Rafer plays intelligent defense. When Mutombo is sitting back there Rafer is monumentally better. A shot blocker does wonders for Rafer in particular. Oh well, if you are nit picking Rafer's defense you probably don't get much sleep at night.
So an offense is one pass? What happenes when Yao passes out of the double team and it ends up in Brooks hands? You said he takes bad shoots andn turns the ball over. SO he catches it out of the double team. He shoots instead of swinging it one pass to Artest for a better shoot? Or drives and runs into Yao?
you know what the stats are saying? they're saying that the rockets are #2 in efg% allowed and #4 in pts allowed per 100 possessions while rafer is playing (ranking is based on how well all the other teams defend with their starting point guards in the game). so, really everything indicates that rafer is a pretty good defender. what really amuses me, though, is that people here call him a bad defender because he can't stay in front of chris paul or because he gets abused by chauncey billups. well, this is the nba, folks. those players can't be stopped individually on a regular basis by anyone. you might limit them individually or force them into your help defense. but really stopping the likes of chris paul, deron williams or steve nash? how's that supposed to happen? especially with the current rules? imho, rafer does a pretty solid job on defense. he's certainly no lockdown defender by any means, but he's pretty solid at almost all aspects of defense. that's the reason why he's so underrated defensively. he doesn't stand out on one thing but he minimizes his errors. i'd rank rafer as our 4th best overall defender behind battier, hayes and artest.
If morey gives that impression it is more beneficial to team morale than if he acted otherwise. As well, it may lead to more favorable trades for Rafer in the future
As much as I think Alston is horrible on the offensive end, I have to agree with you; he plays *decent* defense; otherwise, the Rockets could not be as good as a whole on the defensive end.
Rafer is an above average defender at PG. His man to man defense is good, not Bruce Bowen, Battier-esque, but good enough. His team defense is among the best at his position. His self-defense is legendary. Look at the percentages he's holding himself to.
Oddly one, just one game or not, Rafer and Brooks tied Billups and his backup Carter in total points (31) So they held their own. Head and the frontcourt got outplayed. Should not be happening for the supposed depth at the Rockets frontcourt.
i like how yao defends not only his man but also alston's man at the same time. you know, there's such a thing called team defense. something where 5 players of a team are a part of. also, i think jvg, morey and adelman just confused alston's defense with yao's. it's pretty obvious that rafer is the devil. but did you know? rafer's #7 among all point guards on the assist to turnover ratio list and has the 3rd lowest salary among all starting point guards not on a rookie contract.
Great...number 7 huh? Wow !.....his contract is not the issue, it is a fair price for his talents at this point in his career. His defense is one of his better attributes....for sure.... Because his shooting and shot attempts...well.....not so much. Rafer may not be the devil, but he is certainly a lessor demon. DD
Morey isn't going to trade Rafer at all. He is in his contract year next year which leads up to 2010. That's $5,250,000 that will be coming off the books. The Rockets are in a good position come 2010. They are only commited as of right now $28,040,600 for that year. Tracy, Alston, Scola, and Barry will be off the books come that time. I expect them to sign Scola back but I do see them being of the major players come 2010. The Rockets are only a few teams that have some money to play with. I would love to get Amare.
fwiw: Billups destroyed Jose Calderon last night. Winning by nearly 40 points I think us West fans might have underestimated Billups all these years. Denver is playing great, right now. No shame in the Rox having an dead game on the tail end of a back to back on the road, missing 2 starters and Barry...in high altitude.
Agreed, I was much more upset with the San Antonio loss and the Indiana loss, the Denver loss was expected. Though I would have like for both Rafer and Luther to be in the same zip code as JR Smith and Billups instead of letting them shoot wide open 3 pters...but you can't have it all I guess. DD
LOL, wow you guys are crazy. Defense is one of the few things that Rafer is good at. He does all that he can. He just gets blown by for the same reason that Wade may never have to learn how to shoot, you can't touch a guy on the perimeter nowadays. If he's quicker than you he should be able to get by you. The league wants quick guards to light everybody up so there's really no way to stop them. The only thing you can really do is lead them to the shot blocker, Rafer does that.
All that I said was Brooks plays better when he is complemented by someone like Mcgrady. Someone who knows how to run an offense and get guys open shots. Brooks is quick with the ball in his hands, but I'd rather him be the one who finishes the play rather than starting it. When he is the primary ball handler, he tends to just try to speed drive past his defender to the basket, and that leads to alot of low percentage shots and turnovers. To me he is at his best in transition obviously, and he is also better suited playing off the ball where he can move around the perimeter, get open, recieve the pass, and knock down the open three....If the defender runs out at him, he gets an easy step to the basket, and he can get into the lane with alot of space to get a shot up or to make a pass.
I agree with you chica. I think this thread is WAY OFF! (As Rafer likes to say....) Rafer recovers extremely well, and he almost always contests shots. Defensive Efficiency is measured in many ways. Deflections, contesting shots, knowing where the help is coming from.... It's not just about stopping you're man one-on-one. After all, no body stops the Chris Paul's, Deron Williams's, and such. The best and only thing you can do is have a game plan to contain these types of PG's. And Rafer does his homework and sticks to the plan.
We can not start brooks before rafer. First of all, brooks is worse defender than rafer. Second of all, brooks can score more than rafer, but other players will score less because brooks can not assist.
