Missed today's game, but in the previous game, Miami were daring him to shoot from the outside. Thankfully, he started making them. The first play from the Nuggets game highlights below, Alston is again left completely undefended for the three: http://www.nba.com/video/games/rock....nba/index.html Given how streaky he's been, I doubt teams are going to change their tactics in the coming weeks. So Rafer's gotta keep hitting his shots. Plus, from what I've seen, Rafer's been playing some good defense lately.
If Rafer drops 30ppg on 60% shooting for the next 10 games, his shooting percentage would no longer be 36%. It would be approximately 45%.
lol i like rafer, i hate his slump time but when he play good, he could be one of the top 10 pg in the leauge
This is exactly right. When Tmac is out, teams are game planning soley to stop Yao and it opens it up for Rafer to do his thing on the perimeter. When facing solid team defenses, rafer will be useless without mcgrady. He is capable of stinker games where he absolutely kills the team. Tmac, even on one leg, even on his worst day, helps the team with his size, his passing, and his rebounding....Rafer plays better when tmac is not on the court because he can handle the ball and run the offense. The problem with him running the show every night is that his inconsistant shooting is bound to show up against good defenses, and he will kill the team, especially in crunch time. Tmac not playing does make alston more productive, but it doesn't make the team more difficult to beat. Tracy does make the team more difficult to beat, and I'm confident in time he will prove that yet again this season when he returns to the lineup, healthier both mentally and physically.
Hate all you want, but Rafer had a monster game agaisnt Denver He scored an efficient 18 points on 15 shots, along with 11 assists and ZERO trurnovers. While his matchup, the very good Chauncey Billups went 3 for 12 with 6 turnovers.
I wont jump into the rafer bandwagon. He can play a couple of good games here and there, but it all depends on his shooting feeling, and that can easily off and not reliable, also his stupid tear-drop and always-missed layup really pissed me off. I would prefer a pg with more muscle, score 10-12 pts, deliver 5-6 assists per game consistently, and most importantly, wont miss those fast-break layups. Rafer has not reached the level of a good pg who can initiate offence and have a bigger picture of the ball game.
<br> Ok.. I'll go ahead and continue to hate, because when he goes on his next slump of playing 23 games abysmally, the rest of you will join me
wow. 2 good games and everyone's a fan of rafer? i would still trade the guy for someone with a consistently good outside shot and doesnt take those stupid teardrops.
But when people start spamming "start Brooks" in threads all the time, thats when it becomes an issue. I don't know if overall I would say Rafer is better than Brooks in the scoring department, but it all comes back to the confidence thing and the leadership thing. Brooks has none, and Rafer has it in spades. So when Brooks is playing well, of course I'm going to want him in my starting line-up. Just... he hasn't consistently been able to do that. He's all the way down to 40% shooting now (still better than Rafer, just not as much). Meanwhile, there is still the whole "Rafer gets us into our offense faster" business. BTW, people like to say things like "he just runs down the court and passes it to Tmac... anyone can do that" when I mention that Rafer runs the offense better. But... if that's true about Rafer (that he just hands it off to Tmac every possession and goes and finds a corner), then how is he averaging nearly 5 assists a game?
This team is almost unbeatable when Rafer plays well. Imagine the possibilities if we had a consistent star point guard.
DD this a good observation on Rafer. I believe he said in a Chron article stating this team should be playing with ball movement instead of one player trying to do it all. I hope he stays playing like this and does not allow TMac to start playing the iso game once TMac gets back. Rafer should get initiate the offensive instead of having TMac stop the ball movement.
I agree with this completely. Tmac is the primary ball handler on offense when he's on the court usually. So naturally giving Alston more playmaking ability means more points by him. But the thing is... giving Alston the ball more in the offense doesn't sound like a recipe of success for this team.
