Brooks couldn't hit a brick wall tonight. Neither could Rafer. The difference? Brooks was struggling with his shot for 10 minutes. Rafer's been struggling with his shot for 10 years.
Brooks came in with the team down 10 and they promptly went on a run to take the lead...Adelman takes him out, the team loses. Coincidence? Nope. DD
Rafer needs to get back to his old 22 game winning streak self. Attack the basket with floaters. Stop dumping the ball to Yao or Tmac. I don't care if you miss just stay aggressive.
Yep, a lot of time that give Yao easier shots because he can clear his miss and score easy put backs.
You, my friend, may be one of few fans left on this planet asking Rafer to shoot more. Not to mention, more floaters, one of the worst shots of one of the worst shooters.
It just puts so much pressure on the opponents defense if you have a guard that constantly attacks rather then just dump the ball off to their star player for 1 on 1 play.
You gotta build the guys confidence somehow and if that doesn't work then he's basically useless. We can have any scrub just dump the ball to Yao or Tmac.
I agree, Brooks has to start, last year....Adelman finally took out Hayes and started Scola and the team took off. Taking out Rafer and starting Brooks is a viable option. Brooks has been better as a starter than Rafer by a wide margin and the offense is much quicker under Brooks. It is time.....before it is too late. People would be surprised by how much one little change like starting Brooks would help the entire team's demeanor. We need energy at the start...not off the bench....at the start. DD
I actually love Brooks coming off the bench hes automatic offense but the only problem with Rafer which is a huge one is his shooting. If Rafer was Kenny Smith it makes Brooks coming off the bench even more deadly. Brooks speeds up the tempo along with Landry and the team push the ball more against the oposing team.
But we can not afford 16 minutes of good efficient basketball and 32 minutes of stagnant basketball. Reverse it....start Brooks. DD
Rafer should definitely be on the bench with the second unit. We need Brooks scoring with the starters and he has proven that he can play with them when Rafer was out. Rafer likes running the break much like Brooks so the second unit should run fine with him too cause he'll have guys to run with him. And it shouldn't hurt if they even slowed the tempo down to give more time for some of the starters to rest. RA is stupid for not starting Brooks.
You can't be serious?! Rafer shoots floaters worse than any player I've ever seen. He hits them at about a 10% clip. Most of the time he's lucky to draw iron. Bill Worrell (and sometimes Clyde) make fun of him when this happens. Dumping the ball the Yao and Tracy is what he does best. That's exactly what he SHOULD do when in the game. I think everyone but you cares a lot when he misses. It kills the team when he throws up bricks and goes 4-17 or worse. The major problem with Rafer (besides his sorry offensive ability) is that he takes TOO MANY shots. He is already too aggressive.
Rafer makes a few shots just to survive as the starter but soon as this is over he is right back to stacking up bricks. When he came back for the Cavs game he made some trick shot three pointers and he knows how to pull it off and make a few and have you thinking that he should be the starter. The thing about rafer is he'll fool you with his trick game. Rafer is a playground trickster, Those type of players can fool you into thinking that they have it all under control.
Figured I would update the stats: As starters, here are the two guys stats. Rafer Alston stats link FG% .363 3pt% .359 Apg 4.81 Turnovers 1.73 Ass to Turnover ratio 2.78 to 1 FT% .796 RPG 3.3 Record as a starter 15-11 .577 winning percentage Aaron Brooks Stats link FG% .427 3pt% .424 APG 4.5 Turnovers 1.5 Assist to turnover ratio 3.00-1 FT% .889 RPG 4.7 Record as a starter 5-1 .833 Winning percentage Come on Morey, it is obvious.....if Adelman is not smart enough to do it, then force him to....this season could be special if it is not torpedoed by people worrying about stepping on veterans toes. DD
When you look at the numbers from the last three games, it's really pretty embarrassing for Rafer. 3 games: 33.3 minutes, 8.3 points on 21.2% shooting (18.8% from three), 2.0 assists and 1.7 turnovers. 6 total assists in 3 games, and one of those games was a double overtime contest without Tracy McGrady (which means Rafer's assists should go up). If the Rockets don't get back to elite-level defense soon, I would bet he's out.
Rafer goes out and Aaron starts we win 4 in a row. Rafer comes back and starts we win 1 out of the last 4. Not only that, before Rafer went out with the injury we lost to a team that we should have beat. He comes back and we lose to another team that we should have beat. It makes me feel more comfortable with the team when I know that at least with Aaron starting we beat the teams that we should. I'd much rather have Aaron taking that 3 at the beginning of the game than having Rafer throwing up prayers.
