I really like rafer. I'm a Rucker-Park-going New Yorker myself. I've worked with his high school coach. I'm a big fan of his and I'm happy he's on my favorite team. Further more, I'm very impressed that he stepped up to the plate and worked on his jumper all summer so he can fit with this team. Now to my point. Rafer's greatest skill is distributing the basketball and decision making. This has been taken away from him. Tmac is now the distributor / decision-maker. with all of his moves and dribbling ability i would love to see him take advantage of the new rules and DRIVE to the basket...DRAW FOULS. When he can't get up a 3 point shot, and he won't create in the half-court, and he can't keep his man in front of him, well he becomes obsolete in our system. IT was when Tmac was playing off the ball that we needed a trustworthy, pass-first PG, and rafer was a great fit. Now Tmac handles the ball most of the time. Rafer's assist #'s are down. It was the thought of his assist #'s that had people willing to put up with his lack of defense. He is far from useless. I'm not suggesting that. He comes up with steals and rebounds, but gets beat off the dribble EVERY time. His shooting is very respectable but streaky, and his overall scoring ability isn't all that great. What I'm suggesting is that starting in the backcourt with Tmac should be someone who can do two of these three things. 1. keep guards out of the paint. 2. get into the paint and either finish or draw a foul. 3. be a dead-eye shooter. rafer would be an excellent leader off the bench for us, but he can't do any of these things that we need. I don't have a solution or a trade suggestion. It seems like billy could be that kind of player in a few years but we need that now. The best example i could give is Deker Fisher in his prime during the 3-peat Lakers. Agree? Dissagree? Suggestions for a trade / line-up change?
Alston's decision making hasn't impressed me too much this season. His assist/turnover ratio isn't particularly good. I like his 3-point shooting, though. Can't argue with 41.5%.
no you can't, but it's very streaky. my point is that if he's worked on his shooting enough to fill the need of a shooter at the 1 then why not give a pump fake when the defense runs out at you and drive? he either shoots over the guy or passes away in that situation. when he does drive he usually misses a floater or a tear drop and rarely takes it into a big guy to draw a foul like every other guard does to yao.
smoothie, Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of your posts in general and I can agree with precisely all of this one - but this thread wasn't necessary. We had a very similar thread running a day or so ago, and Alston is averaging 19PPG since the last time this board had a venue to bash him. Not that your post was unnecessary, but if I know ClutchFans, the rest of this thread is going to be...
smoothie, This is great! I agree 110%. If we had a point guard that can go inside and finish, as well as kick it out to the wide open three, we would be a championship team. Rafer is a good dribbler, shooter, but he cannot drive into the lane, finish or draw fouls. Great review
Nice H'light clip and yeah...it would be nice if Rafer would play some D like that...we all know that he's just "holding" this job until V-span gets ready for primetime man. V needs to be able to play under control, learn the NBA game better and develop the ability to get in the lane consistently (he has quickness) and hit from the outside. Next year, he'll play full time.
Alston is our 3rd leading scorer right now. That isn't his game. He's decent when he is making the 3pt shot,but if he isn't he isn't doing much else. He still is a mediocre perimeter defender and offensively can't create his own shot and is a terrible finisher at the basket on drives or fast breaks. I dont want to turn this into another Alston/Mike James thread....but let's face it, again having someone like Mike James would solve a lot of the problems we are having right now. It would greatly improve our perimeter defense. It would give us another true "create their own shot" type player to help us when our offense is stagnant. And it would give us a player that has a "killer and firey" personality this team NEEDS on nights when we get sluggish.
Rafer has been doing a great job thus far his shot improved, but he is to clumsy to drive to the basket
And Head is no better than average at defense - so if we are going to shut down teams' guards in the 3rd & 4th then Billy NEEDS TO GET SOME MINUTES. But we all know he is just a rookie fresh from his Greek High School, only 17 years old and totally inexperienced. (sarcasm) I for one will not cry when we get a new coach. One shot Billy can hit that our guards miss regularly is called a layup. Thanks for the highlights IRockU
We have a guy rotting on the bench in Kill Bill who has shown he can do 2 out of three and he's plays with a Sura/Battier aggressiveness. I can't believe V-span can't get any minutes even when the team is up by a big margin or blowing that big margin. JVG is too hard headed to ever win an NBA title. He refuses to develop young guys and he will not adjust his game plan even when the other teams are killing the Rockets.
Ya'll stop it with the vspan mantra already. He'll get time when he's ready... when he can defend and lower his t/o ratio (in the WC, he was 12-18...not so great). He took 42 3-pointers and only made 11... 26%. His game needs work and when he's ready he'll get his time.
No kidding. Poor decision making. Poor shooting. I can see the Novak chants, considering his preseason numbers, but V-Span doesn't have enough fundamentals to be a rotation player yet. I love the hustle aspect of his game, I love his fearlessness, it reminds me of Bobby Sura 2 years ago. But he's got a long way to go before he can contribute.
