It turned out to be a great thing for us, I would like to see him get about 5 or 10 minutes more playing time. He did a heck of a job out there.
Screw you Rafer haters. Stop b****ing, seriously it's getting old. We traded Mike James so stfu the Rockets aren't gonna get him back by complaining about Rafer every chance you get. Although I would like to see John Lucas average 15 mpg, I really don't want him to cut into Bonzi/Head's minutes. 8-10mpg is good for Lucas. Keep V-Span on the bench until the ASB. The Rockets should only play him when we really need him to play D on the quicker NBA guards such as Wade, Parker, and Arenas. Other than that, he is a liability on offense with his poor 3 point shooting. Guards just play off him and strip Yao whenever they get the chance. He does pass the ball to Yao well and gives him the repost, but that's doesn't make up for his poor shooting. After about 3-4 more months of training with Kieth Jones and our coaching staff, he should be ready for about 10-12mpg, imho. Anyone else want to call Bonzi a ******? Not every one here, but seriously too many of ya'll are quick to jump on and off the bandwagon.
And it took you 2 months to figure that out? Maybe there should be a new bbs rule... too many single star threads and no more thread starting.
From what I saw, Rafer played a great game. His drives tonight were effective and his shots were falling in the 4th. He did a good job getting the ball to Yao when Yao was in good scoring position. You need to start watching the games from an unbiased standpoint, and you will realize that Rafer is a very efficient pg, and that he is doing more good things for the rockets than bad. Stop hating and enjoy the win.
right now we have no one better than alston to start, and i don't know how to remedy it, but i still dislike him. we won this game by 19... great, but he's a chronic chucker who puts the team into a deep hole then scores a few so called "clutch" shots. i'm not going to change my mind about him unless he either 1.) improves his shooting percentage or 2.) shoot less. that's the only aspect of his game that's making me bald, but it's enough to make me dislike him.
I don't understand what you mean by saying he "puts the team into a deep hole" because we were never behind in this game. He hasn't "chucked" any bad shots in the past few games and has done a great job stepping up his game in mcgrady's absence. there are other stats that you can look at, but you tend to focus solely on his worst stat? what about his apg, topg, spg, and efficiency rating? We can all agree that when TMac returns, Skip will be shooting less.
I usually hate on Rafer Alston during a game because his decisions just piss me off in every way imaginable. Clutchfans posters need to realize, Rafer is a back up point guard. Playing him the amount of minutes JVG has been giving him is awful for Rafer. There is a problem though, when Rafer doesn't play it usually spells trouble for the Rockets. Sometimes they are unable to break the press, or at many times the plays take a bit longer to start which forces bad shots many times. Rafer is our only pure point that is approved by JVG to play. John Lucas III looks great at times, but other times he has the tendency to piss people off. He dribbles the ball too much. Hell he sometimes reminds me of Moochie Norris. I like JLIII, but he is not the answer for a back up point guard unless he begins to show improvement in his decision making. Rafer, unfortunately, is our only real point guard, and unless the Rockets trade for another point guard, we will have to deal with Rafer for the time being. I hear Andre Miller is available. It would be great if the Rockets can put a package together for Miller. Although he doesn't hit many threes, he still has a decent midrange game along with the ability to post up other guards as well as being a great decision maker. If we could somehow put a package for this guy, Alston would be loved in this board since his abilities would be maximized with fewer minutes in a back up role.
like i said... i'm happy we won this game, but look at all the other games and you'll see a pattern, poor shooting until the last quarter. actually not just poor shooting, but awful shooting. i'm not talking about just this game, and yes he does put us into a deep hole because alot of his misses usually results in a basket on the other end (except for tonight). it might as well be a turn over. i have no problem with his other parts of his game... but shooting is especially important especially if you're going to put up an average of 15 shots a game! unless we're a very good offensive rebounding team, which we're not, 62 percent of alston's shots might as well be turnovers. 15 shots per game * .60 = (9 shots * 2 points) or potentially 18 points on the other end. we lose by less than that in the last 4 games. while other poor shooting point guards have less shooting percentages, they shoot less. this wouldn't even be an issue if he didn't shoot so much, even with his percentage. everyone one knows he sux at shooting and the only argument is how much the other part of his game makes up for it. at this point i really don't know.
Andre Miller is not the answer for our pg situation. Rafer is not a quality backup pg, but a good starting pg. There really is a reason why he plays so many minutes (~38 mpg). All I know is that he is the best pg on this team, and the rockets have been winning with him in the lineup.
Rafer is a quality back up. When he played in Miami as a back up he was great. I love Rafer, don't get me wrong, but he is not a good starting pg. He would be much more suited for a back-up role.
Sorry I wasn't around to shut this thread down yesterday, but discuss game-specific threads in the Game Thread located at the top of the forum (sticky'd).
