I get you. For now, this Rox needs Rafer and T-mac both to win games. When t-mac or Rafer is out, we are 0-6. We do not need other players including Yao to win regular series. Yao is for the playoffs. Forget about the Jazz, Yao is our money against the elite teams.
Man if rafers absence is the sole reason for the losses then......... RAFER SHOULD WIN THE MVP TROPHY!!!!!!!!!
I don't think anyone believes Alston is the sole reason for the loss. I do believe that the starting five are very dependent upon one another and that when any of them goes out, we struggle tremendously. This is especially true of Tracy and the the point guard Alston. Once the bench gels, I'm sure they can overcome this issue.
A freaking "day to day" injury to Rafer and the entire team not just loses but FALLS APART? 1 game out and McGrady's missing his "floor general" out there? This isnt the YMCA league where 3 games missed is a quarter of the season, this is the NBA. If a guy goes down, plug in another one until he gets back and work with what you got. It maybe coldhearted to the injured player but you must TRY to still win games. We're not throwing Brevin Knight and freakin Dan Dickau out there in his place, we're sending one former All-Star and another (struggling) former 20 points per game scorer. So the past couple games all Francis did was Bring the ball up past half court He was reluctant to shoot or shouldnt shoot He gave it up to McGrady or swung the ball around to other players He gave a decent effort on D but got scored upon, though his D in the previous game was okay Isn't that pretty much Rafer with lesser ballhandling? Rafer does NOT have intangibles like Battier and Chuck, dont even make it like he does.
Not wishing further injury on the guy, but I'd like to see this team go 2-3 weeks without Alston, just to see what they'd do and how they'd respond.
Sorry to throw snow on the fire but I think you are all talking a lot of........ This problem is not because of Rafer(reasons later) The problem is with Yao and McGrady and possibly the Coach and coaching methods/game plans. Alston /Francis is just a cover. Yao Ming doesn't rely on Rafer, never has! Because Rafer seldom passes the ball to Yao when he is in a scoring position. Yao scores mainly from others passing the ball to him, most of all McGrady.Recently McGrady has concentrated on his own game more so than playing the dual roles of Playmaker and Scorer. Rafer mostly passes the ball to McGrady, so McGrady thinks he would rather have Alston as the starting Point Guard. Now this of course dosen't answer the question because Yao Ming who doesn't depend on Alston is having poor games and even looks out of sinc. So there is something else at the bottom of the well that has to come to the surface, which will explain all. The sooner the better IMHO
rafer is a good ball player. NOT THE BEST!!! but a good one at that. he can't shoot worth a $hit though, but he can pass the rock. now saying that if he was their we would have won.....ehhh i would scratch my head on that, but if Francis knew the system and has played with our current roster as much as Rafer has, then Francis would have been lights OUT!!! the only time he does good is when he comes off the bench, and he scores by himself!!!
Career Playoff FG% 32% Career Playoff 3 PT FG% 27.2% Career Points Per Shot 0.988 How many playoff series are we gonna win with that??
you suggest Francis or James? I don't get it with Rafer haters, they want to get Rafer out asap but when you look at the alternative which is SF3 and MJ....you know what I'm saying. Who you want to play PG? If it's not Rafer, it better not be Mike James who doesn't know how to be a PG, or Francis who is old and doesn't have the athleticism that made him a great player. Brooks is a rookie, if things continue to go down he should be brought up, but seriously
