He has 13 points in the 1st quarter and there is still 3 minutes left. He can easily average 18 ppg for Toronto this year. It looks like it was good trade for both teams.
Glad he's no longer a Rocket. He took 8 shots in 12 minutes plus 4 foul shots. Too much for a role player. He's not going to make 50% most of the time.
^^^True, but with a team like Toronto, he could probably secure a 6 million dollar plus contract when his 2 years are up.
there's no question mike james can put the ball in the basket. the only problem he had was at times he thought he could do it better than yao or mcgrady. you're right, this looks like the perfect trade for both teams. he'll be one of toronto's leading scorers and secure a big money contract somewhere, while the rockets will be contending with a legit point passing the ball around.
Exactly, Toronto is the perfect team for him. He likes to shoot and Toronto needs someone with that fearless scoring and heads up mentality, and James brings that with championship experience. He's also flashy, which could make him a fan favorite and bring the fans out. And maybe Toronto with James, Rose and Bosh can make a push at a playoff berth, or a least a winning season and entertain the masses in Canada. He's doing a credible job at running the point, 20 points and 4 assists. If he can push his assists up to about 6 or 7 per game, and score between 15 to 18 ppg Toronto will be in great shape!
This is great news. It is will not be a good thing if all other GMs in the league think that CD is a rip off. Every now and then it is good that we send out players that produce for the other team so that we can get other GMs to do deals with CD when necessary. This is win-win both all concerned.
If you look back to the scoring James did when he was a starter with the Rockets, you will see that he is a prolific scorer... He will average close to 20 ppg with the Raptors, because that is what they need from him... I always did think the Rockets should have kept him as a starter last year... That is not what the Rockets needed from him so it was a good deal for both teams... Statistically I fully expect James to be better than than Skip by a rather large margin, but as a fit for the team, Skip is a better choice for us... There is nothing wrong with a win win deal...
He was swappwd IMHO because Coach was concerned he'd pad stats for FA. BTW - I saw some of the game and he wasn't looking to pass and twice had his pocket picked!!!
I remember this same silly criticism last year when he started off shooting 54% or something like that from 3 point land, usually from people who seemed more concerned about their favorites doing well than the Rockets success. No, he's not going to shoot that way the whole season. But when he is shooting well, he should shoot the damned ball. Same goes for every player in the NBA. Duh.
The Mike James trade will be Jeff Von Idiot's downfall. Worst trade ever. Rafer doesn't belong on an NBA court. He should be lacing it up in Rucker Park.
I don't see Mike James having such a large impact that it would cause an entire teams' downfall. (I'm assuming JVG's downfall would be an equiv to the team's downfall.) Anyways, with Sura out we needed a pg who has a pass first mentality more than another scorer. You already know that MJ is going to try to put up big numbers this season, and who would you rather have shooting the shots? Mike James? or Yao and T-Mac.
James is tough as nails, and he hit plenty of big shots with the Celtics... but let's not forget, a team on which he averages ~20 points is a team that wins less than 20 games.
Rafer Alston > Mike James I don't know where you guys get that the Raptors need James to score. Part of the reason we wanted to deal Alston is because he would often take the scoring load onto his shoulders, when there were better players to be doing the scoring. Yes, he's prone to thinking he's a hero sometimes, like most players who handle the ball so much. The Raptors, however, wanted better balance defensively and to untie themselves from the 5 years remaining on Alston's deal. If James can do what Alvin Williams did a few seasons ago - about 12+pts and 5+assists with strong perimiter D - then the deal will have been a good one. A Mike James / Jose Calderon combo is better than the Alston / Palacio duo from last season. The idea is to have a Calderon / Ukic duo for the 2007 season, and Jose has looked good in limited minutes so far. Better than James, actually, but he's still getting acclimated to the NBA game. Many Raptos fans will be calling for Calderon to start come mid-season, so we'll have to see how things pan out with James once he's being outplayed by hus backup. Either way, the Raps will benefit from him playing for a contract - which usually results in the most productive seasons for most players. I wish Alston well in Houston. I think a more stable situation will be good for him and with any luck, he'll keep his head on straight about feeding the big guy down low - something he's prone to forgetting. Yao will have to work hard to reward Rafer with some nice picks and screens for the relationship to develop into a good one. Skip actually played fairly well with Araujo when Hoffa would clear a path to the hoop for him, something he's good at.
