you mean t-mac made the comeback he scored almost every point in that strecth and wasnt rafer the third leading scorer even though he didnt play the whole second half
"I don't hate Rafer, far from it, but the problem I have with Rafer, is that I have hopes for the Rockets to be a championship contender, and as long as Rafer is the starter, that is very unlikely." ---------i do agree with you, acturally, Rafer is not that bad, he got great progress this season. but when facing PG as tank-like D will, he could do little. We need a strong PG like Baron, although i know it is unlikely. But as least give us a stronger one.
That's right, but I think with Rafer we would have played better the difference was that McGrady was red hot in the 1st half, they didn't double him so he has an easy task to do. Than when they started doubling T-Mac, Aaron, Bobby etc has a lot of open looks. They were just pathetic, nothing went it and nobody wanted to attack the rim...
Jeff that is EXACTLY the reason he is bad for the team...a crutch. Because teams will allow Tmac to shoot until he gets hot THEN they double team him and we need others around him to shoot, it is at this point that Rafer is basically worthless. DD
Cavs led C's by 14 last nite with LBJ. They still had LBJ and lost by 7 (or so). NBA Basketball is 48 minutes, full of runs. Perhaps your sample base is a little thin?
And moving Rafer to the bench would help at those positions how? Maybe you should actually read messages before replying. Yes starters have bigger impact than the bench has, however rockets are basically expecting McGrady and Battier to play 48 minutes every game because they don´t have anyone able to play behind them. As bad as Rafer is he´s still good enough to actually play. The benchplayers for 2/3 positions are not. Rafer is a hole but the backup 2/3 is BIGGER.
There was an excellent post in the Luther Head? thread on this very subject, read and enjoy. Yeah, I just quoted myself and used italics, you can't stop that biznatches! I used bold too which pretty much makes me unstoppable. The
Okay, I didnt realize that was true because I remember thinking the game was most likely over when Rafer went out. I believe Deron had 4 points when Rafer went out, but ended up with 25. Bobby Jackson and Brooks were helpless against him. Anyways, taking a bigger sample (the whole series) clearly the Rockets were very good with Rafer, arguably they outplayed Utah when he was healthy. Even JVG said as much.
Honestly, if you are a hardcore rockets fan and watch more than 50 rocekts games one season, it is almost impossible thing for you to tolerate Rafer. He is too inconsistent! This is just like an irregular noise, unbearable!
seattle portland sacto gsw - check la lakers la clippers phoenix - check utah - check denver san antonio - check dallas new orleans - check memphis minny toronto - check new york new jersey - check detroit - check philly - check cleveland atlanta charlotte - check miami boston milwaukee washington - check orlando indy these are all the teams besides the rockets. i’ve put a check on the teams that clearly have a better starting pg than rafer. i counted 11 teams. even if you add a couple more, rafer is still right in the middle of the pack. so one can say he’s a second tier starting pg. but real close to the bottom? i don’t think so. conclusion? [no, rafer is not THAT bad.] like i said, if somehow we upgrade our pg, i’d be cheering. but we do have other needs, some of which imo need to be addressed before the pg position. so if rafer stays, i’m not gonna scream foul, either – if morey takes care of other things.
Rafer Alston had a great season this past year. I don't know how anyone could deny that. Besides for the absence of Yao, which happened much earlier i the season, Rafer's injuries was possibly the main reason for our 1st round loss. Compare the team's play in game 1, 2, & 6 to that of of 3,4, & 5. The difference is Rafer. Rafer Alston is our floor general and he does a great job at it. Don't over analyze. We lost this year becasue we were short handed. And that example about Rafer's absence during the comeback in game 6 is horrible. We came back because T-mac had 28 points in the first half. Mac is the only reason we didn't lose by 40 in another elimination game.
To a certain extent I have to agree with about Rafer and the rockets 1st round loss. Not having him killed the rockets rotation and hurt there defense.
So the statement that we were "about tied" with Utah in Game 6's first half with Rafer should just stand? We were getting drummed in this particular game with Rafer -- the comeback came after he left. That's just the fact. That doesn't mean we're better without Rafer... but crediting Rafer for it being a close game at half was incorrect. I've done this before but I'll do it again. If you take all the starting point guards, I come up with this list: Mike Bibby Rajon Rondo Ray Felton Kirk Hinrich Delonte West Jason Kidd Allen Iverson Chauncey Billups Baron Davis Rafer Alston Jamaal Tinsley Brevin Knight Derek Fisher Mike Conley Jason Williams Mo Williams Sebastian Telfair Devin Harris Chris Paul Jamal Crawford Stephon Marbury Jameer Nelson Andre Miller Steve Nash Steve Blake Beno Udrih Tony Parker Earl Watson Jose Calderon T.J. Ford Deron Williams Gilbert Arenas Antonio Daniels That's a total of 33 on 30 teams. The "extras" are Toronto (Calderon and Ford), Washington (Daniels and the injured Arenas) and New York (Crawford and the injured Marbury). I didn't include Leandro Barbosa or Jason Terry. The fine print: Some guys played very few games, like Arenas (13) and Marbury (24). I also took the numbers of the point guards on their new teams -- so this impacts Kidd, Bibby, West, D. Harris. Example would be that it dropped Bibby's three-point shooting percentage and significantly increased the three-point percentage of Kidd. This means small sample size, but I thought it made more sense to use the numbers of the teams they currently start on. So no doubt some of these samples have size flaws. Minutes Per Game - Rafer Rank: 11/33 Top and bottom: 1. Allen Iverson 2. Jamal Crawford 3. Baron Davis --- 31. Mike Conley 32. T.J. Ford 33. Brevin Knight Field Goal Percentage - Rafer Rank: 31/33 Top and bottom: 1. Jose Calderon 2. Deron Williams 3. Steve Nash --- 31. Rafer 32. Jason Williams 33. Jamaal Tinsley 2-Point Percentage - Rafer Rank: 28/33 Top and bottom: 1. Jose Calderon 2. Deron Williams 3. Steve Nash --- 31. Jason Kidd 32. Brevin Knight 33. Steve Blake 3-Point Percentage - Rafer Rank: 18/33 Top and bottom: 1. Steve Nash 2. Jason Kidd 3. Jose Calderon --- 31. Antonio Daniels 32. Andre Miller 33. Brevin Knight (as stated in the fine print, Kidd doesn't really belong here, but he shot the 3-ball very well since arriving in Dallas) Free Throw Percentage - Rafer Rank: 31/33 Top and bottom: 1. Chauncey Billups 2. Jose Calderon 3. Steve Nash --- 31. Rafer 32. Tony Parker 33. Rajon Rondo (This was shocking to me -- I didn't realize Rafer was one of the worst FT shooting point guards in the league) True Shooting (TS%) Percentage - Rafer Rank: 30/33 Top and bottom: 1. Steve Nash 2. Chauncey Billups 3. Jose Calderon --- 31. Sebastian Telfair 32. Jamaal Tinsley 33. Brevin Knight (This stat takes into account all shots) Points Per 40 Minutes - Rafer Rank: 18/33 Top and bottom: 1. Allen Iverson 2. Gilbert Arenas 3. Tony Parker --- 31. Jason Kidd 32. Antonio Daniels 33. Brevin Knight Assists Per 40 Minutes - Rafer Rank: 28/33 Top and bottom: 1. Steve Nash 2. Chris Paul 3. Jason Kidd --- 31. Beno Udrih 32. Jamal Crawford 33. Derek Fisher Assist/Turnover Ratio - Rafer Rank: 25/33 Top and bottom: 1. Jose Calderon 2. Chris Paul 3. Brevin Knight --- 31. Jamal Crawford 32. Beno Udrih 33. Gilbert Arenas Rebounds Per 40 Minutes - Rafer Rank: 12/33 Top and bottom: 1. Jason Kidd 2. Rajon Rondo 3. Jameer Nelson --- 31. Sebastian Telfair 32. Jason Williams 33. Jamal Crawford Steals Per 40 Minutes - Rafer Rank: 13/33 Top and bottom: 1. Chris Paul 2. Brevin Knight 3. Jason Kidd --- 31. Tony Parker 32. Steve Blake 33. Steve Nash Field Goal Attempts Per 40 Minutes - Rafer Rank: 11/33 Top and bottom: 1. Baron Davis 2. Gilbert Arenas 3. Allen Iverson --- 31. Jason Kidd 32. Antonio Daniels 33. Brevin Knight (I was surprised to see Rafer takes more shots per minute than Deron Williams, Billups and Nash) Three-Point Attempts Per 40 Minutes - Rafer Rank: 4/33 Top and bottom: 1. Gilbert Arenas 2. Mike Bibby 3. Baron Davis --- 31. Andre Miller 32. Rajon Rondo 33. Brevin Knight Free Throw Attempts Per 40 Minutes - Rafer Rank: 28/33 Top and bottom: 1. Allen Iverson 2. Gilbert Arenas 3. Chauncey Billups --- 31. Jason Williams 32. Brevin Knight 33. Steve Blake Player Efficiency Rating (PER) - Rafer Rank: 25/33 Top and bottom: 1. Chris Paul 2. Chauncey Billups 3. Steve Nash --- 31. Steve Blake 32. Brevin Knight 33. Sebastian Telfair (rating of a player's per-minute productivity) A Little Stat I like to call "The Rafer" - Rafer Rank: 24/33 This is a grossly unfair stat to all involved, I just like to see it in action. This is the points per game total of all the point guards IF they had the exact same number of 2-point shots, 3-point shots and free throws that Rafer Alston takes for the Rockets. This has nothing to do with assists or creating for others -- merely the impact on the same shots. It only works if you think the shots Rafer takes are a product of the Rockets system and not his own style. Each point guard has his own style... obviously Andre Miller and T.J. Ford aren't going to take almost 6 three-pointers a night as Rafer does, but this is their PPG if they did. <OL><LI> Steve Nash (16.79 ppg) <LI> Jose Calderon (16.46 ppg) <LI> Deron Williams (15.45 ppg) <LI> Jameer Nelson (15.21 ppg) <LI> Mo Williams (15.09 ppg) <LI> Chauncey Billups (15.00 ppg) <LI> Chris Paul (14.88 ppg) <LI> Jason Kidd (14.86 ppg) <LI> Beno Udrih (14.69 ppg) <LI> Derek Fisher (14.67 ppg) <LI> Delonte West (14.22 ppg) <LI> Earl Watson (14.13 ppg) <LI> Allen Iverson (13.92 ppg) <LI> Mike Bibby (13.87 ppg) <LI> Steve Blake (13.84 ppg) <LI> Devin Harris (13.70 ppg) <LI> Stephon Marbury (13.64 ppg) <LI> Jamal Crawford (13.61 ppg) <LI> Baron Davis (13.49 ppg) <LI> Kirk Hinrich (13.49 ppg) <LI> T.J. Ford (13.31 ppg) <LI> Jason Williams (13.22 ppg) <LI> Mike Conley (13.13 ppg) <LI> Rafer Alston (13.09 ppg) <LI> Gilbert Arenas (12.71 ppg) <LI> Tony Parker (12.71 ppg) <LI> Rajon Rondo (12.44 ppg) <LI> Ray Felton (12.34 ppg) <LI> Antonio Daniels (12.28 ppg) <LI> Sebastian Telfair (12.05 ppg) <LI> Jamaal Tinsley (11.92 ppg) <LI> Andre Miller (9.93 ppg) <LI> Brevin Knight (7.36 ppg)</OL>
Starting PG for Denver was most of the year Anthony Carter while Iverson Played SG. Incidentally those are the only teammates to average over 5 assist/game and qualify. Tmac didn´t qualify but his almost 6 assists have the same effect on Rafer as Kobe has on Fisher. Still not saying upgrade at PG isn´t needed but backup 2/3 is bigger need. Could someone look what Rafer´s numbers were in 2008 as IIRC he was shooting something like 31% at one point.
