfectly suited to come in off the bench. I agree if he has it on, leave him in the game. But simply making him the starter the past two games seemed to have messed his game up a bit so why rush him along even faster.
My viewpoint is that Rafer sucks so bad (everything considered: terrible offense and decent defense) that we should start Brooks until we can find a better option. Our 2 through 5 in the starting lineup is the slowest and most unathletic in the league (Yao, Scola, Artest or Battier, McGrady). When the shot clock is winding down, none of those guys are good at taking their man one-on-one if the offense breaks down. T-Mac can do it every once in a while but more often than not he settles for a low percentage jump shot because he isn't quick enough, healthy enough, determined enough to get to the basket. Brooks gives us a boost in athleticism to play with the rest of our slow-footed starters. If the offense breaks down, as it does so often, at least Brooks can beat his man off the dribble and get a shot off. As far as his ability to set up the offense and play defense, I think Alston's advantages in these areas are mostly a byproduct of having more experience out there than being especially good at either. If anything, all Brooks has to do on offense to replicate Alston is do less. He can learn to dribble up the court and hand the ball to McGrady or Artest and call out a few plays. On top of that, he can CREATE HIS OWN SHOT AND HIT THE OPEN SHOT WITH SOME CONSISTENCY, both of which are things Rafer simply sucks at. Brooks can break down defenses, Alston can not. Brooks can get to the basket almost at will, Alston can not. Brooks can improve his defense more than Alston can improve his offense. In this era of NBA basketball, with no hand-checking on the perimeter, interior defense is more important anyway. Somebody earlier said it best: Alston is a crutch. We are used to his sub-mediocrity. It's time to get used to better. Brooks is better than Alston until we get somebody better than both.
The only difference between anthony carter,kevin ollie and rafer is rafer starts. I don't think Rafer can start for any other team in the league.Just like Hayes couldn't start when he was, its the same case. Rafer is a 15-20 min backup at best. I mean how sickening is the fact that rox fans are counting on a sub 40% shooter, actualy about 37% or so shooter as the key to a title. I can go back to Cousy in the 60% to find a team that has won with a pg shooting sub 40%. It doesn't happen,ever.
Your observation would make sense except that our big3 does not contain Rafer. We need more of a playmaker rather than another shooter that takes more shots. Rafer is actually a decent playmaker at least in terms of taking off responsibility from mcgrady.
