he will never be an AI or IThomas type of player, he just doesn`t have it, at best, mike wilks. 3rd stringer IMO.
Rafer is not starting material.We all know that. Aaron has that bounce pass which Skip doesn't but Aaron does not have the confidence to be a starter by any means. Rafer's A/T ratio is good,he can control tempo to some extent,he is a better defender, more experienced and has some size. Teammates know what to expect from him and are more confident with him being on the floor. Aaron is more of a scorer than a PG now. He needs time and experience.
he needs more than that, he needs to make his shots, play defense, and grow about 6 inches and 30 pounds.
Essentially, the point guards duty on this team is just not to F#@K it up ...errr... mess IT up!!! McGrady, Artest, Battier, and Yao!!!!! I don't think we need anything but dependability and team defense from the point guard. Raefer Alston should do it - he handles the ball well; plus Artest has a lot of respect for him. And Aaron Brooks might fit the mold as well?
A3PO- if I didn't know any better, I would have thought you just started watching playoff basketball, but since u have been on board for a while, i'll give u the benefit of the doubt. If ur a stat guy, go look at his playoff career, not just with phoenix. Whether thru boredom or what, the guy plays better in the playoffs. In fact he plays a whole lot better because he is a talented player. Now if you want low talent guys playing to their ceiling for regular season wins, but can't go up a notch, that's your deal, but I'd rather have a multi skilled 6'10 guy who can do things no one at the 4 can do now. That's why we struggle with a certain type of 4. Those tall, rangy mobile types guys playing the 4. David West kills houston, Dirk kills houston, the utah 4/5 types gives us problems. Those guys are either to big or too quick for landry,hayes and scola. Since this team is right there, I would like to close the loophole. Tim Thomas gets 20mins and you will see a more spaced court for yao,tracy and artest to work with. DD- I agree with you, people think because Rafer dosnt turn the ball over that he's a great passer, but what the don't see is the reluctancy to hit cutters or make penetrating passes in the offense.
Assuming Ron Ron doesn't go off the deep end, the need for Tim Thomas is limited. We disagree on TT in that I don't think he has as much left in the tank as you do. I know his playoff history but the guy isn't as good as he used to be. What he did in Phoenix won't happen again. Like I said, if we get him at the trade deadline, jumping off the Clips dead-end road on to the Rockets train while it's in motion, maybe so. But I don't want this guy on the Rockets the entire season. He will demand playing time and won't just sit on the bench getting scraps until the playoffs. Even you admit he isn't that good of an 82-game player.
this is spot on, and IMO this translates to brooks developing into an earl boykins type of 6th man spark plug. what he can give the team this year is a change of pace off the bench.
More delusional Tim Thomas crap... Steve Nash can make a talented loser looking for a fat contract look good and that's what he did in Tim Thomas. Tim Thomas is just a one way player these days and defense isn't that one way. Ron Artest is a superior player to TT and more importantly has more passion for the game. How is TT gonna help us stop the 4-5s in the west on defense when he hasn't played that for years? He gets paid way too much to be a 3 point specialist, which he'd be in our offense (we're not going to run plays for him when we have Ron, Tmac, and Yao). Hmmm...Ricky Davis, Tim Thomas, Antoine Walker...someone misses our days of having Mo Taylor, Stro Swift, Kelvin Cato...or has a soft spot for overpaid talented losers. Go join a fantasy bball league for that.
Artest has nothing to do with Thomas. Thomas is the tall rangy off the dribble, 3pt shooting type of guy who spaces the court in a backup role. What does minutes have to do with it? On houston, Scola plays 28-30 mins and Thomas plays 18-20 eliminating landry,hayes,novak,and dorsey. Now in certain situations u might want chuck in I guess, but I'm talking about a role player making rafer money off the bench with a 2 yr contract that can help this team a lot. Since when at 31 a guy is done? The steve nash stuff doesn't even stick.
C'mon guys, give Franchise a chance! You're hating on the man too freaking much, remember when Hakeem Olajuwon used to hate on Franchise? Me neither so "BACK OFF, BACK OFF, MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, THAT'S ALL, MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS"- Will Smith
I'm happy with Rafer being the starting PG. I mean we all saw glimpses of brilliance from him last year in certain aspects. As for a backup PG, the rockets need to look towards the future with Brooks rather than dwelling in the past with Francis.
If Rondo was on the Charlotte Bobcats they would be screaming for his head like this guy can't even hit a open 15 footer, however playing with the big three and since they won it all it was no talk of replacing him. You have to doube T-mac, Yao, Artest, so Rafer and Brooks will look a lot better. With Brooks speed you can't leave him also he is a better outside shooter than he showed yesterday. His outside game is Larry Bird compared to Rondo lol.
It is strange, he gets so much credit for being a tough as nails street baller from Queens, but plays so conservative on the floor it is mind boggling. Rafer just does not make the risky pass, he makes the safe pass, every time... And he rarely passes to the cutter on the PnR... DD
i really really like brooks quickness and ability to drive on slower pg's but i really just dont see him being our backup pg. stevie has everything that we need in a backup, all he has to do is make sure he's actually working out when he says he is(unlike last offseason). barry will play some substantial minutes at pg. so i really dont see either francis or brooks getting all that much time at the backup pg unless they have a real impressive camp. here is what i expect our rotation to look like: starer: rotation: next rotation: other actives: alston barry alston brooks t-mac t-mac barry francis ron-ron battier battier mutumbo scola ron-ron landry/scola/dorsey yao scola/landry/dorsey yao on the off chance that barry is having trouble on D at point, throw brooks or francis in there, francis can play the point or shooting guard in any case of foul trouble, and if a team happens to have a legit 2ndary scoring C throw mutumbo in............i really dont see any positions dieing for improvement
If Barry is such a capable PG at this point in his career, why did the Spurs essentially never use him in that role. They backed up Parker with scrubs like Jacques Vaughn and a washed up Damon Stoudamire instead of Barry. The reason is that Barry is a shooter at this stage. They mostly used him as the 7th ot 8th guy in the rotation and when he came in, he came in to shoot, shoot, shoot. I think this whole Barry = PG thing is bogus. At his age, he will get burned trying to defend at that position, even against backups, and will increasing his risk for injury. At 37 yrs old, Barry is now a shootinig specialist and that is how we will use him.
I'm not a betting man, but if Brooks was allowed the same sporadic play as parker as a rookie, his number would have been identical. If he was allowed to do the same thing as rondo, his numbers would be the same. What part of young pg don't people understand? The deal is that he can and will get better. Rafer isn't getting any better. He didn't get better last year, he just took more shots. Brooks has upside over francis who is done, rafer is a bench player, and head is a 3pt situational shooter. I don't think adelman watched this guy his senior year in college, and charted his progression last year saying he can't be at least a 18-20 min backup. If he can't be that, considering rafer isn't really a starter, then he wasn't a good draft pick. I've said it before, with the big 3, I would rather have Brooks and his growing pains and the abiliy to get better than to watch Rafer push the ball hard, only to give it up to tracy. Or watch him shot 500 3's a year at 36% and act like he's a young chris mullin. Through his faults of his rookie year, the Spurs knew in preseason that Daniels was a career backup. Guess what, daniels is a caree backup. They knew in preseason that he would have peaks and valleys on a championship quality ballclub, but decided his upside would make their run longer. They didn't bite on trading him for Kidd because they knew Parker had 10 yrs left and Kidd had 4 or 5. They saw Marbury own him in the 1st rd, he made Payton look slow in the 2nd rd, but when he got to the finals and although kidd kinda outplayed him, they saw growth. Now Parker, eventhough he's not a pass 1st pg, is known as one of the best at that spot. I'm not saying Brooks has everything that parker has, but he has a few like speed, quickness, and explosion, none of which any of our other pg's today or the next 5 yrs possses. That's enough for me to let him start personally, but I'm a big thinker. I've said it before, safe doesn't make millionaire and billionaires. Safe gets you 45k and a gold watch after 30 yrs. The rox have made a bold move to become that billionaire by getting Artest, but do they want to take the next step?
I'm sure I'll get torched for this but Brooks has more raw talent than Parker did coming into the league. Parker isn't a great one-on-one defender either. He plays good team defense. I personally don't see any reason not to let Brooks start early in the year and see what happens. He'll have his struggles but he may overcome them and become a real upgrade over Rafer. If he can't break through then give Rafer back his starting job. Starting 5: Brooks McGrady Artest Scola Yao Key reserves: Alston Barry Battier Landry Dorsey?
