i dont know which season youve been watching...but altson has really contained some premiere PGs this season thus far: jason terry tony parker gary payton etc as for getting in the paint. i've seen plenty of jaw-dropping dish offs where rafer runs right under the basket and then dishes it off to a big man for an easy 2. and as for shooting? try 41 FG% and 44 3P% what i'm saying is: rafer's performance overall this season, in my opinion, has left many of his nay-sayers' complaints as invalid.
Some of you will complain about anything. Rafer is doing a GREAT job. He make mistakes his share of mistakes, but so does everyone in this league....No player is perfect. Rafer is probably the most consistent player on the team this year.....the offense is completely stagnant sometimes when he's not on the floor. I know JVG said this off-season that how important it was to have three PG's for this team.....I can certainly see why now. Lay off of Rafer.....I'm satisfied with his performance. You can't have an all-star at every position.
LISTEN CLOSELY. VERY CLOSELY. NO-ONE IS SAYING PLAY BILLY IN THE 1ST QUARTER OR MAYBE EVEN THE 2ND. WHAT WE KEEP SAYING IS WHEN RAFER AND HEAD GET TIRED IN THE 3RD AND 4TH AND REDD AND SPURS 2ND TEAMERS AND CHRIS PAUL ETC BEGIN TO EAT THEIR LUNCH AND START A RUN THEN PUT BILLY IN FOR 5 TO 10 MINUTES TO SHUT IT DOWN. I AM YELLING BECAUSE WE HAVE TWO PARALLEL NON INTERSECTING CONVERSATIONS GOING ON. Rafer and Head are playing great for 3 to 3 1/2 quarters. But not for 4. When our shooters go ice cold put Novak in for 5-10 minutes in the 3rd or 4th. Capeche???
Wrong. The title of this thread is "Obsolete Alston". Don't even give me that crap about 4th quarter, tryin' to change the subject on us all of a sudden because your argument has no legs.
man why isnt he on the court. i think jvg should at least put him in when we're up by 20+. maybe we can put the game away while he's in w/his hustle plays. if the lead goes down to 10....take him out, but GIVE HIM A CHANCE i know a lot of ppl have said the same thing, but i dont care!!
well now if like some people are saying earlier that Alston MIGHT lose his job and become 2nd string in 1-3 years, then yeah I can see that as within the realm of possibility. But I don't think anyone has proposed benching him against the Pistons. Anyone? And he does run out of gas, and the big weakness in his game is still defense - esp. when he gets tired in the 3rd and 4th. Read the other comments that took this conversation about rafer and our GUARD SITUATION in this direction - it is called a conversation - they do tend to move from point to next point and sometimes change a bit - but some of us are still in the area of discussing point guard/2 guard and wh can contribute. Rafer rarely takes a charge because he is not in front of his man and lacks the quick reaction time of Vspan. I have watched the games and attend them now and last year Rafer got many touch fouls dragging his hand across the body or shoulder of the guard blowing right past him to the basket. He does seem to have improved but he is not a Bruce Bowen type defender at all - Vspan has the potential to become just that. Rafer is probably right at his peak right now under Van Gundy. Luther can still improve over the next 4-6 years, as can Vspan. It makes for an interesting dynamic in future years over Rafer's role and minutes played. Kinda like Juwan - he was a stud 10 years ago, now he is an almost 34 year old running out of gas after a good 1st qtr. And now JeopardE do you have anything of substance to contribute to this discussion?
cdrivequote: gary payton Agree. If he could not contain an aged Gary Payton who now brings the ball down with his back to his defender then I would question his manhood. (and he contained Allen Houston on crutches..... ) Admit rafer is playing better D, the team is playing better help defense with Hayes & Battier in. But he is no Bruce Bowen - no all star D teams for Rafer. Maybe the team doctor should give the starters all booster shots of something barely legal during halftime?
Unless V-Span has not developed an accurate shot behind the arc, he is not going to be our starter: But his qualities, which he already has (penetration, defence, quickness, court vision, aggressiveness, will to fight for each ball as if his children's lives would depend on it) should be enough to play at least 5 minutes per game, especially when we lead with 20 points. JVG has seen that our team collapses at the end, when our starters have to play nearly all the game. So, why not use him? It won't be worse!
I DONT KNOW WHAT NBA YOU'VE BEEN WATCHING!!!!!! In all honesty, Gary Payton sucks and so does Tony Parker (he's very streaky)
You're so adept at this changing-the-subject thing, aren't ya? Who mentioned the Pistons? The argument was that Rafer *should* be benched and we should find a new starting point guard via a trade or "lineup change" (even as the poster reluctantly admitted that Spanoulis is not anywhere close to starting quality yet). Quit trying to obfuscate and introduce arguments that don't exist. More obfuscation. So I guess the thread originally wasn't about our guard situation, or was it? I think you're starting to confuse even yourself here. What's new? He wasn't hired to be a lockdown defender. He *has* improved his game tremendously. You whiners just won't stop complaining until you have a 1st team all-NBA guy at every position. He's doing what he's expected to do well. He sets up the offense, knocks down open shots and, despite his defensive deficiencies, has actually been instrumental in shutting down two of the league's most prolific scoring point guards in Tony Parker and Jason Terry. Your boy Vassilis is not ready for NBA ball yet. Stop grasping for straws in this ridiculous effort to denigrate Rafer in any way possible. I heard the same thing all last year -- "he'll never be better, he's actually getting worse every year, blah blah blah." We even had a front page article about it. Now he has actually gotten a LOT better at shooting and defense, but nah, "we want Spanoulis" is the mantra of the impatient fan. This isn't about the "future" -- everyone pretty much agrees that Spanoulis is expected to be our point guard of the future. Digressing off the topic again. Ahh. Throw in the oft-hated Juwan to make Rafer look even worse. I'm sorry. I was wasting too much time trying to find substance in *your* post, only to discover it was basically nothing but a long-winded way of saying "wahh, I'm tired of Rafer, give me Spanoulis!" As another poster pointed out, Spanoulis has lots of great qualities, but until he can find a shooting stroke outside of 20 feet and manage to play 10 minutes without committing five turnovers, the only court time he'll be seeing is garbage time. And I have absolutely no problem with that. Houston fans are ridiculously impatient. Do you really think a second-round draft pick out of Europe with terrible shooting and highly-turnover prone handling would come into a championship-contending squad and immediately start to make an impact within the first two weeks? I wonder why I'm even wasting my time with this. It's the same old thing. The whining will never stop until we have an 82-0 season, sweep through the playoffs averaging 150 points a game, and Novak/Spanoulis combine for 45 points every time. *Yawn*. Wake me up when somebody has something new to say.
I just keep watching that video and keep thinking that with 25 mpg, we will get to see about 2 plays per game where VSpan steals the ball and finishes the play on the break on the other end. No dribbling out to the corner, or waiting for everybody to get back and set it up. Just the finish at the bucket. He just needs to get out there and not turn the ball over. BTW, Alston won't be obsolete as long as he is hitting at 40% from the 3 point line.
all, granted gary payton isn't that great anymore. hence the word "good" and seriously, irrespective of alston's containment of payton being seen as obslolete or not in that Win... have you ever heard the phrase, "you have a knack for the capillaries"? meaning, you have an acute ability to focus on small potatoes and losing focus on the meat of the matter. the meat of the matter is rafer is not obsolete. bad word choice. it is irresponsible to point to him as the scape goat for rocket's dissapearance in the late 3rd quarter/4th quarter.
The fundamentals that led to an ungodly, Francis-like number of turnovers despite playing backup minutes in the preseason. He'd lead the league in giving the ball away if he was our starting point. He just makes some dumb, rookie plays out there. He'll improve with time, but he's not there yet, and it's tough to give a guy like that minutes when you're a contender.
T-Mac still isn't the distributor 100% of the time he plays, and you still need someone to bring the ball up quickly without turning over the ball and get it to T-Mac. Rafer can do #3 and can do half of #2. the only guard i can think of that can do all 3 is Billups, who's also a great distributor. there are just extremely few guards that can flat out shoot as well as score inside and play great defense (hmmm... T-Mac once upon a time). Snyder can do #1 and #2 well enough, but is just shooting the ball so poorly recently. is it the new ball, or how can someone go from straight mid 30% shooting to the low 20s.
Working off of your analysis smoothie, i hope rafer works on his little floater and semi-hook shot. those shots can come at anytime for rafer, and if he practiced them, it would make his game much better. i don't know if it's just me, but i don't see/hear anything about players spending hours working on those little things anymore. --it's a shame. when you see missed free throws. when you can hit a 3 foot shot. it's a shame. because i believe. it's about practice. But you're not ashamed.. are you? ^commercial
