Both Rafer and Lowry have their strengths and weaknesses. Rafer's main weakness was his inconsistency. Unfortunately for us, when a player is inconsistent, there will be low points, but high points as well. I felt Rafer was on the verge of his high point, really. He started off the season low, really low. By January his shooting started coming back, he was on fire from downtown for several games. Rafer plays better when he is the facilitator. He sucks when T-Mac handles the ball all the time and forces Rafer to become a spot up shooter. That's why he goes 1-10, 2-12. T-Mac creates the offense, then passes to Rafer for the shot. That was the play, Rafer has to shoot the ball at that point. There isn't enough time on the shot clock for him to reset and try to find another shot opportunity. T-Mac out for season. This was the PERFECT opportunity for Rafer to shine. First game after the Milwaukee game, Rafer gets 13 assists against Sacramento, without T-Mac. 2nd game against the Nets, he gets 10 ast in the first half, without T-Mac. Dude played very well for us. Last season, Rafer was a BEAST during the 22 game win streak, it would not have been possible without Rafer's contributions. Yao went out and McGrady became the scorer, Rafer became the facilitator. He gets into the flow of the game better when he is making assists, his shooting improves because he is letting the game come to him and playing the game naturally. He is not a spot up shooter and will never be one. I think the trade is a bad one because... 1. We would have seen good Rafer for the final 30 games, he is inconsistent, we stuck with him when he sucked, but trade him away when he is going to be good? It's the nature of the player. 2. Rafer plays better without T-Mac. I'd rather have Rafer be the guy creating shots for Wafer, Artest, Yao, Scola. 3. Veteran leadership, who is our leader now? Yao? Artest? Rafer was our general on the basketball court, and it seemed from the past 2 games that the team responds well to that. 4. The West is WIDE OPEN. Amare could miss the whole season. Ginobili could miss the rest of the season, New Orleans is not the same. Dallas is old, Blazers are young, Nuggets aren't proven. Before the trade, I felt we had a great shot at getting to the 2nd round, now I am questioning whether we can make the Playoffs, even with Amare's injury. We could have AT LEAST ridden Rafer's good streak for 10 wins, at the very least. He should stay good through the Playoffs, like he was for us last year.
I posted this in another thread too but looks like Rafer took T-Mac's number in Orlando. I thought those guys retired that jersey number j/k http://www.nba.com/media/magic/feature_alston22009.JPG
I really liked Rafer but he is gone but never forgotten. Time to move on and Lowry should make and impact. We will be alright now with T-Mac sitting out and having a starting line up now will build and find chemistry. Bynum, Amare, Ginobili are all out so we should be ok....
The one position I believe that you should not mess around with mid season especially at the trade deadline is PG, unless your team is struggling beyond belief I wouldnt mess with the PG position because thats where the team is stabilized from... I also believed Rafer was going to have a good stretch from now to the playoffs because he would be handling the ball alot more.. I only hoped he would not take that as a go ahead to chuck shots but as long as he was distributing and taking good shots I was happy... but now we are without the starting PG and trying to mold Brooks and Lowry to becoming our starting PG... I'm not thrilled with Brooks as the starting PG because over the last few games when hes on the floor the team is not managed as well as when Rafer was in... The two young PGs better grow up quick because otherwise we may be left out of the playoffs even with Amare injured...
I think what management has realized is that theres no way that this group can win the championship so we might as well work on improving a position of weakness for us while not giving up the future of the team. They are probably thinking that while Rafer is better in the short term, that Lowry could possibily pan out like Rondo. While I'm certainly not happy with this trade, it does kind of make sense now a day later. Hopefully, Lowry turns into what Harris did for the Nets. Its sort of a similar situation. Trade the experienced veteran for a potential guy who has no room to grow on his team but could become a star.
I think Rafer had already reached a high point with the Rockets, a point so high that another team actually wanted to trade for him. When the Rockets found a taker for Alston, they jumped on it. Good trade by Morey.
I think Rafer was going to do the same thing he's done for his career and shoot 38.1% and continue not finishing at the rim consistently. He's gone, let him go in peace. Trust we are in better hands.
I was going to vomit if I had to see another failed attempt at a tear drop lay up. I was time for Rafer to move on, he had reached his peak with the club. Lowery is a tough kid from Philly, he is great at penatrating and doesnt look for his shot. He is going to fit great with the rest of our team, we have enough shooters, we needed someone who could drive to the basket and collapse a defense and he gives us that. It will be a good trade
I'd rather the Rockets traded him now while he was playing half decent than wait unitl he went through one of his suck spells again. Rafer always sucked when he was depended on to do things and not just to be there and provide a surprise to the other team.
i'm pretty sure Rafer knew he could be traded well before this week, that's why he started playing differently, but even with that on his mind it wasn't consistent enough. It was like he was playing that way to show he cold, rather than just reacting to the game as its being played.
Was Rafer a beast in 22 win streak? 15.7 points on 14.2 FGA, 42.5% shooting, (39.6% on 3s), 4.3 rebounds, 6.6 assists, 2TO, 1.5 steal. not beasting at all. He was just a beast in Rafer world.
I don't like to see any ex-Rockets in other uniforms unless I didn't like him at all. This picture saddens me a little.
i like rafer as person...as a player i had a love-hate relationship with him like most of the people here. I think its awesome that he chose his new number to be #1
