he is the same guy...he's always been a decent spot up shooter. His problem comes when shooting off the dribble. Plus, he can pick and choose his shots in orlando. In houston, he was forced into more of a scorers role.
Rafer's shooting percentages for the playoffs, where he has been on a roll including his hot shooting last night, are about the exact same as he did here in houston (high 30's from field/3 points). he's giving you the same. It's the same rafer in a different package.
odd how we have 4 people in this thread who write very similar in this thread with low post counts... jus sayin....
I always wonder Why the many fans can't understand these simple point. You are not going to have all stars at every position, and as a role player Rafer is obviously good enough to help a team past the first round and maybe even to the finals despite the blame he shouldered for play off failures here.
Cavaliers Dared Alston To Shoot In Game 4 even the cavs had no respect for rafer. just same thing as he was in houston. he hit open shots, which any nba player can do. its nothing to be proud of.
Rafer just fits so well with the system of Orlando. Hope he develops a consistency in his perimeter game.
That's why coach RA should be fired. That's why the owner Less is cheap and dummy. That's why Yao Ming should be blamed. Because They are disbelievers. They don't believe the team. Without Tmac, Yao, Deke, and rafer, they still managed to win 2 home games against fakers. They don't believe this team is ready to take over. That's why they never be big winners. Coach RA is definitely good. but when he had better teams in the final or semifinal (portland and queens), he was defeated by so-called lesser team consistently. Rockets had big winners in scola/battier/hayes and great fighters in Ron/AB/Yao/wafer/landry. They are very very special group. The role players are so great that probably one of the two bests in NBA history. It's up to their leaders to step up to be the believer.
I'm thrilled we caught a moment of opportunity of Alston playing well and Magic in dire need. I'm thrilled he's a part of them going deep in the playoffs, so they feel they got a good deal. Buy low, sell high. Develop your assets, and package them for better ones. Getting Alston for Kyle Lowry was a steal for us, especially at his age, and he'll be a key building block for a long time. He's happy as a backup, tough as nails, great defense, can grow with Brooks, and if we need to ship Brooks off for someone like Paul, we still have depth.
There's good shot/bad shot. In recent years he always took good shoot as Coaches demands even if his shot didn't fall. He's only a role player. If he can win one game for team in 7 game series, it's good enough for him.
and the TOs is counted on Ron. That's why AB has very few TOs. He made bad decisions and the TOs count on others.
Are you a fake Rafer fan? Current Rockets are loaded with offense weapans. 7 players had at least one 20+ points game without TMac/Rafer. How many current teams in NBA can do it? probably Denver/Suns but no others. Now the Rockets upgraded unbeliveable from coach JVG's time.
All I remember of Lowry in the playoffs was clanking shots. And yeah that's just the best game Rafer's had for a while and doesn't mean he does that on a consistent basis. In the last game he was a Rocket, he dished out quite a few flashy assists too but no one sang praises for him back then.
theres also knowing if you'r shooting well or not. If he's already 3 for 10 he needs to start driving the ball if he wants to keep trying to score, not stand and jack up 3or 4 more shots after that. either that or looks around for someone with a better shot, just because the shot is open doesn't mean you should always take it, you have to take other things into consideration.
based on what you're saying, we had 15 turnovers in the first quarter, which of course isn't true...just face it, it wasn't the TO that blew the game open, it was their rebounding.
^^ and the lakers didnt "jump on us" all those games. Game 2 was close and in game 5 WE actually jumped on them to start the game.
I do think this is an interesting topic. This is what I posted in the Dish a couple days ago. I remember plenty of people saying that there was no way you could be a championship caliber team with such a poor shooting PG or such poor shooting perimeter players (Rafer/Tracy or in this case Rafer/Hedo/Pietrus). It seems those people were wrong. If the Magic win one more game they will be in the finals with perimeter players who shoot a low fg%.
This is where you can look at adjusted FG%, which takes into account that if you take a huge number of 3 pt attempts your over all FG % will be significantly lower, but your points per shot attempt can still end up respectable or even above average. Adjusted Field Goal Percentage = [(PTS - FTM)/FGA]/2 AFG% measures shooting efficiency by taking into account the total points a player produces through his field goal attempts. The intention of this adjustment is largely to evaluate the impact of three-point shooting. For example, if Shaquille O'Neal has 3-5 FG, all two-point shots for 6 points, then his AFG% = [(6/5)]/2 = .600. Meanwhile, if Ray Allen is 2-5 FG, but his 2 FGM are both three-pointers for 6 points, then his AFG% = [(6/5)]/2 = .600 Based on AFG% for the year with their current teams: Rafer = 46.6% Hedo= 47.8% Lewis= 54% Brooks=47.6% Lowry=50%
when your poor shooting PG does not have to play in the 4th quarter, and you have the most dominant center in the game, and another 20 ppg player in Lewis, you will win. Howard's 20/15/61% can overcome anything. Playoffs are all about superstars. Houston will not be a contender until they found their superstar.
