He can join Latrell Sprewell on his yacht...oh wait..there is no yacht. But But But....I have a family to feed!!!
Yup exactly. Negative PR is damaging whether its justified or not. The charges could get dropped immediately and Rafer's stock still would have taken a huge hit. The negative stigma never leaves. Hell, Kobe is going to be hearing racist jokes until the day he dies.
Of course it matters whether it's justified or not. Of course even unjustified publicity is negative. Still, there is a difference between the consequences of actually going to prison and simple bad pub. I'd take Kobe's life over Vicks any day.
You misunderstood me. "Us" includes you and most of everyone here. I didn't mean to divide the board. Of course it matters to the guy himself. From the Rockets' point of view, the damage has done because of this, whether he is innocent or not. That's what I meant by "does not matter." And yes, he is in trouble whether he is guilty or not. Of course, he is in a lot bigger trouble if he is proven guilty. But even if he is off the hook this time, this bad reputation will follow him all his career. This is trouble enough, don't you think? Do you think guys like Yao and Battier would likely be caught in this kind of situation? We would be shocked if we saw this kind of news about them. But when we heard it about Rafer, we said, "Oh, him again?" See the difference? Now teams will think twice before they consider acquiring him, whether in trades or in FA signing. Bad for the Rockets now, and bad for Rafer himself in the future.
Maybe you guys stopped watching the playoffs after the Rockets series. He did better on Deron Williams than anyone else did this playoffs, Tony Parker, Bowen, Davis and Ellis, included. Rafer is a good defender, sound ball handler, OK 3 point shooter, OK foul shooter, terrible midrange shooter and terrible finisher. He still has skills a lot of teams could use (Boston, Mia, Indy). But these legal/PR troubles suck. We don't want to sell low and we have a glut of 6'3" and under guards.
at this point, morey would love to get ride of rafer for just a future 2nd round draft pick to a team under the cap or a 3 way trade otherwise.
Sorry to change to subject back to the topic. I find this incident very odd. My first thought is simply this... How can one get stabbed or slashed in the neck with a knife and nobody at the club notice this happen. Not even the bouncers that were monitoring the situation noticed it. Hopefully more info will become available.
yeah, even fran blinebury mentioned that in one of his blog replies today. but there was still a fight and everytime rafer screws up however marginal, it makes it difficult to trade him.
I agree with this. TE and a 2nd rounder would be terrific. Doesn't look like the case has merit, but bad PR is not good for the Rockets in trying to move him.
Not sure if you're agreeing or disagreeing with me here. My point is that as soon as your name is associated with something negative that stigma never leaves. Rafer has got himself in a total mess. Two arrests in one month is disastrous whether he's guilty or not.
Numbers can be deceiving. Even looking at just +/- isn't enough. In fact, on 82games, you can see that opponents regularly outplay Alston as seen from the -1.7 net PER rating. Granted, it's not a significantly big negative score, but that just goes to show that Alston is merely adequate as a defender. Maybe slightly below average. He doesn't let his man go off on him regularly, but he doesn't totally shut them down either. Facts are facts, Alston is a contributor. He's a good floor leader, good at running the offense, especially running the break, a slightly below average defender, passable from 3, terrible from midrange and finishing around the basket. Players like that, they're nice to have. And even with our current group of guards who're more talented, I'd still argue that Alston is 2nd-best to, if not better than, Mike James as a point guard. In fact, he should even be starting given how smoothly he can run the offense. But he's NOT a 40-minute per game player, but he'll be very effective with 20-odd minutes. And for that, I think he should stay, given how much his stock must have plummeted with these 2 arrests already. It'll be up to RA to get his head back on right and perform to his max.
well said. also, rafer's man on man D isnt the best (not worse than MJ or francis'), but he helps very well and creates a lot of T/Os with his quick hands.
Deron Williams is one of the best point guards in the league. You cant determine Rafer's defense only based on how he guarded Williams. Thats like saying, Battier cant defend, just ask Kobe Bryant.
Ok, Rafer has just made some bad decisions and well, he's probalby odd man out anyway...but still, what a sh*tty summer...
