Um ... the Cavs didn't guard Alston. The Magic are tough to defend and the Cavs chose to double down low and leave Alston wide open.
This is so unbelievable! If Rafer was not traded then AB and Rafer will share the play time. Since Tmac went down, AB played the role more like TMac. Yao had admitted this many times. Right now overall Rafer is way better than KL, even though I like KL's game. That's the tradeoff. AB and Rafer can co-exist. It's very obvious that the cheap Les lost the faith on the team since Tmac was down. Rafer's trade is a move for the future. They don't know how good this Rockets are. Even without Rafer and half Yao, they still made it 7 with fakers. If Yao's healthy and Rafer's in team, they don't need 7 to take out lakers. So I blame Les/coach RA for the failure of Rockets this season.
As much as I admired the Rockets play against the Lakers, when the Lakers had to win, they whipped us. This was mainly because Yao was not there. The most competitive game was game 1 when we had a healthy Yao, Game 7 would have been like this, but no Yao and our guys were just overmatched. Rafer was traded, you can't expect to get better for nothing. Lowry was a great add. Move forward, and wish Rafer good luck. I blame les for alot of things but for Rafer? come on.
i'm sure Rafer will shoot his usual %. What I want to see is if he can hit the shots in the clutch. He should be able to blow by Fisher.
After Houston's season ended i have been lurking at the magic forum, and i will say this, rafer doesn't get blamed for orlando losses as much as he gets blamed for houston's losses or wins. looks like rafer as achieved cult status among magic fans. What gives? http://orlandomagiczone.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/8891029871 some posts. jmh0211 We would not be where we are right now without Rafer, no question. If AJ started the rest of the season and the playoffs, we don't get by Boston. With us having a 1st rounder between picks 24-30, I think the trade was a no-brainer. ucfknights22 This is a no brainer. The trade was definitely worth it and we would not be where we are now without skip. The reasoning behind it, Lue would be playing. Enough said. EnFuego Considering we are entering the finals for only the second time in our history and that this team would have AJ and Lue carry them the rest of the year without it. I would say this was the most significant trade in Magic history. Tough Break There Uh, Skip is worth 3 1st round draft picks. last guy is delusional
this another thread on rafer's shooting leading to magic wins/Losses. http://orlandomagiczone.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8891029871/m/607103762 KillingInTheNameOf has come up with an interesting stat. The Magic were 1-7 in the entire playoffs when Alston shot below 40% from 3. The only win was game #1 vs. Boston. Conversely, the Magic were 10-0 when Alston shot 40+% from 3.
They've had him for half a season. I bet their attitudes are similar to what it was like around here after our first half season with Rafer. There is also the fact they made it to the finals. Even if Rafer had little to do with it (subject to opinion), it's easy to take a positive attitude towards anything and everything related to the team when they are having success. Everybody is a hero when the team is winning. Another thing is that all message boards are similar. Wait until the Magic are struggling and go back and look. You'll see the same kind of frustrations that we express around here, not just regarding Rafer but in general.
I don't think that will be the case for a couple of reasons. #1, Rafer rarely penetrates or breaks down any defense. He'll probably spend 95% of the time on the perimeter and play it safe, as usual. Part of that is due to the nature of Rafer's game at this point in his career. The other part has to do with the way Orlando runs it offense. #2, Rafer is quicker than Fisher but not by as much as other guards that Fisher has faced during the playoffs (D Will, Brooks, Lowry). Fisher is still a pretty good defender even if he's lost a step and has struggled during the playoffs. Defense isn't all about speed as evidenced by guys like Battier. When Rafer burned the Lakers last year during the streak, he hit like 8 threes or something. If Rafer burns Fisher, it will likely be from the outside. Anything can happen so maybe Rafer does burn by Fisher all series long or even just for stretches. I wouldn't bet on it though. I think there is a better chance of him hitting some clutch shots than blowing by Fisher on a regular basis. And I was sort of joking about the 30% over/under thing but I wouldn't be surprised if he does shoot below even his low standards in this series.
I didn't blame them trading Rafer, but blame their motivation. They traded Rafer because they believe that Rockets couldn't win it all without TMac. The trade did not improve the current Rockets but for the future. Everybody knew it. That's why they didn't tell Yao before the trade, because the trade made rockets worse in this season. Yao Ming was very satisfied with 2-round playoff run when he talked to Chinese media. This kind of loser mentality is from Les/coach RA. This just another wasted season.
Against the Lakers for sure, but we still get by Portland. Which shows us that this trade was not a mistake. We dont get any farther than we did with Brooks/Lowry than we would have with Rafer/Brooks. And we essentially got a much younger Alston if Lowry never figures out how to shoot a 3 pointer. If he does, we got a much better AND younger point guard. Aaron Brooks' growth is just gravy.
I think locker room issues may have had something to do with it rather than Adelman/Morey throwing in the towel. And like my previous post said, we weren't going anywhere further with Alston starting. In fact, we may even lose game one against the Lakers with Alston shooting 4 for 13 and 1 for 5 on threes. Brilliant move by the front office. The fact that Orlando benefited so much only goes to show how little Memphis got from it.
I wasn't talking about the entire team. This is pretty much what I expected unfortunately. I'm not talking about Rafer. This isn't his fault. The Magic just don't create the same problems for the Lakers that they do for most other teams.
Nope it is the same reason the Rockets whipped them both times too.... The East sucked this year......the best two teams in the NBA met in the Western conference semifinals and went to game 7... DD
Gimme a break. Remember when the Rockets couldn't get a loaf of bread for Rafer when he was awful for the first 30 or so games of the 07-08 season? The Rockets have been trying to move Rafer for a long time now, or ever since the genius Morey came along. The Rockets were able to find a taker for Rafer when his stock was high and the Rockets took advantage. Are you saying he would have been the difference in beating the Lakers this year?
