After watching these playoffs and looking at the league today.I'm becoming more and more convinced that james is the point guard we need and not rafer...rafer is a good disrbetor, but puts no presussure on opposing defenses.mike james is always in attack mode and he can and will pass.jason terry,parker,wade, and even nash keeps the pressure on oposing defenses every chance they get...with rafer you know he will stop and try to feed yao the ball or t mac everytime plus the dude had no midrange game at all..our offense is so predictable.I could care less who scores as long as the ball is being put in the basket...what we need is firepower.On defense and offense james>>>rafer. Mike is just a better player period. Who cares what he tells the media maybe that will take some pressure off t Mac and yao anyway. our team needs some edge to it anyway t Mac is great, but is usually either at the hospital, trying to find his shot, or driving to the hole maybe once or twice a game. Mike can not only shoot .but he slashes we need more player going to the hoop..
We need a Mike James type of PG to counter the likes of Jason Terry and Tony Parker and Chauncy Billups in the league. Rafer is crap and he won't cut it in this day and age. Our weakness IS our backcourt, and more than ever before in league history, the guard position might be the most important in the league. ALL the great teams in the NBA have terrific backcourts, we're lagging FAAAAAR behind everyone else, and that's where our true weakness lies.
We’ve had a Mike James type of PG to counter Jason Terry before and it wasn’t good enough. Is Alston/James at the point guard position any better than the Sura/James combo that was annihilated by Terry in last year’s playoffs?
How is it James' fault what happened against Dallas last year? The problem was that we had MJ and then no one else in the backcourt that was any good. Alston certainly won't do it, even if we bring MJ in, we will still need another starting-caliber SG who is big, ahtletic, and a scorer/shooter. Ideally, we need to get rid of Alston or package him along with Howard/Swift to bring in a good starting-caliber SG, but that's easier said than done. As I have said in the past year or so, the success/lack of success for this franchise will depend ENTIRELY on the Rockets' management/owner, they need to 'perform' more than anyone else on this team, and as of late their performance has been sorely lacking.
Last year in the playoffs we played a Dallas team that is very comparable to the one that made to the NBA Finals this year, and were one or two breaks away from beating them, WITHOUT home court advantage. Let's assume that if we had Mike James, a healthy T-Mac and Juwan, along with a MUCH improved Yao, does anyone not believe that we couldn't take the Mavs in the playoffs? MJ is a good perimeter fit defensively and offensively gives us the spacing to complement Yao. We really need 3pt/perimeter shooters on this team who can also drive, and MJ would still be a good fit for us.
If he was capable of stepping up and countering the likes of Jason Terry he would have done so during the playoffs last postseason. He didn’t because he can’t. He’s not at that level. I don’t care what he put up on the Raptors. His numbers against the Mavs in the playoffs. 24 minutes per 11 points per 2.2 assists per FG: 46% (29-62) 3Pt: 0% (0-9) With the exception of that 3-point percentage, those are roughly the same numbers he has produced throughout his career and those are the type of numbers you can expect from him on a good playoff team. Not that those are bad stats, but they’re backup point guard numbers. There are a plethora of backup point guards around the league that are producing those same numbers (Earl Watson, Fisher, Claxton, Bobby Jackson, Mo Williams, etc.). He’s not this special talent that everybody makes him out to be.
Hhis numbers against Dallas, while not star-quality, were certainly respectable. Better than the production we've recieved from any of our guards this season. Per 35 minutes, he gave us 16.6 points with efficiency (TS%) of 56%. That's pretty much the same level of offensive production we were getting out of Cuttino Mobley his last few years here, with better efficiency. Plus, James is a better perimeter defender than any of the guards we have on our team. Furthermore, while it's reasonable to expect a dropoff in production from what he did in Toronto, you can't completely discount it. He had a great season offensively and he demonstrated skills (shooting and the ability to create good shots out of an ISO) that was sorely lacking from our guards last season. I think Mike James would make a great 6th man -- someone who can play 25-30 minutes a game and provide some offensive punch while McGrady is resting.
We were one Juwan Howard away from beating the Mavs. We could take the Mavs then. The Mavs also improved this year. We need more talent to counter it. Splitting the MLE or use the MLE on a player that's not a good scoring threat isn't going to do it. Look at the Heat which is similar to the Rockets in makeup, even with more talent in their supporting cast they still seem to be outmanned by the Mavs. I'm convinced using the MLE on non impact players to fill up the gaps in this team is not enough. We need major upgrade in talent. If the Rockets are a pair of boobs, their problem is not lacking a bra to push up the cleavage, their problem is the lack of volume and fat to pump it up. Anyway, you get the point. For those who think we only need T-Mac and Yao to be our scoring threats, they are putting to much emphasis on T-Mac's unreliable back. Getting a third scorer is huge for us, T-Mac and Yao rest and be rested more in games with less scoring burden, and they'd be fresher in the 4th qtr to put the hurt into the opponents. It's good for T-mac and Yao's health, and their game.
We were one Juwan Howard away from getting smoked in 5 games is more likely. If Howard is healthy, he is shuffling around out there trying to keep up with Dirk and Dirk is smashing him to pieces. With Howard out, Van Gundy was forced to move McGrady over on Dirk and it threw Dirk off enough to allow us to get 3 games from them. We do need a major upgrade in talent starting with removing the worst starting power forward in the NBA from the lineup. By the way, Dirk is now a different player from the player we matched up with in 2005. He is now a go to the hole and force it inside player and then take the step back jumper last. He's much more dangerous with this mentality. We've got to upgrade our 4 spot along with the perimeter.
You can't say that. Picture this scenario. Pretend Juwan Howard never got his heart problem and we were talking about this topic: "If Ryan Bowen started for us, we would be swept." Guess what, it went to game 7. Anything can happen. We would never have known McGrady would shut down Dirk. Actually, I think we would have won though. Ryan Bowen was a liability and couldn't hit a shot. What if JVG adjusted and put McGrady on Dirk even with Howard? Howard would hit his shots at least.
I completely agree with you, but that dog is dead. I made the point in another thread that if this year's Dirk had shown up in the first round last year, Dallas would have beaten us 4-0 or 4-1. Going forward next year, if we have the new and improved Yao and Tracy both healthy, we will have one very fine team. The players we put around them will determine if we contend for the championship. If JH or Stro starts for us at PF next year, our new starting SG and whoever our 6th man is both better be REALLY good.
It's a dead horse now. Not wanting to derail the thread, I'll just briefly state thoughts on the impact of Juwan's absence. Juwan was a Mavs killer that year, there's one game against the Mavs in which he scored 29 points. His jumpers were money before he went down, and his rebounding improved. Comparing him to Padget and Weatherspoon who produced nearly nothing for us in the Mavs series is night and day. Moving McGrady to the pf was a forced move. On offense and defense McGrady is better suited as a sf. While Dirk was bothered by T-Mac, T-Mac was worn out by Dirk and the pf responsibilities of boxing out and rebounding. Poor T-Mac had to outrebound Dirk for boards. Also, our perimeter players were out sized and out quicked, taking T-Mac away only worsened the problems. Just my two cents.
yea we traded mike james because we didn't want him to be a third option I don't know what the rockets wher ethinking when they did that.soon as I heard they traded mike james my jaw dropped last year.we need more then a 3rd option we need a 4th.2 man teams just don't cut it anymore.
I am sure that this has been mentioned, and if not I do not want to derail the thread, but I would prefer Bonzi to MJ. I think both will end up getting more than the MLE, but if I had to choose between the 2, I would rather try for Wells. He has more size and is a more versitile scorer.
I wouldnt go aginst that either, but I think james has more fire inside of him right now.I saw him work out at the fonde gym last year.That is why I co sign dude.I havem't seen nobody workout that hard for a season personaly as I did mike james.I knew he would have a good year.
Bring back E.T. (a.k.a. Sam I am ,Sam Cassell) I bet with a little T.L.C and the full M.L.E we could get the great ( I can' understand a word he says) Sam to come back to H-town and deliver us another Main street parade! If only it we're that easy...
