The way McGrady is playing right now, this wouldn't be a bad move. The only problem I'll ever have with starting Brooks is that Brooks' talents fit a 6th man type role better, and Alston's fits a starting role player type role better. If you start Brooks, we have no energy guys to come in and change the tempo of the game at guard. If McGrady and Brooks are struggling, who are you going to bring in to change the pace... Head? Alston? Think of the Kidd/Terry combo Dallas has going on. You have the vet leader that isn't a good shooter starting with the energy shooter coming off the bench.
Aaron Brooks should be the starter because he's JUST a BETTER player than Rafer period...in every aspect of the game except handling...serious!! The Rockets are better off with a offensive deadly shooter PG that also penetrate than Rafer who is a poor shooter and can't penetrate!! The only thing Rafer is better than Aarron??? Passing, handling and defense. But Aaron makes the Rockets more dangerous offensively. I hate seeing Rafer continue missing wide open shots....he's not a consistent shooter. His career shooting % has proven that. If Adelman want to start Rafer even though he knew Aaron is a better player....then i think it's because he wants someone to spark off the bench.
The thing with the whole 6th man argument is that the reason that guy is a sixth man is because he is inferior to the starter. Think of all the good 6th men pg in the league, in almost all cases the starter is always better: Nash>Barbosa Kidd>Terry Billups/AI>Stuckey Steve Blake/Roy>Bayless/Sergio even in the old Sacto days Bibby was better than Bobby Jackson Is this the case here as well, where Alston>Ab0? I don't think so
Agreed. Great work on the draft. I'm pretty sure his draft position is partly due to size - the shrimpiness scared off other teams. Glad our front office was able to look at the whole picture to make the pick. Enough upside and speed to be worth the size risk at the lower levels of the draft.
don't care about "starting". Brooks makes a solid case for more minutes. i think the coach realizes this ... Go Rockets!
Technically, no, Alston will not lose his starting job to Brooks because of the injury. Alston will start when he comes back. But we all know Brooks has moved himself close to the starter's job. When the starter gets injuried, a young backup with unknown potential is instantly in an audition for that job. In Brooks' case, the audition has been hugely promising. That, in turn, makes it much easier for Adelman to pull Alston the next time he's sucking. Brooks goes in, the audition continues, and Alston starts running out of opportunities to prove he still deserves the job. It's a gradual process. And no matter how you feel about Alston (I think this board is too hard on him generally), we should all be happy to have an emerging option, in only his second year and at the modest price of a low first-round pick, that's looking like it might be better.
The question is do we essentially lose Rafer altogether by benching him? Does Rafer just start sucking or maybe he flat out goes awol and gets mad. If Rafer is a ZERO at the backup spot ...AB can't play 48 minutes. So is the team better off? We'll see. We already KNOW the combo of starting Rafer and bringing AB off the bench is effective. But we DON'T know if starting AB and bringing Rafer off the bench will be a net positive for the team. Interesting.
Signed, Rajon Rhondo: 3pt FG% = 26% Ironically, that's probably exactly how Rhondo would say it too. lol
This is a joke right? This is all you got? Rondo is shooting 53.9% from the field with 7.5 assists per game He has taken 14 3pt attempts all year...and only made 4, if he hits the next one, he is at 33%.... Rondo is MILES better than Rafer....MILES !! You need to stop apologizing for the worst starting PG in the entire league, he is just not that good and most of the country knows it..... DD
Man Rafers under some pressure now though. If he starts chucking like he was before the injury at a 30 percent clip, I hope Adleman has the balls to bench him.
I had my doubts about Brooks size, but he's flushed that down the toilet. Brooks definitely brings more to the team, as far as putting pressure on opposing defenses with his speed, aggressiveness and his shot. But you have to put your players in a position to succeed and Rafer coming off the bench just doesn't seems like it would fit. It really comes down to minutes and who closes the games. I doubt you see Rafer in the final minutes.
All I can say is this. If/When Brooks becomes the starter and plays 30+ minutes a game, Alston's days as a Rocket is numbered. Rafer Alston is simply not a good backup PG. He plays much better as a starter. We need to trade him for another veteran backup PG.
I'd have to give AB the nod on this one. I know everyones argument is that he is a "liability" on D, but if you check out the games were he has been going against top gaurds he has pretty much been holdin his own. My perspective is that even if he does lag on the defensive side of the ball he will easily get back it on the offensive end. Yes Rafer is a solid vet but this team is trying to get younger and more athletic which are 2 qualities that Aaron brings to the table. I think Rafer's abilities are suited more for a back up PG. The ball is definitely in Coach's court... Let's see what's up!
I say he is a better scorer than skip but we need that extra scoring coming off the bench. Skip is more of a facilitator, and we need that with Yao and tMac on the floor. Then when they go to the bench, brooks and artest come off the bench and we don't lose a whole lot scoring wise. Id even think about moving Scola to the bench for the same reason. i think Scola is better than Landry, but we can only have 1 ball on the court at a time.
Ginobli > Finley, Odom > Radman, Posey > whoever the **** is the starting SG in NO, JR Smith > Dauntay Jones. By the way, notice the type of players you chose. Nash is the vet ball distributor, Barbosa is the explosive speed. Billups when he was in Detroit, same thing. Kidd... same thing. I would argue Terry is playing better than Kidd right now actually, at least on the offensive end. I don't know what the obsession with him starting is. Its who finishes the game that matters. Just give AB more minutes. If we are going to bench Alston we might as well not even play him because he'll fit in even worse with the bench mob.
Apparently Adelman doesn't, because AB has been playing this well the entire season and he has yet to make the switch.
Just look at the offensive numbers since Alston went out. We're scoring about 100 ppg at shooting at about 50%. THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN SAY THAT ALSTON SETS UP THE OFFENSE BETTER. That is a statement that has no basis in reality. When Alston was running the point, the Rockets' FG% was second or third worst in the league! Brooks sets up the offense better by making the opponents have to stop him. That is shown in the numbers. Are you paying attention, Morey?
