Man, that was an awful lot of verbiage to disguise a point suggested in a bazillion other threads. I have a better idea: Let RA decide when Stevie *deserves* a chance to run his offense.
For the 2nd year in a row, we have a new player we counted on to contribute,come to camp not in playing shape. This is not a good trend.
I'm no Rafer fan but come on. "Addicted to turning the ball over?" Let's be accurate in our criticism.
I wonder if Adelman has considered THIS lineup for certain games or game-situations... TMac (dare I say it, PF - Point Forward/PG)... Shane SG... Chuck SF... Scola PF... Yao C... I think that would work when you want to go big...
You do realise that Shane is shooting worse than Rafer so far this year right? Battier is 9-26 for 34.6%, compared to Alston's 8-21 for 38%. Shane's uncharacteristic bad shooting is a big contributor to our starters looking bad on offense. That isn't to say Battier's defense and other contributions haven't out weighed his poor shooting, much like Rafer does things that help the team that give him value outside of scoring.
I think you guys just hate Rafer too much..sure he shoots some bad shots but I remember him hitting a couple of clutch 3s in the Jazz series (or maybe that was just me?) plus, he also passes alot which usually results to baskets..IMO hes a pass-first PG unlike SF3 who needs to dominate the ball to be productive..
My suggestion of a big lineup in CERTAIN situations doesn't mean I don't appreciate Rafe... Rafe has hit some big shots and kept the offense together in some stretches so far over 3 games... But there might come a time when we should go BIG, so Rafer wouldn't figure into that...
Unlucky too, as they will never be able appreciate or enjoy the value of players and contributions they make that don't appear on the box score, throw them a few steve francis highlights and they will be satisfied. Our PG Combo is very solid as of now and I do not see why we need a solution when there isn't a major problem. The continued wishing of Stevie playing into the rotation will mean the injury or woeful perfomances of one of our rotational player, surely we don't want that to happen? I love Stevie, but I'm pretty sure a 100% Steve Francis won't run the Houston Rockets offense better then Rafer. I'll assure you he will probably destroy Rafer 1v1 and is 200x the more qualified "franchise player". He'll give you 25-5-5 easy on a subpar team, but on an elite Rocket's team with his current conditioning, his better off picking up a better attitude, continued to learn and practice hard under RA's system and he MIGHT make a good penetration punch off the bench. A PG that has the best +/- statistical rates with Yao and Mcgrady and knows the team sweet spots and RA's offensive system in and outs with solid defense and exceptional ball handling and tempo control. Team Basketball is a system and group of everything placed together (Players, coaches, admin), not the best individual talents, and right now, The Rockets definately belongs to the elite group, hence, rendering a major rotational player like Rafer "elite". Rafer Alston belongs to an "elite" Rockets Team as an outstanding fit. I don't think many PGs outside of the top tier PGs can run the Rockets team better then he does. I'm sorry I just couldn't help stereotyping and mocking people who work as a taxi driver during the day to question and / or think they can do a better job then top tier NBA head coaches who gets paid millions per year. _ Blues
