It wasn't a no brainer to trade our starting PG on a winning team for the sub-.500 Grizzlies 3rd string PG. The only reason Cook wasn't waived until now was because his expiring contract was potentially useful for a trade. So...what exactly?
*laugh* Rafer wasn't the reason Rockets were a winning team. Blunt but true. Rafer should thank the Gundy brothers for letting him start. Without the Gundys he would have been out of the league a long time ago.
I have never hated a Rockets player except Rafer. The dude was simply garbage. Did not even belong in the NBA much less a team with championship aspirations. Hating Quitten doesn't count because that is an obvious choice.
Rafer was always a backup pg at best. It just showed how much our team with T-mac/Yao was able to carry players that don't belong in this league. Kobe did the very same thing for the Lakers prior to Gasol with Smush Parker/Kwame Brown... Playing with Lebron is pretty much the same way. Do you really think Gibson would have a place in the league within a contender if not for the fact that he is playing with a super star?
Uhmmm....didn't say that. I just said that at the time Lowry was the 3rd sting PG for the sub-.500 Grizzlies, so it wan't exactly a no-brainer. Morey knew what he was doing, but a lot of people were skeptical of Lowry at the time.
Lowry wasnt sitting on the bench because he was bad. He was actually pretty good in his limited minutes. Grizzlies wanted to develop other PGs before him.... ...much like Adelman and the Rockets wanted to develop Brooks and Rafer was getting in the way. Rafer needed to be shipped out even if we got a measly bag of honey roasted peanuts in return. Getting Lowry was a huge bonus.
I wasn't taking a shot at Lowry, but simply pointing out that when the trade happened Lowry was still unknown to many people. Given his playing time with Memphis people had reservations about only being able to get him for Rafer. The poster I was responding to initially said that getting Lowry was a no brainer. He made it seem as if everyone was for the Lowry trade. That just wasn't the case back when we traded for him. Obviously Morey saw Lowry's true value, but there were some doubters.
Could we also say that Rafer is a spoiled brat largely because of the Gundy brothers letting him start? I sure think so. He sure can't seem to accept being a second or third string pg when he really is one at best. It's like why can't he take a look at his shooting stats and compare them to just about every other pg (starter or non-starter) in the league and see that as a reason for the demotion? One also has to wonder that if he found himself bounced around in the league more frequently than he was throughout his career, would he have tried to get better with his shooting or shot selection? As we can see now, in addition to acquiring Kyle Lowry, the Rockets accomplished something else when they traded Rafer away, which was to not allow him to be a distraction to the team upon handing the reigns over to Aaron Brooks like he currently is with the Heat.
Here's the latest info from the Miami Herald concerning Rafer Alston. Link-->http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/08/1518159/alston-remains-away-from-team.html
You obviously have forgotten the reaction to the trade from most people here on this BBS and from most of the so called experts. I remember several articles where the Rockets were even written off as a playoff team last year because T-Mac was injured and they traded away their veteran starting point guard (who was so good at "running the offense").
Wow, dude has been in the NBA for 6 seasons before his tour with the Rockets but he owes it all to McGrady and Yao? Rafer is a good PG, he was a streaky offensive weapon and at times would let his emotions rule his play, but as a PG, he had great court vision, handles and defense when he played it. The reasons the Rockets took the trade were simple, because of pay (Alston was due a bonus the next season), chemistry issues (reports of issues Alston and Artest over team leadership) and the emergence of Aaron Brooks (the need for a more reliable scorer then the streaky nature of Artest and Alston in the back court). You could tell from his time with the Magic, brother was good enough to distribute the ball and get that team to the finals. You can't be a garbage player and manage that, especially given how the Magic's best player was completely unable to create for himself outside of rebounds. That being said, he is apparently acting like a child. I know he got the raw end of the deal during the finals and was thrown onto a crappy Nets team for all his troubles in the Orlando, but pulling an Iverson? I really believed Alston was better then that before this morning. At this stage in his career he should know that you can't b**** about coming off the bench.
You seem to forget that Rafer was a few days away from being run out of town by Sam Mitchell in Toronto when we traded for him. Rafer being a good pg is a big LULZ, esp. for his contract (~7 million). Yeah a shoot first pg with average vision, above average handles and D, and a broken shot. If that's your definition of a good pg, then someone like Chris Duhon is an allstar.
