I really hope that statement you made about Fisher/Rafer isn't indicative of your basketball knowledge. What's next, comparing Eddie Griffin to Robert Horry?
Clutch- Good points overall, but if what you say is true about Rafer doing a lot of things we don't need and not doing the things we do need, then why do we fall apart when he's off the floor? I think you're too quick to say that Rafer doesn't fit here because he's a poor shooter. Yes, the team needs outside shooting in the inside-out scheme, but we also need somebody who can consistantly get us into the offense. Maybe that's not asking much, but I think you're underrating Rafer's steady contribution with regard to that aspect of the offense.
The comparison was between the combination of fisher and samaki walker opposed to rafer and juwon. And the comparison was made during the year that both of them were starting and LA won the 'ship...consequently that season in the playoffs fisher had worse shooting %'s than Rafer has had during this season. Just made the point that nobody how bad the point guard shoots a ring can still be won contrary to everyone's belief around here that rafer has to be a deadeye for us to have a chance.
So basically what you're saying is that no matter how bad our PG is, it doesn't really matter because we "can" win a championship anyways?
Half of it... I'm saying Rafer isn't nearly as bad as everyone here makes him out to be. He's a pretty serviceable point considering we have two superstars on the team. Secondly, even if he was as horrible as everyone claims he is, a team constructed similarily to ours has won a ring with a pg shooting the same %'s since that seems to be the major complaint with skip.
????? Are you kidding me? DF averaged less the ONE turnover a game. ONE! He shot 40% behind the arc. I'd much rather have a 2002 Derek Fischer then a 2006 or any year Rafer Alston. And L.A. was loaded at the 4. Samaki Walker shot 50%+ from the field, and again, had less then ONE turnover a game. Oh yeah, he also had Robert Horry, Rick Fox, and Devean George to help out. I'd swamp Howard and Alston for those guys in a second and we'd totally be contenders. Where did you learn ball man?
I feel no need to validate my basketball knowledge...however, I do think you should look at those numbers again...here we go, lets make it easy for you http://www.lakerstats.com/indplayoffstats.php?season=0102p check that out and see if you come to the same conclusion...they had the same deavan george that shot 22.8% from behind the arc during those playoffs
In case I didn't clarify...NO i wasn't kidding!!!!?!?!$A#!!! You say Samaki Walker was good and question my basketball knowledge...please find a new hobby.
I highly doubt the accuracy of that 22.8% stat... Deavan George was a clutch shooter in the Lakers era, I even recall him putting on a shooting display on one of those playoff games....We really need good shooting to make them pay for double teams... Jordan always had paxson, hodges, and later Kerr to make them pay. Kobe and Shaq had derek fisher , Deavan George ( Again I really dispute the accuracy of that 22.8 % stat) and in the clutch Robert Horry. Hakeem the dream had kenny smith, sam cassell, vernon maxwell and later glyde, along with ernie johnson.
wow, even bullard and worrell were fed up with Rafer tonight worrell "...just an ill-advised shot my Rafer" Bullard: "that ball was shot before tmac even crossed half court" i still havent gotten a good reason why rafer shoots threes with 20 on the shot clock
This has to be said.... Why the hell do fans bash Rafer and Spanoulis so much for the Pg spot but you hardly hear anything about JVG, Head, and Lucas? Why the hell if all 4 PG's have sucked (although despite this board's extreme bias Spanoulis hasn't gotten the same chances even counting tonight) and also the coach shows over and over he can't coach a PG unless it is Mark Jackson with the now illegal ISO rules or Bobby "Warrior" Sura with the F this attitude that just ignores the coach and does what he wants.......... I just do not understand why the fans can't get some freaking balls and start calling out the blame equally. Should not the coach get more blame than Rafer? Should not Luther be getting an equal share as Rafer since now JVG has made it clear he will be manning point come playoff time? Or is 90 percent of the forum just on a personal bias? AGAIN the REAL damn problem is JVG. And for goodness sakes Mike Freakin James is not the answer. When someone pulls a contract year payday then slacks it off it should officially now be termed "pulling a Mike James."
There is a good reason for that. Rafer knows his shoot is gonna brick so it would save his teammates energy if he can shoot before they even cross the half court. That way, his teammate can back to defend faster too. Only Rafer has such a high IQ and we should be thankful.
This is a reality check. We just don't have enough talent to play against the elite team. Beside TMac and Yao, all of them were brought in as defense specialist. They don't have killer instinct or can't shoot a basket within 10 feet. JVG is not a great offensive coach, our offense if simple one dimensional with TMac and Yao. We will not get anywhere until we can acquire an offensive mind point guard to run the offense. Otherwise, we are only a good team with 2 superstar and 1 Gumpy coach.
Hey Clutch ! It would be interesting to see Rafer's stats since you posted this thread. Has he responded by coming out and playing like gang busters and getting those percentages up, or is he playing even worse? Hey Kas13...what do you think? DD
I didn't realize that a coach could create talent in a player. How is JVG supposed to teach Rafer to finish a layup...teach Luther to be smarter...or teach Lucas to be taller? Personal bias? That's you with the coach, broseph Blame the GM
Any supposedly "great coach" could do a better job of handling the PG situation. It's nothing more than spin to put this all on the players or more specifically the board scape goat which is Rafer and the board punching bag which is Spanoulis. Not only that, but like I also said not just the coach but Head and Lucas suck too. I notice Head seems to get a free pass even though he has easily been as bas as bad can get for an extended period of time now. In my view point this is just bias here. The blame on the PG spot is JVG #1 then the players equally #2. As far as management goes I don't think they did that bad. They got a decent uptempo backup PG in theory in Alston that is now stuck in Gundy ball. They got a decent enough 3rd string PG in Lucas who has become a JVG pet and is being played over his head. They got a talented PG in Spanoulis that needed to be developed, groomed, and instead of being "broken mentally" like genius fans and JVG lovers think, should have been built up in confidence. Instead he was destroyed morally right off the bat. IMO anyone placing the blame on management more than JVG has the same "management skills" that JVG - absolutely zero.
