Even though some of you don't like it I have been asking for a Playmker Poiint Guard for several seasons! This is the key to the Rockets becoming a dominent force in the NBA.
This takes the cake for posting in absentia. If he's not currently registered here at the best Rocket fan site on the web I'm guessing your friend was banned in the past.
very true. darrell's never been a great shooter, but overall better than Alston. Rafer had a decent 3 poitn shot last year, though. but you're right. my only point of argument is that I think the Rafer effect on T-Mac, while there, is minimal compared to the JVG offensive effect (which happens on all players, not just T-Mac).
I think this is the major flaw in Rafer's or JVG's offense. Too damn Predictable. Rafer brings ball up---> gives it to TMAC no matter where he is, no matter he is double teamed or not--------> repeats the same procedure 100 times per game. (Kudos to Rafer for not getting bored, it was not an easy job, I bet there are no more than 5 PGs can do this.) this is not playmaking though, not initiating offense either, this is robot walking. Skip to my lou was better than that.
Good point. I believe it's up to RA to develop a "new" system for the team to play. That's why I'm afraid this season the first 3-5 games would be Not-So-Good. I'd be patient waiting for them to work out.
wade did it in excess so no1 saying hes wade but he shot the ball better and was more aggresstive to the hole
Very good thred and I fully agree. You can say Tracy isn't the same player as he was in Orlando but I think JVG slowed him down. He was a playmaker, he only gets the ball and the hal-cours and he had to make plays. And he had to went around the screens and really took bad, well-contested jumpers. But T-Mac isn't that type of player. He is a scorer. He has to only get the ball and think only "score". I would love to see him postin' up and make that turnaround jumpers or drive to the basket. So everybody should be happy about the change with Adelman, cause now Tracy will be a different player. HE'LL BE A SCORER and that's great news
His reply... Rafer getting the ball to T-mac in a postup position is not the problem....it's the fact that he can't run the rest of the offense. Thus T-Mac is forced to run the offense more often than not, wasting all of that energy and since he plays SG isntead of SF, rarely gets off great shots in that offense. When Yao went down, T-Mac averaged 30PPG on 45% shooting since they put him in more postup positions, but he still had to take more bad shots than necassary due to rafer's inadequecies. Darrell Armstrong was a fine PG....great decision maker, a veteran who know how to run things. It was a mix of JVG's offense and Rafe rnot fitting the prototype JVG offense that T-Mac was misused. PS- I do not belong to clutchfans because when I try to register, it says I can't use free email addresses like yahoo. I lsot my comcast.net password, so I can't join. BTW, I told him to make a Gmail account and register.
Forgot to add this... PS- Yao Ming also being in the psot should make things EASIER for T-Mac in the post. If T-Mac is posting up on left side and Yao on right, Yao's defender will be very hesistant in rotating over to stop a T-Mac drive. It also gives the team much better spacing as well.
The main problem of our offense last year was predictability. It was either dump it into Yao, or give it to Tmac 30 ft from the basket and hope he can break his man down. This offense was actually reasonably efficient, but was very poor at getting us layups. We were particularly bad at taking advantage of the massive overplaying of Tmac and Yao. Basically, we would get an open 3pt shot for Rafer, which he would brick. This predictability was related to the fact that our secondary players (Rafer, Battier, Juwan) were all pretty bad finishers. Battier and Howard have ok jump shots, but it was pretty obvious to any defense that they just had to play them for the jump shot. Meanwhile, they barely had to play Rafer at all, since he was seriously lacking in either finishing skills or hitting the 3. He could not reliably break his man down, either, and therefore didn't generate a lot of easy looks for his teammates. I expect the offense to improve a lot next year. Not because TMac will have that many more one-on-one opportunities, but because our PG and PF will be better at finishing the play when the defense sags off them. When TMac and Yao get doubled, Steve and Scola will both be able to cut and finish hard at the rim. This will eventually lead to better spacing for Tmac and Yao as the defense has to adjust.
Both Mike James and Steve Francis (especially Stevie) can do just about everything a point gaurd is supposed to do better than anyone we put at that position last year... I wouldn't be surprised if Aaron Brooks falls into that group before long, too. So yes, we have a much truer PG than we ever had before. Definitely someone who can at least make something happen on offense, and can always quickly bring the ball down the floor.
and check how they're almost NEVER at the top of the key where the defense and can key on him. w/ JVG, tmac is always at the top of the key calling for the pick and roll => too predictable.
rafer shot 36% from 3s which is pretty good. however, he shot 36% OVERALL too. no one even guards him. they even give him a lane into the paint b/c they know rafer will just put up a floater
It's not the easiest thing to sign upto this Forum, it's always closed for new membership, so unless you are checking at the right time, you won't be able to sign up for membership, it took me 8-10 months before I was able to sign up. The guy makes good points, but blaming Rafer or JVG is the simple thing to do, fact is Yao is the middle and it's just not that easy for wing players to drive the lane when it's clogged up, and JVG insisted that Yao post up in the low post, instead of moving him around the offense, so when the help came from Yao, the help knew exactly where to recover to because Yao was always stagnate. Hopefully the offense changes next year and the defense doesn't go too south.
Tell your friend what in the world does it matter if Tmac is a SG or a SF? Either way its always the best defender on him, you think Bowen cares if hes listed as a seperate position or whatever? His position is irrelevent, focus on the offensive system
The main difference I see from T-Mac in Orlando or even 05 T-Mac was simply playing freely and loose. Jeff Van Gundy just makes everyone play so rigidly and mechanically. I think both Yao and T-Mac should be playing much looser and freer under Adelman. I think it was pretty obvious why the 05 team played freer, it was because Bob Sura and Mike James and Jon Barry just got the ball and went and made things happen. Rafer Alston just didn't do anything but play to Van Gundy's puppet strings, which is exactly what Van Gundy wants. And everyone knew that if you didn't follow a certain style of play you went to the doghouse, and I think we all know that happened last year. Sura, James, Barry just ignored Van Gundy and just played natural. It really helped loosen T-Mac up I thought. I feel Adelman will be a huge factor in McGrady's game.
Agree.It's really not easy to sign up this Forum,especilly not in U.S.A,for e-mail address was always blocked. Whatever,I cant wait to see what'll happen this season.
2 reasons Tmac doesn't go the rack often anymore: Yao is clogging the post Tracy's back is toast I never meant for that to rhyme so consider that a bonus. I don't see how Darrell Armstrong vs. Rafer has anything to do with the conversation. Tracy can't get the ball closer to the basket because Yao is sitting down and as we know, a big man needs space to operate. I'm not a fan of putting Yao in the high post but maybe it will free Tmac up to cut to the basket for some easy hoops so he can actually shoot a respectable % this season.
