we all saw mike james dribble the ball with no attempt to pass to yao sure he can get his points but you are forgetting how he played with the rest of the crew.
Oh, yes, I'm forgetting - he made the rockets better when he was on the court insofar as their offensive efficiency increased. That's why they wanted him back this season to replace Rafer. I'm a Rockets fan, he made the rockets better. Game over.
in his eyes, he wants to be the number 1-2 option i rather have a guy that knows his role, then mike james. KG shot attempts 50-91 MJ shot attempts 33-75
hmmm lets see. of the 6 games we've played.... deron williams- 7/14 for 18 points and 10 assists jason terry-0/5 with 1 point cp3-5/12 with 12 points but 16 assists!! yikes damon stoudemire-1/3 2points mo williams-4/10 with 9 points stephon marbury-8/11 with 22 points I'd have to agree with you that he is getting owned by point guards out there. but give him some due credit, times where he's passed up shots to dish to battier, who feeds it into yao? or he'll roll to head who creates his shot? there are moments where he really frees up the game and lets others just take over, and thats what you ideally want. id really like to see rafer shut more PGs down, but he isnt known for that. on the dallas home opener, rafer was in JET's face and just scrapping up whatever he can to make sure his shot was out of sync and it definetly paid off. rafer gives up alot of his shots so that yao and tmac get their 40 attempts. i really dont think mike james would do that. and i dont think MJ could exert more energy to defense and sacrifice his offense. i really dont see him doing that. that said.... rafer > mj
studogg, you need to include the TO stats: Alston 3.17 James 2.50 Also, Alston plays significantly more minutes. Need some adjustment there. And yeah, the PER number would also be helpful too. Of course, numbers don't give you the whole picture. But other than these numbers, all you have is subjective opinions. It's funny how people state opinions as facts and then try to pick and choose facts to support their opinions.
cant agree with you more.. and for those who are saying that MJ took away shots from Yao and Tmac, please try to look at Rafer and count how many times he waves T-mac off or denies him the ball for A FREAKIN WIDE OPEN ALLEY-OOP.. (I am sure y'all saw that in the Bucks game)..
I agree. I've noticed the Re-entry too, and I'm pleasantly surprised with Rafer's play, mainly his shooting. The turnovers are a problem though. His high turnover rate is not an indication of his career. What's he at now, 3.2 turnovers per game? Yup..last year was 2.5 tpg on a crap team, 2.1 tpg 2 years ago, and 1.6 3 years ago...uh oh...trend? I hope not. He has been getting more minutes, so a slight increase is understandable...but he NEEDS to go back to the 2.5 tpg of last year...at most 2.5. The Mike James debate should be over for all sides. He's unattainable, so the debate is useless. If Rafer's shooting goes down (he's at minimum right now at 38.5% 3tpers in my opinion...I have analysis on this in another thread), or if his turnovers stay high, the Rockets will look for a replacement for starter minutes. It's either Head, VSpan, or elsewhere. But Mike James is no longer an option.
well i agree that mj is selfish, but c'mon, u can't compare his 3pt shooting from tat yr wif this sytem because it is a diffrent system. We really operated on yao on much more and the perimeter is much more open this yr than that yr.
Rafer Alston against the Mavericks: 39 minutes, 40.0% FG%, 66.7% threes (4-6), 8 boards, 12 assists, 0 turnovers, 4 steals Rafer Alston in the other 6 games: 38.3 minutes, 37.7% FG%, 35.1% threes (6.2 attempts/game), 3.2 boards, 4.3 assists, 3.5 turnovers, 1.17 steals
THANK YOU!! I just posted about this in the game thread. Rafer's decison making is terrible, just terrible! He was acting like a headless chicken most of the game, and actually in all but the Dallas game. How many times have I seen him run the fast break this season and pull up for a jumper in the lane, when he has wing players filling the lane?? It would be ok if he was making it, but he has missed almost all of those. Rafer you are no Barry. He just looks rattled when the pressure starts to build up and cant make the right decisions with the ball. His basketball IQ leaves a lot to be desired. Rafer Alston is mentally weak and he lets himself and his game be rattled way tooo easily. Not a good attribute for a starting PG on a team aspiring to be championship caliber. Playoffs are a war zone and Rafer will absolutely get raped there. And lets not begin to talk about his pathetic defense. Rafer and Juwan apologists need to accept the fact that these 2 players, despite how much JVG loves them, just do not fit the team built around Yao and Tmac. I am just glad that we have Luther Head to fit the role. He is not a great playmaker but he is CLUTCH!!! He is cold blooded when it comes to shooting 3s under pressure. Always has been. I trust Head more than I trust Alston at the end of games.
This is going to turn into a Kenny Smith vs Sam Cassell thing. I hope it does because the Rockets won the championship those years. While I'm a registered Rafer skeptic, some people are short changing him here. It's not about absolute production...it's all about relative production, relative to Luther Head. Rafer pulling up for a fast break mid range jumper is not that bad if he doesn't think he can feed it for the layup. Rafer has run the fast break decently this year. Head cannot. Head can finish a break, but does not run it as well as Rafer in my opinion. Head is not good with his entry pass timing either. Rafer isn't great, but better than Head. So tonight was interesting to watch vs the Heat. JVG went with Head late in the game instead of Rafer. and gave T-Mac point guard duties. Head came through in the clutch with huge 3's. Rafer has been coming through also this year in the clutch, but Head even more so. And did anyone notice the Big Linup out there? TMac, Snyder, Battier, Hayes, and Yao. JVG is still shuffling his linups trying to find the right mix. The Rockets couldn't hit the ocean for 3 quarters, but their Defense was stifling. I think JVG really prefers a low close scoring game to shootout. There's no other reason why he doesn't play Novak. What Novak brings to the offensive side, he loses on the Team Defensive side, and while I disagree with Van Gundy's philosophy here, I understand it. Even his mentor Pat Riley went with an offensive sub in Kapono to try to instill life into the Heat. I really think Novak hitting a couple of treys and then subbing him back out could give the Rockets some nice breathing room and momentum in games where they are bricklayers. But back to Rafer. It's unfair to discount the Mavs game and not discount one of his stinkers though. He went 2 for 4 tonight from behind the arc and that's fine. I still think Head is a better option at the end of games because 1) Head can get off a 3pt more quickly and in less space than Rafer 2) Head's on ball defense is slightly better than Rafer 3) Head is not as turnover prone as Rafer...Head can't make the great pass, but does not try to do much with the ball at all 4) Head can finish inside better than Rafer...but Head isn't great at this, it's just that Rafer is stinking it up on finishing drives 5) Head is not needed to take primary point guard duties when TMac is in the game. So TMac can make plays, Battier can feed the post, Yao can do his thing, Hayes can do his thing, and you got Head manning the perimeter, along with Battier and TMac (gawd I hope he finds his stroke sometime this season). It's very telling that JVG took out Rafer with 9:23 left in a close game, and never put him back in. Is Head our Sam Cassell? I hope so.
I would rather have Kenny Smith on this team shooting 40% from 3 point land consistently, and hardly doing anything else THAN Rafer Alston shooting average at best from 3 point land and doing everything else below average for a PG. Kenny Smith was a specialist but he fit the team with a legitimate post threat. Rafer needs to be the same.
Yao makes everyone better.Not that i'm advocating it,but if James was a Rocket his %'s and assists would be way up
Kim, very good point. The Kenny vs. Sam debate 13 years later. When Rafer plays well give him playing time. When the game gets tense in the 4th quarter and Rafer clearly can't pull it together, put in Luther. I agree completely. For Luther to drill 4 consecutive shots (3 from long range, one layup) after starting 0-5 shows me something. He doesn't wilt under pressure and won't hang his head after missing a few shots. Because of Luther and Tracy, we can afford to have a PG like Rafer be our starter, for now. I'm willing to give Rafer 10-15 more games to straighten up, as long as we keep winning at a good clip. His jumpshot doesn't concern me nearly as much as his decisions under pressure. Changing starters at PG would be a big step but if we start slumping Rafer is the most obvious change that needs to be made. I'm losing patience.
It'll never get to that. Without injuries, the regular season means nothing. Alston's legacy with the Rockets is tied to this seasons' playoffs. Just like Van Gundy's and to a lesser extent Battier.
I'll accept that, but Rafer can't even seem to handle regular season pressure. Makes me think he will be less capable in the playoffs. But you play the games and see what happens.
well rafer is playing 8 more minutes per game so his rebs and asts look better. if you play MJ the same amount of minutes those stats even out and his scoring becomes heavily in his favor. his shooting % and defense would've made him a better fit. i still like rafer a lot so i'm happy we got one of them.
