Mike James - Who? (James venting in SLAM interview)

I think we need them both actually. A pure PG like Rafer, and a shooter and 3rd option like Mike James.

 

Sounds a bit familiar in the context.....


I'm the real allstar!

 

Well hes improved his shot a lot in toronto

 

mike james for rafter alston may have been the most lopsided trade in the history of the craptors.

alson = the suck.

 

Agreed.

 

First, before you bash the man, learn to spell is name. A L S T O N. Alston.

Anyways, what we need for a healthy Rockets team is a PASS FIRST point guard. The rockets are a low possession team. We don't need an undersized SG masquerading as a PG taking as many shots as Tmac and more than Yao.

If you can't understand this, go back to watching soccer.

 

Should we laugh or thrash you for thinking Bobby Sura has anything left in the tank.

 

He made it pretty clear in the interview he didn't like sharing with Bobby Sura. Why would he like sharing with someone like Rafer Alston?

Exactly... and you don't have to be Sherlock to figure that out. He clearly said this as well when he was a Rocket.

 

the alston = the suck was a typo. if you couldn't figure that out, you've been getting too many teeth yanked from your head without the novacaine. the point of the post wasnt about a choice between alston/james and a pass first point guard. it was a choice between james and alston.

i'm not sure what it is with the rockets and collecting point guards with low bball IQs, but if given the choice between alston and mike james, give me mike james any day of the week.

 

Should we laugh or thrash you when Bobby Sura comes back and gives us that spark and toughness that he gave out last season.

 

...first, we don't know that because..

...second, we've never been fully healthy.

When not healthy - we needed his shooting and scoring BADLY.

 

Toronto is 17-30 and 6.5 back of the 8th seed. The Rocks are 17-29 and 6.5 back of the 8th seed.

Glass house, man.

 

If you think Alston is a much better PG than MJ because he's a pass first type of player than you don't understand the role of a PG. Yes a PG should set up his teammates for shots, but it's based on that PG being able to draw defenders because they know he can score on his own. Do you think Steve Nash would be anywhere near the PG he is now if he had Ryan Bowen's offensive skills? No! Would Tony Parker be a good PG is he only passed the ball? No! The Rockets got the short end of the stick when they traded MJ for Alston and yes maybe they would have lost MJ for nothing if they hadn't traded him, but he is still a better player than Alston.

 

I told all you herb smokers that Reefer would live up to his name. Worst trade in Rockets history!

 

1) All of you "He was going to leave anyway for big money" posters have a major logistical problem...There are only 4 teams with significant cap space this summer...and all (ATL, CHA, UTA & NOK)..have starting PG's and are not going to pay MJ big bucks to come off of the bench. IOW, any other team looking for a starting PG has 2 options...MLE or SnT. Those aren't big buck opportunies, folks.

The "he'd have left for $" argument is old, tired, is an MJ quote taken out of context and flies in the face of the fact that the Rockets would have had his full Bird Rights.

2) The "Rafer is a better fit" argument has never made sense to me.

First, with Sura down we obviously have no pitt bulls. That's MJ's core. Secondly, up until the last 2 games Alston has run a fastbreak that makes me long for Francis and Mobley. He has been absolutely horrid on the break. He has been reasonably good recently on the break with the energy guys...Hayes, Bowen, and Luther Head. But MJ is IMO already a better open court player and MJ would have really excelled with Hayes and Luther Head in the open court.

If "better fit" means Alston can post entry pass to Yao better that's a pretty thin argument. Mike James has less natural talent but plays with nearly the same passion and attitude as Steve Francis. He runs a break very, very well...and easy baskets are something that is definitely a "good fit" for a VG offense.

3) There were a handful of us who hated the trade. I still do. I'm a Rockets fan so I root for Alston to succeed. But (if it were possible and since we can't go backwards) I'd replace Alston in a heartbeat with the likes of Earl Watson. Earl IMO is a good blend of James and Alston.


JVG and CD did pretty well with Head at #24 and we'll be higher up this year. I wouldn't be surprised if we targeted a PG in the draft. The real difference between James and Alston is not found in a stat line...it's between the ears and in the chest cavity.

 

He's entitled to vent...he is a bad ass...and we made a mistake in trading him.

 

Even with Spanoulis on the roster next season?

 

The Rockets panicked when Sura went down. Alston was never in the management's long term strategy. CD himself said that they wouldn't have traded for Alston if Sura was healthy.

James was never seen as the starting PG by JVG. He was supposed to be the spark off the bench. So when they learned that Sura was going to be out for a long time, they thought a starting PG was more important than a spark off the bench. And Alston was the best PG they could get with James. Could they have predicted all the injuries that would happened to our perimeter scorers?

Is James a better player than Alston? Probably. Actually, I didn't like the trade when it happened. I have never been impressed by Alston's game. But the trade happened and it made sense at that time. Let go and move on. I am more upset about keeping Bowen rather than Padgett.

BTW, I think Mike James should stop acting like a prick. I don't know why all the obsession about him tearing it up in Toronto.

 

I understand why they made this trade but I don't know why they were so sure about Alston and committed to him long term. He still has four years' contract left with a relatively high price.

So far, Alston seems like a poor shooter, poor defender and good ball handler. If all JVG wants from Alston is passing, who he should pass to? We don't have the third scorer? Only Yao and T-Mac is not enough.

 

once again he is putting up career numbers in a contract year, sounds Dampier-ish to me. He is also the number 2 scorer on a team with a worse record than us.

James is having a good year but he is crazy if he thinks he would have put up those numbers in this offense.