http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5493370.html Brick toss too common for Rockets By JEROME SOLOMON Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Some nights the Rockets look like a solid basketball team. Other nights, they look like a solid construction crew. If you were at the Rockets game Sunday, you might have noticed the letters A-C-M-E stamped into the game ball where S-P-A-L-D-I-N-G is supposed to be. Those who didn't spot the letters for America's largest manufacturer of fired clay brick certainly heard its work. Darryl Dawkins broke backboards; these guys were bending rims. Worse yet, much of this team's worst shooting is at the so-called free-throw line. We say so-called because apparently the Rockets have the term mixed up. They put much more emphasis on throw than free. The Rockets' 72.7 percent foul shooting is 22nd in the NBA and their worst as a team since the 1989-90 season. The Rockets were just 9-of-19 from the line against Utah, their second-worst showing in a game this season. Pointing out how the Rockets missed 10 uncontested 15-footers while the Jazz missed only two (24-of-26) in an eight-point game might make it sound as if the game should have gone into overtime. Their second-biggest offensive problem is they don't get as many uncontested shots as a Rick Adelman team should. Like the country recovering from a bad presidential run, we hoped Adelman would follow the Great Van Gundy Depression with a New Deal. Unless something really crazy happens in the next week and a half, Adelman's first 100 days in office (since the start of the season) will be remembered as the Same Old Deal. The Rockets are 20th in the league in scoring (95.3 points per game), their 44.3 percent field-goal shooting ranks 21st and their 33.4 percent 3-point shooting is 24th. If the Rockets want to make some noise this postseason, and we're not talking that incessant brick-to-rim clanging we get on the miked-up goals at Toyota Center, they have to play better offensively. With Jeff Van Gundy gone, this team doesn't play enough good defense to consistently win ugly. You can't teach the gang that can't shoot straight how to shoot straight during a season, however. You can find a point guard. (If not, uh oh.) Mr. Inconsistent Inconsistent play at point guard leads to inconsistent play, period. Rafer Alston might as well have "Inconsistent" put on his driver's license and stitched onto the back of his jersey. More people call him that than "Skip To My Lou." As we've seen, you can win games with Alston running the point. In what might be a surprise to some of you, a team could probably win a championship with Alston running the point. The problem is, these Rockets aren't that team. The players know it. Adelman knows it. General manager Daryl Morey knows it. Unfortunately for the Rockets, the rest of the league knows it, too. They tried to upgrade at the point in the offseason with Steve Francis and Mike James. Oops. With all the hits from Morey in his first year in charge of putting together the roster — who doesn't like Luis Scola, Aaron Brooks and Carl Landry? — the two misses have chipped paint off the rim. Alston proved to be better than both veteran acquisitions during the preseason, and he has been better than them during the season. (Imagine how bad things would be if the Rockets had gotten rid of Alston as so many of us assumed they would.) But it's not good enough. Alston is shooting 39.3 percent from the floor, 32.9 percent on 3-poiinters, and a ridiculous 64.7 percent from the foul line. His free-throw percentage is 75th among guards in the Western Conference (and 153rd among all guards), the worst for any starting guard in the conference. Look at the shooting percentages of the point guards on the teams ahead of the Rockets in the Western Conference standings. Chris Paul, New Orleans (48.4 percent). Steve Nash, Phoenix (51.9 percent, 48.2 on 3-pointers). Devin Harris, Dallas (48.3 percent). Anthony Carter (46.4 percent) or Allen Iverson (45.3 percent), Denver. Tony Parker, San Antonio (49.2 percent). Derek Fisher, Los Angeles (47.2 percent, 43.1 on 3-pointers). Baron Davis, Golden State (42.6 percent). Steve Blake, Portland (44.6 percent, 45.5 on 3-pointers). Deron Williams, Utah (51.7 percent). Alston is a worse shooter than each, and almost from everywhere. He is the worst overall and the worst from the foul line, but is shooting a higher percentage than Parker, the Spurs' leading scorer, on 3-pointers. Deal will be difficult Can they make a midseason move to add a quality floor general to send Alston to the bench, or at least take the pressure off him? For a variety of reasons, some of the early names of point guards popping up on the rumor mill — Jason Kidd and Mike Bibby to name two — might be difficult if not impossible to get. An upgrade at point guard is essential if the Rockets hope to be playoff players rather than bricklayers this spring.
One of Solomon's better articles. Most of it is on the money. PG has been the most glaring weakness of this team for several years.
Problem with Tmac at point is that everybody just stands around and watches when he has the ball. He needs to receive the ball later in the shot clock in spots where he can operate efficiently.
Now that Spurs and Suns are also interested in Stoudamire maybe Rockets can offer whichever team that gets him luxury tax relief by taking on more salary in a trade? Barry or Barbosa would solve the poor shooting at PG.
The problem is not Alston because he is PG and didn't shoot much. T-Mac is ranked 43th among 66 qualified Guard in term of FG%.
It should be pretty obvious that our 3rd through 5th players just don't measure up with the (real) playoff teams in the West. Alston, Hayes and Battier + two superstars doesn't make a contender no matter who the superstars are. We have one who takes a lot of shots (Alston) but isn't a good shooter. We have another who is a good shooter but doesn't shoot mostly because he can't create his own shot (Battier). We have one can't do anything with the basketball in his hands (Hayes). Teams don't have to cover Hayes except when he is close to the basket (even then, he misses about 50% of layups), and they can lay off of Alston. It makes it very hard for Yao and McGrady to play against sagging defenses. On defense, we are undersized at the 1 and 4. When we go small, we are undersized and the 1, 2 and 4. Quite simply, we are very flawed in our roster.
summed up nicely. People were desperate and made desperate moves, not necessarily smart ones. However it isnt the "same old deal"...its worse
I don't think it is worse, I see the team building to be a real contender instead of some paper mache faux contender. DD
well if they keep playing like this then they should be able to buiild a contender...with their lottery picks
They may be in the lottery or the playoffs, either is possible, but the fact that they are playing their 3 rookies and starting to play a 2nd year player means that the future is very bright and they are able to withstand the loss of one of our stars. I like the Rockets future under Adelman. DD
Some more Alston hatred. We lose a game to a surging team w/o Yao Ming and he blames Alston for all of our shortcomings. Amazing how much people hate Rafer Alston. Tmac has a horrendous first half, a couple other players are no-shows(Bonzi has been a no show all season) and it is all Alston's fault. We really need to stop the Alston hate. I agree shooting is a huge problem on this team but to single out the POINT GUARD for shooting poorly after every loss is ridiculous and it just means you are looking for a scapegoat. Whatever, people will continue to hate the guy until we go on an 8-10 game winning streak between now and February and then they will be very quiet about Alston's play.
Oh but they will continue to bottle up their hatred until we lose again or Alston has a horrendous night or both.
The way I see it, right now, Rafer is solid for about 25 minutes. After that, he gets sloppy with the ball, his shooting goes down the drain, and his defense is non-existant. Aaron Brooks has been able to develop faster because of this, since his playing time has gone up. Now, obviously AB is not the answer as a starting PG right now.....but, the it's in the team's best interest to keep giving him PT. At least right now, we can spell Rafer with AB, and the pace of the game changes, and defenses have to gameplan for it. In my opinion, it's not worth giving up anybody of real value to this team's future for a PG this season. Brooks will develop as the game slows down for him, and he will be the starter for this team at some point next year. It's just going to take some patience from fans this season, I think.
I don't hate Rafer, I just want to get past the 1st round and I think it will be hard with Rafer as your best PG. Look at the shooting %s of the rest of the PGs in the west and they all get their own teams in there offensive sets and most all play descent defense.
i/you/anyone would like scola, brooks, landrys future under anyone...they are good players with skill and talent, no matter who is coaching. All 3 of those guys are tough, competitors, skilled and commited to improve their games. the future does look good, too bad the present is ugly as sin. This team will still only go as far as tmac and yao will take them. Tmac is slowly on the decline and yao...well its hard to compare him to like players, but on average abnormally large guys like he dont have long tenure you dont have to sacrifice now for the future and the future for now.
