Partly agreed. I am believe SF3 can certainly come back, but dont believe that will relegate Alston to the bench. Adelman trust Alston more now than SF3.
SF3 coming back would hardly put Alston on the bench. It might put Dorsey on the inactive list, but thats about it.
rafer creates for himself and the team instead of being the b**ch that delivers the ball to yao and tracy when both stars are starting.
Sorry for a late reply - haven't looked at this thread in a few days... Your statement: "Rockets won't have success with Alston at the helm" My statement: "Last season against the Jazz we had a winning record when Alston actually played" Your statement:"Correlation does not equal causation". Which I guess is correct - but neither does wild statement equal causation. You can't just say 'we won't have success in the postseason with Rafer' and then when it's actually pointed out that we DID have success in the postseason you try and pull out a 'logic statement'. But your use of it is to defend a highly illogical statement that you made in the first place... If statement says 'we won't win games with X' And fact says 'we did win games with X' Then statement stands false. However, if one can introduce variables to show that X may or may not be the reason for 'win games', then one can start to put together an argument to try and slightly undercut 'statement stands false'. But of course, in your mind, wild statement (based on irrational opinion) bears more weight than fact, rooted in history. Oh well. As for Hinrich and Mo Williams being available - it's been well pointed out how those were NOT players who we could have obtained without breaking up the core of a 55 win team (a team which had the best record from the new year until seasons end and, sadly, didn't have the use of a top 2 offensive C for the post-season - nor their starting PG for half of the series). And taking either of those players would have meant long term salary pain for questionable gain (When a PG needs to shoot 3 pointers for a living in the offense, one would hope to be getting a significantly better 3pt shooter than Rafer Alston for the 20million more dollars one spends. Alston 35.7% Williams 35.9% Hinrich 37.8%)
My original statement was the Rockets won't have too much success in the post-season with Rafer at the helm. This statement has proven to be true and I think it will continue to be true as long as he sees significant mins. Maybe we're measuring success differently. You're actually arguing that Rafer is some type of difference make for this team. If you really believe that then there's no point in us even debating because we're not going to get anywhere. Skip is a liability. Rafer Alston is only a difference maker for the other team with his poor decision making, lackluster shooting, and inability to create. As far as the other pgs mentioned, Hinrich could be had for Head + Alston + Hayes. That does not affect the core of the team. Also, it didn't take much for Cleveland to acquire Williams. I'll go ahead and trust you on the 3 point shooting percentages, but I believe those other players both shoot over 40% overall. That could make all the difference in the world. Another thing to take into account is that Rafer's shots are WIDE open. I don't think those 2 other guys can dream of getting as many wide open shots as Rafer does.
I dont think many people argue that Skip is a difference maker as in the guy who is going to win us a championship. That statement is just as ridiculous as yours in that Skip is nothing but a major liability and helps the other team. He helps this team. Not as much as Yao or Tmac or Ron, but he helps this team. Also, what makes you think the Bulls would take Alston, Head, and Hayes for Hinrich. You yourself say Alston is atrocious, yet he would somehow be the centerpiece of a deal for Hinrich? Head played at Illinois but is hardly a Chicago legend and gives them absolutely nothing since they have Gordon already. Hayes is a very good defender but Im not sold they would give him min over Thomas or Noah at this point. Alston is purely a PG and can not play shooting guard and I dont think he is taking Rose's minutes. So please tell me, why you are so sure Chicago makes this deal. People bash skip and then make these crazy assumptions. You also have failed to address the salary issues. Do you really think Williams or Hinrich deserve about 10 million a year for the next three years. If so, you have poor basketball economics.
Did you actually read the entire thread or did you just feel like ranting? Hinrich's salary goes down by half a million each year until it expires. I've already stated why each team would make this trade, but I'll repeat myself once and only once more. Houston would get a good pg that is an upgrade over anybody else on the roster at that position. Chicago would get an expiring contract in Head, a hard working player in Hayes that their young bigs can learn from, and a backup pg in Alston. Also, the contracts of Hayes and Alston expire in the important year of 2010. The salaries all matchup too. Chicago doesn't want to pay Hinrich all that money to be a back-up and Hinrich doesn't want to play second fiddle to a rookie. It seems like an ideal situation - especially since Houston is in win now mode.
This comment is ridiculous. How can AB and Francis possibly be our best 1-2 punch? Francis has barely played in 2 years. To imply that he can play a signifigant role as a backup right now is simply incorrect. He's behing head and Wafer as well for a reason. It would be great to have Francis as a spark of the bench, but every single sign points to the fact that it simply won't happen.
Meh. I don't really consider Rafer a liability on this team. Like I mentioned earlier, I'd love to have a Steve Blake type player, but that's not an option for us. I certainly don't want KH or his contract (he's been in a bad decline for a few years now).
As long as we do not play Denver in the playoff, we should be ok with the Rafer as our starting PG. A good thing for this year is that Brook can replace Rafer when he was out of mind on the court. Many times, I saw Brook played whole 4th q, and Rafer sat on the bench.
Are you serious ? I guess the reason Kwame (Brown) can't play basketball is because he doesn't know that much about basketball .
rafer sure has been hitting that open three that people keep crying about. in fact he's hit about 20 out of 45 of them (.444) since he was back from his suspension. so as long as he continues to play well, why does he deserve getting thrashed in a thread with a positive article, STATISTICALLY SHOWING HIS IMPROVEMENT? 21 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists? 18 points, 4 steals, 3 out of 5 behind the arc? that's a terrible game?
Have you ever seen our win-loss record with Rafer, and without? We're barely a .500 team when he doesn't play, and when he does, we're pretty close to .700. This isn't a coincidence.....I swear some of you people must lead the most miserable lives if all you can do is focus in on negative aspects of someone's game, and completely overlook what they bring to the table. Everything you said is GREATLY exaggerated, and if anything, it's his maturity and level-headed play that has kept this Rockets team stable despite all the injuries. How many times has Rafer gotten in "1 on 1 battles with opposing PGs"? Sure, he might come back with a quick shot on one possession if he wants a chance to answer, but never have I felt like he lost control of an entire game. And a lot of times, that 1-on-4 jumper is the only shot that's available in the fast break situation...and like you said, if it is indeed a 1-on-4 chances are our guys have the offensive rebounding position to pull down the board if he misses.....transition jumpers aren't always bad shots. I understand that his shooting leaves a LOT to be desired, but it's a fact that he is one of the most important players on this team.
Please to know Rafer is playing well recently. Rafer is a very inconsistent. When he is good we win. So IMO, if he is playing badly, he need to sit.
maybe our shortest one-two punch...... Seriously, anyone who claims the following must forget how poor SF3 runs the team years ago even he was healthy at that time.
Because he has a small hot streak every year but ends up with declining stats. Bet you didn't know that overall last year, he stunk more than the year before. DD
It may be called as hatin', DD. Obviously Rafer is maybe now what the Rockets really need, especially when they think about the CHampionship but you make him look like the worst player in the NBA. Last year, he was pretty good, especially in the playoffs. What's more, without Yao, with Battier and McGrady hurt I am pretty should we could have won the series against Utah if we had had Rafer in all those games the way he played that time. And right now he is PHENOMENAL as well. I give gim big props, without McGrady he really stepped up. I am not saying he will do that the entire year, 1/7 night will come sooner or later, but come on.
