That's how I like my women too . I know, I'm immature, couldn't resist. I think Alston has been working on his shot in the offseason, so I've got to at least give him credit for that. Unfortunately my viewing is limited to the online streaming/chat so I only pay attention half of the time. If Alston is taking shots when he's wide open, that's fine, no matter if he's shooting poorly. If he's looking for his own shot to start, he's got to slow that down. Don't forget, in some of our 4th quarter collapses Alston bascially got the ball and went straight for his own shot waving off our go-to-guy Yao and Tmac, our true playmaker. I think the last few games that has changed though.
I feel strongly that this team needs a passing PG who is safe with the ball. That describes Alston. But if his 3pt shooting doesn't show improvement from last year, he becomes a weak link for this team moreso that any other contender's weakest link. For that reason, and for all the reasons Clutch has been preaching, he'll need to go. It depresses me to think of Alston not being able to hit wide open 3s enough for this offense. It depresses me more to consider how we'd trade him. Would we have to package him to give the trade value (ie JHo wouldn't do it)? I'm not trading Novak, Span or ClutchHead with him. Definitely not Hayes. It depresses me to think of packaging him with Bonzi, as well. A future 1st rounder? ugh. I guess we could use the trade exception (don't we still have one) to grease a 3-team trade and get a PG out of it. imo, short of landing a better fit PG via greasing a trade with our TE, I'm going to have to say fix the problem from within. The most obvious way to do that is lower Alston's minutes by getting Bonzi on the freaking court. Bonzi can fix this problem for us simply by lowering the amount of minutes that we have the problem on the court. Not to say Bonzi becomes the PG, but my bet is that Alston's mpg are the ones taking a hit when Bonzi does play. You figure it out.
Cool. A HeyPee post with some actual meat in it. My opinion at this point is that Alston has improved his shot from last year. It looks to me like he has a more confident and smoother stroke. I would say that up to this point, his three pt shooting is at the minimum it needs to be. If he improved just a little in his pctg., he would be more than adequate. In the overall scheme of the offense, he does not take too many shots. Virtually all his jumpers are good looks. The number of minutes he plays may make it look like he shoots too much from the box score, but he hardly ever takes a bad shot. I don't see how you can really upgrade the position without giving up someone you don't want to. He isn't a great playmaker or shooter or defender, but he doesn't turn the ball over and when you have a lot of games where you score in the eighties or low nineties, that is very important. I would like to see Billy get more time at the point. Luther can bring the ball up, but he is a terrible passer and playmaker. At this point, he is sick, sick, sick beyond the arc. Alston started off shooting poorly last night, but hit some big shots in the clutch. You can't expect players to shoot a high percentage of long jumpers every game. I guarantee you Luther won't be shooting over 50 % 3 ptrs. at the end of the season.
Everyone in the gym knew Big Ben cannot shoot, but the Pistons still won with him. I'm not defending Alston for his poor shooting, and occasionally bad shot selection, and he HAS to improve in those areas for us to be successful in playoff, but the truth of fact is he IS the best option we have right now, until we have better options, we have to deal with the cards we have. Every team in this league has their weakest link, and every coach and player know that, it's a matter of execution to attack & prectect that weak link. The Pistons did that with Wallace, the Bulls did the same thing with Rodman, why cannot we do something to NOT put Rafer in that position? Some say Alston is not a good play-maker, etc. What kind of play-maker do we need in JVG's structured (and ugly) offense? The Rockets' first priority on offense is to bring the ball up and get into offensive set quickly, which usually starts by dumping the ball to Yao directly, or swim the ball from side to side to get Yao the ball. And Alston does that as good as anyone we have, there is a reason why JVG has been playing him the heavy minutes, even with his horrible shooting!
Completely Agree! The player some people seem to be looking for is a myth -- you aren't going to find anyone like that available outside of a draft. Or maybe we should get back to crying over Mike James Head and Spanoulis have each given plenty of reasons why they should not take Alston's playing time. They may solve one of Alston's faults, but they generally fail to compare in every other aspect of their games. Rafer is still the best manager of our offense, the surest hand on the team, and a decent enough shooter to merit his touches. Personally, I'm still a fan of the third option. I hate to say something negative about Battier with how well he played for us last night, but him and Chuck on the court at the same time is not in our best interests offensively. They are two players that are both rather stagnant on the offensive end and provide extra help defenders for our opponents in way too close range to Yao. With everyone else in that corner and T-Mac not looking for his shot, its not surprising that Rafer is getting so many shot attempts.
Yeah, um, I'm gonna have to go ahead and uh, disagree with you there. Yeah. Battier and Hayes' roles don't overlap, even though they're both ultimate hustle players. The issue is, like we've all being saying prior to last night, Battier needs to look for his shot more. Defenders already know not to leave Battier open or else he will burn them with a 3 point bomb (why do you think Rafer gets so many shots?). Chuck knows when to cut to the rim if his man doubles Yao or T-Mac. Chuck rebounds, Battier doesn't. Battier makes entry passes to Yao, Chuck doesn't. Neither of them is stagnant, and both of them are complementing Yao very well in their roles. As long as Battier continues to have nights last like night, we will be fine.
thx for the call out, Moe! I'll work on being less fluffy and more meaty. <font size=1>hmmm, doesn't sound weird when I say it like that.</font> This is true. Funny how the better he shoots, the less good looks he'll get. And that's what we want in this offense. The classic point is that Battier is clearly a better 3pt shooter. So, Alston's essentially taking shots away from Battier because the defense wants him to shoot. It stands to reason, the better Alston shoots the more looks Battier will get. And further, between the 2 of them hitting at a good clip, the more looks Yao and TMac will get. 36% is not good enough for me at his volume of 3s and mpg. He needs to be up at >39% where Battier is or play less minutes in favor of getting Bonzi on the court. If he were being guarded closer, and shot like around three 3s a game, and was having to shoot contested 3s when the shot clock was running down, I'd accept 36%. But 36% on wide open 3s at 7 a game is not working for me. Man, like you, I like Alston on several levels. But we are trying to get to the rarified air of contending, so Alston must at least match up with the weakest link starter on other contenders, and I'm worried. Then again, if Avery Johnson and Bruce Bowen could all of a sudden hit 3s at a good clip, so can Alston. I'm not too impatient, yet.
Um, many of the plays are designed where Rafer isn't making the inbound pass. At least the plays I take note of.
Sure... we would be fine. But how many of us are honestly expecting that? Before this game Battier was shooting 26% from the arc -- I'd love to see a 5/5 performance from him every night, but that would be unreasonable... My point was, we could really use someone to help draw defenders away from Yao, rather than to him. Chuck and Shane both camp out near Yao. Chuck may be able to occasionally take advantage of when Yao is double teamed (honestly, he often blows the lay-up), but I'd rather see a power forward that doesn't allow that double team to exist. Shane may be able to burn you with a three from the corner, but I'd rather see someone who doesn't allow the quick double-team on Yao when he is looking to shoot. Either of those positions are easier to find and fill than replacing Rafer, and would likely increase Rafer's efficiency as well (less shots, more consistent passing options).
Everyone saying rafer should shoot less and give shots to novak, battier, head and whoever else shoots better then him, should think why that hasnt happened. You cant just "give" shots to any player you want, for players like battier, chuck, novak, and head the shots need to be created for them. If they are covered and try to create shots for themselves youll be b****ing at them instead rafer. I dont know about you, but I would rather have rafer trying to take his man off the dribble and throw up a shot when we need it rather then any of the other role players. Rafer isnt the best PG or the ideal pg to play all the minutes he is, but hes what we have and who we are playing. Since this isnt a JVG bashing thread we cant say anything about vspan replacing rafer anytime soon.
Very logical. It was good to see Battier help his percentage last night. I would really like to see Novak taking a good chunk of the 3 pointers. Did you see the column in the Chron today where JVG basically said Novak didn't have a clue how to be successful on Oct 28, but has progressed greatly since, even with no PT? If that means Novak is getting a good grasp on team defense and is going to get some playing time, it could be very interesting.
Rockets don't really have the assets to make a trade for a vet backup PG. The best they could hope for is to throw a TE at Orlando and hope that'd be enough for Diener. Diener's in his last year, Magic don't have bird rights, won't get playing time there. It could be one of those cases were a team trades a player as a favor so he can get playing time in a contract year.
rafer gets up the court quickly and gets us in an offense quickly without turning the ball over. he is a great ball-handler who doesn't get slowed down by pressure. he also comes up with a nice amount of steals and has anice 3pt%. his problem is that he shoots too much. if he would be smarter about his shots (i.e. only take the wide opens ones like shane) he would see an increase in his overall shooting %'s and probably his assist #'s as well. not every kick-out needs to be a shot. maybe pump fake and drive it in. make the defense adjust and see who's open. i would bet that smarter shot selection would make rafer seem like he fits as much as shane (minus the defense).
I think we're just going to have to live with what Rafer is giving us. It's obvious that he's been given the green light to fire away, and it's like Will was saying earlier, opposing teams WANT Rafer to take that shot. They can't leave Yao or McGrady and they'd rather not leave Battier, so it's gotta be Rafer or Hayes. Hopefully the game-time repetition will improve his confidence AND his shot.
The player you are looking for is non existent. But, the closest you will get to that is with deron williams, chris paul, monta ellis, and delonte west. Of those 4, delonte west is the one that is most tradable. Even if we could trade for delonte west, I don't think he would be that much of an upgrade over rafer.
It is sad if Rafer is playing so poorly to make us want Steve back. He sure pulled a fine imitation today, firing air balls and driving into nests of Lakers to turn the ball over or throw up a prayer... As I said, he shoots way too much. May be it's partly the system's fault, as our offense needs a lot of work and more creativity. But it is clear that Alston does not have a Pass 1st mentality. He happened to hit the winning shot here and there when he really played just as poorly all season long. But with a few losses, his numerous weaknesses are exposed.
