MJ has been phenomenal, no doubt about it. Rafer has been...Rafer. I'd like to see what Francis can do...and soon.
Feeeish, show me the posts where I said anything out of line to Mike James before. I said I want MJ on this team. I like him off the bench to provide extra scoring when one or both Stars sit, but not starting because he shoots too much. I said Alston in general runs the team better, but James shoots better. And I give props to James when he plays like a TRUE PG, like yesterday. That's not hating, that's being objective, son.
I think Yao having a horrible start had as much to do with us not starting strong as what Rafer is giving or not giving. Rafer isn't expected to score for us, Yao is, and Rafer isn't going to get assists from Yao, if Yao misses all his shots. Not to say that Rafer didn't make some uncharacteristic bad passes that certainly didn't help matters. He did shoot 3 for 6 the same as James though James has been awesome off the bench and I wouldn't change that role without playing alot more games. Ball distrubution is historically not his strength despite the awesome 7 assist, no turn over stat line last night. Keep in mind he had 2 assists and 3 turn overs the first game. I expect both Rafer and James will play at around their career averages by the end of the season. Both will have bad games on occasion, but luckily we have options to sub in for them this season when that happens instead of being stuck with Rafer for 40 + minutes regardless.
I will when search is back. You mean the game when nobody else was hitting, Tmac was bricking like crazy in the first half, and he came in off the bench and kept the Rockets in the game via his scoring? Yeah he should have passed more. Also I like how you mentioned turnovers. I thought we were done with the point where people could perpetuate the myth that James is turnover prone when in fact historically he is very low, right on par with Rafer, and trails Rafer this year in TO's so far by a wide margin (including Rafer's near fatal turnover in crunch time on Tuesday)
So, what's the laker game then? The base problem that seemed to be true for the first two games is that the starting unit got down by at least 10, when Mike James and Scola came in, we fought back and took the lead. Both games Rafer has made some dumb passes for which I am perplexed about since he usually doesn't take chances with his passes and only had one assist. He also shot 3-6 from the field and I closed my eyes every time he shot. Come on just like the first game with Rafer having 8 assist, Mike James isn't always going to have that many assist. I don't see the argument for having Mike James coming off the bench though, a spark he is, but if we're always going to be 10-12 points down when he comes in then no thank you. It's like the argument that people had for keeping Butler so he could be a back up for Deke. I admit that I thought that way for awhile, but to be honest it doesn't make sense, you put the best option on the floor to start the game. I'd rather have a 10-12 point lead and bring Rafer in than have a 10-12 point deficit and bring Mike James in. Exactly which games will he be the better player? As I've said before, almost every team in the Western Conference has a better point guard than Rafer.
yes it is along with a few other teams Atlanta Hawks Boston Charlotte Chicago Cleveland Dallas Denver Detroit Golden State Indiana Los Angeles Los Angeles Memphis Miami Milwaukee Minnesota New Jersey New Orleans New York Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Portland Sacramento San Antonio Seattle Toronto Washington Hotsauce from And 1 videos T-mac's little brother and that Grocery boy that dribbles the ball outside of our Krogers around here
I love me some Mike James!! I used to think it was a no-brainer that he should start, but I am liking his role as the 6th Man a lot. I just wished that Francis would get in shape and get with the program, so he could be our starter at the 1. Then it can be Alston that is racking up all of the DNP-CDs. BTW, as happy as I am that we have James back, I am also very happy that Bonzi Wells decided to stay here. I think we would be 0-2 if we didn't have him. Hopefully, he and MJ continue their stellar bench play for the rest of the season.
Neither game has been great for Rafer, but they are learning a new offense and the PG has the most to learn as far as knowing who is going to be where, and when. Lets look at the results for every possesion up to the point Mike James came in vs the Lakers: 12:00 Start of the 1st Quarter 11:06 Yao Ming misses 18-foot jumper 0-0 10:25 Shane Battier misses 24-foot three point jumper 0-0 9:56 Yao Ming misses 17-foot jumper 0-0 9:37 Shane Battier misses 24-foot three point jumper 0-0 9:33 Yao Ming lost ball (Derek Fisher steals) 0-0 9:10 Tracy McGrady misses 14-foot jumper 0-0 8:33 Shane Battier misses 4-foot jumper 0-2 8:33 shot clock violation 0-2 8:03 Rafer Alston misses 27-foot three point jumper 0-2 7:37 Yao Ming makes layup (Rafer Alston assists) 2-4 7:16 Yao Ming makes 11-foot two point shot 4-5 6:54 Tracy McGrady misses 15-foot jumper 4-7 6:16 Yao Ming misses 9-foot hook shot 4-9 5:41 Tracy McGrady misses 21-foot jumper 4-11 5:24 Rafer Alston bad pass (Kobe Bryant steals) 4-11 5:09 4-13 Luke Walton shooting foul (Yao Ming draws the foul) 5:09 Yao Ming makes free throw 1 of 2 5-13 5:09 Yao Ming misses free throw 2 of 2 5-13 4:39 Tracy McGrady misses 18-foot jumper 5-15 4:24 Mike James enters the game for Chuck Hayes 5-15 Blame that shooting on Rafer's one miss and turn over if you want, but the fact is if both our stars are missing then obviously no one is going to get many assists during that stretch and Rafer got the only one. You are right in that if we are down 10-12 at the start of every game we are in trouble, but I don't expect it to be the norm. And we have a better center than almost everyone in the league... It's pretty rare that you have the better player at every position. I mean Mike James has played great so far, but he will have off games on occasion and based on past performance he will keep shooting as if he is on fire regardless. He is a score first guy last night not withstanding, and his current role allows him to exploit that strength, just like I expect Rafer's passing to be an asset starting out most games. I certainly am not saying the Rockets are set at PG because they have Rafer. If we can trade for an upgrade without handicapping our roster some where else then by all means do it. It's just that if Mike James is starting then almost every contending team in the western conference STILL has a better starting PG and we lose a major scoring spark off the bench.
Your list makes me wonder how we won over 50 games last year with Yao and T-mac missing so many games. Especially with a player you claim is so bad yet he played major minutes in every game.
WHat??? the rockets only won like 3 games last year when T-mac & yao didnt play, so Rafer had nothing to do with all those wins.......and when t-mac was ou,t Luther Head was playing twice as good as alston was..
I am assuming you are taking the games where T-mac and Yao were both out instead of the 30 games Yao was nursing his leg. Even so, how you can disregard someone as not being a contributor on a 50 win team when they averaged 37 minutes a game for 82 games is suprising. Almost as surprising as that same player being a part of the starting five with the highest Lenovo rating in the league. But if you say Rafer had nothing to do with that I'll take your word for it.
The Mike James- Rafer Alston platoon is a good one. I foresee some games with James and Alston in at the same time. I foresee James closing more games.
And he did a lot better job. He's really a shooter, when he's hot it's hard to stop him. Ilike that play when Scola or Hayes sets him a pick and he has an open shoot. If he played like that again he should get more minutes.
