He may not have the biggest I.Q. basketball wise, but alot of people seem to think he is a hog. He's taking shots which are open, and making them. What can you complain about that? It's not as if he is taking shots from just further from the free-throw line with like 3 guys guarding him, fade-away. He ISNT driving in where there is a 7' footer and 6 ft 9 guy standing there. He is playing a pretty well constructed game
Other than the two assists to three turnovers I would agree with you. But the night is young so we'll see how the season plays out.
Which is one level up from a bag of rocks! The thing that makes MJ a nice addition to this team is the same thing guys will complain about. He's an emotional intense kind of player and that is a double edged sword because he will at time let his emotion get the better of him and he will dominate the ball. I hope Adelman knows at times he will have to draw up or call a play from the sidleline if MJ is in there to keep this from happening to much. Last year this team had no fire and no toughness because we didn't have MJ, Francis, or Scola. Now we have hard nosed guys that will flat out come after you with these players and that's a good thing. Just ask the Mav fans if they are happy to see MJ back with the Rockets. Rafer is a guy that is willing to pass the ball and he's good at it. He's a better natural passer than our other guards except T-mac but he doesn't have the ability to shoot like MJ or drive to the basket like SF. If he has a weakness besides his streaky shooting it's his personality. He is to much like Yao and T-mac - he's to laid back. Rafer has a spot on this team and that's crazy but he fits better in this system than he did in JVG's system. He can run and dish all day and now we have options on the bench for those days when Rafer is on one of those cold streaks.
Y'all MJ lovers should know that things have changed in the Rox team. We aint the same team which desperately needed the 3rd option anymore. Rafer looked so terrible vs Utah because he became an offense liablity. Shane and Chuck's inablitiy to create any offense contributed a lot to that. Now with Scola and Bonzi and Steve in the mix, that problem is gone. Some of you argue MJ is the best PG in the team, well that may be true. MJ does shoot better, defense better, and is more athletic than Rafer. But sofar I 've not seen anything, zero, nada, from MJ to show he can be the floor general of this team, when he shows that, I wont have problem with him starting over Rafer. For now? No way.
and they lost 50 games that season, what's ur point? there's a reason why the best players on a team should take the most shots.
That he was a better offensive player that season than anybody on his team. Anyway I'm going to let my good ol' friend Brockstapper handle this one:
He sure did. He forced Mike James to decline his player option to stay in Toronto and sign elsewhere as a free agent. Show him the door Colangelo -- you da man!
twist it whatever you want, he was chased out of toronto like a rat. oh by the way, it happened all over again in Minnesota.
This "perfect fit" quote by Adelman has everyone penciling in Rafer as the de facto starter. Truth is, Rafer can always look good in the preseason. Heck, he can even look average in the regular season. But how about we look at his excellent postseason statistics: Season TEAM G MIN FG FGA FG% FG3 FG3A FG3% FT FTA FT% PTS AVG 003-04 Miami--- 13 295 29 91 31.9 12 52 23.1 21 25 84.0 91 7.0 2006-07 Houston 7 309 25 74 33.8 16 50 32.0 10 13 76.9 76 10.9 Rafer's Career Postseason FG% average? 32 %. "Oh but he hits his threes at a decent percentage" - WRONG, he hit 32 % last year. "It was JVG's insistence on his system" - WRONG, he hit 23% in Miami in a more open style of play. And yes, he still shot 10+ a game in our Utah series. Call him the Anti-Horry, plays in the preseason, dissappears in the playoffs. If you are part of CLUTCH city, you should really have no part of rafer. Want to see what Mike James did? Well let's find out: Season TEAM G MIN FG FGA FG% FG3 FG3A FG3% FT FTA FT% PTS AVG 2003-04 Detroit 22 195 21 53 39.6 6 14 42.9 9 16 56.2 57 2.6 2004-05 Houston 7 171 29 62 46.8 0 9 0.0 23 24 95.8 81 11.6 How about Steve Francis? Season TEAM G MIN FG FGA FG% FG3 FG3A FG3% FT FTA FT% PTS AVG 2003-04 Houston 5 222 30 70 42.9 7 17 41.2 29 40 72.5 96 19.2 I take Steve and MJames Anyday, ANYDAY of the week.
It boggles the mind how soon people forget just how Alston played last season. I was practically in tears watching all the teardrops miss. I wanted to hoist too many brews after watching Alston hoist shot after shot from behind the arc. We were begging for another option at the point. Begging. So what happens after the end of the season? The Rocks draft a point, get Mike James, grab Francis when he falls into their laps, and don't hesitate to do it. If Alston was the cat's pajamas, why would Morey do that, pray tell? And if you hoped to move Rafer, would you expect the coach to declare that he went nuts watching film of the guy from last season? Give us a break! Alston looks good this preseason. He looked good last preseason. One would hope people might notice that it is the freakin' preseason, when talking about Alston, James, or Oprah. (in the interest of fairness, or Scola. )
It's almost like kids playing card games with typecast player types- "Playmaker! My Playmaker is better than your BallHog!" No... because your playmaker shoots... "What did you say? Playmaker beats ballhog? PLAYMAKER always beats ballhog!!"
Mike James is just so so in his basketball ability. Sorry but his net pts against pts allowed were just horrible. http://www.82games.com/0607/06MIN1D.HTM On Court / Off Court stats Many stats are shown on a 'per 48 minute' basis Stat ON Court OFF Court Net Minutes 2068 1932 51% Offense: Pts per 100 Poss. 104.8 104.8 -0.1 Defense: Pts per 100 Poss. 109.9 107.5 +2.5 Net Points per 100 Possessions -5.2 -2.7 -2.5 Points Scored 4088 3792 +296 Points Allowed 4280 3897 +383 Net Points -192 -105 -87 Effective FG% 49.5% 48.7% +0.8% Effective FG% Allowed 50.3% 49.4% +1.0% Assisted Field Goals 62% 60% +2% Assisted FG% Allowed 57% 58% -1% Own Shots Blocked 5% 5% +0% Shots Blocked 5% 4% +1% Rebounding Offensive Rebounding 27.1% 28.7% -1.6% Defensive Rebounding 70.4% 70.8% -0.3% Total Rebounding 48.8% 49.8% -1.0% Stats Free Throws Made 17 18 -1 Free Throws Attempted 21 23 -2 Free Throws Made by Opp. 16 19 +3 Free Throws Attempted by Opp. 22 24 +2 Turnovers, on Offense 15 15 +0 Turnovers, on Defense 13 14 -1 Net Turnovers -2 -1 +1 Fouls Committed 20 22 +2 Fouls, Drawn 19 21 -2 Net Fouls -1 -1 +0
Totally sweet argument, dude. Care to look at the same numbers from the year before, or better yet, his time with the Rockets? I'll give you a hint. http://www.82games.com/0506/05TOR2D.HTM http://www.82games.com/04HOU4D.HTM
