Rafer did have a rough outing tonight. But, you cannot solely blame this game on his shooting alone. If you think Rafer had a bad night shooting, just look at Shane Battier's line, 1-8 shooting for 3 points. As for him becoming a TO machine, he has not had more than 2 TO's a game sine 10 games ago, and only then he had 3. His assist numbers are lower because he isn't the one throwing the post entry passes. That job lately has been assigned to the wings. People need to get off of Rafer's a$$. HE IS THE BEST POINT GUARD ON OUR TEAM. If you think Luther should start at PG, then you haven't been watching the games. He excels when he is a SG, his TO's go up when he is handling the ball. VSpan is not a pg. If people want a solution to our PG situation, then maybe JLIII should get some more minutes. He was very impressive tonight, and with more minutes, I think he can become a solid contributer to our team. He can be the energy guy off the bench that everyone thought VSpan would be.
One thing i will say is that rafer has done a really good job taking care of the ball. he has improved in that area, but the quick trigger/shot selection and missed shots are taking years off all of lives
This benching is about 3 years too late! Watching the game tonight on tv, I wanted to beam my ass to the TC and personnally took out Reefer. I was screaming at the tv everytime reefer shot another 3 or failed to get the ball to the right people. Reefer is about as useful as a 3 dollar bill!
Give JLIII some more minutes, but starting him is absurd. If he becomes a solid contributor, he can be an excellent energy guy off the bench. Plus, we are basing all of this on 1 game. The last time the Rockets made a decision on a player after 1 game, we signed Kelvin Cato to some ridiculous deal. I say we wait and see how consistent JLIII becomes.
The other teams are leaving Rafer WIDE open, it is part of their strategy and it is working.... The Rockets need to give JL3 or V-Span more backup minutes at the PG spot...when Rafer is clanking sit him...when he is hitting ...play him. But he HAS to take those wide open shots.......otherwise he is Ryan Bowen out there. DD
You said it yourself. Taking good care of the ball doesn't mean jack if he throws up bricks after bricks, especially with bad shot selection. The end result equals to a TO.
How many times do I have to repeat myself? JVG must stop Alston from thinking he is the second coming of Tracy McGrady. The same thing has been going on in every game, since the start of the season. Alston gets the ball down the court ( fails to look for any other Rocket or even to see if we have players in position for a rebound) He takes the three point shot like he was a dead certainty to score. About 95% of the time he misses and the other team gets the rebound. Alston shoots decent threes when he is open and set and he gets a good pass to him.Why cant JVG correct this abomination? I did notice that we looked small [not YM] when we lined up against the LAL.
To me its apparent... rafer needs to be on the court when T-mac is on the court thats when he's most effective, he's also a better spot up shooter than a shot creater for himself
123 3-point attempts and 87 assists. I don't know, shouldn't a starting PG have more assists than 3-point attempts? Unless your name is Kenny Smith, that is.
He isn't throwing the entry passes because the passer needs to be a good shooter. Otherwise the passer's defender will just go closer into the post to prevent the pass. So again, its due to Rafer not being able to shoot and therefore he is probably not allowed to throw entry passes. FIRE RAFER!!!!
No, its because of the system. Battier didn't exactly have a good shooting night either, how come we don't have threads about that?? O yea, thats right, its because he does all the other little things that don't show up on the stat sheet. But, like i said before in other threads, Rafer does things for this team that does not show up on the stat sheet either. So don't blame rafer, blame the system.
Alston and Hayes have to go they are offensive liabilities waiting for a playoff disaster.......just like JHo' D, Vspans t.o.'s, Nvaks D,JL3s D, Snyders O, Padgets D, Bonzis attitude and blubber,Dekes arthritis, JVGs expectations, Tmacs back and Yao's......well......Yaos team...... OHHHHH December......God bless the rockets demons.
I noticed that Rafer's shooting really messed up the first quarter for us. We were up 25-21 but the differential could have been a lot higher if he didnt miss 2 (maybe more) wide open threes and the 2 free throws as well. He needs to play like a true PG by creating shots for others (drive and dish, just whatever). To be fair, he has had good games this season but his shooting is too inconsistant for me. Rafer needs to realize that the % of us scoring is a lot higher if Yao has the ball , even when he has the open 3 pt shot. Shane didnt play well either tonight but that doesnt happen that often.
I've already posted my opinions in the Game threat I don't mind repeat myself this is one of the worst perfromance from Rafer. He seems trying to take on the whole lakers by himself. He was firing blanks from the 3 (elbows) when Yao was on such a tare early (1st half) and he didn't even wait for the team to set to stop and take the three. I don't know if those shot are "in rhythm" for him, but they were definitly not dropping for him, not only in this game, but this season, i don't know why JVG still let him do that, there were no offensive rebound opportunities and those are the shot he could take at any given time, because the Lakers are letting him shoot daXX, i still think it's him that cost us the game, since we could have built a huge lead coming into second half. but Head came up with 2 early foul, man...
as for Shane, he got us all the hustle plays in the first quarter which helped build the lead in the first place, he at least have 4 dives and 2 stips
