http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6150948.html Skip's been playing pretty well since T-Mac went out, and many argued that we could very well have beaten Utah if Rafer didn't get injured. Is his value underrated on this board?
Yes. I'd say he's a legit starter in the league. Doesn't turn the ball over and gets us into our set fast, and he's a solid defender. Not crap but not elite either. He'd be an All-star if he could shoot 45% from the field.
Rafer is a very very elastic product in economic terms. Which means he can be very damn good, or very damn crap. Rafer was on the no good side before Yao's injury, then suddenly he got pumped and became a very demanded PG after Yao injury. In fact he was so good, he was leading us against the best teams, and that included Lakers, Jazz. However, Rafer's value dropped down severely early this season, but yet again it appears that injury does spark fire in Rafer. He seems to be playing better when one of our star players go out. So IMO, considering our injury trend, yes Rafer is underrated on this board. But Ironically, when none of our stars are injured, he is less valued. Rafer is trigger happy, but when he focuses on passing he can help a lot. The thing right now for Rafer is, the trigger happy Alston is what damages us this season, yet the trigger happy Alston also helps us when we're in need. What I really want Rafer to do is, stick with passing for once. See where that gets to.
Someone relay that to McGrady if that's what's happening with him. But I don't mean to derail this thread. I trash on Rafer all the time, but he's been playing well as of late, so good for him.
No, abosultely not. If anything, he's overrated. He can't hit open shoots and he can't create for himself and others. He can't penetrate and dish or finish at the basket. He often takes ill-advised shots like when he gets in 1 on 1 battles with opposing PGs who are better than him (probably his And1 instincts kicking in) and makes poor decisions like pulling up on a 1 on 4 situation for a jumper that he usually bricks. He's one of the worst starting PGs in the league. He'll string together a few good games every now and then, but he's pyrite aka fool's gold. The Rockets will not have too much success in the post-season with Rafer at the helm.
He is definitely a bad PG. no more no less. about the turnover thing, when you can not create, you have less turnovers. its that simple.
AB is averaging MORE turnovers than Alston again, I don't know what people are seeing, yea, he has his bad stretch of games, but he's guided this team to back to back seasons of 50+ wins, hell after the first 2 games of the Jazz series last season, most said we would've won the series if he played is he Nash, Kidd, Parker? no is he better than Nelson/Marbury/Felton/Quinn? absolutely
Oops.... 2007 playoffs With Rafer playing against Utah, Rockets go 2-1. With Rafer out of action against Utah, Rockets go 0-3. I'm one of those who says that Rafer would have got us past the Jazz last season. He might not be GREAT at anything, but his only weakness is his shooting. And really, let's not whinge about a 35.7 CAREER 3pt shooter. Not GREAT, but that's certainly passable (Chauncy Billups is regarded as a good 3pt shooting PG with 38.6% career numbers - less than a percentage point better...). Rafer is definitely under-rated around here. Having said that, I'd certainly upgrade if at all possible; but (and I started a thread about this before the season began) how can we possibly do that anyway? Some of the names that get bandied about as possible replacements are laughable (to say the least!)
I would be ok with Rafer if he would stop shooting that stupid tear drop. I like his defense, how he takes care of the ball and runs the offense, but once I see that floater go up in the air and nearly bend the rim I almost pull my hair out.
I'm not much of a conspiracy theory type person, but I begin to wonder if there is some kind of mainstream media interest in convincing us not to believe our own eyeballs, and just accept that Rafer is a good player and that all is hunky-dory now. Of course, we all know this is total nonsense, but I guess there is a part in all of us that just wants to believe that our own eyeballs are lying to us. Damn denial.
"I don’t think about it," he said. "The first day the doctor (ellipses) checked my ankle out and said I was good to go out and play and won’t have any problems, I blocked it out of my mind. That’s what got me past any lingering effects. "Sometimes, you come out of surgery for an injury and it’s just the mental part of it. You fear the worst. You fear that something else could go wrong. You fear trying some things. You’re afraid of using whatever part of the body had the surgery because you’re afraid you might hurt it again. But I never had any thoughts other than just go out there and get it done." Would be a good quote for T-Mac to read - and then read again - and then read again - then...
Sorry cant help it. But Felton and Nelson is playing great bball this season, so is Quinn. Cant say much bout marbury thou. Jameer Nelson- 31.3mpg, 14.5ppg, 5.2apg, 3.5rpg, 1.1spg, 1.9tpg, .492FG%, .313 3p%, .966 FT% Raymond Felton- 35.8mpg, 13.2ppg, 6.2apg, 3.4rpg, 1.8spg, 2,5tpg, .408FG%, .293 3p%, .766 FT% Chris Quinn(not a starter)- 19.5mpg, 7.1ppg, 2.5apg, 1.5rpg, 0.4spg, 0.4tpg, .418FG%, .469 3p%, .938 FT% Now lets compare them to alston who have been in "beast" mode currently. 33.1mpg, 11.6ppg, 3.4rpg, 4.9apg, 1.2spg, 1.3tpg, .378 FG%, .358 3p%, .810 FT% There is not 1 stats where Rafer is better than any of the 3 you just said. Well if you want to nit pick, rafer do have better 3p % than Felton and Nelson and basically thats it. You cant really compare defense, and if you want to say setting up offense, all i can see for rox currently is, pass the ball down deep, and then shoot the 3p.
There's a reason why he's still on this team and why he's still starting. You probably have to go to the coaching staff and the players to get the reason though because few fans will tell you. It's because he does what is asked of him. He runs the offense. He gets the team into their sets efficiently. He controls the tempo (sometimes he gets out of control, but not that bad). He's not a great scorer but that's not being asked of him otherwise he'd be on the bench or on a different team. If we were playing him just because we had to, I doubt he'd be starting. He does what is asked of him, and he does it well. He's also not a little girl. He'll take big shots if our stars are scared to. He'll try to make something happen if our stars won't. He's not very good at it, but at least he's got balls. People think we need a PG who can shoot/score. Those happen to be Rafer's weaknesses. Where i'm going with this is if/when we get a PG who's a great shooter and scorer, but can't control the ball very well or set the offense up, Rafer's ability to do so will be sorely missed. Don't get me wrong, a PG who can do both would be nice, but we don't have that option right now. Also, Alston is a pretty smart player. But sometimes he tries to get too cute and makes a boneheaded play. You gotta take the good with the bad.
you would seriously consider those 4 to start for us over Rafer? I must have eaten too much jambalaya if thats the case stating the stats isn't fair, Nelson, maybe I can support because he does play with a talented starting lineup, nothing like ours, but not bad numbers with Howard/Tukgulou/Lewis but Felton/Quinn, well, have to put up with those number with the roster support they have by looking at the number, there is only 2pts and maybe 1.5 assist difference at best, doesnt even calculate the defense and how many touches our MAIN guys get, its about the running the team/executing for our PG position, not having the most pts/assists, if thats the case, we wouldve kept Mike James after the 04-05 season
The offense is looking a lot better recently with improved ball movement. Rafer's streakiness is mitigated by having Brooks. Rafer's gotten a lot better at passing to his teammates as time has gone by and he's had a chance to mesh with them. With Alston and Brooks on the team I don't see the PG position as the glaring weakness it used to be.
