Calling all sane people...end the Reefer Madness already

does saying gayfer make you clever?

Saying gayfer actually makes you gay.

If you dont like Rafer, fine, but dont call him names little guy (no offense, I'm assuming you are 15 or so).

Ya'll boys listen (and try -POORLY- to imitate) to jim rome too much.

 

I don't understand what some of you guys were watching...I saw the whole game on HD and Rafer was playing pretty bad. Not that I liked Mike James or Steve Francis any better. Mike needs to stop forcing unnessary shots and pass more. Mike also over dirbbles sometimes and stops the flow of the offense. Adelman's offense is called "MOTION OFFENSE MIKE!" Anyways, I never had high expectations of Rafer but tonite he was worse than his usual mediocre self. He made poor decisions, lots of turnovers, horrible shots, and horrible horrible defense. JVG needs to teach Rafer some defense fundamentals again.

 

Jesus, Rafer didn't even play that bad. He was pretty quite the majority of the game. Made some good passes into Yao and ended up with 8 assists. He had 4 turnovers, but some of you are acting like it's typical. Rafer's never really been a turnover machine, so I don't think Rafer haters can play that angle.

His big shortcoming last season was shot selection. He only took six shots as opposed to 12 per game last season, so the shot selection isn't going to be much of a problem this year simply because he doesn't need to take as many. Oh, and he MAYBE took one teardrop all game. You guys are making stuff up. Pathetic. A few of his shots were three-pointers that he had to force up as the shot clock was running down.

Sounds like we have a bunch of 11 year old kids on this board who are going to be upset all season because their Stevie "Franchise" isn't playing.

Thread gets 1 star for Terrible.

 

Wow that is 1 more star than Rafer deserves.

Seriously I still think Rafer is our best option for now, but that's no compliment.

 

I just want you to know this is like the first conversation of like three conversations that leads to you being gay. Like... there's this denial stage and then in a year it's like, "Oh you know, I kinda wanna, ya know, get back out there but I think I like guys" and then there's the big, "Oh I'm I'm a big g-gay guy now".

 

this should be the plan.

the rafer haters are hilarious, though. guy plays a solid overall game making one mistake towards the end and this somehow proves his lack of worth.... forget the fact that this was the first game of the season with a new coach, a whole slew of new players, and a completely new system. the whole TEAM struggled for a good portion of this game, yet everyone singles out rafer

and the demands to start (or even play) francis at this point... well.... i'll just liken that idiocy to the vspan debacle of last year.

the GARM is back to being unbearble again.

 

While Rafer had a couple of costly turnovers late in the game and was his usual self shooting the ball at a low percentage, I thought that overall he did not have a terrible game. I think he was absolutely key to the Rockets' run in the third quarter when they (seemingly at the time) took control of the game. Seven rebounds and eight assists are nothing to scoff at.

Also, in Rafer's (and the other Rockets') defense, the Lakers' pressure defense late in the fourth quarter was STELLAR. Kobe, Fisher and Farmar all did a terrific job. Even Luke Walton did. Rafer's last turnover (when he got the ball in a corner and was double-teamed) was more due to the Lakers' suffocating defense that denied the ball to anywhere BUT where Rafer got it. I shudder to think how much earlier the Rockets would have folded under that pressure defense with Stevie running the point in the fourth quarter.

Bottom line: I have no problem with Rafer starting. He is still the best pure point guard on the team by far. Mike James is the superior scoring threat and should be coming off the bench and doing EXACTLY what he did last night, although he should probably mix in a MADE free throw every now and then.

 

I still don't get most of the criticism about Mike James not being able to run the offense. I can count numerous occasions last night of him dribbling the ball down the court and then passing off or willfully deferring to Yao, Tracy, Wells, etc and then spotting up in the corner like he should People see the few times he went 1 on 1 on an iso and forget about the rest though.

 

Mike James is instant offense, but he is not really your typical facilitator, he pounds it too much and looks for his own too often.

That being said, he is miles better than Rafer.....but he HAS to hit free throws late, missing those 2 was inexcusable.

DD

 

Let's get a few things straight:

1) the whole TEAM collapsed down the last minute and a half including Rafer. Rafer's turn over was no more or less important than Tmac's turn over or Mike James missing both of his free throws. We are not benching James or Tmac either.

2) PG is never going to be the rockets strong position as long as Rafer is the starter. That being said Rafer is still the best starting option the team currently has. If we can get a pass first PG that can shoot and penetrate better than Rafer then by all means do it. But you aren't going to trade Rafer and get a better PG in return...

3) Rafer is never going to be a great scorer. He will have his hot games and his cold games, but for the most part I see him shooting mostly from 3 point range at the same % he has his entire career. The difference is this year he should only be taking 6-10 shots in 30 minutes rather than 12-16 shots in 40+ minutes.

4) if you think putting Francis in would result in better decision making your delusional. Alston with his "horrible decision making" had a 2 to 1 assist to turn over ratio last night. Rafer had 6 more assists than James, and only one more turn over. James had 2 assists to 3 TO in roughly the same amount of play time and Tmacs was only 4 assists to 3 TO, with Yao coming in at 3 to 4. I think the whole team will improve there once they better learn the offense.

5) Defensively Rafer was nothing special, but almost every shot Fisher hit was contested. Fisher was just hitting anyway, which would likely be the case with any of the PG's on our team guarding him. Rafer did knock the ball out of Kobe's hands after the intentional free throw miss at the end.

I fully expect that Deron Williams will out perform Rafer Thursday. Williams is one of the Jazz's offensive focal points and best players, Rafer is the Rocket's 4th or 5th option. Hopefully Tmac and Yao win the SG and Center matchups with equal disparity and then it will come down to our bench depth, which last year we had none, and this year we are considerably better.

The important thing is we won the game last night, which is the first time we have won an away game season opener since 1985!

 

Your delusional if you think Rafer's D was allright. If the Lakers would of run the P n R more often (like teams will do to the Rox in the Playoffs, and better teams will do in the season) Rafer was trashed on it every time. He is without doubt the worst offender of PnR defense Ive seen in a Rox uni since Barkley played for the Rox.

Rafer and Chuck caused the entire D to sag onto TMac and Yao. Heck for long stretches the D let Rafer run around the outside all game long uncontested.

Want the Key to beating the Rox. Its pretty simple, and I guarantee you the Mavs, Spurs, Suns, and Jazz will figure it out real quick. Pick and Roll top of the Key all game long, leave Rafer all alone and double TMac and Yao with Chucks and Rafers men.

Are you guys forgetting that this was a Lakers team who started Kobe and the 11 dwarfs? That didn't even have their second best player on the court last night? Wow. If the Rox are going to struggle with a depleted Lakers team, wtf do you think the Spurs, Mavs, and Suns are going to exploit against the Rox?

That team I watched last night was NOT a serious contender in even the smallest fashion. Charles Barkley was right.

You may think its "ok" for Rafer to not shoot so much and make one shot a night, but that will be the Rockets single biggest downfall this season. Playing 3 on 5 offense will not get it done, just rewatch the 1st quarter and the end of the game against a terrible team last night and figure it out. And yes the Lakers without Odom are a terrible team.

 

The sky is falling. Some of you guys need to chill. It was the first game of the season...and we won.

 

one mistake...but it was also a bad play. Why do you pass the ball to him in the corner? Why is a play even drawn up to have him end up in that position? It wasnt a very good inbound play (why not have yao pop up top?) and it certainly wasnt a good idea, by the inbounder, to pass to him in that position.

 

The first game of the season last year ended up being a pretty good indicator of where the Rox would end up the season. Losing to the same good team playing exactly the way they did the first game. Huh go figure.

 

rafer hit his Fts

 

You do know that when the opposing PG scores on a pick and roll that is usually because our big man wasn't able to step out and cover right?

Rafer only took 6 shots, but did have a bad shooting night even by his standards. Still he took ONE tear drop and he was fouled on it and made both free throws. He is never going to be a consistent scorer, but the idea that he just walks the ball up and then gives it to Tmac is silly. As for the D sagging on Yao and TMac, don't forget that Battier was only shooting 3/10 before he hit the game winner.

Tmac had a good game but he needs to take a que from Kobe and go to the basket more to draw fouls at the end of games. Kobe wasn't really on fire last night, he just got a career high 27 free throw attempts. Luckily for us his free throw % was well below his career average.

This is the FIRST real game with an entirely new offense. There are going to be be growing pains, but the good news is we won the game, and at the end of the year that is all any of us will care about.

 

Rafer did have 8 assists.

 

Now I know why they call it the teardrop. Seeing Rafer take those shots makes me wanna cry...

 

the worst thing i did last nite is to watch spurs vs portland. i don't think we are any close to spurs. it makes me sad. parker and ginobli just kept attacking bball by turn. then, i watched rafer. i wish we could have a pg close to parker. parker is damnit fast.

 

You mean the MVP of the finals last year? Yeah I think we would all like prefer a PG like that