I think most coaches don't demote starters returning from injury, which makes perfect sense. You don't want your players looking over their shoulders and worrying about job security everytime they get injured. That said, Brooks as a starter and Alston overseeing the second unit is making more and more sense to me. It might not happen right away, but I have to believe it's also an option for Adelman.
*remembers when Brooks was drafted* Damn, I am glad the Rockets finally have someone who can and will replace Alston. I believe Rafer will excel with limited minutes. He is older, and resting his legs will only improve his jumper.
Sounds like Brooks is gonna be fine for tomorrow,cause Adleman didn't say anything about him being hurt.
tell me how rafer's game will help the second unit. seems to me he'll struggle even more off the bench.
Despite Rafer shooting so well recently, these are his shooting percentages for the season: FG%: 36.7 3PT%: 37.1 FT%: 82.7 Compared to Brooks': FG%: 44.2 3PT%: 40.6 FT%: 91.7 Alston started the season horribly and has years of evidence to show that shouldn't be a surprise. He has also been in the league for 10 seasons now. He won't correct his horrible shooting mechanics at this point.
Over these last 4 games with Brooks as a starter, the team has averaged 109.5ppg and scoring 29.75 points in the first quarter. That is DIRECTLY attributible to Aaron Brooks. Oh, and they are 4-0. DD
I was at the game tonight. Brooks was awesome. Also, it didn't appear that his entry bounce passes to Yao we're bad; on the contrary ....
But it is never the entire 2nd unit, you rotate Yao, Tmac or Artest in there with the 2nd unit. It is not like Rafer would be asked to lead a bunch of scrubs.... I hear your argument about Rafer not doing so well off the bench, but I hope we actually get some real data other than just people guessing. DD
I'm not sure what the exact numbers are, but what I've casually noticed is that Rafer's percentage go up when he plays more minutes and he gets more shots up. I think with a reduced role and less minutes, he's liable to become scary bad on offense.
I know, it was even confirmed in the Feigen blog tonight. Rafer starting against the Cavs "'And starting at point guard, for your Houston Rockets...' Four starts. Four wins. A career high for rebounds one game. A career high for points the next. There's your starter, right? Sorry Rafer? Aaron's the guy? Not necessarily. And that's fine. That Aaron Brooks has played so well with Rafer Alston out with a strained hammy is a good thing, but that does not mean the Rockets change the rotation. Alston comes back tonight. He returns as the starter. "The important thing is if Rafer starts, we know they can play together and I got to continue to keep Aaron on the floor," Adelman said. "He doesn't lose his job because of an injury. I think that's what we'll do." Brooks has played exceedingly well while Alston was out. He bookended his week as the starter by outscoring Chauncey Billups, 18-8, and Devin Harris, 22-10. Not bad. Actually, he was a whole lot better than not bad. He did not, however, expect for a second to supplant Alston as the starter. "No, not at all," he said. "I'm a backup point guard. You want to come in when the starter goes down and make sure the offense doesn't miss a beat. I mean, I'm happy with my performance. I showed if something happens I'm able to step up into that position. I'm not bitter-sweet or anything like that. I did my job." That, however, is not why Alston starts. The overriding reason is that it really doesn't matter. OK, the Rockets might like Alston's better defense at the start of the game and Brooks' instant offense off the bench. That is somewhat understandable even if Brooks made a very strong case to start. But beyond all that, who starts just does not matter as much as who finishes. Few games are ever decided in the opening minutes (I used to say no games are decided in the opening minutes but after Rockets 114, Nets 91 on Monday, I need to stop saying that for awhile.) Many games, most in fact, are decided down the stretch. Guys like Yao and McGrady start because you want them to play as much as possible, rest when needed. Brooks is not there, yet. It will be interesting to see, however, not who starts tonight against the Cavaliers, but who finishes the game. Until then, Brooks earned the confidence of his teammates and his coaches, something more valuable than hearing the guy in Cleveland say his name in the introductions." DD
We have also played 4(EDIT: 3...woops) terrible teams. Damn it, If AB gets his usual playing time under Rafer tommorow, I'm going to be pissed. When else is there going to be a chance for this AB to get some elite competition. The Denver game, I don't know if thats enough for Adelman to have some sort of revelation to start AB. If we lose tomorrow, maybe that will be a sign.
Brooks all the way, we know where rafer can take us, and is not enough. Use rafer as much as you can with our starters but brooks must play more than him.
All of us true basketball fans realize it takes a lot out of you to play defense on quick guard who can shoot. Playing Rafer allows the Pg's to rest on defense all game. In a 7 game series, Rafer up and down shooting hurts us tremendously. Rafer sees whats happening and knows its time to teach instead of play
Um... no we don't. We did quite well in the playoffs and the regular season when Rafer was healthy last year. This team clicks with Rafer and now it clicks with Aaron. Don't make Aaron's success the demise of a perfectly good starting point guard.
ROFLMAO.....I thought you just tried to call Rafer a perfectly good starting PG. That was a joke, right? A guy who can't shoot 40% to save his life is not perfectly good. He may be good enough...but not "perfectly good". DD
I'm assuming Artest continues to come off the bench, with the rest of the second unit comprising Landry, Barry/Head/Wafer, and maybe Scola playing center. With Artest, there's quite a bit of offensive talent in this unit. However, I've noticed that they tend to sometimes rush things and get out of offensive sets. With Brooks starting, this tendency has of course become more noticeable. Putting Alston in will bring some needed stability, and get the second unit to play within offensive schemes. I've noticed Adelman put Alston in to calm the second unit down during games before, and it usually worked. With the second unit we have, Rafer won't have to take on the burden of scoring either, which can be his weakness, and can focus more on setting up others. I think players like Artest and Wafer will benefit from having Rafer out there. This is all conjecture, of course, but I think it could work well.
Hmm well to be honest I think Yao Ming is hurting his game. He put up 45% fg last season playing for the Kings, which didn't have a 7-6 scorer down low. With him coming of the bench and coinciding with Yao Ming's rest, that shouldn't be such a big problem. Again, I'd point out that most Rafer supporters here are saying Alston is much better at setting up the offense than Ab0 is. Since your concern seems to be who is going to run the offense for the 2nd unit, shouldn't you be among those clamoring for Ab0 to start? We're not talking about a situation like Battier and Artest where Battier's skillset fits Tmac and Yao Ming better. Ab0 has been straight up better than Rafer in every single aspect of the game. In short AB0 is the better player, and as the better player he should be the one starting. It's that simple. Benching him would make as much sense as benching Tony Parker so George Hill can start P.S. Of course Rafer's percentages look better when he gets more playing time. More consistent minutes=better numbers. However the same can be said for every other guard in the league. Should we play head more minutes when he is sucking just so he can put up better numbers across the board? Rafer's number might look halfway decent with extended minutes, but it is the team who suffers from his sub-par performance.
It is so blatently obvious that Brooks should be running in the backcourt with McGrady running the point from the top. I have confidence that Adelman is headed this direction in time with Rafer coming off the bench with Landry and Artest to spark the 2nd unit. Adelman is just going about this slowly so as not to upset team chemistry. I would bet all the gold in Fort Knox that McGrady wants to play the top with Brooks on the wing, but nobody wants to offend Rafer.
