Rafer is most likely the worst or 5 worst starting pgs in the league. I dont know what the rockets were thinking when they got him. He never started in the nba before he came to the rockets, what makes them think he could start for them. i would take many backup pgs over rafer alston. He sucks and should not be starting for any team in the nba.
-Rafer is in the bottom 1/4 of starting NBA points. -But he is MUCH better than any other PGs we have on our roster. -There is much too much blame on him around here, Rafer is playing like he always had, it is our brass who has him as the only NBA level PG on the whole roster. They need to bring someone in to share the load, not replace him. -And Rafer's 3 point shot beyond the top of the key is a quality shot. Granted that is about his only efficient/effective spot. If the rest of the squad was better he could park there, but right now the defense can take him off the spot and force him into other areas.
he started for toronto. He is a better option than Mike "im a superstar" james. only when the shotclock is about to go off is someone open...
The reason why no one else is open is because no one care to help defend Rafer. I don't blame him for taking open shots. He has so many open shots because the defense know that he is a poor shooter. You don't need to be a good outside shooter to be an effective PG. If you can penetrate and finish a teardrop or a layup, you'll draw the defense and you can set up your teammates. Rafer can neither hit outside open shot consistently nor finish near the basket. That combination of incompetence is deadly (to his own team) for a PG.
No he isn't, otherwise we would not have tried to re-acquire James. But Rafer is a lot better than the other options on our roster. We just need to bring in some help.
and he proved that he was an able point gaurd. name one other point on our team that has even accomplished that. brings the ball up the court and hands it to Tmac.... which is more than what we need from a PG he also plays adept defense on the opposing gaurds. beter than vspan or Jl3 have done.
simply because we wish to acquire a player doesnt make him a better player than the one we already have. I honestly believe if we had both Mjames and Alston, alston would have started more games at the PG position
Rafer is a good enough point guard, he has good ball handling skills and plays good defense. The only problem is he likes to shoot too much and often take bad shots (floaters, ill-advised looks, etc) and sometimes tries to run the offense on his own without passing to anyone until late. He should only be taking shots when he is wide open and pass whenever there is a good look for a teammate. If he could fix this mentality, he is all we need at point guard and we can be very successful with him on the team.
What exactly does Alston NEED to do to lose your support? He has the worst FG% in the NBA, he isn't an adept playmaker, he is porous on defense, he makes numerous mental errors, and he is a below average 3pt shooter. If we had an AVERAGE PG, we would be doing a lot better than the current 25-16 record. Lets compare a sampling of some PGs on the good AND bad teams: Dallas: Terry Phoenix: Nash SA: Parker Utah: Williams NOKaul Denver: Iverson Minn: Foye/James LAC:Livingston Sac: Bibby and the list goes on...now that I think about it, you can probably make a case for Alston being the WORST starting PG in the Western Conf I think its pretty sad when the board gets excited about a prospect like Chucky Atkins coming in to spell Rafer
I do not like the word "worst". But Rafer is the one of the weakest links of Rockets (JVG is the othe one), I never found remarkable basketball IQ in them.
i'm sure there's nothing rafer can do to gain your's. how about he has the 2nd lowest turnover average per 48 minutes of all starting point guards in the nba? how about him averaging 5.2 apg with t-mac being the half court playmaker? how about his improvements on defense?
maybe it's because you haven't much basketball iq yourself? because all i know is that at least jvg always gets praised by his players for being all about basketball details they didn't even heard about before? how many players have stated they learned so much more about basketball because of him?
unlike most on this board, I dont wait and expect players to lose my support and worsen their playing, I look for the good in them, and hope that they become better. One thing that might make him lose most of my support is when he starts waving off TMAC and yao and it becomes deliberate that he is trying to just boost his stats ala Mike James. He averages the most steals on our team, He brings the ball up play after play, and does better than ANYONE else on our team. His 3 point percentage is the same as RAY ALLENS and better than scrub chucky atkins. If we had a team that can hit a shot inside the perimiter when passed to them, then we would be MUCH better than our current record.
First of all, the one thing Alston is acceptable at, is not turning the ball over. I will give him credit for that. But, he is ranked #35 in Assist/Turn/game, and #44 in assists/48 min, which is not spectacular. IMO these don't make up for his horrendous deficiencies on offense and defense. Do you really believe that he is even an AVERAGE starting PG in the NBA? The fact remains that he has the WORST FG% in the NBA, takes more 3pt attempts than he dishes out assists, and is generally a subpar 3pt shooter. As for his improvement on defense, I think that is laughable. Look at last nights game for a recent example. JVG has often refers to our backcourt as "underquicked and undersized" and Alston and Head are the primary culprits for this.
You are right, his steals and ability to dribble up halfcourt and hand the ball to Tmac are what we need to propel us to the top. Hell, he probably should be the darkhorse to enter the All-Star game considering he shoots better than Ray Allen and does better than ANYONE else on our team, most notably Spanoulis and Lucas.
I have to say you are just so naive, you believe those diplomatic words reported. Who would risk his minutes criticizing coach publicly? You just do have enogh IQ for common sense, withouth mentioning basketball IQ.
he proved he was a capable backup pg, nothing more. Anyone can do that. Vspan plays much tougher D than Rafer, plus he wont shoot as much as rafer. I would take 4-5 turnovers from vspan over 12-14 missed shots by rafer any day. Rafer doesnt get as many turnovers, but illadvised shots are the same thing.
