I just dont think Rafer has the quickness to keep up with any guards in the league (other than ours). Rafer's strengths and weaknesses Strengths - great ball handling, decent range, ability to find the open man, running an offense (even though we didnt see it last year) Weaknesses - spotty 3 pt shot, lacks foot speed against other guards in the league, poor defender For our starting point I would like a lil more speed is all. I didnt say MJames name but he does run circles around Rafer at age 31. J
I don't think TMAC is going to play the 2. He wil be the 3, and i have a feeling that Battier will play the 4 and we will try to play small in most cases.
But for a little more speed do you think its reasonable to give up: great ball handling, decent range, ability to find the open man, running an offense. With whats left in the market i don't see who can do this, Banks would be a good backup, not a starter. However, you are right about Mike James, i just don't like the knucklehead.
I agree. A lot of people forget that Battier was considered a tweener coming into the NBA, so power forward isn't that much of a stretch for him. He also played there a little bit last season when eddie jones and mike miller were also in the game (with gasol at center). As far as I can tell from 82games.com he never played shoot guard, so I don't think that'll happen with us either. He's too slow.
Can we get another pf please. We do play in the conference of Brand, Duncan, KG, Dirk, Amare, Randolph, and Martin.....
I think it's about like this, going on actual position, how good they are (how many minutes they could reasonably play (like in Sura's case) Point Guard - Rafer Alston/Bob Sura/John Lucas III Shooting Guard - Kirk Snyder/Luther Head Small Forward - T-Mac/Steve Novak/Ryan Bowen Power Forward - Shane Battier/Juwan Howard/Chuck Hayes Center - Yao Ming/Dikembe Mutombo Backup SF definitely needs work, and the SG spot is still pretty questionable. I still think they need a legit starting SG, and move Snyder to the bench.
I agree with you completely. People need to forget about Mike James. If I had to make the trade again, I would still pick Rafer of James. I think next year if everyone stays healthy, Rafer's scoring goes down to 8 or so a game and his assists go to 10 a game. We still need a good back up at PG but it is more important to find a strong PF then PG at this point.
It's easy. Starters: PG - Rafer Alston SG - Tracy McGrady SF - Shane Battier PF - Juwan Howard C - Yao Ming Bench: PG - Luther Head, Bob Sura, JL3 (hopefully) SG - Kirk Snyder, Luther Head SF - Novak, Ryan Bowen (blah) PF - Chuck Hayes, Novak C - Mutumbo We need to get JL3. Rockets management... please don't let him go.
Wow, you're really positive. Positive that this team will blow chunks. You must not really remember the truly great Rocket teams of the late 80s where we had Akeem and the 4 satellites that watched Akeem. You know, Derrick Chevious, Buck Johnson, Steve Harris. Those names just being mentioned make me almost want to crawl into a ball and go to my happy place. LOL. Seriously, you overexaggerating just A LITTLE bit. I mean Knicks fans would love to be in the place we are-afterall, we actually have a chance!
PG - Rafer Alston, Marcus Banks (1/2 of MLE), Spanoulis (1/2 MLE) SG - 4.2 TE(Fred Jones?), Kirk Snyder, Luther Head SF - Tracy McGrady, Steve Novak, Ryan Bowen PF - Shane Battier, Chuck Hayes, Juwan Howard C - Yao Ming, Mutombo I guess that is the best way to use the MLE, I really don't know who else we could get for the MLE or the 4.2 TE.
Battier at the 4 leaves the Rockets with a VERY soft PF rotation (Hayes, Novak, Jho). And if I'm not mistaking, Jho came off the bench early last season. IMO, he did so terribly that he got his starting job back by default. I think this line up: PG - Alston SG- Tmac SF - Battier PF - Juwan C- Yao is better than... PG - Alston SG- Snyder SF - Tmac PF - Battier C- Yao Battier and Tmac can switch postions on defense giving Tmac the easier assignment. But from the sounds of it, Battier is going to be the PF for the Rockets. Maybe that means Jhoward is on his way out for a better rebounder and/or defender? Backup PG should be a veteran. CD can still be the man with some redeeming trades
hmmm.. I cant edit weird. well I would have put the following line up out there from what I've been reading. Starting 5 Rafer - is our starter until we find someone better Snyder - doesnt seem to have much competition Tmac - sounds like management plans to keep him at the 3 unknown - no word yet unless you think Shane moves into this slot. (hope not) Yao - given
I would like that! Fred Jones (starting SG? Snyder is taller and we certain need a tall SG!) and Marcus Banks (back up PG) ... but I have my doubts about Battier at PF, I really think we should trade (Howard + Bowen) for a decent PF (Randolph?)! And getting V-Span to Houston as a 3th PG? I don 't think he will come to Houston next season ... just sign JL III as 3th PG!
Honestly, I think a backup pg should be our number one priority. Juwon is old but still servicable. I'm guessing shane is gonna get some minutes at the 4. We also gotta make playing time for hayes and novak. Plus noone is gonna trade for juwon. So unless head becomes a pg over the summer, we're pretty light in that dept. we're not even sure lucas is coming, and he's a third stringer regardless.
I think the only way we can trade Juwan is to trade him for with players with a larger and longer contract than himself and who's willing to be let go by his present team......Z Randolph? T Murphy? D Fortson? K Mart? Any of those NY PFs? (Mo Tay coming back? haha)...
T-mac had already said that Battier will probably be the starting PF and I think we have already got our starting SG because who else can we get that has better length and athleticism than Snyder? Rafer will definitely be our starting PG, you guys have no idea how good he is, avg almost 7 assists without Tmac and Yao on the court? I think tahts pretty dang good, he's going to avg around 10 assists per game next season if everyone is healthy. Rafer's only problem is his jumpshot, if he can get it back to how it was in toronto, he is a championship point guard. I think we should trade Jho for Darius Miles because that would add depth to our guards and the 3 position. Then we still have our big TE and MLE to get a decent PF to back up Battier and Yao, like maybe Wright or Cato. Then we can use some of our MLE to pick Banks or Vspan and of course get JL3 please. Our line-up could look some thing like this: PG:Alston/Banks or Vspan/JLIII SG:Snyder/Head/Sura SF:Tmac/Miles/Novak PF:Battier/Wright or Cato/Hayes C:Yao/Deke That kind of team gives us depth at the guard position and many players can move around to different positions, I'm not saying it is going to happen, but it is an idea that can work.
Alston/Sura/JL3? TMAC/Snyder/Head Battier/TMAC/Snyder/Novak Howard/Hayes/Battier/Novak Yao/Mutombo/Howard Barring any further significant transactions
