Work ethic. Mike James used to have the underdog mentality and was crazy enough to say he was going to be the MVP of the league in an interview. Dude tried really hard until he got his big contract. Steve Francis won't try hard to improve unless he thinks he has a prominent enough role on the team to show off his improvements. This is probably why he never got his ass into shape.
this is what a blogger said and i have always thought he could do this Rafer Alston is finally starting to play like he deserves a starting point guard position. That's because he's finally found a consistent and efficient formula for getting to the rim. And that's through pick and roll and a good hesitation dribble. Skip's finally realized he's not explosive enough for straight penetration and finish at the rim, or for that matter the playground crossover and finish at the rim, he has to make a living off the P&R, hesitation dribble and creative shots around the rim, Steve Nash has made a career out of it... oh, and there's that almost unparalleled court vision and dead-eye jumper. Skip can still work on the latter. But it's encouraging to see him finally get his swagger as a Rocket. As with most guards, layups and swagger translate into made jump shots. It's only been a few games, but Alston looks like he's really found a groove. Make no mistake, though, it's a direct result of McGrady being out of the line-up.
i want a few more games to make sure rafer has been really upped his level of play. and let's see how he plays once #1 comes back. for now, adelman lets him run p&r's with yao and that has been very effective (even more so than the yao-mcgrady p&r as mcgrady takes too many j's after the screen or is often simply doubled on the perimeter). hope adelman continue to let him do that once mcgrady returns. also, another noticeable difference lately is that rafer takes it all the way for a lay-in (and he even got a few fouls called for him), rather than a pathetic tear-drop 5ft from the rim which seemed never dropped.
He has been playing great but at 31 years old I think we would be more realistic to look at his numbers over the last few seasons as opposed to ones from a few recent games. I hope this is the start of him permanently playing well but guys don't usually improve this late in their careers.
well like most street ball players, rafer clearly likes to take a couple of dribbles and then shoot...so he isn't a natural catch and shoot player.
i think his career average is like 10 points per game and 5 assists per game...so you really can't expect more than that on a consistent basis
I think you have to consider that Bonzi is having a great run of games going to the rim as well. Both he and Rafer are benefitting from all of the attention Yao is drawing. At the very least the Rockets have made huge strides in the past couple of games at dealing with an old complaint: that Yao clogs up the paint. They're cutting like pros right now.
It is Simple If Rafer feels comfortable . . he is crap when threatened [SF, MJ, Brooks, etc] = he is much better Rocket River
rick adelman was quoted saying that skip is the team's best ball handler but when mcgrady is in the game he apparently shares the ball handling responsibilities but mcgrady is also a primary scoring option but then the issue is that mcgrady looks to shoot first rather than drive to the basket which kinda neutralizes any advantage you might have in having a penetrating first minded guard.
you can tell that rafer alston is sometimes frustrated when t-mac demands to bring the ball up right after another team scores
You think Francis and James are threatening Rafer? LOL. I guess you could say Brooks is "threatening" him, but it's not like Rafer is playing 48 minutes. In fact, our best rotation in the Celtics game was when Rafer and Brooks were in the game at the same time. Too bad Adelman took out Brooks for Head. That was a horrible move. Back to Rafer, where was this last year? No one would be crying for V-Span if Rafer could drive and finish the way he is now.
Yeah, Rafer's career FG% is pretty bad, but his career 3pt% is better than SF and T-Mac. (from nba.com) Career FG% Alston .385 Battier .450 Brooks .422 Francis .429 Hayes .563 Head .421 James .427 McGrady .439 Scola .510 Wells .460 Yao .518 Career 3pt% Alston .354 Battier .391 Brooks .227 Francis .341 Hayes .000 Head .405 James .380 McGrady .342 Scola .000 Wells .329 Yao .143
The closest thing to competition Rafer has is Aaron Brooks. Brooks is a rookie and does not have Rafer's individual defensive abilities, and so is not really a threat to replace him as a starter. Although a closer look at the stats suggest that Brooks has actually been a more effective team defender than Alston - his floor time team defensive efficiency is an outstanding 89.4. The only other two players that are close are Deke (87.4) and Chuck Hayes (90.4); Rafer is at . It remains to be seen whether this is a fluke or not, but so far we haven't seen any kind of defensive drop off when he's on the floor for sure.
These few games, I got admit he is working hard. He is cutting into the rim and making those lay ups which he rarely does in the past. His shots are still streaky but is improving in these few games. Keep working on it and hopefully he'll be able to pick any slack when our superstars are off. He should intensify his shooting practice.
I sent Rafer, T-Mac, Yao, James, and Bonzi a video on myspace mostly about positive thinking. I think he watched it. Too bad T-mac didn't get it, and I don't think Yao has a real myspace account.
Actually Rafer's shooting is kind of funny. When Rafer's layups, floaters, mid-range jumpers are dropping, his 3 ptrs clank. When Rafer's 3 ptrs are hot, his iniside shots dont fall. I'm waiting to see Rafer's hot from both outside and inside.
I've come to grips with Rafer, he is what he is and expecting more is an exercise of futility. I know he'll never shoot a good percentage of 3ptrs even though he's wide open most of the time, but his finishes around the basket has been pleasant surprises.
Exactly! RA was definitely feeling it recently. He should take more initiative in the late game especially when Yao was having a hard time muscle through KG.
