My guess is they didn't realize how good Lowry is. There is definitely merit to wanting experience and veteran leadership but not when the talent gap is pretty signficant as is the case between Lowry and Alston. A few years from now, a lot of people will probably wish they grabbed Lowry when they had the chance.
The Magic got a veteran PG who could bring stability to the starting lineup and knew how to play with a dominant big man. They weren't looking to invest in a young guy with potential, like the Rockets were. Both teams got exactly what they wanted, IMO.
What does Rafer bring to the table that Anthony Johnson doesn't? The occasional And1 move? Other than that and about 20 months in age, they are nearly identical players. Rafer has been a starter in this league for longer but that doesn't mean he should've been a starter. Sometimes players end up starting because a team doesn't have better options. AJ was pretty good when he started for Indiana a few years ago.
Its like the Luis Scola thingy. As soon as he gets praised for his wonderful FT percentage he starts missing a whole lot. Same for Landry.
I don't know enough about Johnson to argue otherwise, but I think you're underestimating Alston's value. I'm just looking at the game logs, and what I do see is that in the six games Johnson was the Magic starting PG before the Alston trade, the team played .500 ball while Johnson averaged 9.7 points and 2.7 assists. When you take out his season-high 25 points in his first game as a starter (Feb. 4 vs. LAC), which he doesn't again come close to, his numbers drop to basically what he did as the backup all season (5.3 pts, 2.5 ast) and went back to doing after Alston became the starter. OTOH, in his first six games as the Magic starting PG, Alston put up 12.8 points and 5.6 assists, and the Magic played .667 ball. And his numbers and winning percentage stayed consistent throughout the rest of the season. So it makes me think the Magic are satisfied with the results of the trade.
Tonight, Rafer was the Rafer that drove me crazy during his tenure with the Rockets, which was three years too long. He hits a few shots in the last game, now he thinks he is Ray Allen, instead of one of the worst shooting PG's in the league and goes 1 for 10, that's ten percent for the game. Ten shots is what Yao usually gets. He was definitely one of the main reasons they lost.
I hear you. I don't know all the factors around Johnson's handful of starts such as what teams they played against, if there was anything else going on that was impacting their play, if they were going through an adjustment period with Nelson out of the lineup, etc... I do remember watching Johnson a few times when he started for Indiana a few years ago. A lot of fans were very happy with his play. His career A/TO is solid and his percentages are roughly identical to Rafer's. He just rarely got the same volume of minutes. In my mind, that doesn't necessarily mean Rafer was better. It could just be that Rafer was lucky to end up in Houston where we have been consistently desperate for PGs for years. Maybe AJ would have started all those years if he played for us and Rafer would have been a backup to Tinsley while Tinsley was in his prime. In my opinion, they didn't know how good Lowry was. I know they wanted a vet but they already had that in Johnson, who is at least a similar player to Alston. Lowry may have pushed for minutes and it couldn't have hurt to have a quick slasher in the lineup considering how dependent the Magic are on outside shots. Speaking of that, finishing at the basket and getting to line are things that Johnson does better than Rafer while he shoots a little better from the field. In all honesty, if I had to choose between Rafer and Johnson as my backup PG (because I think they are both backup quality PGs), I would probably choose Johnson because he is a little better at finishing and getting to the line and does everything else about equally. He is also a little bigger. I said it before but I think Rafer should be playing a similar role as Anthony Johnson does for the Magic and Brevin Knight plays for the Jazz. He should be a decent, conservative backup PG that can keep a 2nd unit in check for 10-15 mpg. I think that is what he will be doing as soon as his current expires, assuming he doesn't go overseas or to the And1 Senior Tour.
I'm strongly supporting and rooting for the Magic in this series and Rafer's failures tonight brought back unwanted memories of him bricking shots when he was with the Rockets.
Rafer thinks he's Ray Allen regardless of the situation. He's pretty consistent in his shot attempts from game to game. I don't know why after 3 years of watching this guy, people can still be deceived by his rare Ray Allen shooting performance.
Microwave society. Rafer's not as bad as this game, nor as good as the game before. He is what he is: streaky, ball controlling, and feisty. The best thing orlando can do is ride his good games then parlay his playoff highs into a more consistent yet less talented rotation player in the offseason. Rafer plus, say, Hedo, may be enough to nab a borderline allstar player in the offseason, which would definitely push orlando over the top.
Fair assessment, and I agree with you that in the long run, Lowry is the better choice. However, the Magic were looking for help for their playoff run this year, so even if they could do it all over again, I think they'd still choose Alston. But it'll be interesting to see what happens next season when Jameer Nelson returns (I assume) as their starting PG. As you said, they already seem to have a capable backup PG in Johnson, and Johnson also has a much smaller contract than Alston, though both contracts expire at the end of next season. I think the Magic's backup PG spot is Alston's if he wants it and proves he can be effective in it. Alston is younger and, more importantly, has proven that he could start if Nelson goes down again. However, Alston would also have to agree to take quite a bit less than his current $5 miillion contract to re-sign after next season, and I'm not sure how willing he'd be to do that. Even if he isn't, it'll be easy for the Magic to re-sign Johnson and trade Alston's expiring contract to get something/someone else. So as far as I can see, it's a win-win situation for Orlando.
Fair enough. It will be interesting to see what happens to Rafer and Johnson between this offseason and next season. Jameer is without a doubt their starter when healthy.
I think if you have to start Rafer or Johnson you want to go with Rafer because he's a little quicker and he plays better defense. If you have to choose one as a backup PG you want Johnson because of salary reasons. I think Rafer is marginally better at setting other guys up but they are very similar players. I don't consider that a jab at Rafer either...there were atleast a few times in Johnson's career when I thought he should have been the starter.
As bad as Rafer is, I don't think he's as bad as Johnson. The Magic offense were having a ton of problems in between the Nelson injury and the Rafer trade. And I do think he's a better fit for them than Lowry. He is a good floor leader in the sense that he won't lose games for you(ignore shooting for a moment). Basically he's very neutral, neither good nor bad. Whereas the other Magic point guards were having a negative effect.
rafer's pretty good if he doesnt force things (jack up threes, attack the rim with his tear drop). if he lets the ball come to him, he'd have better percentages. he can be a starting PG in other teams, but on the magic, he'd just be a backup. definitely choose him over johnson. if you need to sit him down (and jameer if he's playing), id pick turkoglu to play the point instead of johnson.
Airballston is a major reason why the Magic lost game 5. He was terrible. Williams lit him up, he turned the ball over and he couldn't put the ball in the ocean. I'm so glad we got rid of him. Note that the Rockets started to play much better when got rid of him and TSlack called it quits.
Rafer was terrible last nite, no doubt - poor defense, bad turnovers, and 1 for 10 shootings. It looked like his head was never in the game. SVG understands Alston. When Alston is not on, SVG will give more minutes to Anthony Johnson. BUT, Rafer has been pretty good throughout the Cavs series. He only had 2 off games - Game 2 and 5, which the Magic lost both. In Gm 1, he burnt the Cavs with his assists, and in Gm 3 & 4, he made the Cavs paid for leaving him wide open. It's not bad at all for Rafer. I hope he bounces back next game from his worst game in this series.
