It's not "warped" logic. it's logic anyone with sense goes by. Practice guages how a player will perform during games. That's logical. Btw, I'm sure Rafer shoots 20% in practice too.
Opponents aren't afraid of Rafer. They knew he can't drive and create shots for himself effectively and he can't shoot well. That's Rafer's problem. Francis can create pressure to opponent defense on his own but his problem has been he tried too hard without playing smart when he was younger. I seemed to notice he is play smarter now and make some great passes last night to Scola and Yao. He actually control himself to make sure effective plays are made though his shots are out. I guessed JVG has taught him something good during back then. He played with similar control when he was in Orlando until Mobley left then he became a rebel.
Hate to tell you this but guess again. Alston put up killer numbers in preaseason but sucks when games really matter. WNBA MemberSince: Jul 2002Posts: 2,029 Member: #5973 Quote: Originally Posted by poprocks We all know what Rafer can do over 2 years of watching him. This is his third year as a Rocket and I guess Adleman just needs to see proof with his own eyes in actual games to see what we see. Morey said we were totally exposed at the pt guard position after the playoffs. Rafer Alston 2007-2008 Season is currently giving us these statistics 28.5 MPG FG% .330 3PT .220 FT .615 APG 4.7 SPG 1.1 BPG 0.0 TO 1.55 PF 1.50 PPG 7.0 That's ridiculous. less than 1/3 of his shots falling inside the 3 point line and less than 1/4 shots from 3 point range. His free throw percentage is atrocious for a point guard. While his assists/TO ratio "3.03" are decent, the other parts of his game really leave much to be desired. do you have the stats for practice? I have it : 105 MPD FG% .730 3PT .720 FT .815 APG 24.7 PPD 70.0 Practice > real game. pure > combo one > two.
Once again, you are reduced to using "Adelman is right" or "he's better in practice" to support your position. Why bother? Try sticking to what we CAN debate, which is on the court performance. The problem is you can't use Rafer performance to support your opinion. Suggestion: Just type "In Coach I Trust" for every debate and save yourself and everyone else time. A forum like this is to discuss things we know about like games and public statements made by players and management. You don't have a bloomin' clue about practice any more than the rest of us.
I am debating on-court performance. I know what Rafer gives us: low turnovers, on-point passing, and terrible shooting. I know what James gives us: Scoring, not much passing, and scoring. Steve can penetrate but he can't set up the offense like Rafer or spot up shoot like James. So far, I havn't seen anything from Francis that warrants him getting playing time over James or Rafer, and it seems like Adelman thinks so as well.
<br> wait...... I just figured out what T-Mac thinks of Rafer <br> Rick Adelman doesn't have room for Steve Francis in his Rockets rotation, and Franchise is champing at the bit. After reporting to camp fat and out of shape, Francis has dropped some pounds and is working out extra after practice. But Adelman is playing Bonzi Wells, Mike James and Luther Head ahead of Francis, who's piling up the DNP-CDs. We hear Tracy McGrady has been lobbying to get Francis more burn, with no luck. Can't understand why the Rockets brought him back if they're not going to throw him a bone, because it's just a matter of time before he explodes. And if he's just going to rot on the bench in Houston, you'd think a certain local club in desperate need of some scoring might want to check into his availability. He's making the veteran minimum now, and he's 30, not 80. Just sayin'. <br> <br> ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Credit for the find goes to: hooroo <br> http://www.philly.com/inquirer/sports/20071118_THE_BUZZ_Garnett_is_making_a_difference.html
Is this a post just for the sake of posting and mixing it up, to generate a response? Well you baited me in if that was the purpose, great job. No other point guard on the team might pass "as" good as Rafer. But you made it sound is like he's to passing what Kobe is to to scoring. Now I like passing, and a ballhandler that recognizes your strengths so you dont have to create so much can be a calming influence. But this would make Brevin Knight an irreplaceable part to the team if he were on it. James's scoring and Head's 3's have both been erratic this year. It CAN be replaced if they're not doing what they're good at. I feel for Luther a little but if he were to get injured, you don't think the Rockets can escape by with Aaron Brooks taking his 15 minutes a game? lol...I guess once a player gets out of shape, even if he shapes up his skills erode away to where it never comes back. Maybe Francis can't score "in the way" James and Head can score for a 2nd unit guy... We're acting like Francis is in the Penny Hardaway or Gary Payton stages of his career. Francis is YOUNGER than Mike James and Rafer, and is 2 years removed from 16-17 points a game. Use your head here...if you put Francis in as a scorer-ONLY like Mike James with NO expecations of him to distribute whatsoever, you dont think he can equal his production?
Adelman sighting I got a chance to say Hi and that we are thrilled to have your here to Rick Adelman last night at the Cheescake Factory. I would have loved to talk basketball with Rick, but I'm sure that he does not want t be bothered during his personal time. He was very friendly in any case.
sf3 has 70% of alson's PURE pg skills and 80% of mj's scoring abilities (at least), that's exactly we need.
And when he is able to make 3 trips up and down the court without putting his hands on his knees I am sure thats what we will see. Unless Rafer suddenly starts playing out of his mind.
I think one reason why head coaches seem to love Alston is because of his energy level. From what I've seen of him on the court and giving interviews, he has a lot of energy, always talking, always moving. Even though we see that him giving 100% is still not as good as some other player like MJ or SF's 80%, the coaches who see them day in and day out are deluded into thinking that, well he's always moving and giving effort, so he must be a good defender, etc
agree on all but one. tell me what rafer can really do. he brings up the ball w/o TOs. he dumps ball to either tmac or yao. if you call this a passing, i am speechless. tmac and yao are two main sources that deliever the passings to open man on the court. if yao or tmac happens to shoot the ball right after getting the ball from rafer, rafer gets credits, that is, an ast. w/o tmac, hayes' offense suffers. why? because rafer can't pass the damn ball to hayes under basket when yao was double covered.
Rafer is averaging 4+ APG even though (until 2 games ago) McGrady is the primary play-maker. If Alston was as you describe he would only be averaging 1 or 2 assists, since he rarely gets an assist from Yao's post ups and T-Mac (dribbles to create thus nullifying any passes he makes to them.)
many ways to get asts. rafer's asts came mainly from two sources. one is from yao and tmac who happens to shoot RIGHT after getting the ball from rafer. the other is that rafer gets kickbacks from yao or tmac due to double covered and immediately pass to the open men. they drilled open jumps. occassionally, he got from fast breaks or really good passes. the problem about rafer is he can't create for other players and can't penetrate most times. his shooting is average as we saw last year. do you know why we brought mj and sf back and draft aaron because the rox management realized it. too bad, the new additions didn't pan out like we expected during training and preseason and rafer couldn't be traded. so we're stuck with rafer. w/ tmac and yao on the court, rafer will not be exposed. it shouldn't be an excuse to think rafer is good enough down the road. we need to get mj or sf involved and eventually replace rafer. mj and sf are different from rafer on penetration. if you follow spurs' games, they have two great penetrators in their lineup. they can tear off your defense. i am not going to say mj and sf will be our parker and ginobli. but we have to build rox to this direction for sure.
Rafer needs a large volume of shots to reach 38%. He's not getting that this year. Last year, he would have some games where he was 5-6 from 3 and other games where he was 0-6 from three. That equals to 5-12 for both games and a good percentage...but that just means he's inconsistant. On games where he was hitting threes, we usually won. On games where he was bricking, it was a huge struggle. He's not in a slump...he's just not a shooter
I agree that SF has about 70% of Alston's pure PG skills. I disagree with the comparison to James. I think Francis has at least 100% of James scoring abilities. The difference is that while James is clearly a better outside shooter, Francis is clearly better at scoring around the basket. Francis is a quality slasher that can finish around the rim. Overall, I think Francis' strengths make him at least as good of an offensive player as James. Overall, I think that Francis should be our starting PG over Alston and James.
