I agree, Ronny, for the most part. I feel like the few times we have had Brooks in to close the game, we have done better.
Brooks has been lucky to get 11 minutes a game lately, and is shooting the same % as Rafer, and worse from 3. He should probably get a bit more play time to develope, but he has been average at best with the time he has recieved lately. Rafer on the other hand has averaged almost 16 points and 7.2 assists per game over the past 5 games.
Unfortunately Tmac has only averaged 14 points per game over the last 5 on 27-73 shooting. In comparison Rafer has made 2 more shots than Tmac on 10 less attempts shooting 29-63 and Yao has shot 43-73 over the same 5 game stretch.
People expect the role player should drop triple doubles on the daily basis. Rafer should at least shoot 55%, and have 10 assists, 10 boards, and block 10 shots every game. Otherwise, he sucks. Oh, he also have to make all the clutch shots and have zero turn over, otherwise, he sucks. One way or another, if you name is Rafer, you sucks.
Brevin Knight?? Brevin Knight??? you lost all credibility with me there man, the guy is 5'10" and probably plays worse D than MJ
Internal growth is part of the solution but without external help we can't get better. There is no easy answer as we all know as we can't make a panic move which would cause us a lot of harm in the long run either. Do you have any specific idea(s) in your mind Clutch?
That is the truth and I am not going to argue that Rafer doesn't shoot very well, especially in the fourth, but tonight no one did. 20 shots is too much for Rafer, especially when you go cold and keep going (4-13) but 9-20 isn't bad overall, right? To be honest though, in the playoffs, no matter how hard he tries he will be a liability playing like that. T-Mac will be a liability playing how he did tonight as well. A big, fat, $20mil liability. Get it straight Rockets! 9 in a row! 5th seed or bust!
It sure looks to me like there's a pattern where Rafer seizes up in the fourth. Sometimes he coasts, sometimes he just locks up hard. When he starts to get tentative everything goes--shooting, passing, the works. Where that's really a problem is when he can't get the ball into Yao in the low post. Look at tonight: Yao can't rest, has to come back in, scores six straight points and the Rockets still can't effectively utilize him. He needs help in the fourth. He either needs to sit down for a while or T-Mac/Brooks should come in to help out with the ball handling duties.
Yao was in foul trouble (some shxxt offensive call). If Yao stand in the middle, I doubt Ron can still make that much shoots. In 11:57, Yao is the only one can make score. This team need a 2/3 can attack the hoop, Bonzi sometimes can, but not tonight. Tmac ......................ugh
the only reason why this was so close is because tracy didnt contribute as well as he is able to tonight, or for the last few games rather. i think we toughed it out as many good teams are able to and at least we were able to win this one. take the winning streak as it is, a streak meant to be broken eventually. if we end up losing during this streak we just have to aim to build another one. look at the celtics as great as they are as a team, without KG they don't play as well ( because they nearly traded they're entire team for him but w.e). the OP needs to calm himself down, rafer played well tonight and the 4th quarter was not completely his fault. he's not Chris paul, deron williams, steve nash, or jason kidd but at least he's contributing at a very respectable %. give him props because if he had shot 3/12 we would have lost this game for sure.
The Rockets had a 19 point lead going into the fourth and they pissed it away. That's not McGrady. There's a problem with execution to finish out games and it's happened over and over.
4th quarter offensive possesions and turn overs for the rockets: 61-79 Carl Landry lost ball (Justin Williams steals) 11:11 63-79 Rafer Alston misses layup 10:38 65-80 Rafer Alston makes technical free throw 10:19 65-80 Carl Landry misses 15-foot jumper 9:18 69-80 Bonzi Wells misses 17-foot jumper 8:33 69-80 Bonzi Wells bad pass (Justin Williams steals) 7:58 69-80 Rafer Alston misses running jumper 7:16 71-80 Bonzi Wells misses 10-foot two point shot 6:35 73-80 Shane Battier misses 9-foot running jumper 5:54 76-80 Tracy McGrady misses 21-foot jumper 5:43 76-82 Yao Ming makes dunk (Rafer Alston assists) 5:09 78-82 Steve Novak misses 26-foot three point jumper 4:33 78-84 Yao Ming makes 12-foot jumper (Rafer Alston assists) 4:05 79-84 Shane Battier misses 24-foot three point jumper 3:33 Mikki Moore shooting foul (Yao Ming draws the foul) 79-84 3:33 79-85 Yao Ming makes free throw 1 of 2 3:33 79-86 Yao Ming makes free throw 2 of 2 2:58 81-86 Rafer Alston misses 17-foot jumper 2:24 81-86 Yao Ming misses hook shot 1:38 83-86 Rafer Alston misses 22-foot jumper 1:05 83-86 Tracy McGrady lost ball (Ron Artest steals) 0:39 85-86 Rafer Alston bad pass (Justin Williams steals) 0:02 87-89 Steve Novak makes 24-foot three point jumper (Tracy McGrady assists) 4th quarter offense: Rafer 0/4, 2 assists, 1 turn over Tmac 0/1, 1 assist, 1 turn over Yao 2/3 Bonzi 0/2, 1 turn over Landry 0/1, 1 turn over Novak 1/2 Battier 0/2 Tmac was held scoreless, and contributed only 1 assist. If Tmac gives that little offensive production then that is a much bigger factor than Skip "only" shooting 45% for the night after an 0/4 quarter. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking to upgrade at PG if the opportunity comes up, but realistically I don't see any better options out there this season.
