Tyrone Hill and Chucky Brown couldn't either. Sometimes you just a roleplayer who does that one thing really well. Like defense and rebounding.
We were never consistently successful offensively even in the regular season. We won by defense. Everybody except T-Mac was one-dimensional. Hayes was only supposed to cut to the basket to receive T-Mac's pass, and crash the offensive board. He was never asked to pass the ball. Rafer was only supposed to bring the ball up without turning it over, and either give it to T-Mac or dump it down to Yao, and wait for a wide open 3. He was not asked to hit moving cutters. These two guys can be better offensive players than what they were. I am not saying that they were not the weakest links because they were. I do think that Scola is a superior player and should start. As for the PG spot, it is still very hard to say. Rafer, James, and Francis all have their own strengths and weaknesses. I tend to think James should be the starter because he has fewer flaws than the other two (although I believe he is not as good as he think he is). My point is, I wouldn't be too surprised if Adelman keeps the same starting lineup as last season. But you can bet that this same lineup will have better offensive results, even in the playoffs.
at the END of his career as he was w/ the rockets, he's not in his prime anymore, he's a DECENT player. for his CAREER as a whole, he's a GOOD player. if u have eyes, u can't deny that.
Agreed those 5 can be coached better on offense than what JVG did, but Rafer and Chuck are still deficient offensive players. Yes, Rafer wasn't a lot worse in the playoffs but he was worse than normal and Chuck was completely exposed for what he is. I'm OK if Rafer starts the season because he continues playing well. It's just a matter of time. Same for Chuck. I'm sure it will all play out for the best. My amazement is how the Rafer defenders have come out of the woodwork, where were they last season and what they will say when Rafer reverts to form and gets benched.
am I surprised SteveO has struggled to fit in with an offense emphasising player and ball movement and more importantly with 2 or more players on court more the focus of the offense than him............................. HELL NO this would appear a great time to say 'told you so' maybe clutch can pull up a classic quote.......... can we can revisit the debate SteveO's defense while we're at it?? Yao, Scola, Battier, Tracy, James, Bonzi, Hayes and Alston is 8 man rotation now...... the question is who fills a role to play 9 to 12... so what role does Steve0 play??
I think the worst part of that series last year wasn't even necessarily Rafer's play on offense.. it was how he got WORKED by Williams on the other side of the court. Rafer could have been given a weapon, and I think Williams still would have run his offense any way he pleased.
Slow down there Hoss. According to a few roffls, rafer is an elite PG outside of shooting percentage, and plays good D. Like I said. Rafer's D in two years at Houston has been bottom of the barrel.
again, playing in this offense, u don't really need a true PG. mike james ran our offense BEAUTIFULLY in the 3rd quarter yesterday. if he plays w/ tmac, he will know his role or tmac will b****slap him. again, for us to be effective and avoid droughts, rafer can't go through what he did last season at times where he would brick EVERYTHING from his god-awful teardrops to wide open 3s. we need him to shoot at least 43-44% from the field for us to be effective if he's going to be the starter. i prfer mike james to be off the bench if francis is not going to get significant time. i don't want rafer on the 2nd unit where he is a liability offensively since he can't shoot.
oh come on thats uncalled for, Zboy brings up some valid points, its not his fault he hates juwan w/ such a passion that he can't see that juwan actually was a decent player (yes decent not good or great or bad/horrible)
Williams was having his way with basically anybody in the playoffs. So I think it might be unfair to single out Rafer as being defensively defficient. As for being a blackhole on offense. I think he is decent as long as he is not required to shoot or be relied on for pts.
Ya I agree about D. Williams, I mean the guy matched everything Baron Davis did in their series and then some! And Baron Davis ain't no push over like Rafer.
How was Chuck exposed in the playoffs? He was actually more productive on offense and did a much better job on Boozer than Yao did. That said Boozer is one of 3 PFs (Brand and Garnett being the other two) who make Chuck look bad on defense because of their ability to shoot the face-up jumper.
I agree. On offense he was reboundin' every ball he could and even more. He did a great job on Boozer. Yes, he's weaker but he can stay in fron of forwards like Boozer, Yao can't.
Starters: Yao Hayes Shane T-Mac Rafer Bench: Scola Bonzi James Head Makes the team in order of who has the best chance of seeing minutes, to the least: Francis Deke Brooks Synder Butler Novak
I'm really surprised you still hate him. most haters have gotten over his tenure and actaully appreciate his willingness to come here and try to play a role. let it go
I got a question, maybe you guys can help. When you read the sentence I bolded, what is Francis talking about? I think I know, but someone else saw what Steve said as meaning something else. Sorry for quoting everything around it, but I wanted you guys to see the context it was in. Thanks for your input
