I am sick of the numerous threads saying how this season and the Rockets as we know them are over. They traded Rafer Alston for Christ's sake. Not Yao, not tmac, not Artest, not Scola. Rafer was not even one of the 5 best players on this team an many of you are acting like the Rockets can't go anywhere without him. The Rockets succeeded last season with no Yao and most of this season without tmac. Why does losing Rafer Alston make this team so much worse off? He was easily the weakest starter on the team. He is arguably the most inconsistent player in the NBA. The guy took more ill-advised shots than anyone I have ever seen play. He was a HUGE weakness on this team. Do I think they probably couldda gotten more for him? yes, however trading him certainly does not mean the Rockets are giving up or that they cannot win. This team was very successful in the few games that Brooks started in and I personally expect that to continue. I for one am very excited to see more playing time for Aaron and think the Rockets will be fine. And remember who we traded.......Rafer ****ing Alston
Can I get an AMEN????? Look, I appreciate Skip's effort and his balls for not being afraid to tell it like it is (was), but if I could bump the threads created over the past two years that complained about him and demanded we get rid of him, the first five pages would be full (and I would be banned)
Great Post. Not dissing the Rafer lovers out there but 4 years was enough. It did not work out and lets move on to our future pgs (Brooks and Lowry)
It's crazy... Skip was a decent point guard for us. No more, no less. I think I need to take a few days off from posting in GARM because these Chicken Little posters are driving me nucking futs
Two young PGs with upside doesn't sound so bad to me. Lowry very well may be better than both Alston and Brooks. Let's give it a chance before we make the verdict.
We still have a pretty good lineup, and who knows - maybe Morey sees something in Lowry that we're missing. Wouldn't be the first time! I'm hoping that our starting lineup will now be: Brooks/Artest/Battier/Scola/Yao with Landry and Wafer being the first guys off of the bench. If you want to start Wafer at the 2, then I'd say let's go ahead and bench Battier (you aren't going to find a bigger Battier fan than me) and let this become Ron's team. Brooks/Wafer/Artest/Scola/Yao I know that we've lost two of our starters from last year's squad...but it's not like the team isn't used to playing without a full lineup, right?
So that means, you guys think AB is going to be a legit starter? Its not the end of the world, but damn if it seems like we got nothing in return. In time it may look good, but right now I don't see it. Rafer wasn't our best starter, but he wasn't garbage either like some thought. He took care of the ball and seemed to play well when Tracy was out. Add that to the fact that Tracy is out and it has me wondering. Maybe you weren't watching the playoffs last year, but he was a factor against the j*zz. One of our biggest strengths was our depth, we just lost some of that. The only spot where we are two deep is the four. Is this overreacting?
We'll see how the team falls apart without Rafer. On the court, Rafer probably has an impact only second to Yao's.
A little bit. Look at his stats in the first Utah series. Pretty bad... He was a mediocre outside shooter, a less than mediocre defender, couldn't finish shots, made some pretty bad decisions... He did hit some big shots, was good at setting up the offense and getting the ball to Yao in the post. Adds up to a mediocre player that is now being hailed as the greatest point guard in the NBA who was traded for Harold Minor
You cant argue against the fact that he was the weakest member of the starting lineup and I never bought into the idea that rafer takes care of the ball. He may not have a lot of turn over, but he also has very low assist numbers. He also too an ass load of ill-advised stupid shots which are as good as turnovers imo.
Really without McGrady, the loss of Rafer is just a minor degradation, but we are not going to be expected to win in the playoffs anyway.
Even when he does handle the ball and get high assist numbers he doesn't have high turnovers. I agree the stupid shots do kill me as well, but its not as if he brought nothing to the table. He was a starter for a reason. How many guys were brought in to replace him? Which one did it? I guess now we can say AB, but if he plays poorly he'll end up taking most of the negative threads here so I guess its no biggie. As for the playoffs. Simple as I can see it, this past season. He played the whole game.........we won. Even in mormon town when less than a handful of teams won there. I thought overall last year he played well. Coming into the year we all considered ourselves contenders. Even if you thought Rafer was a weakness. Unless you thought we had no chance of contending with him starting, I don't see how you can be overjoyed about the move. Look I hope it turns out great and this kid Lowry is worth the trade in the end. I also hope that AB can handle starting on a permanent basis. These are big ifs though. I was content to see how the current team did once Mac was out. Sorry if I'm not thrilled with the deal, maybe in time I will be. Overreacting? I think some of you should put this in perspective.
It's simple, people are just disappointed that Rockets doesn't seem to push for a major move to win it this year. Yeah, they will eventually move on, and recognize the team gets younger for the future. But with Morey's trumpeting "we will bring a top player before the deadline". I don't blame them.
