A Sober Look at Skip

When I first heard about the trade, I wondered: If we were looking for a pure point, why did we pass on Dan Dickau in favor of Rafer Alston? Granted I am not GM material, but I am still a bit troubled about trading a known commodity for a player with Rafer's background, especially when we could have picked up a pure point without any clouds on his background.

However, what's done is done. I hope Rafer has a smokin' year (on the court, I mean) .... for once, no pun intended.

Incidentally, does anybody else think Alston resembles Steve Francis, or is it that Francis' image is fading fast from my memory?

 

I'm willing to give Alston the benefit of the doubt. Toronto was the only place I heard about his attitude problems. The thing is, almost everyone on that team has had problems with Sam Mitchell - Vince Carter, Rafer Alston, Jalen Rose come to mind immediately. I think even Vince's mom bashed Sam Mitchell. I think Erik Williams was on that team and he asked to be traded away. Donyell Marshall wasn't happy with his reduced playing time.

Toronto just seems to be a poorly run franchise. Bosh is the only bright spot.

 

I believe I read this summer about Alston being expected to have a breakout year, I was hoping we could get him. JVG will be a good coach and mentor to the guy, and don't forget T-Mac will be the on the court enforcer for JVG's system. T-Mac's maturing like that, and won't put up with shananigans. I hope Alston hits Yao in the head with his entry passes 50 times the first day of practice. Yao will need to adapt to having passes thrown to him "on time" in the lane. Anyone remember John Lucas passes? By the end of the year, Alston could be that! 10 assists per game, ...book it!

 

Bologna. This teamed morphed to a different level than the plodding Van Gundy Knicks when Van Gundy and TMac had their sit down and Van Gundy took the shackles off TMac. How many times did we see them run down court and TMac or Jon throw up the 3 bomb with nobody under the bucket? We will average 3 figures as long as TMac and Yao aren't injured for long stretches.

 

Hmm, I pray that Alston won't end up like Lucas.

 

I figured "bold" was ditching the combover.

 

Alston WILL help your team, but he will hurt it almost just as much. Your fast break will improve and your turnover will come down (Alston is a very respectable 3:1) - but the lack of defense, lapses in judgement, and poor entry passes will infuriate those who see his natural ability and wonder WTF he's doing at times.

I like the guy and wish him well - but don't get your hopes too high. He'll earn every mid of his $3.85 mil (growing to over 5 in 4 years, which is still very modest for a starting PG), but he will never be an All-Star and will never be a cerebral guy who is a true floor general. He has amazing handles and can complete some sweet passes, but his court vision is limited in some ways.

I think his numbers will be atleast as good as last year (14/7 ish), but he has a bit of a "woe is me" complex that kicks in when he's criticised, and loses focus at exactly the wrong times.

Whoever said earlier that Mitchell is one of the biggest disciplinarian coaches has no idea what they're talking about. He's far from a tsakmaster and has no desire to be feared by his players. He's a very matter-of-fact person and this is what guys like Carter, Rose and Alston didn't like... coincidentally the 3 players rumored to have problems with Mitchell. Well duh - they took plays off, didn't try on defense and didn't play within the team game.

Alston was benched during a game in New York because he refused to defend his man they way the team was asking him to, covering the opposing point made him look bad. Alston and Rose are complete matadors on defense and our big men were consistently committing fouls on penetrating guards.

Alston will often facilitate scoring for TMac, but don't expect him to help Yao too much, as he frequently forgets that there are big men fighting for position down low. Bosh would repeatedly get ignored by Alston, who was more concerned with getting his. 90% of Rafer's assists are to other perimeter players. Last year it was Rose, MoPete and Donyell Marshall who earned Alston most of his assist numbers. Marshall is a PF, but camps on the 3pt line and shoots a lot of 3s (which he is quite good at, mind you).

Rafer is the ultimate bench contributor on a good team, or a fairly good point on a not so good team - but he's not a player that will excel as a starting PG on a very good team.

...this coming from a Toronto fan who supported the Rafer signing. We had Carter when we signed him, but management has tweaked its plans and Rafer no longer figured long term. I think they knew he'd be a tradeable asset and served the Raptors well, but it was time to make a change.

IIRC, Houston was top 5 in defense and bottom 10 in offence - while Toronto was the other way around. This deal should help both teams balance out their strengths and weaknesses - but Toronto gets to shed salary as a early as next season, and may get to ride James playing is mind out in a big contract year... looking towards a Euro duo at point with Calderon and Ukic in 2006-07.

Cheers

 

Rafer's lack of great defense may not be too much of an issue as he's got Stromile, Yao, and TMac playing the frontline. The mere presence of Yao may deter drives. And if Yao's not in position, we now have a PF/C in Stromile that can drop from the rafters to maybe help block shots. I think there's too much being put on Alston's lack of defense when you consider that we have good team defense that usually denies the paint anyway. The only worry is Yao getting in foul trouble while trying to help out.

 

This is one line and often conjured reasoning that baffles me.

I think most of what you said is fair and probabaly accurate but the quoted sentence smacks of zombie-like cliche rante.

The Great Calvin Murphy often say that every team is not for every player. And he often says that a team with one or two stars can be fitted out with role players to make it work.

Skip will be a role player in our system. A PG like him will succeed even more under this system because he will have a defined limited role. So why would an avearge PG (assuming Skip is one) not succeed on a good team? Is it because many NBA talking heads say it often enough some unassuming fans start running with the tired cliche?

Can Skip succeed in San Antonio? What about Miami? What about Indiana? What about Phoenix? This is player's league and having players like Tmac and Yao will make average players look like borderline allstars.

So why would an average player not excel on a good team? Can we stop using cliches that makes no sense? It is tougher for average players to succeed on bad teams - and badly coached teams where roles may not be clearly defined.

The biggest key for Skip will be his defense and how well he will mesh with the team chemistry wise off the court. If there are no issues on both counts then we will be fine. My expectation of him is mostly perpective laden - he is just a small part of the puzzle; especially considering how well we did with even worse parts last year.

I am tired and it is late - I do not even how else to say this but I hope someone out there gets it.

To recap....these are what Skip is expected to do consistently...

1. Bring the ball up quickly.
2. Proctect the ball and do not turn it over.
3. Give Mac the ball (or get traded).
4. Give Yao the ball.
5. Hit set shots.

6. And get out of the way!

Heck even Moochie can successfully do these things.

 

Rafer Alston's issues stem all the way back to his time at Fresno State in college, which is why it took so long for him to crack an NBA roster(not to mention the streetball rep he had early on). But that aside, I don't get this idea that he is a shoot first PG. Because he is the opposite honestly and that is exactly what has him in the league today(ballhandling/passing skills).

I also think that playing for a team where he doesn't have to do as much will help him, but I wish it didn't cost Mike James to pull it off. But honestly if he can just minimize mistakes, hit open shots and play solid team defense(even barry did so last year) he will have filled his role on this team. I'm 50-50 on this trade but it is a gamble worth taking in my opinion, and quite honestly with the lack of money/low draft picks(meaning they couldn't get the upper echelon point guard without hurting the team) they didn't have many better options if any.

 

purplefever, thanks for the indepth breakdown of RA. It is the least biased and honest assesment that I have read from a raptors fan since the trade was completed. From what I have read it seems like he is capable of more than his mind has let him accomplish. I just hope he can put those mental barriers behind him for the better of the team. A lot of the points your brought up make a lot of sense.

I agree overall that the trade was a calculated gamble for both teams, and in the end the rox side of the deal has the player with the bigger upside.

 

My only concern is that he might not be a good entry passer and/or might ignore Yao too much - if it is true that he only looks for other perimeter players, I don't like it at all.

I am a little surprised that he mentioned almost everyone except Yao in his first interview.

But I hope he can learn to play with the big man.

 

it shouldn't be that difficult. just throw to the mighty oak tree under the basket. that's yao.

 

Excuse me, but the Raptors had nobody down low besides Chris Bosh, and Bosh himself is more comfortable at this point facing up rather than banging on the low block.

Thus, it makes sense that most of his passes went to perimeter players because that was the relative strength of that team. I can understand the questions on attitude, but using his past season as an example of not passing to a big man is a very poor example. And honestly, he has never played with a good big man in the NBA(he didn't have one in miami either). I also think people are reading way too much into his comments and not mentioning Yao(next thing we will discuss is does he respect Tracy because he called him McGrady rather than T-Mac in the interview).

 

Don't worry SJC it was only his first interview. I'm sure as the starting PG JVG is going to have him making THOUSANDS of entry passes to Yao in camp and if he gets good at hitting Yao when he's open and has his guy at a disadvantage then... cha ching... money in the bank.

 

About him not mentioning Yao in the interview...
He hasn't had a good C on any of his teams before so he's not used to post-entry passing being that important, as it wasn't a big part of his teams game plan. So i took it as it was just completely out of his mind or he knew it was a given so he mentioned the other details instead.

If Cato was our center would we care if rafer was a good post entry passer? After a season of rarely passing it Cato because... Cato would fumble it or brick 3 ft jumpers all day.. do you think post-entry passing is fresh on his mind? Most likely was never stressed in practices nor had many plays designed for post entry passes. This is how I see it, this may not be the case at all but to me it makes sense

 

Well, I would chalk up the attitude issues last year to Frustration. Remember when Jordan tried to "run" the Wizards a few years ago? the guy was so frustrated that they basically ran him out of town. Now, I ain't comparing RA to Jordan. But I do understand what it is like to be motivated to do better, and stuck in a situation where you can't.

The Raptors last year were a side-show act. They had more personnell issues than we have had since the "Barkley hates Clyde hates Pippen" days. Between the Raps and the Magic, they showed how not to run an organization.

 

Now it looks like he did mention Yao. It's in Clutch's Day 2 recap.

 

It's a conspiracy. Clutch probably added that last bit in order to cover up Skip's hatred for all things big and tall.