Actually, I think Adelman will let him come off the bench. At least, for the first half of the season, and then see... how are things going!
Let me list Alston's only problem: low FG% even he only shoots open shots. can not create for himself or teammates. can not drive, finish or get free throws. can not draw defense because he is 0 threat. fumbles when pressed. can not guard strong or quick PGs but the league is full of strong and quick PGs. can not be efficient for more than 25 minutes a game.
Not necessarily, if Artest, Tmac and Yao all start, then at some point during during the half (we are assuming the rotations for both halves to be similar in terms of who starts and who finishes, why start Artest to begin the game and not to begin the 2nd half?), you have to have 2 of the stars out of the game 1/4th of the time roughly assuming you want all 3 of your stars to finish the half (which for the 2nd half at least, you do). However, if you start Tmac and Yao only. At 4 minutes bring in Artest for Battier. At 6-7 you could take out Yao, you would still have 2 of the 3 in. At the end of the quarter take out Tmac, give him a long rest (you would be left with just Artest), at about 2 min into the 2nd quarter bring Yao in and take Artest out. Then with about 4-6 minutes to go bring both Artest and Tmac back in. Tmac would've gotten about 6-8 minutes of rest, Artest only about 4, but remember he didn't start the game so in terms of wear and tear he's still as fresh as Tmac and Yao. You do this for the 2nd half and for most of the game you will have 2 go to guys, for the last 4-5 minutes of each half you will have all 3, and all of the big 3 end up playing about 32-34 minutes a game.
I'll bear with you here: Agreed. His only problem. Cannot create for his teammates? He can't create for his teammates in the sense that he draws a doubleteam and passes it to the open guy, but if you havn't noticed, we have 3 of those guys. Saying he can't draw a doubleteam is like saying Rondo can't draw a doubleteam. What Rafer CAN do is set up the offense and get us into our play fast, he did it quite nicely last season. Again, have enough guys that can do that already. He forces a guy to guard him. Call him a bad shooter, w/e. You still have to guard him because he can knockdown the open 3. He's no Korver when left open, but he's not Hayes (who no one even guarded so they could double Yao). He doesn't. Wrong again. I'm sure you are going to point to some game where Paul went off on us for 30 or Deron Williams had some nice game. They are superstars, they are allowed to do that. I'm not saying Alston is DPOY but I think you are really underrating his defense. PGs don't continuously dominate us game after game. No... he can't be Lebron James for more than 25 minutes a game (probably not even 5 minutes a game). He can be efficient for more than 25 minutes. All we need him to do is hit the open shot when someone doubles him (which he does), start the offense and stay in front of his guy. We are paying him like 4 million a year, we don't need Chris Paul.
Hit the head of the nail. But i do wonder which team can claim that they have not the same problem. Anyway, as most have said, the grading is a problem. Add posey and losing pargo, and they got a A? Spurs add Kurt thomas, and lose no one in particular is a C? And with the addition of artest for bjax, not even landry leaving can put rox down to B.
Manu also comes off the bench. I believe he would get welcome rally as well if he joined the rockets. btw, I don't think coming off the bench is a big deal. Wade also came off the bench in Team USA, and I think he was the mvp for the team.
you're just a hater dude. you're talking as if rafer is garbage. he is not. he's far from it. he aint no all star. he's a solid point. but i guess you think we're getting steve nash or chris paul on this team.
He's not a hater, just a realist. Rafer is the weakest link in our starting lineup. Compounding the problem is backup PG is the weakest spot on our team. The lack of a serviceable backup PG is why so many people think Rafer is "solid". When he comes out of the game, we have an NBDL-level player come in. If we had another PG who was NBA worthy, it would be obvious to everyone how weak Rafer is. The one-eyed man is king in the land of the blind. That's how Rafer has compared to our other PGs.
The West just keeps getting better, just silly really. Where does it all end? When does the balance of power start to revert back East. I'm sure it will happen but you wouldn't see how it could within the next decade. We have to rock with the cards we were dealt I guess.
well, that's saying what a hater thinks only with kinder words. basically, you're a hater when you deny that rafer is a solid point guard. the discussion really ends right there. you're a realist when you recognize that the pg position is the weakest spot on our roster but that it's not because of rafer. a realist sees an elite ballhandler, an above average defender, a pretty good rebounder and a nice passer in rafer. he also sees that rafer's not the most consistent shooter and sometimes has problems finishing around the rim. he also knows that rafer's not the kind of player that gets others open because he's an individual scoring threat. he admits that rafer isn't perfect because nobody is. to bring the story to an end, reality is, rafer is a servicable starting caliber pg with some rare individual strengths and some weaknesses which everyone knows about. he's not the cause of our pg problem, nor is he the solution. rafer's looked bad because he was asked to do too much. he's not your 3rd scoring option and he's not a 40 mpg player. the solution to our pg problems is letting rafer play according to his strengths as a role player. to achieve this we have to have a consistent 3rd scoring option and a backup pg who's able to handle 15, maybe 20 minutes a game. morey brought in the 3rd scoring option, he has yet to bring in the backup pg. until he can do that the pg position will be the weakest link.
Rafer won't be looked at to score anymore. With Artest coming in and Scola getting a year under his belt Rafer's role should be reduced. He's arguably the best ball-handler in the league, rarely turns it over, and he's a great defender(very underrated). I expect him to have his best year ever in terms of overall efficiency.
Can we just drop the silly "hater" label? All it does is dumb down discussion with name-calling. Rafer is a good ball-handler, average to below average defender and a decent passer. I believe Rafer's shooting % is in the bottom 10-20 in the NBA for all starters (not bottom %, bottom for the total players). Calling him "not the most consistent shooter" what I would call denial. Saying he "sometimes has problems finishing around the rim" is also denial because he is a TERRIBLE finisher (one of the worst I've ever seen). Why do you think other teams bait Rafer into shooting the ball? Sometimes I talk to my TV set and say, "Rafer, don't do it". Calling Rafer "serviceable" is about right. Saying he has "rare individual strengths" is a laughable joke IMO. To each his own opinion. If you somehow believe PG is the weakest spot on the roster and don't agree Rafer is the reason, I can't say much about that. Feel free to be wrong. Backup is part of the reason but the target is on Rafer's back. We must either get a better starter or a better backup so Rafer can be sat down for long stretches when he collapses into jello.
How is he being a Rafer apologist? Does he try to hide Rafer's deficiencies? No. Is he being a homer for acknowledging things that Rafer can do? Far from it. Objectivity is so rare nowadays that when people actually start voicing opinions that are well-thought out, they get called apologists, (player)-only-fans, and homers. It's a damn shame. And Rafer IS the weak link in the starting line-up, but as many have said, he's serviceable. So why touch the serviceable part, when we have other pressing needs to take care of? Such as a third scorer - solved with Artest; shooting and depth off the bench - solved by moving Battier to the bench and with Barry; and insurance at the big spots - solved with the addition of Dorsey. All that's left to do now is arguably just to resign Deke and Landry and that's a pretty solid roster we have. Of course, backup PG will still be a problem and Rafer being merely serviceable will still be a problem, but hey, Rome wasn't built in a day. This off-season has already been a major triumph considering the limited assets we have and what we came off with.
How is redao not a hater? Half the stuff his listed just aint true...That's hating!! cannot create for himself or teammates? he creates on the fast break, like point guards are supposed to do. In the half court, his playmaking is limited, but then again, TMAC is the playmaker in the half court, so its all good. cannot drive, finish or get free throws? Everyone knows he aint the best at this, but he has improved that floater. And yes, once in a while he does get in there for a layup. can not draw defense because he is 0 threat? Again this is BS. When we won our 22nd game versus the lakers, hit lit them up. The lakers did what all teams do, give rafer the open 3 until he starts hitting them -- which he did. Thereafter he certainly did draw the defense, and he continued to torch them. In fact, prior to the game, the anaylst asked Phil Jackson why the rockets were able to win 22 games in a row even without Yao Ming? Phil promptly gave Rafer props, mentioning that he was a big reason. Fumbles when pressed? Rafer is one of best ball handlers in the world. How can someone attack his ballhandling? That's not hating? can not guard strong or quick PGs but the league is full of strong and quick PGs. Rafer is an above average defender of the one and plays good help D. He can't guard Deron, but ya know what? how many ppl can. He can't guard Chris Paul, but who can. Nobody can really guard the allstars like Tony parker, chris paul, Deron...But rafer does well enough. He's better than francis was at D. Better than Kenny Smith. He's good enough. He chases his man around and actually tries to go around the pick. can not be efficient for more than 25 minutes a game. 25 minutes? That's just B.S. Some ppl just don't know what they have in Rafer. It's as simple as that. There is a weak link on EVERY team! That don't mean they're not solid. Unless you want a team full of all stars. To say that Rafer CAN NOT do these things is hating, cuz he can. He may not be the most consistent shooter, but you can't just leave him wide open. He handles the ball, pushes the break, sets up the offense, plays solid D. He's solid.
