http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6041712.html [rquoter] Face it: Rafer Alston isn’t merely the Rockets’ starting point guard again this season. He’s here to stay. Don’t be fooled just because Alston’s contract with the Rockets runs only through the 2009-10 season. When there is famine and pestilence, when locusts cut a swath across the land, Alston will still be wearing his No. 12 jersey. When the meek have inherited the Earth, they will watch with raised eyebrows as Alston does the Skip To My Lou up the court. When cockroaches have emerged as the planet’s master species, Alston will still be hoisting up 3-point shots with the same old corkscrew motion. Roaches no doubt will have learned to scream in horror by then. “I can take these things that people say about me on the chin,” Alston said, “and keep on ticking.” ... Coaches know that Alston understands the game and studies the scouting reports. They know he’ll take care of the ball. They also know he’s by far the best defender among the Rockets’ point guards, especially against the pick-and-roll. “The biggest thing is he’s so good defensively at point guard,” Adelman said. “He’s quick enough and smart enough that he can keep the guy under control. That’s the biggest thing in our league: You’re not going to be able to get Chris Paul and take the ball away from him, but you have to contain him.” ... [/rquoter] So, what's the verdict on this? Is Alston really a good defender, or is Adelman just hyping him up for some unknown reason? Maybe a better question would be: in what ways is Alston a good defender, and in what ways is he a poor defender? Would it be wrong to say at this point that he, at the very least, is an above-average defensive PG on the whole?
JVG had the same praise for skip, and I would tend to agree. even on one leg he was our best defender on Deron during the playoffs. he isn't a ball hawking pg, but that plays to this teams strengths. he contains and forces the opposing pg to take a contested low % shot.
Alston isn't an elite level PG by any means, but in that Jazz series we didn't double Williams. I know, Williams had a pretty good series too, but he didn't completely destroy Alston or anything. He wasn't dribbling around Alston at will. Thats all you really need is the type of player that can stay in front of stars. The stars will get their points, but if you double the PG then everyone else gets their points.
Alston is a good point guard, we just tend to undervalue him as he's been forced to be the third option for a couple years. Not this year. Seems like he'll be the #5 option with all the talent on the team.
The problem is that if you don't give him a chance to play through his struggles, he may start to lose confidence and the "good" Rafer will emerge less frequently.
I'll be the first to admit that I used to cringe at every shot Rafer took from the floor, especially those floaters in the lane. But, when I think about how crucial it is for a guard to be able to handle the ball from end to end, I become really comfortable with Rafer controlling the point. I expect him to shoot better this year, because his shots won't be so highly contended. The attention is going to be on Yao,Tracy and Ron. Shane and Rafer should hope and expect to have a few more seconds to set their feet and shoot from beyond. But this article is about Rafer's defense. You can't deny his speed or get mad at those fouls when he tries so hard to poke the ball out of "elite" guards' hands. Rafer's like the student in class with B's in everything, but never gets recognized for being a tier above "average" and getting done what needs to be done. I'll have to start making an effort to accept the good Rafer brings to the team.
Rafer is a good defender, but he said it himself that last year he couldn't play defense as aggressive as he wanted because of the lack of help D, but with ronartest and tracy guarding the wing he'll feel more comfortable
Rafer is a good defender. He just gets burns in the pick n' roll. We need Rafer to not turnover the ball and keep adding to his assist. I hope he can be able to hit the open shot. Remember - Rondo wasn't the best PG but he was able to defend and hit the open three.
Rondo made a total of 5 three pointers last regular season (out of 19) and 5 in the playoffs (out of 20).
When Rafer "plays through his struggles", he kills us. Your view directly contradicts mine, which is: We need a viable alternative to put in the game when Rafer plays like a dog. Rafer's defenders have often said we put too much on him and can't sit him when he plays poorly (because of no decent backup PG). That is the ONE thing I agree with them on. Saying we must keep him in the game when he plays bad because he might "lose confidence" is nonsense. Unless he is more mentally fragile than even I think, competition from another player will encourage Rafer to raise up his game. On the topic, I still don't buy that Rafer is a good defensive PG. He's the best one on the Rockets but that says exactly nothing since Luther and AB are the alternatives. I think part of the reason he gets abused so much is that he doesn't make the opposing PG work on defense, which allows them to focus 99% of their energy on offense. I don't think very many PGs out there dread facing Rafer's defense. I think the public statements by JVG and Adelman about Rafer are confidence builders for him more than statements of truth. If you are stuck with a guy and must use him, make the best of it. Rondo and Rafer are completely different players. The only thing Rafer can do decently from a scoring standpoint is spot up 3-pointers, which Rondo does not do well (save for game 5 against the Cavs). Rondo is also good from mid-range, is VERY athletic, has hops, finishes well and is improving. Rafer is none of these.
I cant wait till I hear that ESPN COmmentator (whatever his name is) ..."Alston for THREE!!! BANG!!!"
It depends on how quickly you pull him out, right? Most fans tend to be reactionary with this stuff -- if he misses a couple open shots in a row, boom he's out of there. If he has a few bad games in a row, bench him. If that's the approach Adelman takes, I do think that will adversely effect his game. Coaches need to have enough confidence in their players to allow them to play through bad stretches at times. It adds some stability to the rotation, which will in turn foster more consistency from the team as a whole. But JVG has praised Rafer's defense after he left the team. What incentive would he have to do that? It seems he actually believes it.
All I can say is the Rafer is the best PG on the team right now, but still the weak link on the team. He was very good last year, but it was inconsistent before last year, and made lots of the fans uneasy when watching his plays. Hoping that he can play well as last year, but I guess that Morey will do something on the PG position whenever they have a chance to make every position is good enough for the champ.
Let's be very hypothetical and say AB turns out to be decent this year. (In reality, I have much less confidence in him than Rafer). When Rafer struggles, it isn't so much when he's yanked out of the game, it's how many minutes he plays and whether he finishes the game (vs the other PG, AB in this case). If a player is a starter, you may as well give him the first 10-12 minutes. The question is what happens after that. Ideally, Rafer will end up playing 20-25 minutes total instead of 35 on his rough days. If we are lucky, instead of going 3/15, it might be 1/7 instead. Keep Rafer as the starter but dial down his minutes when he clearly doesn't have it, which is often. My pipe dream is that the number of games he misses more than 10 shots will be almost eliminated. For that matter, the number of times he takes 10 shots should be drastically reduced.
Well, if people would stop speaking from straight emotion so much, they'd see what a few of us have been saying all along. Everyone of our players are good, they have their weak points. Very few of them are complete garbage. Skip's shortcomings have to do with his extremely streaky shooting that still averages on the slightly below average. He was forced to shoot more because we'd always lose TMac or Yao. Now *IF* we can keep our "big 3" healthy. Rafer can really flourish and be the point guard we need. We don't need a CP3 or Williams. We need Rafer to just take care of the ball, put people where they need to be, distribute to where they like the ball, play D, hit the occasional open shot.
I think most of us have all closed in on the same principles about Rafer: 1. Solid defender, not a shutdown defender by any means but solid 2. Is best used when not being forced to score. The better our offense is, the better Rafer is. 3. We would love to have a CP3 or DWill, or hell, even a Kirk Hinrich, but we don't. And lets face it, at 4 million a year Rafer is reasonably priced for what he brings to the table.
How could he be a good defender, while opposite PGs still get their average points,assist, and FG%? If you limit their scoring to under 5 of their average, yeap you are a good defender. If you let them score their points by letting them shoot a much higher volume, yeap, you are a good defender. I do not understand about his point of not being able to defend aggressive as there is no help d? Meaning that with help d, he will gamble on steals? That is not a good sign of good defense. He just happen to be the best PG defender "in" our team, and that have already change as artest is here, and maybe just maybe good things will come bear fruit from DJ strawberry.
