Agreed on the championship part, but don't you think we could still get to the conference finals with a healthy Yao and T-Mac? I mean, what could we have done with a healthy Yao last year? Probably conference finals. Time to cross our fingers for eight months...
We pay Rafer $5 million per year to... ...dribble the ball past half court and hand the ball off to somebody else on 9 out of 10 possessions, then wait on the perimeter for the chance to launch up a low-percentage shot with ugly form. ...shoot under 40% from the field season after season. ...not turn the ball over. ...get to the FT line less than 2 times per game. ...pretend to play good defense. If you watch closely, he gets burned game after game. His team defense is OK and he has quick hands but, overall, he is nowhere near as good as some people make him out to be. Rafer rarely does anything creative which is the primary reason he has low TOs. He also seems scared to take contact. I'd rather have a PG that penetrates, creates a little and gets to the line even if it means an extra TO here and there. The elite PGs are all great at breaking down defenses on a regular basis and creating good scoring opportunities for others (Nash, Paul, Williams, Kidd, Calderon). Rafer obviously isn't in this category. The 2nd tier PGs that aren't great at creating are at least good scorers, i.e., scoring PGs (Mo Williams, Arenas, Parker). Rafer isn't in this category, either. Basically, all Rafer does is take almost zero risk by not even threatening to penetrate (he often pretends like he is going to penetrate but nobody buys it because he never follows through) and then camps out on the perimeter to become a shooter, which is his biggest weakness. He plays right into the opposition's hands game after game. I guarantee almost every coach in the league doesn't even worry about game planning for our PG play. If anything, they say "don't worry, Rafer never penetrates... just let him keep jacking up shots."
If health is the deciding factor, then we're done. We're got a terrible trainer and injury prone players (Francis, Brooks, Battier out; Alston and McGrady gimpy; Landry 75%, Yao one step away from ending his season).
Interesting that IIRC Hollinger didn't consider Alston to be such a negative factor when he predicted the Rockets to win it all last year. Wonder what made him change his mind.
if rondo can start for a championship team, rafer can. if i saw correctly, nobody guarded rondo and left him wide open all the time like rafer. and with this talent, rafer knows he doesn't have to shoot much.
