In the beginning , i think RA may played steve as a backup.But such a long time on the bench can make him rusty.So i deem he'll be traded soon for a big man !
What is it about Rafer that makes coaches want to play him so bad. Van gundy lost his job over Rafer, Adelman might be next
I may be criticized for this but here it goes: Starting Line-up G-Alston G-Battier C-Yao F-Scola F-Wells Bench: T-Mac , James, Hayes, Head, Francis, Deke As much as this may sound crazy, there would hardly ever be a non-cooperative bench. This also helps us because it allows us to start Scola who played well alongside Yao in T-Mac's absence, and we can rest the two and bring in Hayes with T-Mac who can score with T-Mac's ability to pass to him through the backdoor. Look how having a star come off the bench for San Antonio and Dallas has worked with Manu and Terry. I'm not saying that ther're on T-Mac's level but it could certainly be worth a try if RA could do it right. Just my 2 cents
You are blinded by your own ignorance. If you didn't see what happened to the life of rockets basketball when Steve came in the game against Pheonix then you need to go to the Spurs board where they win playing boring basketball. Steve not only brought life to the game but he helped the rockets come all the way back in this game to make it a game.
My starting lineup: PG Francis SG T-Mac SF Battier PF Scola C Yao Significant minutes off the bench: James, Hayes, Wells Spot minutes off the bench: Head, Brooks, Alston, Mutombo Inactive: Snyder, Novak, Landry
The rockets have a problem with that second unit because you are bringing in 3 guys in wells, james and head who are all for self and don't play together. James wants to shoot he doesn't want to make entry passes into the post he just wants to jack up shots. There are times when he should have just 3 seconds of patience and yao is open in the post he instead goes away from the play and tries to do something dumb and difficult. Same with head he doesn't even try to make the post entry passes and he is satisfied with the clock runnning down so he can go one on one and either take a forced three or drive to the basket with no ryhme or reason against a wall of defenders. Bonzi wells tries to bull his way to the basket he stagnates the offense in the process and waste too much 24 second time to enventually get off a terrible shot or either turn the ball over or miss a layup. Defensively with this unit bonzi shows no effort, head is always playing a 2 guard who just shoots over the top of him. Adelman must change the rotation, you can't have these guys as a second unit. The plan should be to bring rafer off the freakin bench. Let rafer run the show and get the guys into the offense. This way Yao we se the ball and you have balance because head and james and wells all want to do the same thing and that is shoot the ball, you put rafer in there and you even out everything and you get a better rythym. He should start the game with francis and end the game with francis because of his toughness and his ability to get to the hoop esepcially in the 4th quarter. Francis gives you a second pick and roll option and the difference between he and mcgrady is that steve is going to the basket with 1 minute remaining rather tahn settleing for jumpers. Start your 5 best offensive players and bring hayes and alton off the bench to balance out the attack.Hayes gives you defense and rebounding while rafer gives you stability at getting the guys into the offense especiall when you leave Yao in the game. 1st unit francis mcgrady scola battier yao 2nd unit alston jame or head hayes wells Yao
JVG had to stick with Rafer. He had no one else TO play. Had he had James I'm sure the minutes would have been split a lot differently. I bet you JVG would play steve as most people here have probably already said. Steve just has more upside than Rafer does. OTHER TEAMS DO NOT RESPECT RAFER AT ALL. They will sag off of him and double our star players all night long and force Rafer to beat them which he RARELY does.
Putting Alston in there is like giving other teams Green Light to double anyone on the court, it will be one night per year when Alston will beat a team sigle handedly and it will be all other nights when we lose. The other coaches have recognized this and for the past few games Alston has been almost ignored by defenses, yet he continues to play and to have and mediocre assist numbers for a guy so little talented in his shooting. An PG is about starting the flow of the offense, how can you do that when you are a mediocre shooter and an average passer??
Steve definitely needs to be moved up in the rotation. The most important thing MJ was supposed to bring when we got him, shooting, he just hasn't brought. I'm tired of watching Rafer being left wide a** open on every play, and tired of watching MJ throw up brick after brick. If I were coach (thank goodness I'm not ) I'd say screw it, give Stevie a shot. Why the hell not at this point.
rafer was always decent last season when the game was not on the line. we need someone is decent at the end of a game. we lost in last couple playoffs. it is not because we were blown out by our opponents. it is because we didn't have a commander (PG) who was decent at the end of the games.
I would not miss seeing Rafter if he left the team... He and James do not handle or make good decisions in the last five minutes of games... To many turnovers, etc... But everyone on the team seems to have that problem, so it's really a team-wide problem... But, like others, I'd like to see Francis and Brooks over Alston and James... and Scola over Hayes starting... Bonzi has been stinking it up lately, but I still like him over Snyder, but Snyder does produce in his minutes.
You mean the team that's won 4 titles over the last 9 years? I'd take that even if it meant they won games 52-50. Since when is losing playing exciting basketball better than winning playing boring basketball? I don't care how they do it as long as they win.
