You don't say "You don't lose your job due to injury" if you're not thinking about switching PG's. What's obvious to just about everybody on this board is obvious to Adelman as well. If Brooks continues to tear it up and Alston is flat then Adelman will have all the justification he needs to move Brooks into the starting lineup. I posted a while back that I thought there was a good chance Brooks would supplant Alston this season and got flamed for it, btw.
Uh... I'm pretty sure we were scoring 100 point games with Alston at PG. And the reason behind the slew of 100 point games is that now everyone is healthy. You can't be seriously telling me that Brooks getting an extra 10-15 minutes a game due to Alston's injury is the reason we are scoring 100 a game now. I think it has more to do with the fact that Tmac has started playing like the Tmac of old. Artest has stop averagin 35% shooting, and Battier is back from injury.
Come on DD. Give raefer a break. I'd be a pretty good PG too if I was a starter on the Celtics squad. Raefer isn't a chris paul or derron williams, but that's not what we need him to be. He handles the ball, runs the offense, doesn't turn it over. What more do you want. i mean I don't say much on this board but i do read and you tend to contradict yourself a lot. I see you have a lot of knowledge and love the rockets just as much as the rest of us, but weren't you the one who wanted to trade Ron Artest becuase him and battier was redundant? Was that you? Isn't another scorer on the floor with yao, TMac and Scola "redundant"?
I did say Artest did not fit, and that because we have Tmac and Battier, I think he is redundant and we have other areas of need like PG....however, Ron has been playing very well off the bench and fitting in a lot better than I thought, and Aaron Brooks has come on, basically eliminating the need for a PG. Rafer is garbage, he does not run the offense, he dribbles the ball up and hands it to Tmac, Look at AB these last few games....the offense is humming the spacing is wonderful and he can hit a shot and the defense has to honor him. Rafer Alston is a coaches crutch, he does what he is told and protects the basketball and plays decent team defense, but he is at the bottom of the rung as far as starting PGs go, and the sooner he goes to the back of the bus, the sooner the Rockets can acheive elite status. He is left wide open for a reason, because everyone else in the league knows he sucks, I don't know why it is so hard for some people on this board to see it, a sub 40% shooter for his career is NOT an NBA caliber starting PG. DD
I'm sorry I have to jump in on this action. Of course you can honestly say that this team is better when AB is running the show rather than Alston. This guy is an offensive explosion while Rafer is the type of player that likes to sit at the three point line and throw the ball down to Yao, T, or Ron in the post. He very rarely attacks the basket his three point shooting is sub par and pretty much all he has behind his back is And 1... and who knows what happened to that fad. Anyway my point is that AB should and will start by the end of the season, GUARANTEED! I really dont see why fans stand behind Rafer so much when he is what he is. Why do you think everyone in the league lays off Rafer to double Yao or take that butt ugly shot of his. And another thing what's up with that ugly a$$ tear drop of his. More like a waterfall. Does he think he's Tony Parker or something? BTW- Parker sucks too!
I didn't notice that Rondo has only taken 14 3-pointers. That's kinda weird for a starting guard. I guess he knows he sucks so he doesn't take them ...which is to his credit, I guess. Rondo also has twice as many turnovers. You said Rafer wouldn't be a starter anywhere else ...he could EASILY start for the Celtics. Rondo is a mediocre PG ...as is Rafer. I'll stick with my original analysis of this team. Our championship won't be won/lost with Rafer, Scola, Battier, etc. Our championship aspirations lie with TMac and Yao being able to dominate games. Everybody else just needs to do their job ...which they are doing! If Rafer just plays up to his capability, mediocre, that'll be good enough ...if Yao and TMac play like all-stars. If Yao/TMac don't play like all-stars, Rafer is irrelevant anyway.
Players don't lose their jobs because of injury, but if the guy is playing better, that's different. Why did chuck hayes lose his job? Scola was the better player. Maxwell lost his job to clyde because clyde was the better player. Brooks is the better player. Period. Kobe came off the bench for a couple of season, then they made the move and made him the starter and traded eddie jones. Its not that big of a deal. Then they can trade rafer for dooling and booth and move forward. There are a lot of guy in the league who are better pg's than rafer. He was just lucky to be playing for the rox. He would be a backup for every team in the league just like anthony carter. He's a backup.
In the playoffs teams will take away your first and second options, and it will be up to your tertiary players to step up and win games for you. Remember Steve Kerr, John Paxson, Robert Horry, Sam Cassell? They were always hitting big shots, because the opposing teams would not let the superstars beat them. So, in the playoffs would you risk the team's playoff fortunes on a guy who shoots below 40% for his entire career? Not just one year...but his CAREER !!! You can not afford to let the small and closing fast window of Tmac and Yao be brought down by under quality role players. They do make a difference more than a lot of people realize. DD
Didn't the Rockets have a playoff loss to the Jazz where approx. 3 players scored for the Rockets at halftime. That's a guaranteed loss in the playoffs. (BTW, I believe we started Yao, TMac, Alston, Hayes and Battier that game ...)
Brooks seems like a guy that in the playoffs will seize the moment. Battier won't. Hell we've seen him pass up wide open shot at the end of the shot clock to make tracy shoot a shot clock beater. Rafer tries, but isn't capable. His strengths doesn't fit what yao and tracy gives to him. His weakness are really exposed and his poor shot recognition always makes him a bad choice in the playoffs.
considering rafer scored 18 points right now on 87% Fg and 80% 3pt I would say he deserves to be a starter.
Rafer had a good shooting night, which is rare, but I still believe Brooks should start. Our average with Brooks at the helm is 110, we scored way under that tonight and our offense looked terrible.
I'm not discrediting that role players have a role to play. But their play is IRRELEVANT if your stars don't play like all stars. Hmm... let me see if I can find an example for you. How about Lebron putting up 27 against maybe the best two defenders in the league. How about TMac scoring 4 and Yao not on the court for 3 Q's. How about Rafer scoring 20 pts. Cavs big dog produced = win. Rockets big dogs are nothing = loss Rafer played out of his mind = irrelevant Stars gotta be stars first and foremost. If your stars do what they do, then the rest of the guys just got to knock down open shots. Rafer CAN hit open shots ...as he did tonight. But it didn't matter because Yao/TMac were non-factors. I'm not discounting role players. I'm saying our biggest problem right now is that Yao/TMac are NOT playing like all-stars.
Did you not see Yao dominate the Cavs when he was actually on the court? He came in and instantly the Rockets made a 10-0 run. There big men were fouling out, and we were getting to the line. Our offense is centered around Yao, what do you expect when he is out for 3 quarters? The bottom line is the NBA gimped us. The officiating was atrocious, just plain awful. 4th game in five nights for an old team is killer. Lebron had a good night, but don't overlook his 7 turnovers. The only thing I think the Rockets could of done better was start AB. YES, Rafer had a good game, but also I think he gimps our offense. When Brooks was in the game, we were playing great.
