Rafer has a long contract. only idiots would take him as a backup. Rafer is not a servicable starting NBA PG. Any future starting PG for Rockets will be better than Rafer if it is not Rafer. in this sense, trade Rafer.
That's $6 million over 2 years. He only costs something like $2.5 million this year. That's cheap. I agree I'd rather have Francis play SG and keep Alston as the general. But, I wouldn't assume Francis was leaving in a year. If he was going to leave, why would he have come in the first place? I think the short contract is to angle for Early Bird money, along with some assurance he can move if his return is a disaster.
I was actually thinking that. Having Rafer play with T-mac and Yao and let James, Francis, and Bonzi come off the bench and create havoc...like Ginobli/Horry and Diaw/Barbosa do...but i was afraid to get banned from this site!
First It is NOT for 6M a YEAR It is 6M for TWO years.(second year option) gotta agree with the multiple rational posters who want to hangon to the only (non-rookie) real PG we have. Until such time as Brooks shows he can easily handle some good backup point minutes, we still have a need for him. If by mid-season, Francis, James and Brooks look like they have the position handled, then see what you can get for him. OR.... If we are really lucky, the reduced role (and minutes) will help Rafer be more productive since I think anyone that looks at it rationally knows that he played WAY too many minutes and had to shoulder too much of the scoring load. That simply isnt what he is best at.
i feel for alston cause he comes off extremely nice and he basically did everything he was asked to do. he's not a great player but he's definitely a rotation player. the thing that hurt him the most was too much playing time. he's not a 40 minute player for anyone but the rockets basically had no back-up that was even a ten minute player. we're not trading james, francis, or brooks so we may have to gamble and trade rafer. i'm ok with that because i'm a huge mike james fan and it's unfortunate he has such a bad rap on here. he's not selfish and he's certainly capable of running a team. the rockets are also pretty high on aaron brooks i imagine. these are all great problems to have though.
LOL this is exactly what I was thinking I can see it now MJ and SF3 in rolling around at mid-court trying to wrestle the ball away from each other. I am glad to see Stevie back he was our only bright spot in some really down years.
when mike james was here in 04-05 i never once thought he was selfish. neither him nor sura where pure pg's but they handled the job extremely well. i also never thought francis was selfish. he was just a poor decision maker and on top of that he was by far our most reliable scorer. he was a team player though. also they just played the alston soundbite. "obviously they are going another direction, but i'm not upset about it, they're just trying to win a championship."
Everyone keeps just assuming that these players will be their same old selves and do what they have been doing the past years. But they aren't idiots, they know what their role is going to be, and Adelman will let them know. The Rockets aren't idiots and know that Steve and Mike will do what is best for the team, otherwise they wouldn't have gotten either of them..
They should just move Francis to the 2; then they wouldn't have to trade Rafer (The only true pass first PG the rockets have had in years)! I'm a little uneasey about Francis and James playing the 1, ehat about T-mac and Yao?
that is why i was fully supporting a francis signing. now since it's done, it's not bad, but i'd like alston to stay.
HECK NO! Not my boy Head! Head is going to stay, he's one of our best offensive players yet He is our BEST 3 point shooter on our team! Not only that this is going to be his 3rd year and he's still have all the potential and talent in the world to grow to become the consummate player.
i stand by my assertion that at this point, we still need rafer.... and you summed it up perfectly as to why.
Yes, somebody called me? I wasn't so sure the SF3 acquisition is a good thing, but I think this means we can get a better player for Rafer+Sura+Snyder+Head. I wasn't that big on SF3 coming back, but now that it's done.. gotta suck it up and move on. If we can get a trade for them for another star.. we'd be the new Yankees.
