For the fans who want Mike James...

I will take the under in that one, say around June 28th when the Wolves blow up their roster and start the fire sale around Draft time.

 

I think you are overlooking that MJ was a midseason acquisition and had to fit in or be left out. By the end of the season, he may been on the outside looking in. There was a reason the Rockets didn't want him as starting PG in 05/06. When MJ gets comfortable, teams trade him because he starts acting out. If we signed him to the MLE after begging at his doorstep, same thing would have happened here. His behavior in Toronto and Minny prove that. He can't blame his problems in Minny on Casey because even Randy Wittman is tired of the guy.

 

McGrady does it on a much higher percentage of shots than Alston does. Alston does not make a habit of just dribbling to the 3 point line and shooting. Now, on the other hand, after an offensive rebound when the ball gets passed out to him and he shoots. He does that all the time. But theres a huge difference between after the offensive rebound and coming up the court and shooting a 3. For one, most of the time he is open after an offensive rebound. Shooting an open 3 is always good unless you are just a bad 3 point shooter, Rafer is not a bad 3 point shooter. 37% is actually around average for a 3 point shooter. So then that means the bad misses are coming from inside the 3 point line. I dont understand how Rafer can take a bad 2 point shot early in the shot clock unless its drive to the basket and throw something up, which Rafer almost never does.

I just don't see it. I've never thought of Rafer to make bad passes or bad passing decisions. Thats supposed to be his strength. And as for bad defensive gambles, I havn't really noticed that either. Maybe I'm just overlooking it, but its definately not as obvious as Vspan turning the ball over 3 times a minute or something to that effect.

But see, I admit that Rafer isn't a quality starting point gaurd for a championship team. I don't deny it one bit. My problem stems from just people that complain all the time about it, when there is nothing we can do at this point other than try and develope him into a quality starting point guard. We can't sign anyone, we can make trades, so why b**** about it so much?

 

I agree. i dont think there is anyone who would say they are happy Rafer is the starting PG, or that they are happy with how he has played this year. However, like you said, there is nothing that can be done so why create three threads a week about the guy.

Vspan has not done well when given the chance to play. More importantly, he just hasnt looked comfortable when playing, now add the stress of important minutes in late season games and I dont think he is ready, this year at least.

Head struggles so much at the point. Even worse, his three point percentage is dropping and isnt that much higher then Rafer's anymore. I think it is about six points now, which isnt good considering the trouble he has bringing the ball up and making passes.

JL3 comes in and shoots without regard. He may score some but hasnt figured out how to simply dump the ball off and has trouble defending anyone.

Point being, we know Rafer has struggled. We know he takes bad shots. We know he shoots poorly, but I think we also know of the guards we have, he has to play big minutes right now. So why do people keep bashing Rafer in all these different threads. Yao and Tmac are great players, but we dont start is Yao or Tracy is good thread every two days, even though we all know that too.

 

....and I think you are overlooking the brilliance behind the move itself. We were in the same exact situation we are in now: desperate for PG help and with little resources to make anything happen. The difference obviously between then and now is we were able to make something happen instead of simply ignoring a glaring weakness. MJ ended up being an excellent acquisition for us. He was a great spark off the bench that was able to create his own shot, shot well, played good defense and was able to protect the ball. Sura, Wesley and Howard were all starters playing 30+ minutes a game yet were unable to put the ball in the basket the way MJ could off the bench. You make it sound as if we got lucky when we landed him.

The reason you're referring to as to why the Rockets decided they didn't want him as their starting PG in 05/06 was more of a panic move given Sura's situation, IMO. This was before it became evident that what we needed most out of the PG position was 3-pt shooting and defense. Everybody seemed obsessed with the idea that we get a "PASS FIRST, SHOOT SECOND" PG and at the time it appeared Rafer fit that description. As it turns out, it seems we may have misjudged Rafer since he certainly doesn't fit the description of that mold of PG's.

Now, this is no condemnation of Rafer since I feel he's a competant player that can help us get where we need to be. I just get disgusted at the thought of him playing 40 minutes a night here on out.

Example? Please don't tell me you're going to try to act like that's the reason we traded him.

 

we agree here

you will have to look for the answer to that question from the folks that are guilty of it.

this thread is really the only one I have given my full-on take on the issue, Ive had a few discussions in chat about this, but in general, I avoid active participation in GARM sonce I dont feel the need to constantly b****, and any positive thing I would have to say either earns me scorn/derision (or even better, labeled as an apologist/lover ) or drowned out by the b****ing..

 

I personally wouldn't say I was "happy" that Skip is our starting PG... but it could be a lot worse. Like say Mike James being our starting PG. Come on guys, James does some things better than skip but I doubt he can run an offense or pass as well. Plus James just seems to be a selfish individual who would probably drive a wedge into the great team chemistry we currently have. I guarantee if we had MJ starting at PG everyone would be complaining just the same about all the things he does wrong. Rafer may miss a lot of shots but he's not a shoot first kind of player. I think Mike James is and we don't need that with yao and T-mac on our team.

I really wish we had, at least, a capable backup PG. That worries me more than anything. As much as we all lament Skip... if he got injured we'd see things get 10 times worse. He runs a pretty steady offense, is decent on defense, and a decent passer. But if we do nothing else in the offseason we have to get a backup PG capable of doing SOMETHING. I think V-span is gonna grow into a great starter for our team but this is not the year.

I just wish we could get another solid backup PG before the playoffs roll around. Is there NO ONE in the free agent market that could do a better job that V-Span, head, and JLIII?

 

That play is a reason why Howard will always hold a special place in my heart

 

If we got MJ before the trade deadline, it would not be the same as 2 years ago for very obvious reasons. Since then, we've traded him away and he's flicked us off. I also don't think he's the same player he used to be, and it shows.

He acted out late in the season in Toronto. Earlier, Bosh publicly said he wanted MJ back. By the end of the season, Bosh said they probably needed a change at PG. MJ started talking about his next contract before the season even ended. He started talking about other teams before the season ended. The Raptors were ready to help him pack his bags. In Minny he acted out publicly a few times early on when Casey was the coach and then suddenly he shut up and wouldn't say anything. Then he started grumbling again! I didn't see his behavior during the Lakers game. I wanted to watch the game but some things came up. Assuming he was pouting, there you go. He's acted out with the last 2 teams he's played for and I don't want him here. Turning back the clock doesn't work in this instance.

Plus, we would be stuck with 2 more years of Sir Flako's contract after this season ended.

We have diametrically opposed views about Rafer and MJ. You can have them both.

 

Why wouldn't it be the same? We would have had the same goal: to acquire a talented player in a bad position to add strength to our bench. We were as desperate for PG help then just as the same as we are now.

He's also improved every year in his career up until this disastrous year in Minnesota. Yeah, he's 31-years-old so it's not likely a player of that age would continue to improve but that's just how his career has progressed. He went from nowhere to somewhere, went from being 12th man to being a 6th man, to being a 6th man to being a starter to forced to defer to a bunch of losers (Garnett, Ricky Davis, Blount, etc).

In regards to the media, he was stupid. I can't deny that. Everybody from the press was wondering why this utility guy for most teams was able to put up All-Star numbers in Toronto and unfortunately MJ took the bait. MJ is the kind of player that came out of nowhere and doesn't have the typical NBA resume of most players. He's battled and worked hard to get where he is so it didn't surprise me to see him in Toronto talking about getting a "pay day" and what not.

Was that appropriate? No, probably not. Is it a reason to condemn him and call him a selfish individual, though?

Let's not harp on the negatives too much here. Everybody knows he made a few comments about getting paid and what not. It's done. Since then he's made what, one comment, about wanting to get traded while in Minnesota? What's the big deal? The guy has been quoted 1,000 times saying how he wants to win and just wants a team to believe in him and a place he can call home. Everybody gets frustrated from time to time, that doesn't make him a cancerous player or anything.

 

Rafer >>> Mike James
At least for the Rockets

 

Possibly. But Rafer + James >>>>>>>>>> Rafer + ______ whatever scrubby or out of position player to back him up. This was the whole point of trying to add Mike James this offseason and again before the deadline despite the complications of a trade kicker.

Both Rafer and James have been traded a fair amount. Both have long term deals some question. Both guys have had their team committment questions. Both guys were not wanted in Toronto and little effort to resign them after their contracts in multiple places. But both are lower tier starting PGs with some talent--which is why they have been wanted in trades. Journeymen like this get traded all the time because they can help a team but don't cost the farm.

Thus their situations are more similar than dissimilar.

The problem with the Rockets is we only have one NBA capable PG on the whole roster, and too much burden is placed on him (Rafer) even if he is doing as well as expected based on his career production.

I hope we find a back-up/starting competitor PG for next year who does much of the strenghs of James (good shooter from multiple spots, excellent FT shooter/game closer, occasionally can create his own shot, plays solid defense, and can safely bring the ball up) but who is younger and has less baggage with us than James does. But if we don't find that player, or he costs too much, heck yea I'll roll with Mike James before going into next season like this.

So yeah I hope we can do better, but the constant dogging of Mike James around here is irrational and out of bounds. Same for those who don't credit Alston for doing a lot of things right and being a positive influence on the team as well. But most who critique Rafer's limitations are not saying get rid of him, they are saying give him some real help.

 

Obviously the Rockets feel differently since they have made no secret of their affection for him not once but twice within the last year. As far as I'm concerned, that's all that needs to be said regarding his "fit" in Houston.

 

Or that CD said he was having a "very bad day" (i.e., crushed, demoralized) when the deal to land him fell through this summer. KAS, you think CD was not acting with input from JVG, Tmac, etc?

 

Well, I suppose TECHNICALLY Sam is not 'active' (he's been hurt), and I guess you can't really call 'Big Shot Bob' an 'active' player either, since he is primarily a 3-point-shooting statue..

But still...

WHA..?

Maybe you meant this century..

 

Does Tyronn Lue count?

 

Oh yeah, forgot about that chick.

Aaaand..

As soon as Quitten steps back onto the floor again..

 

Something like that. I did forget how many 94-95 team players are still in the NBA. And Lue and Posey are others I just didn't think of. Lue flat out sucked as a Rocket and Posey, like Mike James, was another I wanted to hold on to as a long term role player.

Regardless, the point was Mike James was a role player on a championship team (and had positive comments about him from LB), for all those saying he could never fit a role off the bench. I think MJ just has a problem in Minny because he is giving up PT to worse or less accomplished players. With an ironman backcourt of Billips and Rip, James role was clear and there were no issues, and he played an effective 20MPG in the regular season and 10MPG in the playoffs on the way to a title. Further, Det decison not to resign him probably cost them a 2nd title because they thought they could get by with Hunter, but he and Arroyo (who they later acquired) just sucked in the playoffs and as tough as Billips is he kinda wore down.

Anyway, like I said I hope we go younger and better in the backcourt than Mike James for next year, but if he is the best option we got (quite possible), than he would certainly help.