No no no, not arguing at all HP, Rudy kept it all in house as much as he could..... And I think Adelman tries the same thing but it is the players speaking out to the media....well them and Morey... To me it seems they are basically pleading with Tmac to try....and honestly it just makes me sad. DD
I guess I'm missing something. Where did any players start "call outs" to the media? This thread is wrong. I said Alston should be fined for saying other players should be fined...if that is indeed what he said. What kind of statement is that? Oh, such and such should be fined. That's such a cubicle world thing to say....and it never works, and never should. never disagreed with that. If Adelman and Morey have a plan for dealing with the media, fine. They are both leaders.
Rafer just stated the obvious. Poor team effort against a mediocre team = get blown out. Great team effort w/ 2 less guys, against a better team = down to the last second. Tmac & Artest participated in the blowout, not in the Hawks game. So he is right, the shortened roster demonstrated what everyone should've done the night before. I do find the comment about Artest interesting. Artest & Alston have argued in the middle of games at least twice. (I am in no way inferring that they have a personality clash.) There are still growing pains. Rafer didn't call anyone out, he's just repeating what Adelman, Yao, Artest, etc have said. If anyone called anyone else out, it's Artest calling out Tmac, but that's only if you want to be overly dramatic. I think he was diplomatic about it.
I think I have to agree with Alston... The only way to be a contender is if the Rockets play as a team and give all they have... That starts with TMac... TMac once said in the beginning of the season that the Rockets will go as far as he takes him... IF he is not going to give his best, the Rockets are not going anywhere this season...
Artest named names here. I guess it was too plainly stated, not as cryptic read-between-the-lines style as Rafer Looks more to me like a We Need You Guys statement then straight calling them out. Or at the very most, on a 10-scale a level 2 callout. The fines for no effort comment is ridiculous, but thats also Rafer just yapping hot air In some part its Rafer being able to communicate and relate to Artest unlike the other Rockets, slipping some McGrady into the line of fire. I like hearing from Scola. He makes the most sense and has the nightly effort to back his statements.
For those who say "somebody has to do it" I agree with heypartner. Even if somebody really needs to do it, it doesn't mean ANYBODY doing it is good. Rafer Alston should not be that somebody. And there is no direct quote in that article that indicate Rafer was indeed calling his teammates out.
Take what he said....multiply it by 10 and you will figure out what he is saying in that locker room. DD
One -- Alston isn't quite calling anyone out, and the thread title is misleading. Two -- The article finally says something about Artest that has been rather obvious for some time now but nobody has been willing to admit because of their adulation over his "heart": other than when he gets a kickout for an open three pointer, he rarely, if ever, plays within the flow of the offense. He just goes into ballstopper mode and tries to do everything 1-on-1. McGrady used to be bad at this too, but he has actually been much better at staying within the flow of the offense. His problem is actually kind of the opposite -- he lets his knee pain get to him and just disappears for large stretches of games, at times when his teammates are looking to him to carry the offense. And then there's the whole effort thing. What Rafer is talking about is the same thing that has been ticking me off since yesterday: the problem is execution. Not "heart" or whatever you call it. The problem is that for whatever reason -- lack of continuity, lack of chemistry, occasional sheer stupidity -- this team cannot go out for 48 minutes and execute a game plan. On Saturday they finally got back to doing the right things on offense for most of the game...the problem was that they forgot that they needed to execute on defense too. I like that Rafer is trying to get his teammates to follow the game plan on offense, but I sure hope Adelman is doing something about defensive game plans. I for one am sick and tired of watching an endless parade of layups and wide open jumpers. Is this team really that lost defensively without Battier, Artest or Hayes on the floor? I mentioned this in the game chat on Saturday. Under JVG, it didn't matter if we had 9 guys suited up and 5 of them were on 10-day contracts from the D-league. They always had a game plan and they executed it to the best of their ability. And they didn't give up layups.
Being the star doesn't mean you're a leader. You can be a leader w/o being a star. Look at Mark Jackson, Sam Cassell, Scott Skiles. Above average players for sure, but not stars either. Main thing is you need the respect of others in the locker room. Alston has some respect in the locker room. He always brings effort and never backs down to opponents.
This is true. For as long as I can remember, there have been only two players on this team who have consistently had the ear of their teammates on the court and in the locker room: Rafer Alston and Dikembe Mutombo. Mutombo has generally been much more of a spiritual leader, but when it comes down to Xs and Os, getting the team to do the right thing on the court -- it has always been Rafer. I think we allowed ourselves to be teased a bit this season by Brooks' emergence, but he still has a long ways to grow in the PG department even though I think he has star potential, and often while we fans were generally obsessing over field goal percentages, this team has always depended on Rafer to help put things in order on the basketball court. There has certainly been a long list of challenges that have hit the team this season, but right now they're really struggling to come together, and Rafer stepping back firmly into that role and making his voice heard is a step in the right direction.
Guys like Alston, Battier and Mutombo are good veteran players with leadership qualities that are important for a team. But in the long run, they are not the leaders of this team. The Rockets live and die by McGrady and Yao. The two star players have to lead by the way they play, the way they carry themselves, and the way they communicate to their teammates. To borrow from the Army, they've got to be all that they can be. And they have to demand the same from everyone else.
rafer was definitely "calling out" mcgrady. and i bet he gave it a good thought as to ow to word it. notice he interviewed on saturday, not right after the game on friday. this is as far as rafer can and should go at this point. i give him credit for speaking up.
but still, this team is in deep ****. i don't believe mcgrady will respond well, and ron is just unpredictable.
Isn't this crazy that Mac has been the source of all this drama, all the people thought Ron would be the reason we would have chemistry problems
LET's trade T-mac for Gay + Marc Gasol +Bradon Roy. Rafer/AB/Head, Roy/Barry/Vofar, Artest/Gay/Shane, Scola/Landry/Hayes, Yao/gasol/Motombo This is the champion's lineup.
Those wouldn't be T-Mac's problem... If he plays great, we won't trade him. If he dogs it, he's hard to move unlelss someone knows he's dogging it and further that he won't dog it for them. I can't help but wonder if his injuries aren't more problematic than they are being made out to be.
