Rafer Alston vs. Mike James vs. Steve Francis

I just sensed it from Yao's interview in which he complained his teammate not focusing in the game. I thought the candidates were James and Wells but Wells got trust from the couch and Tmac so the guy must be James. Sorry if I am wrong.

 

SF3 is not fully recovered from his back injury so 9 minutes is kinda reasonable. MJ only got 5, that tells sth.

 

Well, James is playing like crap and some someone still want more minutes for James!?

At the time when Adelman is trying to let this team to learn the new offense, the starters are going to play heavy minutes until the new offense is going well. Adelman already said that Alston is the best to get this team in the offense and also the best defender among guards. Yeah, Alston shoots like crap, but 2 goods for 1 bad are still better than Francis and James.

Actually, James has a license to shoot and that's what Adelman wants James to do. But when James is in the game, the offense really bogs down. James' shoot selections are poor. James mainly goes one-on-one or shoots when he's in the game but his shooting is bad these days. I hope James will shoot better soon. But until James is showing he's shooting better, he will be stuck in his 10 minutes actions. It's hard for Adelman to give more minutes to a player who's a shooter only and he's in shooting slump while the team is trying to win game and learn the new offense.

I think Francis will get more minutes soon. Adelman thinks Francis can get the Rockets into offense and Francis's penetration game really gives something that the Rockets lack.

Head belongs to the end of bench.

Both Alston and James contracts are hard to trade. There will be very few taker for James and that's why the T-Pups was willing to trade James (with throw-in J Reed) for J-Ho (we all know how bad J-Ho's contract was) and later J-Ho was bought out. So, mainly, the T-Pups got rid of James like crap and got nothing in return - not even a 2nd round pick. Poor T-Pups.

 

aww its not sticky no more let keep it bump up eh??

 

Cumlative Stats for all 3 guards over the 7 games they all played in:

FRANCIS 135 MIN 16-42 FG, 2-11 3PT 10-15 FT 17 REB 21 AST 8 STL 4 BLK 4 TO 44 PTS

ALSTON 215 MIN 29-66 FG, 11-27 3PT 5-8 FT 23 REB 33 AST 11 STL 1 BLK 9 TO 74 PTS

JAMES 112 MIN 24-52 FG, 4-14 3PT 5-6 FT 11 REB 11 AST 3 STL 0 BLK 7 TO 55 PTS

Season long FG%'s:

Francis:38.1%
Alston:.37.7%
James: 37.4 %


Season long 3 pt FG%'s:

James: 34.9 %
Alston:.27.3 %
Francis:18.2 %

Season long AFG%:

Alston: 44.6 %
James: 43.7 %
Francis:40.5 %


Stats Per 48 Minutes

Alston: 13.6 PTS 5.1 REB 7.7 AST 1.92 STL 0.08 BLK 2.5 TO 3.10 AST/TO 2.2 PF

Francis: 15.6 PTS 6 REB 7.5 AST 2.84 STL 1.42 BLK 1.4 TO 5.25 AST/TO 6.8 PF

James: 21.2 PTS 4.3 REB 4.4 AST 1.80 STL .24 BLK 2.5 TO 1.76 AST/TO 3.6 PF

 

Who would have thought that Francis would be our best POINT guard? The guy makes plays out there. Rafer, he makes the simple pass but Stevie, he creates plays. The majority of his passes lead his teammates for easy buckets or a trip the line. He sees opening where Skip or James usually does not. Not to mention he is also the best one at getting Yao the ball. Their chemistry together is through the roof. Steve doesn't even look for his shot when hes playing. The most important thing though, he is still very effective even without scoring.

 

Alston being the best defender at pg position in our team is debateable. He doesn't suck at it but he's not that good either. Francis is very physical defensely, hence picking up alot of fouls. But he can truely be a better defender with his leap ability to block or altar shots. I've seen francis with more defensive intensity, i.e. (phoenix) than even battier at times. He just has to do it a consistenly.

 

Alston's stats don't look that bad and everyone wants to trade him. I wonder what a poll would be like if you took the NBA's most hated guards and ran a popularity poll on who the Rockets would like on their team. You could make the poll Starbury, Tinsley, Alston, maybe add another knucklehead. lol.. Actually this could make an interesting thread. Who are the most Hated Players in the NBA and Why?

 

i think coach should keep playing all of these 3 (francis, james, alston) because as long as those 3 get playing time...they gonna compete with one another..and that is good for our team.....alston have been playing well since coach let francis play...so alston scare the ants out of his pants and thus starting to play well.......and poor luther.....

 

With the way james been playing I wouldn't mind head getting some bench time as SG in my opinion. We are like 31% 3 pt shooting team right now, one of the worst in the NBA, why not use our best 3pt shooter head?

 

If you take the Per Game stats of all three players and apply them out to 48 minutes. The point guard position is averaging:

18.0 ppg
6.7 apg
5.2 rpg
2.3 stl
0.5 blk
1.8 to
37.7 FG%
26.8 3PT%

These are pretty good numbers out of the pt guard position as a whole. You'd still like to see the 3 pt production get better but the tag-team approach at pt guard isn't so bad. Now would we get better changing the amount of time one of these guys gets to play? That remains to be seen.

 

In the 05-06 season
Francis avg'd 27.5 mpg shot .442 2ptrs and .538 3pt range and his free throws were .761

In the 06-07 season
Francis avg'd 28.1 mpg shot .408 2ptrs and .378 3 pt range and his free throws lead the league at .829

07-08 season
Francis avg'd 19.1 mpg shooting .381 2ptrs and .182 3pt range. His free throw shooting is way off his career average at .667.

I don't know what happened to Francis's shot this year. He usually plays at a much higher level. Maybe he's thinking too much about where to pass or run to and hasn't been able to initiate his typical scoring. I think he actually just needs to get on the court and start shooting the ball in his spare time. All our guards need to do this. It's not just Francis but Mike James shot is broken too. Alston is just Alston. Nothing different there.

 

One thing people have overlooked about Francis' defense is he takes a lot of fouls that would otherwise go on Yao or McGrady.

Right now, Francis is playing the best defense.

Right now, Alston is hitting his shots at a decent clip. (I don't see that continuing.) So, Alston is getting minutes.

But Francis is the best defender at the point for us this year. Alston is the next best but he doesn't take fouls and he puts a lot of pressure defensively on our big man because of it.

James has been most disappointing defensively as point guards have just blown by him to the bucket. I remember him being so much better than that defensively in 2004 under JVG. He raised havoc out there. Don't know what happened but he has been absolutely horrid.

 

If Rafer can continue to play the way he played last night, I don't have a problem with him being the starter, at this point. Rafer is playing, saying and doing everything he can to keep his job knowing Stevie is on his heels. Steve is getting into shape, learning this system and finding everyones spots. Imo, this competition is healthy for all three guards. Before the season started I mentioned the three headed guard and I looks like thats exactly whats playing out. All the guards are not the type to back down. I'd like the idea of continuing to send waves of different type guards at the other team. Nice game Rockets!!

 

Right now Alston deserves the starting job. He played rather good the last few games, and his shooting is getting better slowly but surely. What still drives me mad about him: he gets an open 3pter, passes it up to drive in the paint and shoot a floater... the 3pter is the much better shot for him, if he gets an open look he should make it.

Steve is playing pretty good, but he seems very static in the offense the last few games. He waits outside at the 3 point line, when he gets the ball he plays an entry pass to either T-Mac or Yao. Why no more slashing with and without the ball? Make us more than 1 dimensional, that`s his strength.

James is just off. He is still trying to find his shooting touch and is taking some very bad shots. He should stay at the gym every night for one extra hour to practice his shot.

 

26 mpg
11.6 ppg
3 rpg
3.3 apg
0.9 spg
2.6 to
48% from the field
42.1% from 3
79% FT shooting
1.45 points per shot

Boy, I wished we could get that kind of efficiency from the PG spot.

 

What are Rafer haters to do??

 

The coach disagrees, rating Rafer as the best defender and Francis as the worst. Right now Francis has the best theoretical "per 48 minute" production scoring more than Rafer and having a better assist to turn over ratio than Rafer or James. The only problem is he would foul out before reaching that theoretical production level.

Most of Francis's fouls are due to reaching too much, not "saving Tmac or Yao from fouls". There are alot of things Francis has done well so far, but defense and fouling have not been the strong points.

 

If James won't improve soon, I won't be surprised he lose his position in the rotation to Luther.