Rafer starts because he plays better with the starters and Brooks and the bench have shown that they are capable of playing really well without Yao and Tmac on the floor. It's the smae reason Battier starts over Artest. Who is better? Artest obviously. But Battier works well with the starters as he does not need the ball to be effective. Brooks is a scorer. We need that punch when our other scorers, Yao and Tmac, are not on the court. We need someone who works well with our starters (see: 2008 playoffs) to be with our starters. Rafer is shooting 37% from 3 this year. Taht's above average. He's just a terrible inside shooter and needs to try to reduce that as much as he can, but we have bigger problems to worry about. Namely, health.
blah blah blah.......how are you gonna start a PG that can't get yao ming the ball??? f'in yao ming has more assists to Aaron Brooks than the other way around..........Rafer Alston has lead this team to 50+ wins how many years in a row?? and half those seasons were yao and tmac missing games....... this team does not need a wannabe devin harris at point.......aaron brooks is like a quicker mike james.........and we know those type of PG's dont work as a starter on this team.
reading on RA's comment, i think AB will not start and finished until he can prove his defense to RA. Some what like the bynum incident at LA.
i think this whole idea of getting the ball to yao is overrated. let me tell you what usually happens: 1. rafer brings the ball up. 2. passes to the wing, tmac or battier 3. tmac/battier passes to yao 4. yao gets double team passes to rafer who is wide open (of course) 5. rafer misses wide open 3
What the hell are you talking about. When has Alston even remotely acted like a fool about playing time. He was nothing but professional when the team brought in Francis, James and Brooks to take his job. He said clearly they were headed in a different direction at the PG spot and all he could do was keep playing hard and see what happened. What happened was he outperformed all three of those guys and never got moved. He didnt pout or become a cancer a la Marbury. He just played. Never said he deserved to start, didnt even say he deserved to play. He just played. As for tempermental, he is one of the few Rockets that actually shows emotions. Everyone b****es that this team is soft and has no fire, but with Alston that is not an issue. Im not saying he is great, Im not even saying he deserves as many minutes as he is getting. Im just saying your fears that maybe Adelman is worried about demoting him because Alston wont be professional about it is ridiculous.
Again, Im not saying Alston is great. Im saying Brooks isnt great either. For every good game he has, there are also many like his last three. He may penetrate but how often does he end up jumping in the air by the basket with nowhere to go and throwing it out of bounds. Other times he goes 100 mph to nowhere. Now even worse, he seems to be passing up shots cuz he is in a slump. Last night they said it perfectly, he was playing the 2 spot and gave up wide open jumpers. It seems his confidence is way down and its affecting his entire game, not just his shooting. I say treat him like a young QB in the NFL. He is making improvements but I dont think quite ready to have the team handed over to him. When he has it going, I agree, play him over Alston especially late in games. However, when he struggles, he doesnt offer anything over Rafer.
you're saying a little firecat like Aaron Brooks changes our playoff outcome? rafer/brooks is not the reason we aren't advancing out of the first round. it's TMac and Yao finishing the season(and opponents at the end of games) we need to truly worry about and focus on...
