Again, if you read the first post, I never said Rafer needs to go. I was simply stating that his role is a lot different from the traditional PG role he had before and wanted to see other people's views on this. I also said I like Rafer if you read the last line of my post.
mo williams is not a natural pg, though. he's like mike james, a combo scoring guard. not a great passer, just a great shooter. i'd take rafer over them because of his willingness to be a passing pg
u gotta be kidding me! on offense, rafer's only real strength is his 3 pt shot. he frekin sucks at penetrating. why? because he pose no threat as a slasher. he cannot score on the run. his teardrop and fingeroll is pathetic. even i'm better than him. as a result of that, he doesn't draw defense when he drives and his penetration and kickout is not as effective as a resault. besides that, his defense is horrible. look at the big contrast when spanoulis is guarding someone versus when alston is guarding someone. seriously, i just don't understand why theres so much hatred in this forum for juwan howard when alston is equally horrible given their salary. honestly, rafer sucks. he will never improve on his penetration and he will suk forever. his only strength is ball handling and 3 pt shot, both of which is not a rare asset in this league. but with his pathetic drive and poor defense, we will not win against the gd teams in the west. we really should be looking into some of the teams with multiple quality point guards. boston has abundant quality point guards- rondo, telfair and west. We really should try to get delonte west. they hav too many pieces at bioston and losing him won'd not be that much of a deal but we really need a guy like west. and how about boston- they have jameer nelson and carlos arroyo. if we can somehow nab arroyo, who the magic is not as high on, we would be great. arroyo is a guy who can create his own shot and a much better driver inside than alston.
It's exactly as mogrod said. Rafer's assist numbers are down because Yao is the focal point of the offense. This is Rafer's primary role, passing the ball to Yao. Yao is not a quick shooter, so assists are generally not gained. Tracy has a more free reign on the court, and is getting more assist opportunities because of it. It is working exactly as JVG wants it to.
i really dont think he is playing the way he should. Its almost like he is the last option and it seems like teams would rather give him the shot. The coaching has been different thought. JVG used to call that play where TMac would run around and Rafer would find him for the shot. I liked those plays cuz TMac gets rythym that way
thats precisely why only very few teams can legitimately compete for chapionships! the point of argument is to look at the strengths and weaknesses of alston. but clearly his weakness on both ends has been exposed and abused of lately.
I see now. Go look at nba.com (which I have a feeling you already did). For some reason they have his 05-06 season averages split 3 times instead of 2. I just glanced down the "3pt %" column instead of looking at the years so I thought it was 3 seasons when it was really only 1. My mistake. What I notice now though is that he has generally shot a better % when taking more shots (40.4% in 05-06 on 3.9 attempts). That's very promising, since if he ever came here he would get a lot of 3 point attempts. He's down this year, but his 3 point shooting was just a bonus anyway really. His defense would be enough to jump at him. That would be the point (no pun intended) of trading for him. This team doesn't necessarily need a pure PG, because so much of the offense is intended to go through Yao. Other times it's going to be Tracy isolating or running the pick 'n roll. What would fit best is a PG who would be willing to penetrate and be a legitimate scoring threat off the dribble, which would make teams more reluctant to send doubles at Yao and Tracy. I've already said that I'm happy with Rafer, but I really wish he could handle more of the scoring load. We have shooters, but not many players who can score in a variety of ways when they look up and see 4 seconds on the shot clock and nobody open. Even with that scorer's mentality, Mo Williams is still averaging 6.2 assists, which I doubt would drop below Rafer's 4.2 if he were in the Rocket's current system/rotation. I'm not arguing that we should bring in Mo Williams though. I was just presenting a possibility for the type of guys that would/could be available in Rafer's "price" range.
i think rafer is doing o.k. this year he did two things well: protect the ball and shoot 3's. His 3-pointers is not great yet, but much better than last season.
So if he can improve his 3p shot, can he also work on his finishing at the hoop and improve that as well? Assistant coaches - can you help us here?
Have to credit Rafer for what he does bring: ballhandling, passing, and 3pt shooting. He's not as one-dimensional guy like we make him out to be. Rafer is doing what Rafer is capable of and trying to do what he's asked, like a good teammate should. Its simply that his attributes aren't what the team might really NEED out there. I'm with the thinking of not needing a natural pure point guard. Someone with a little more size and defense, less on the passing wizardry. Luther Head a couple inches taller with better passing and defense would be nice. But we gotta go with what we have and see where it goes. I don't see them dealing Rafer just like that especially when the team's 8-4. *edit* Just checked. Rafer's 6th in the league in 3 pt attempts, up there with Peja Stojakovich and Gilbert Arenas Not sure his % will hold up over the season with that many attempts. Tmac is 13th if you were wondering. So on this team who NOW would you rather be taking those shot attempts? Maybe we should be glad Rafer and Head are coming through
That's two of the three things we want our PG to do. The one thing Rafer doesn't do well, and probably never will, is defense. Interestingly, Spanoulis is good at defense and not at the two things Rafer does well.
Too early to say that. Spanoulis also has very good handle. So far he hasn't got stolen when he's dribbling, and his 3pt percentage is above 60%. I'm not saying he can keep that all season, but I have confidence that he can at least bring the ball up court as well. Plus, From the limited minutes he played, Vspan showed his basketball IQ is way better than Rafer. In the Wizzards game, Rafer made quite a few bonehead plays. Vspan made mostly good decisions.
I personally think thats a stupid assesment. Does anyone know Vspan's conditioning, his durability and ability to play large minutes in the NBA? Will he be able to bring the ball up the court as safe as Rafer does for the ENTIRE game? I think Rafer is fairly safe and a good bet most of the game and his proven that. We've only ever seen Vspan on limited minutes in an impact role. Give him the same amount of shots, minutes and then we should make a judgement as such. I don't think we can make a solid argument about Vspan > Rafer until we acutally see them play in similar situations. I mean Rafer played a whole game, 38 minutes, its highly possible his tired. Vspan even in the preseason didn't play that many minutes. I think Rafer is doing an excellant job of feeding Yao and bringing the ball up. I think the argument about Rafer being traded or his a non entity on this team is further r****ded when the same people call for Bonzi who is a non existent 3 pt shooter. You would much rather prefer a PG who can shoot the 3 when Bonzi is in. Once the whole team merges together( ie Rafer, Tmac, Bonzi, Vspan, Yao, Hayes, Battier, Head, Howard) I think Rafer would be valuable being a distributor and a spot up 3 shooter. Especially when T-mac is off the court
This is a very bad analysis of VSpan and of Rafer. This thread pisses me off because they don't understand the responsibilities of a PG. Comparing VSpan to Rafer as of right now is not even close. Rafer hands down is the best PG for this team. As I mentioned on another thread, the PG's responsibility goes way beyond getting assists and distributing the ball. A point guard controls the tempo of the game. The PG is responsible for pushing the ball up the court, or slowing it down and setting up the half court set. The pg also recognizes what defense the other team is running, and determines what plays expose the weaknesses in that defense. The PG also recognizes mismatches and finds a way to expose those mismatches. The next time you watch Rafer play, he is actively calling plays and communicating extremely well with the other players on the court. His numbers may be down, but his contribution to the team does not show up in the stat book. You mentioned that VSpan has a higher basketball IQ than Rafer, and I will strongly disagree with you. With everything that I mentioned above as evidence, I feel that Rafer actually has a very high basketball IQ. VSpan is playing a limited role on offense, and watching him play, its easy to see why you may think that he never makes many mistakes. alot of times, he is on the wing, making entry passes to the post, or reversing it back up top. He is in a position where he does not have to make many decisions, its either pass it in the post, dribble, shoot, or reverse the ball. Defensively, I will give credit to VSpan for playing the passing lanes very well. Thats why everyone on here thinks he's a great defender, because its easy to spot these kind of steals. But if you watch the game more closely, you will see that vspan is not a great on-ball defender. Rafer is a better on-ball defender because he actually has the ability to pressure the ball. There is a big difference between being a good on-ball defender, and someone who is good at playing the passing lanes.
Who made up this bull**** list of "top 3 things we need from our PG"? It doesn't include passing? Most importantly, it doesn't include GETTING THE BALL TO YAO which Alston is able to do consistently. LOL, imagine Mo Williams trying to get Yao the ball. That would be a disaster. We need a backup, that's for sure. But Rafer has kicked ass and wiped the floor with you guys this season. You said he couldn't shoot, he shut you up. You said he couldn't find Yao, he shut you up. You said he should go to the line more, he goes more and shoots better. Spanoulis is the perfect backup for him, as long as he stays consistent.
Bingo friend. Amen to that. It goes beyond the numbers guys, and beyond the recognizable things that fans see on the court.
Really? Is that why he has been horrible in his decision making in the 4th quarter and pretty much lets the shot clock wind down for about 3 or 4 possessions every game by dribbling at the top of the key like another pg we had 3 years ago?
i like rafer but i do know one thing........he should NEVER shoot more than t-mac as happened in washington the other night. he seems to be a good guy and has improved his shooting so i think he has a place on this team. one thing is for sure though rafer should never have 16 shots to t-macs 12 NEVER!
LOL now, now.....you should know better then to mix logic and reason into the GARM. Thats so old school, todays posters like to whine and complain and give no direction on how to improve it but only point the fingers of blame as to what they think is wrong.
