why not try to go to the basket and if possible look for an open man? they surely would not let rafer do the teardrop without contesting it...
let me say this on Alstons defense "if" we make it to the finals, and lets say we play Detroit or Miami...Billups and even Payton would make Alston look like a joke on the defensive end
Or ... why not take a wide open three pointer? Rafer is probably like 38% on those. Not spectacular, by any means, but that's still a solid percentage for a three point shot. That amounts to 1.14 points per shot attempt. That's likely more efficient than what his driving to the basket would yield (if you take into account the chances of turning it over and his poor % on the "floaters").
Saying Rafer is the best option on the team for PG isn't saying much at all. If anything it's an indictment on how terrible of a job CD has done. That said, no player just gets better in practice. Coaches just say that crap because they won't play said player. The greatest example of this is Darko with Larry Brown. No way he got better until he started getting playing time. I can't believe some of you guys go along with this stuff like zombies. These radio guys aren't asking serious questions like what will he do with no bench in the playoffs, or what has he done to help the bench players improve. Instead he just blew them off and decided that you cannot criticize Rafer for playing like dookie.
This is JVG's biggest weakness, he gets so locked into one way of doing things that he can not see the forest for the trees. Our best PG is not Rafer Alston it is Tmac...... Rafer gets ABUSED on defense against any decent PG..... Rafer does play the passing lanes well, and has excellent handles. But he is best suited as a backup PG..... Not developing the 2 PGs on the bench that the Rockets have is going to cost this team a chance to go far in the playoffs. Basically JVG is putting the entire team's fate on Rafer Alston and his 3pt shooting......and we all know how that story is going to end. DD
I'm not the biggest fan of Skip but does noone remember the days when he was injured? David Wesley running the point was PAINFUL.
some good points you wrote here IMO Darko has still not reached his potential....I talked to a guy he knows Darko and he said they used to play the gamecube at Darkos house, Darkos dad would show up and yell at him "if you cared about basketball like you do playing the game cube you would be a better player!"....Darko is just lazy IMO...he has the height and atheticism, he just doesnt get it
Gawd, listening to JVG and his staunch defense of Rafer is sickening..... Yes, the guy controls the flow of the game, but calling him a good perimeter defender? COME ON ! Now he is saying that every 3 pt shooter is inconsistent.....somewhat true, but there are much better 3pt shooters out there. WTF? JVG is too loyal sometimes....... DD
he is right about bonzi and people getting all worked up about that one playoff series. bonzi = tim thomas? worked hard during contract year..now why would he do the same for 2 mil?
If he devoted more time to "developing" Spanoulis and Lucas during games, we likely would not have won as many games, and we'd get a lower seed, and consequentially have hurt our playoff chances even more. With all the injuries we had to deal with, we had a very small margin of error. And I absolutely would prefer to put our team's fate on Rafer's 3-point shooting instead of Spanoulis and Lucas's 3-point shooting. They both were given numerous chances to contribute to the team during the season. It's clear that Rafer gives us our best chance to win.
It does not mean anything. David was not a PG, neither Head. We'd better compare Rafer with other PGs, it is going to be more painful. Rafer's defense? Isn't it a joke? Rafer could be better than Nash if JVG play Rafer 44 minutes, play Nash 1 minute. "best option" excuse blows if you don't try other options.
I don't buy the "We would have lost" more games argument whatsoever. Having a guy come in and play 5 or 6 minutes with our better players and putting them in situations which they can succeed builds confidence in that player and if they play well, they play longer. Look, we know that having Rafer play 40 minutes is generally a bad thing....so why would you not take the regular season to play another guy at backup PG? It is pretty danged clear that Luther is not capable of donig that for the most part. Other team's leave Rafer wide open, because: A. He does not shoot a good percentage B. He does not drive and dish much when open C. He can not finish when he does drive They know he is the weakest link, and to not develop players that give the team a different look when Rafer is struggling is just amazingly short sighted. JL3 could have brought speed and up tempo play, especially with a smaller lineup. And he can handle the ball very well. V-Span is a very good one on one perimeter defender and his aggressive attitude is sorely needed on a very soft team. But we have 2 major weaknesses.....PG and PF.....at PF we have no other option....but CD got the team some young PGs to give the team different looks..... IMHO, JVG just stuck too much to status quo and the lack of flexibility will cause this team to fall short. DD
Whichever way you look at it our PG and PF positions are the weakest spots. Rafer shooting at 38% at 3 pt shooting is a stat that people tout to defend him- for wide open 3 pointers that is not exactly stellar. Let us be thankful that we are winning- another theory used to defend rafer- we are winning inspite of the weakness. Do you really expect JVG to admit that he is stubborn? Let us pray that Rafer stays injury free - because if that happens surely he will be anointed a saint on fast-track! BTW are we going to sign some insurance guys for the bench - now that Bonzi and Sura are definitely not there?
Actually JVG has worked with these type of stats long before Morey was in the picture here. I hope we get the chance to find out. Can you post anything positive or do you always live in a negative world? Seemed to work pretty well for Yao. Offseason summer workouts are where players improve the most. Any improvement in the regular season is incremental and practices are few and far between in the regular season. There is a saying in sports: "If you didn't bring it with you are not going to find it here!"....meaning if you don't practice your stuff before the games you won't do well in the game. If you find it sickening that is your choice, but its quite clear that JVG knows a whole lot more about coaching basketball then you do...
