the Notorious Rafer

Rafer will be Rafer, but what hurts the Rockets is everybody seems to slump at same time. Look at Rafer, Luther, Battier, and even Scola with their jumpers the last couple games. Luther's shot especially has looked horrendous.

 

I don't remember that thread. I think I was spending way too much time helping Rockets2K get his Rockets video bittorrent monopoly off the ground. Boy, did that cost us more time and money than we thought necessary. But I got a Beijing pen pal out of the deal (she's got an unbelievable giggle over skype) and I learned pryuen and friends were real dicks early on about letting us post torrents at yym.

 

I concur, Rafer you suck and your cocky attitude doesnt help this team one bit, I hope we trade you in the offseason for a bag of nuts, we should have kept mike james.

 

During the streak Rafer said something about the media and fans talking bad about him and he was doing really good. Then Jeff Van Gundy said he was the second best point guard in the league and the media gave him a lot of credit. He has sucked since.

 

the thing about rafer is that our team can survive with him shooting as he does. we can't win if everyone is shooting poorly though. i think the weakest positions on this team is obviously the PG (consistency issues) and center (yao's injury). we have the 2, 3, and 4 spots down with tracy, battier and scola/landry/hayes but outside of rafer, head's not as consistent as he was last year, brooks is still developing, and bjackson has yet to find his consistent groove ( although he's been playing well of late). novak is seldom used and justin williams and harris are subbed every now and then but thats about.

i think the whole thing with rafer is confidence, not to be arrogant but to be humble and play the best you can play. hopefully he starts to pick it up soon but as it is now we're going to need to play softer teams in order for this team to pick up some momentum heading into the playoffs.

heres to getting out of the first round!!

 

Rafer in sleep

 

I think people expect too much from him, he's not a real starting pg but
He is pretty good for a pg when you consider he's a veteran not making big money, he just has a really bad shot selection. Of course he is streaky but the problem is he starts just settling and taking jumpers. His game has always been driving to the rack but he needs to learn how to find people when he gets there instead of taking every layup.

 

Rafer:

- Team is bashed by media, plays well.
- He is bashed by media, plays well.
- Rockets bring in 3 PG's, plays well.

However..

- Team is doing great, plays crap.
- Media praises him, plays crap.
- Team trades PG, plays crap.


Here's what happens. Rafer is great when he concentrates on making sure the best shot is available to the offense - whether it's him shooting or someone else. So when he's concentrating, he passes well and scores well.

However, when the team does well, he gets a bit full of himself, begins beleiving that for him to take the shot is better than the pass. So that's a combination of poor shot selection + poor passing.

This is what kills Rafer. It's his confidence and his concentration. They are INVERSELY correlated.

 

I definitely agree with this. He's a PG from streeetbal, making 4M a season. I don't expect him to be able to focus for more than 30 minutes per game. Knowing that he will play 40 minutes regardless of his play is a problem. Case in point, when there were people who were challenging his spot and thus his minutes were reduced to around 30, he was playing EXCELLENT basketball.

 

Rafer started playing better as soon as Aaron Brooks started putting up numbers in his limited minutes.. It's like when he sees that his job is in jeopardy.. he ups his level of play.. maybe Adelman needs to have B-Jax take some of Rafer's minutes.. send him the message that his job is not safe.

 

This is a real point guard. Alston is nothing like this guy he brings his streetball onto the NBA court. He has become a "me first" point guard that turned him into a point shooter and not a pass first point guard setting up his team mates. All Alston really does is bring the ball up the court then passes it and hangs out on the perimeter to his weakness.


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Im a firm believer that if Alston sets up his team mates then they start hitting thier shots. When guys start shooting poorly its because they are trying to create their own jump shot without anybody setting them up. This is very true that the team hits their shots when Alston finds them or in some cases T-Mac the same thing. Head missed shots trying to shoot off the dribble instead of the catch and shoot same with Scola. The team clicks when their is ball movement which turns into high percentage shooting games. Alot of this has to do with Alston though because if its a bad pass or a no pass at all then we shoot poorly.

 

Something else i noticed is Alston the last 4 games has been taking tomany shots and doesnt know when to stop taking them most his shots are taking away from Battier in the flow of the offense. Either he is forcing the floater or not passing to him in the corner. Also his assist has decreased the last 5 games to well below his average. I dont think his head is into the game anymore. Its not like he is trying to find Battier or he is not dishing to Scola off the pick or something but something has been screwed up the last 5 games. I mean he is taking just tomany shots for a guy who isnt known for his shooting and it appears he doesnt read the defense and counter it by penetrating and dishing off but rather take a jumper or a floater and even the floaters has been contested so he not making the extra pass its obvious or team mates are in the wrong place.

 

Yea he is awesome his name is Surgio Rodriguez he now playes for Portland rotting on their bench behind Roy and Jack.

 

His nickname is Spanish Chocolate.

...and that free throw he hit 1/3 into the video was SWEET! Lets sign him up. Anybody that can hit a free throw seems great right now.

 

We had a similar guy rotting on our bench last year as well.

Sergio is only 21.....and this is his 2nd year in the NBA, if he doesn't fit in Portland than by all means try to pry him away.

I would even trade our late first round pick to bring him in...

DD

 

I don't remember but i don't think Sergio Rodriquez is a great shooter either. I think its the only reason he doesn't play much. In adleman's offense and with our team we need a point that is a good shooter more than anything else. Tmac's biggest strength (even bigger than his scoring) is his passing, so everyone else needs to be able to score wherever they're at when open.

This is the reason we can play so well with Rafer starting because we don't need a great pg. We would be fine if we had a knock down 3pt shooter playing pg. Someone like Head with a better handle on the ball.

 

I think a lot of our guys fall under the streaky shooter moniker.

Tracy (game to game or half to half)
Yao (game to game, depending on D)
Rafer (just plain streaky)
Battier (game to game)
Scola (game to game)
Bjackson (game to game)
Head (usually solid, but in a slump now)
Novak (seems solid, not enough data)
Landry (seems consistent to me, dunks are high percentage baskets)
Anyone else (not an offensive threat at all, or not enough PT)

I mean, that's why numbers are talked about in averages. That's why if a guy scores, oh say, 8 and 11 in a couple games, it's OK. He AVERAGES over 20 (or whatever it is ).

Regarding Rafer, it's just how he is. I don't like some of his shots, but it's his confidence. And hey, everyone should shoot with confidence. At least with Rafer, he'll take one bad shot, and chill out instead of continuing to chuck up shots. He'll usually stick to open looks or shot clock critical shots at that point.