So his 20% 3 point clip will not go up for the remainder of the season?? Law of averages must not apply to Alston.
I was at the game Saturday night with Mrs. Deckard, courtesy of my brother-in-law's season tickets... $150 a pop, lower level dead-center jewels. I was yelling the whole time, when I wasn't explaining things to Mrs. Deck, like why Rafer chucked another trey, the dumb ass! He was 1 for 5, and every one of them accompanied by a groan from yours truly. Alston was, what, 1 for 2 in the teardrop department? An amazing stat for the shot that makes us all want to cry. That means he hit 2 of 4 layups and midrange baskets. (I don't consider Rafer's teardrop a shot... more like a prayer) Alston might want to ponder that. I would be happy if he didn't attempt another trey for the rest of the year, I swear to god, but I guess that's an unrealistic hope. James improved his shooting, but I wasn't wildly happy with Mike. I thought he shot way too early in the clock at times, instead of moving the ball. On some of those shots, he could have either gotten the ball to Yao, or made the pass that set up the entry pass for the big fella. Lord knows, Yao needed all the help he could get. He was getting pounded all night long, while the refs swallowed their whistles. This is the first game where I've wondered why Francis didn't see some time. Maybe it was because I was at the game, but we were hurting at the 2 spot, the point play was unimpressive, with Francis on the sidelines looking like he'd lost a bit of the lard that has had him cooling his heals. Head played some decent minutes, but was getting killed on the defensive end. Why not see what Steve can do out there, seeing as McGrady is out? 10 minutes to see if he's "got it," finally.
Because you know, much like the Spanoulis thing last year, if you just give the guy 10 minutes and he has a basket, a foul, a missed 3, a turnover, and a rebound, folks will want more of a chance for him. They will say he didnt get into the game pace, or whatever excuse they can come up with why he didnt come in and immediately get 5 assists, 10 points, 6 rebounds, and not turn the ball over.
HAHA. Sorry bout that. But if you dont think that will be the new cry if Steve comes in and puts up next to nothing during 6 minutes of the 2nd quarter you are delusional.
Here's my take. Alston is the best ball handler and passer of the three. While Alston makes me want to rip my hair out at time as long as he is on this team he should get a signifigant amount of playing time and start. Mike James is not as good of a passer as Alston but a better, although streakier, shooter. He's a decent bench player and good when he's hot to come in for some instant office. He should still get some minutes spelling Alston and coming in to heat up the offense, again when he's hot. Francis has been historically better offensively than James and during his last stint with the Rox a better defender than both James or Alston. He is also better at creating his own shots than those two. Francis also is better rebounder than those players which might be very valuable for crashing the boards and stretching possessions for the Rockets. There are obviously some big problems with Francis mainly his low bball IQ and difficulties playing off the ball. While Alston is much more the classic point guard Francis is something much different. The other big questions we don't know is how out of shape is Francis really. We're facing a situation though when our starting point guard cannot be counted on as a major offensive or defensive contributor and his back up is streaky. It seems logical to me that Francis shouldn't start but should get some minutes when the rest of the offense is stagnating or the other team's guards are in foul trouble. It also seems to me that Francis could be brought in to play the 2 guard at times with Alston for his defense and ability to crash the boards.
People piling on Rafer for his poor shooting and want James as the Rockets starting PG is beyond my understanding. If anyone check 82games.com or nba.com Lenovo +/- stat, Rafer is leading the Rockets in that category and James is at the bottom. Yeah, there are many variance affecting the +/- stat but hey, the +/- stat for Alston vs James is not even close. The only conclusion you could draw from it is that Alston run the offense better and defend better even he's sulking in shooting.
Yeah, but James has a much better production difference with the opposing PG. James is at -3.1 and Alston is at -9.4. The +/- could be because Rafer is almost always in the game with TMac and Yao. James also holds his man to lower production. However, this could be because he is primarily playing against the bench player, although not always for sure. I'm sure Morey has better stats for this, but he is not the coach.
Franics will combine the worst qualities of Mike James and Rafer Alston. -Overdribbling and bad shots like James. -Poor shooting percentage like Alston. BRING IN AARON BROOKS NOW.
If you think Alston minutes is bootsed by playing with T-Mac & Yao, you can look at the 2-player combination Lenovo stat of Alston/T-Mac vs James/T-Mac & Alston/Yao vs James/Yao. The number is not even close.
Rafer vs. James vs. Francis? Hmm? How about a few things most agree on. -1) Rafer is a pretty good ball handler, pushes the offense, low turnovers, knows his teammates and their spots well, but can't hit the side of a barn with those floaters, bricks and airballs that we also see every game. -2) James fits in nice off the bench with his instant offense, has heart, a decent defense. But his shot can be as hot or cold as Alaska or Arizona. He's not as good as setting up his teamates as Rafer but can put point on the board in a hurry. The sad part is that if he does hit his shot he will continue to shoot until he misses, several times. -3) Stevie ????????????? can't say much here, except that he has not seen one minute of playtime, that he wants to play, that coach and Steve are not seeing eye to eye. What do we know of Steve? That he has talent that explodes at the seams, sometimes he has a hard time controlling them and his emotions, that he always leaves it all on the floor. He is a vet that has seen some big games and has showed up. How about what we don't know? WHY IS LUTHER HEAD RECIEVING TIME OVER FRANCIS? This is the big question!! I can understand Rafer starting the point and James off the bench, but Head over Steve? I in general like our guards, they all have their own styles, upsides and down sides. Luther even has he own skills pluses/minuses. But Luther doesn't bring anything close to what Steve brings to the table (out of shape or not). Rafer has been taking a beating from fellow Rocket fans. I don't mind Rafer running the PG duties, as long as he's not in there at crunch time. I like James instant offense, but by the time Head gets in there we could really use Steve, a vet and a little scoring punch, some rebounds from our guards and someone that can hit big shots. Luther Vs. Steve? NOW THATS THE BIG QUESTION!!!
they're trying to get rafer's trade value up... so they can trade him mike james did good and i want to see steve franchise
Of course not. The only thing we know about Steve's performance so far is that it hasn't been good enough to convince Adelman to play him.
So far this young season, the Rockets haven't had any garbage time opportunities for RA to put in any one of his "end-of-bench" players. All of the games have been rather close at the end. A good part of that reason is that the team is ranked low in offensive categories, such as shooting percentages and team scoring. Right now, they rank 22nd in FG percentage, and 28th in 3-point FG Percentage while in scoring, they rank 24th with their 93.9 PPG average.
<br> actually you don't know that <br> All we know so far is that Steve Francis hasn't played yet.....nothing more....nothing less
Yet we know Francis came into camp out of shape and hadnt met Adelman's expectations. Quite a safe assumption that Francis, while his conditioning has improved, has probably not done enough as of the game yesterday to get into the lineup.
