This is why all the has been type of players love him, he sticks with em...no matter how bad they suck. And, it is WHY he must go for the Rockets to reach their potential... DD
V-span doesn't fit in cuz he is not a good player at this point he disappoints everytime he steps on the court (same goes for padgett) and JL3 is proving his point offensively but he's obviously not a defensive player so what choice do we have overall @ PG? the answer is Rafer Alston!!!!!!!! I am freakin tired of you losers who keep on saying "Rafer Sucks!" "bench Rafer!" so get this in your head WE DO NOT HAVE A CHOICE @ PG POSITION TO PLAY SOMEONE FOR 30 SOME MINUTES UNTIL WE DO GET OVER IT!!! and SHUT UP already!!!!
A good point guard can put pressure on Luther all night long. He can only dribble right We need his legs for his clutch jumpers too
Don't know if this was already mentioned. On the post game interview with Bill Worrell and Matt Bullard, TMac mentioned he was staying over in Chicago tonight and was traveling to Waco tomorrow for more treatment with Patterson. Worrell joked that he wanted to go with him as that guy works wonders and TMac agreed. They asked him what he thought of Hinrich guarding him in the second half, he thought score. He said no disrespect to Hinrich but TMac said he could shoot it as if he wasn't there. TMac also said Deke still has it and if Chuck Hayes was a little taller, that he'd be one of the most dominant players (rebounders) in the league. He said Chuck has a job in this league as he brings it every night.
The PG of the Rockets brings the ball up and hands it at the top of the key to TMac..... At least a good portion of the time. I still want to see what V-Span can do with some time at the point.... But...maybe someone can tell Rafer to quit playing like a wuss, and to man up and make shots. DD
I have been saying since the beginning of the season that the ONLY practical solution to the Rockets' woes at the PG position is to play T-Mac at the one, start Head at the 2, and the rest of the lineup remains the same (Yao, Hayes, Battier). I think the second unit should be mostly composed of slashers/quick guards that can penetrate and score (Snyder, JLIII, VSpan), be the focus of the offense in stretches without Yao/Mac on the court (Bonzi, Howard), and defend the interior (Deke).
The refs are dumb. Next time Deke gets a block the whole team need to wag their fingers. Show those refs.
Luther might be an even worse defender at PG than Rafer, and he can't run a team. You expect McGrady to do everything by himself? Quit your complaining. We're winning games that none of us expected we'd be winning when Yao went down. We're doing it because we're playing great D, we're rebounding, and we're not turning the ball over.. Each game, we're getting ourselves quality shots. Sometimes they fall, sometimes they don't, but we're executing our game plan very well. We shouldn't screw that up by making a drastic change at PG. When Rafer snaps out of his slump, we'll be even better.
I agree with the poster that says to get off of Rafer and think positive. Okay, let's be positive, we almost came up with a new nickname for Rafer, we were almost able to call him "O-fer"....... Even the homers calling the game were incredulous after he was zero for 6 then 7 then 8.....He kept on shooting. If he wasn't the point and constantly touching the ball, he would never see it in a pickup game. After you miss three or four in a row, you are done, your teamates will never pass to you. But since "O-fer" is the point he keeps getting the ball and looking for his shot. Gordon toasted him in the fourth. It was ugly. But the Rockets truly have heart and pulled out a great win. JVG said three reasons for the win, TMAC's Greatness, TMAC's greatness and TMAC's greatness.
Can someone please and I beg, tell me why Rafer didn't give the ball to t-mac who ask for it twice at the end of the game but instead went strong to the hoop and got all iron? Did he seriously not see t-mac(no defender between them)? Did he really though he had a better shot? Was he trying to make it up for a poor 1st half? Maybe JVG told him to do so? This one really left me scratching my head. I think after this game T-mac can't trust Rafer anymore, which might be a good thing.
oh! of course why didn't I think of that, leave it to Tmac do everything for the team thats gonna get us in deep playoff run.
This game is Van Gundy ball at its finest. Even when their overall offense couldn't get any worse in the early going, the team kept playing suffocating defense throughout the game, which eventually took a heavy toll on their opponents. I think one of the key reasons for tonight's win is TMac didn't force the issue. The Bulls played tight defense on him earlier in the game and dared the rest of the Rockets to beat them -- sort of like the good 'ol Jordan Rule. TMac didn't resort to the shoot-himself-out-of-slump routine, rather, he sort of let the game came to him and rose to the occasion when it counted. I observed no frustration from TMac when his shots didn't fall. The self-assurance of a superstar manifested in the 2nd half. I don't know what struck Skiles' mind that he stubbornly put Hinrich single-cover TMac for much of the 4th quarter. Many a time when TMac were double-teamed, he dished out timely assists to his teammates, who duly hit their open jumpers. Kudos to Juwan. He was the main reason the Rockets didn't get blown out for much of the first half. Deke and Battier were great at defensive end. Several Rockets were able to hit key 3 pointers. A total team effort. Man, is Hinrich really this bad? He almost made his counterpart Alston an All-Star. Almost.
Rafer probably realizes that too! It's JVG who's ok with Rafer taking soo many shots, that's why he's taking them otherwise if JVG wasn't ok with it he would've stopped taking all those shots. And Rafer is the best ball handler at PG asking Luther or Vspan to play PG is asking for more TOs no question about it!
T-mac is clutch, simply awesome. Unfortunately Rafer is here to stay - Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy delivered a strong message to those hoping for a change at point guard: Forget about it. Alston is staying in the lineup. "This has always puzzled me," Van Gundy said. "When you lose Yao and you go 5-2, I'm not looking after losing an overtime game to blow somebody up. ... Rafer's our point guard. He's gonna be our point guard. If anybody has a problem with that, wants to see a change, it ain't gonna happen. Everybody can stop all the questions about who's next. There ain't no next right now."
