so basically Let's wait until everything is PERFECT before we evaluation how good someone is. . . . Rocket River Check the Sig
Let's be honest ... Mike James is one heck of a player... Alston...isn't. Not terrible or bad...just not in the same category. The Rox made a bad trade...it is that simple. Alston is cutting his own throat...too much talk about the past...doing nothing in the now. The trade made James stronger...tougher...more resiliant.
I agree with Will's take on this. It was the right move long term, even if in the short term, we would undoubtebly be better this year with James. We lost Sura and we needed someone at the point who could bring some of the same playmaking that Sura brought us last year. Alston is the better playmaker. Once Van Gundy finds the ideal shooting guard (someone similar to James) and the ideal power forward for this system, Alston will be the better fit. James would fit this current roster better, but that's not necessarily a good thing, because this current roster is so messed up.
If if's and but's were fruits and nuts we would all have a Merry Christmas. Aren't we all growing a little tired of "when _______gets back, and "they start gelling" and, and, and, and...... If you are good, show it. If you have fire, burn it. If you can shoot, shoot it. If you are a winner, then just win.
I just want to ask two questions: 1. Since when Van Gundy's offense system emphasizes so much on point guards' play-making abilities? Back to his Knicks' day? Are you referring to Charlie Ward and Chris Child? IMO, his offense schema is simple and predictable and he need outside shooters more than anything. 2. You are saying Alston is a better fit if he is surrounded by right SG and PF. So can you name one player for each position that we could ideally acquired based on current crappy roster?
Funny how when he plays for the Rox "he has passion, loved it"; and when he plays for an opposing team, "he's a punk".
Isn't that always the case? How many of us hated Barkley before he got here? I'd imagine many of us would become Terrell Owens fans if he lead the Texans to the playoffs.
I agree with everything GATER said. I don't think this was a "great" trade for the Rockets, and not just because of last night's game (though it did hammer home the point). Maybe it will prove to be an excellent trade some day, and I certainly hope so ... but it's just not right now. I'm not 100% sold on the financing part of the reasoning, though I do believe it played a factor somewhat. CD said at the time that the Rockets would not have even considered making this deal had it not been for Bobby Sura's injury. Maybe he's not telling the whole story or maybe they would have dealt James for a different type of player, but I'm guessing if Sura doesn't go down, James is still here. If James plays very well as third fiddle with the Rockets this season, I'm guessing he's lining himself up for a 5-year deal in the $30 million range? That is what the market bore for Antonio Daniels last season. I don't know who would have possibly given him more than MLE. Rafer is currently in the 2nd year of a 6-year, $29 million deal. So Rafer would be cheaper, but I don't see a ton of savings here (now, the way James has played in Toronto, he's possibly moved himself higher). Strictly my opinion, but I think the Rockets overestimated their offensive abilities when they made this trade. Guys like Sura, Barry, Padgett and James filled key roles for this team -- they lost two to injuries and let two of them go. For example, Barry hit 46% from long range last year... Padgett hit 40%. Padgett is hitting 47% this season. These two clearly helped win games last year because they were efficient in their roles. Derek Anderson hasn't been very efficient from 2 or 3 range. Rafer has not shot well for this team ... he has improved lately (over 47% in the 4 games since his return) and hopefully he can keep it up. James gave the Rockets a fireball personality, a guy who could create his own shot, an efficient 3-point shooter (over 39% last season with Houston), a runner and a decent defender. It's fact that when he played well in the playoffs against the Mavs last season, the Rockets won. When he didn't, they lost. In both Games 1 and 2, he was pure BALLS. Remember those two steals he had in Game 2? What particularly bothered me at the time of the trade was CD was trading away an underrated player WITH an expiring contract for a disgruntled player with a long-term deal that many, a few months before, thought was untradeable. Though it was nowhere near this bad, it reminded me of the Magic dealing away Cuttino Mobley for Doug Christie. In today's contract-driven NBA, why take back lesser talent for more years? Point being, CD did the opposite of what he was doing last season: He traded down as far as market value goes. In the end, I don't want to pout about it not being an even exchange deal ... it's still early -- for crying out loud Rafer has only played in 12 games as a Rocket and it's very clear that we do not have all our guys on the floor. His career three-point percentage is the same as James, so I'm sure we will see benefit soon. I'd just like to see him improve his numbers and prove he's worth having signed to a long-term deal. I still have hope that he will do that.
The old predictable offensive scheme that relies too much on 3-point shooting is what got us off to a terrible start last season and this season. It wasn't until Van Gundy gave the point guard more responsability and we became more of an uptempo team that we flourished last season. We were at our best last season when Sura was playing at his best. He was creating plays for his teammates, running the fast break, aggressively attacking the basket. We were best off With Sura being the primary playmaker on the floor and Mcgrady mainly concentrating on what he does best, scoring. Alston gives us that playmaker at the point which frees Mcgrady to look for his shot more, instead of having to worry about setting up his teammates every time down the floor. Most likely we're not going to acquire any long term solution at the 2 or 4 through a trade. The Rockets are just going to have to make some smart moves via free agency and the draft. But this is something we would have needed to do even if we had not traded away James for Alston. With James as the starting point guard, we would have needed to get a shooting guard that can handle some of the point guard duties, such as distributing the ball and playmaking. With Alston as the point guard, all we really need is a shooting guard that can score. And it's a lot easier to find a shooting guard that can score than it is to find a shooting guard that can play point guard.
I am sorry to point out that your argument is confusing. On the one hand you are saying we play better in an uptempo game, and we play our best ball when our point guard (i.e Sura) could 1. create plays for his teammates, 2. run the fast break, 3. aggressively attack the basket. However you praise Alston just because he could handle the ball for T-Mac and share some of the responsibilities to setup teammates in the half court. In other words, James did job 2 and 3 very well for us last season, but Alston is still better for us because he could only sort of doing job 1? Again you admit it is hard to find a long term solution at 2, and next statement you say it is easy?
James does a good job at finishing the break, but he doesn't run the break like a point guard. He's great at getting easy baskets for himself, but as far as creating easy baskets for his teammates on the break, he just doesn't do it as well as Alston or Sura. Same thing with attacking the basket. Great at getting layups for himself. Not so good at getting them for his teammates. He's a natural shooting guard, much like Cuttino Mobley, only he's too small to play the 2. The way Alston ran the offense in the 2 games against the Wizards and Cavs, I found more impressive than any of the big scoring games James had while he was here. The way he ran the offense in those games is how we're going to need our point guard to run the offense once we're ready to contend. I'm not saying it's easy to find a long term solution at the 2. I'm saying it'll be easier to find a shooting guard that complements Alston's game than it is to find one that'll complement James.
I'll say that one thing is for sure: the anti-James extreme side of the board is completely wrong. Whether or not you thought this was a good trade, the claims by many that James was selfish or that we wouldn't need him are completely unwarranted. He was a huge loss. Particularly defensively. And the fuss that everyone keeps making up the "wave off" from McGrady is particularly amusing. Suddenly, T-Mac hates Mike James because of one wave off during crunch time in the heat of the battle. Mike James was out of his mind in the playoffs last year. We don't win Game 2 or Game 6 without him. How quick is everyone to forget the 10 point deficit in the first half in Game 6 before James came in and scored like 6 straight points changing the tone of the rest of the game. Mike James was a huge peice of this team and a huge loss. With that out of the way - I still think this was a good trade. In hindsight, we didn't know we would be decimated by injuries. We could probably use James' scoring and fearlessness now. But looking at the big picture, Alston is the better fit. His skills are much more suited for our offense. Just look at how easy he made things for McGrady the past few games, by pushing the tempo and setting him up. Not to take anything away from Mike James, but he would have been looking a bit more for his own shot against Cleveland rather than recognizing that McGrady was absolutely on fire in the 2nd quarter. Alston also brings the ball down very quickly which plays to McGrady's quick-strike strengths. As far as the financial side of it, while we may have been able to retain James, I just don't like the idea of risking losing a guy for nothing, especially on a team so void of talent. While Alston certainly got his ass handed to him last night, you have to remember, his role on this team is not as a scorer but as a playmaker. You can't really judge him until your scorers return and he has an opportunity to set them up. I'm still sticking by Alston and Derek Anderson. [Stromile Swift is a different story.] Anderson really started to come on before he got injured. There's no doubt in my mind that when completely healthy, this team will click and make a big run. The only question is will it be too late? I fear that will be the case.
Excellent post, Clutch. I fully agree with what you said, but let me add this to it... What's our future going to be like? I know, I know, I sound like a broken record, but I have stated earlier in the season that like it or not, the Rockets will never, ever contend for a championship with a supporting cast consisting primarily of older veterans playing primary roles -- I am talking about Derek Anderson, Jon Barry, David Wesley, Juwon Howard, Sura (if he was healthy), and Moochie. IMO -- and again I am just repeating what I have said in the past -- the model we should be following is that of the Spurs': they have a starting unit of younger players (sub-30 for the most part), and their bench is where they harnass their veteran players' experience and contribution to the team; this is how our team should be built around McGrady and Yao. We need talented, younger starting players on the team that will enable us to keep the likes of Barry, Wesley, DA, and JHo in roles that they can flourish in: bench players. In fact, I would not be opposed to keeping Howard in the starting lineup as long as he's productive, but then we will need to fill the other two positions with younger, smarter players than we currently have. I will acknowledge the difficult part here is not only finding youth, but finding younger players with smarts (the anti-Stromile if you will) like San Antonio and Dallas did. It's a tough task, I know, but that's where GMs earn their salaries, that's where your value as a GM and the quality of the scouting staff and everyone else in the Rockets' brass is reflected.
Trading James for Alston was the right thing to do. Alston is a true point gaurd and gives us the ability to control tempo. The Raptors were simpley throwing up 3 balls without looking at the basket and they all seemed to go in. Thats not skill its LUCK. James was playing high time basketball because he's still mad the Rockets traded him for Alston. James doesn't play near this well vs other teams and thats bared out by his stats against other teams. James was developing into a cancer for the Rockets who thought HE WAS BETTER THAN TMAC and thats just not the case. WE MADE THE RIGHT TRADE AND WHEN YAO GETS BACK THAT WILL BE OBVIOUS TO EVEN THE CASUAL BASKETBALL FAN. Go Rockets!!!
New Jack, you and I think so much alike on basketball issues it's almost scary. thacabbage, I also completely agree with you on this. Last night was Rafer's 3rd game back. He was due for a down game. But at least we saw what he can do in the Wizards and Cavs games. In a week or so, we should get a good idea of what he will contribute on a consistent basis. And as I said in another thread, we will see how much better Rafer can make 1 Yao and 2 Tracy. 1 In the preseason, Rafer showed me he knew how to feed a big man the moment he got open. Mike James and Sura do NOT have this ability. We now have two passers who can get Yao the ball in the right place when they make up their mind to do it. 2 Tracy works way too hard for his shots. With Rafer out there, he can focus on getting open and receiving the ball off a pick or (better) on the run. I expect this to have a big impact before the season is over. Tracy will be able to pace himself thru games and his FG% will go up. As an intangible, when other players know they will get the ball if they work to get open, they will work harder to get open. This is another advantage of Rafer over Mike James. When MJ had the ball, there was no use in moving or cutting because everyone knew he was looking for HIS shot, not theirs. Please don't call me an MJ basher. I loved him on our team as a backup PG.
In the beginning, the trade didn't make any sense to me at all. Even right now, I still don't know WTF were the Rockets thinking? PPL should stop talking about the trade was good for the long term. Fact was that the Rockets' role players were not getting any younger and if ur gonna win, you have to win now. I guarantee that if we had Mike James this season, we would be a whole lot better. Mike was the energy guy (somn we lack now). He was our best ball defender and prob the best shooter on the team. I miss seeing him push the ball for ez layups and his step back shots were flat out amazing. Look at all those shots he made on us last nite. He did the same thing for us last yr. If u remember game 7 of last year, Dallas brought in Darrell Armstrong (Chocalate eating energy player) to specifically hold Mike James. That's how important James was to this team. U usually see teams bring in defensive specialists for superstars and not role players. I never could have pictured Skip as a defender. I see some of his AND1/streetball tapes and they don't play defense =D Now that I think about it...maybe JVG traded James away because he wanted the Rocks to play a slower pace and grind it out game. With MJ, u won't get that. I sooooooo wanted to see another Rocket's champions this year. Over 10 years ago since the last one.
I have to disagree about Alston being a better playmaker. Yeah he may think pass more than James but of the passes he does make, how many of them are more effective? Look at all those easy buckets the Raptors got off of James penetration yesterday. Alston can't do that. Part of what makes a point guard or any player an effective passer/playmaker is the fear of his scoring ability. Thats what makes Steve Nash so great. If you play him passing, he'll just float in the lane and hit a tear drop fadeaway from the foul line. I don't see Alston being a dynamic playmaker if he doesn't show he is able to penetrate, shoot or score consisently himself.
Some great posts and Clutch I tip my hat to you as the brains behind this whole operation and in agree with most of what you say about the trade. The way I look at it is this way. Alston was brought in here for a team game to complement the other players while James is a guy looking to create his own shots. The problem is that with all the injuries its hard to play a consistent team game when several of the key pieces are missing. I think that JVG and CD figured that Sura's durability might be in question so Alston complements him that what I don't think they predicted was that Head would be able to play many minutes. IMO the Rox could really use James right now as an igniter, sort of like Mario Elie did during the great Rox runs before. While Alston helps the importance of someone who can make their own shot and bring some passion and toughness can't be understimated. That's something the Rox need now more than ever.
