Alston's primary focus is leading Rockets to playoffs

Don't worry bout these haters Rafer. I got your back. You gon lead us into the promised land. I trust Rafer as our starting point guard.

 

So the Rockets are trying to guilt us into liking Rafer? Well, I feel bad, but I still don't like his game.

 

although he is a controversial character...i have the feeling that he will do something valuable to us after the regular season..

 

Where's the mystery? You practice your set shot all summer. The season starts, and you're hitting your set shot. You're just hitting all the contested runners and floaters that in a real game are nothing like practice in a gym.

 

JVG and Rafer have really misunderstood Rockets fans' critizism of RA. When you really get down to the meat of why we are UPSET with him, it does NOT have ANYTHING to do with his shooting percentage or streakiness. What everyone is pissed off at is his shot SELECTION. What did RA practice 500 times a day over the summer? That's right, 3 point SET shots! NOT fade-aways. NOT "tear" bringers! NOT shots with a defender in his "comfort zone"! Just look at the way RA shoots. He has to wind up his shot from the side and then align it before his eyes, before pushing it forward for the release. All this while he jumps to generate the strength required to get the ball the realistic 24 to 26 feet to the basket. That's three motions, now add to this the lateral movement he seems to often add when he decides to have the bright idea that he is T-MAC and can shoot in a defender's face. At this point, RA’s shot basically has the same odds of going in the basket as a golf swing resulting in a hole in one. Normally, all good shooter have two motions. First the ball goes straight up from the waist in a two dimensional plane with the second motion from the legs generating the strength required to cover the distance.

Conclusion: RA and JVG need to realize that EVERY low percentage shot RA takes basically counts as a turnover. Therefore, when he takes 17 shots in a game, it’s pretty much guaranteed that 8 of the shots are equivalent to turnovers. In the playoffs, where every possession counts, this could mean the difference between "also ran’s” and "Who's your Daddy?" However, when Rafer shoots set shots created by excellent passing, resulting in wide open looks, coupled with smart drives resulting in layups off the glass inside the dotted circle, he is a pretty decent shooter and baller. This smart shot selection method, by default, reduces the number of shots RA takes and when he does take a shot-- it’s a shot that has a reasonable chance of going in the basket. The proof is his overall 54% shooting over the last couple of weeks resulting from his recent smart shot selections. I believe that JVG has recently implanted and enabled an Official Rafer “Jamal” Alston Shot Selector Microchip (ORJASSM ) which should finally satisfy the frustrations of Rockets fans worldwide.

 

Frankly, every team cusses its point guard, no matter how good they are. Even fans from the Suns, Spurs, Jazz and Pistons do that. I am going to stick by Alston in this one. Besides, how many point guards can play better than him in the SYSTEM that the Rockets team runs?

 

So, if Rafer missed the 32 games instead, others would have stepped up and taken his place and our offense wouldn't be any worse?

 

I agree, Rafer is a very SOLID point guard and fits our team very well, but ONLY when he sticks to his strong skills (balling handling, open three's, defense, etc...) and minimizes his below average skills (tear drops, any shot where he is not set, etc...)

 

Haha he responded to me, if your reading this Rafer, I still am better.

 

We won't have the answer until that actually happens. What's it have to do with out discussion anyway. My point is:

(Rockets - Rafer) > (Rockets - Yao)

Do you agree with it or not?

 

Rafer did say in the interview that he read the internet Rockets forums.

 

1500 3 point shot attempts per day. Now that's a lot of work.

 

Overall, yes. Just not sure about the offense.

 

If we are counting on Rafer to lead this team, we are in some trouble.

 

With to the same logic Van Gundy said about Yao, our complaint with Rafer is to make him better. He should have played much better with Yao and Tracy around him.

 

I don't see why it's so difficult to understand durvasa's point here. There is no backup for Rafer. Tracy would be relegated to running the point which would alter our entire offensive approach. With Yao out, we just relied on T-Mac a lot more than we need to with Yao in, and we also just stuck Deke in there. Sure, it went much better than planned, but that's why they play the game.
With Rafer out, there is no feasible backup (on paper) to plug in to Rafer's spot in the starting lineup, unless you consider Lucas or V-Span sufficient.

 

With Yao and Tracy, he is slightly improved... he's shooting at 38.8% from the field and 39.6% from the three. Only a 1% improvement from the field and 2.1% from three, but I'll take anything, really.

I'm confident enough in our team that I'm not worried about Alston. He'll get the job done.

 

He's been playing well overall as of late. He definitely has strengths which are primarily his ball-handling skills and ability to keep turnovers low, as well as push the tempo whenever we need him to. He definitely has decent PG skills, I will give him that.

His only glaring weakness is his inability to consistently shoot and make wide open jumpers (not just threes) and ESPECIALLY his inability to finish inside, which is mind-boggling to say the least.

Still, I hope he continues to play as well as he has of late and keep that momentum going into the playoffs. We will need this guy to be on his game like he never has when the playoffs roll around, because he will be matching up with this calibre of PGs on nightly basis: Tony Parker, Steve Nash, Jason Terry, Deron Williams, Derek Fisher, Barbosa, and other. As you can see, even the backups on many of those playoff teams are no joke.

He will be key in the playoffs, probably more so than any other player on the roster not named Yao or McGrady.

I wish him luck...we will worry about other things in the off season, which hopefully won't come before June.

 

Rafer was a late bloomer and wasn't a starting NBA PG until late in his career. He is demonstrating that he isn't perfect but that he still has room for growth. If he can continue to get better, then we are in good shape.

Regarding Rafer's bad shot selection, obviously JVG approves or he'd be bashing Rafer in public ...like he often does. So don't necessarily bash Rafer for his crappy shots ...blame JVG. (shouldn't be too hard for most of you)