I don't agree. With depth at the point, whether James or Alston were starting, I like our chances against anyone. I'd like them better if we had a bench, but not having a quality point on the bench was a BIG FREAKIN' WEAKNESS.
The funny thing is that Rafer shoots ok early in the game and early in the 3rd quarter, his game deteriorates as he gets tired. Rafer would be a valuable backup....... DD
I think most of Rafer's biggest critics (including myself) would agree that he would be an excellent backup point.
I'm sorry... this is just ridiculous, though I'm not surprised to see it... You know who's skill set would have helped us? Yao Ming's! Yet he didn't play to his ability. You know who else's skill set would have helped us? Luther Head's! Yet he didn't play to his ability. You know who else's skill set would have helped us? Chuck Hayes'! Yet he didn't play to his ability. etc. etc. etc. All this hypothetical nonsense is just that... nonsense. Saying the cr*p Mike James put up this year would have been some guaranteed be-all end-all cure for our Playoff troubles is just foolishness exerted by those still dwelling on past burns. It's time to move on. By the way, it was Mike James' stubbornness that kept him off the team this year. If it was JVG's, he wouldn't have been on Mike's doorstep the first second he could.
So basically Mike James is the New Steve Francis *grin* While people refuse to see that the Dallas team that blew us out by 40 was infinately better than this Utah team well . . maybe not infinate . . but significantly Rocket River just like that Laker team from the year before was better than the Dallas team
Last offseason Houston was approached by Minnesota about Juwan Howard, but we couldn't make the move as he was the only PF on our roster at the time. But now with the emergence of Chuck Hayes, Howard is expendable should we decide to take on the contracts of Mark Blount and Mike James. This deal would likely require us packaging Howard, Sura, and Lucas to the Wolves. Blount would give us an athletic 4, James would be our guy off the bench, and Chuck Hayes could move into a reserve role as well.
I am talking about when he is just coming back into the game.....and also talking about ALL of Rafer's shots, not just the wide open 3 pters. DD
Sorry， not because JVG is stubborn, just because he is way too predictable on both offensive end and defensive end!!!!!!!
Mike James couldn't nail down the lion's share of minutes on a team that didn't even make the play offs... to think he is the end all difference between losing in the first round and a championship is a huge leap. He would have helped but he wasn't a world saver and didn't mesh with TMac particularly well nor did he do a great job of setting Yao up. More often than not, he scored at the cost of not involving anyone else. Given his age he is unlikely to do anything but decline from now til the contract expires. It would have been nice to have him, but the last thing we need is more bad contracts.
...and Rafer turned in a statistically similar performance on a much stronger team and played 42 mpg. Your point?
My point was he was unlikely to be the answer, and despite his short comings rafer does a better job running the offense thru Tmac and Yao than Mike James did while he was here.
Kinda true, kinda. Sad thing is, same for Rafer. He's not staying the same at his age, he TOO will decline until contract expires...yikes.
Don't get me wrong I defintely think we need help at point guard, and I agree that IF we could have gotten better contract terms then Mike James would help us. At the same time I think the reasons we did not get James (his bad contract) are sufficient to justify not picking him up. Ideally we need a young developing point guard with room for improvement. Crying over not picking up another average 31 year old point guard like it was the difference between losing in the first round and winning a title is what I disagree with.
Seeing his very limited talent, I cannot blame Rafer for our loss. I would rather blame those who put him in the starting PG position or cannot get a good backup PG. JVG is the first one to blame. KillBill may not be that great, but if JVG had given him decent play time in regular season, he could have helped us a lot in the playoff. KillBill has the potential, the heart and skill. Can you imagine Rafer in KillBill's position to lead Greek team to beat US team? Hell NO! Now we have seen Loser Head is trash in the playoff. If the Rockets are not short sighted, they should give most of Loser Head's time to KillBill in the next season to develop. Bonzi Wells, what can I say. JVG cannot even get a way to play him in the rotation. Do not tell me any fxxx excuses, the only reason Bonzi did not play is JVG's inability to coach. With our current talent, if, just if we had a coach with a little more EQ and a little more strategy on offense, we could have passed the first round. I am not blaming purely on JVG for our loss. I blame the entire Rockets management's failure to make full use of our players talent to pass the first round.
I agree that JVG is stubborn. A great coach, but..stubborn. I don't like Mike James' attitude, though. Wouldn't want him back.
