I think his shooting will be the major factor that will hinder us from getting the title. His defense,assists and court decisions is already ok for me. His shooting form/style is awkward. It is like he is doing the hula dance not shooting because I feel when he shoots, he is like twisting the ball or something. No matter how many times he says he practiced during the off season, if your shooting form/style is not correct you can never be consistent. It would be beneficial if we get Chip Engelland, the shooting coach of the Spurs. He is probably the biggest reason for the improved shooting percentage of Parker. He can also teach Chuck of course.
It's worth a shot but it's also unlikely that Rafer will unlearn old habits/learn new habits at this stage of his career. There is no doubt that we aren't the first to notice his heinous mechanics.
yeah i know but at least a coach can give him second opinions on how he can be better by drills or aids or whatever. It is a glaring weakness and they should hired a specialist already.
I'm sorry, but people are saying Rafer Alston isn't playing well or shooting well. However, this is who he is. He's not going to change. Rafer isn't the answer at PG.
ya i dont think he can get much better, he is getting old and has years and years of learned mediocrity under his belt (minus being on top of and 1 basketball), but if he can get better i hope to God i get proven wrong!
Being the Rockets' PG should be the easiest thing to do: Dribble the ball up, pass it to Yao or TMac, let them create and hopefully get an assist. Otherwise just wait for the whole opposing team to quadruple team our superstars, get the ball back and shoot a wide open 3 pointer or long jumper. That's it. That's all Alston does, except that when he gets the ball back he bricks it 70% of the time. I hope the Rockets realize soon that they can be much better if they didn't play Alston. Aaron Brooks, although not a very good PG, would be a tremendous upgrade. At lest the guy can shoot and attack the basket.
an old dog will not learn a new trick, unless get rid of rafer, I don't see Rockets win the champion. Rafer + Head for Steve Blake
Can the shooting coach shoot Rafer? I kid I kid.... Rafer needs to take on a much more limited role, one that eventually leads him to the bench. DD
I say rafer needs to go. Many will defend him and say that he runs the offense better than AB or Head, though there isn't much to running the Rockets' offense; as mentioned earlier in this thread. If AB starts, what do we really lose? Sure Skip has great handles, though AB can easily dribble the ball up and pass it to a star. That-being-said, I believe that AB is better as a sixth man sort of player (maybe 7th with Battier back). He's a great spark off the bench, and so I feel that maybe we trade Alston and a few other pieces for a PG and backup C. I honestly don't know how we can get both those things out of the players we have without giving up someone we want to keep. A lot of people saywe could trade Hayes, but I think we really need him.
The problem is we aren't really depth at pg position. Thanks God we have at least Brooks who is playing well. Rafer runs this offense well, you can't argue about that. It all comes down to his shot which is flat. His shots aren't even close. I could understand that if they were in and out or something. But they barely hit the rim. So something is really wrong. What's even worse he can't finish around the rim either. And when a player is missing shots it makes him take another ones, even if they are tough. That means a player is frustrated. And when a player is frustrated he starts making mistakes... Rafer shouldn't even go to bad, just stay on that freaking court and attempt as many 3s as possible. Wide open 3s. Nobody expect him to make tough shots, he is only asked to knock down open J's. Is that too much for an NBA player? We saw with McGrady. He was missing his jumpers, simply every jumpers. But after 3 games, after a few practices he bounced back and got his J rolling against Celtics. But it doesn't seem that Rafer's situation will finish like that. He just can't make them for some reason. Come on Rafer, you need to understand you are the rowst player on this team right now and you are hurting this ballclub. But don't get mad, it should be a motivation for you.
