Rafer is not good and will not continue to shoot the way has in the preseason unless he bought some special edition "Better Basketball" videos with Mike Bibby. He is a serviceable backup point guard because he takes care of the ball and plays D. If he plays more than 20 minutes a game this year, we are hosed.
So what do you want him to do? Pass up the open shot with 10 seconds on the clock to a guy who has a defender on him, and get a worse shot? Do you have any idea how basketball is played? You will not find a coach who'll tell a player to pass up a wide open shot, which the player has a 37% chance of making, to another guy with a defender on him just to drive into a crowd or take a fadeaway with the clock winding down. Seriously, the amount of biasness against Rafer on this board is insane. The man can do no right to some people. And there are even some who can predict and bet arms and legs that he will "definitely not shoot as well as he did these 2 games for the rest of the season". Get a grip. Rafer is who he is. I don't claim that he is a great shooter. I don't even claim that he is anywhere near a scorer. But the facts are that last year, his role was to take the open shot, and get the ball to Mac and Yao. Which he did well. In fact, I'd rather Rafer take the first available open 3 that the defense gives him, than see Tmac get the ball with 3 seconds left and taking a horribly contested fadeaway. Even Kobe can't make a decent percentage of those shots. If a guy as limited as Rafer has to play 30+ minutes a game because there is nobody who's even near capable of backing him up without the offense stalling, anybody who's not an all-star will look bad. What do you think will happen when we see James or Francis play 38/39 minutes a game on that team? Y'all will be screaming for their heads to get the ball to Tmac and Yao and have 5 different trade James/Francis threads after every game. Learn to be objective guys. Blind fanboyism/hating just pisses people off.
I haven't jumped on any bandwagon. I don't think the worst shooter in the NBA should be a starter. He also choked in the playoffs. I think it would be a big mistake to rely on him this year even if he appears to turn it around, because come playoff time, he won't be able to handle the top PG's in the west.
I'm not talking about wide open shots. Read what I said and settle down. And yes, I understand basketball. I played for a long time. I have no problem with Rafer taking wide open shots. I do have a problem with the drives to the hoop that he cannot ever finish and shooting right when he brings the ball up the court. I've always complained about him and I guess my memory is a bit longer than yours
I haven't jumped on his wagon yet and probably won't. I don't mind him being on the team as long as his role and minutes aren't anything major. If he can step aside and let our other guards play come playoff time, then hey.. I'm alright.
Battier is actually good for a fantasy team - always underrated, but he usually ends up near the top 50 of ESPN's player rater, because he does a little bit of everything even though he doesn't score much (gets threes, steals, blocks, with a good fg %).
let's look at the point-guards assist to turnover ratio through the first two games: RA: 10-1 ( 10 ASSISTS 1 TURNOVER) in about 50 minutes played MJ: 6-4 ( 6 ASSISTS 4 TURNOVERS) in about 50 minutes played Steve Franchise: 4-6 (4 assists 6 turnovers) in about 25 minuted played RA also has the most 3 pters made out of this group and it should be noted that MJ hasn't made a 3 this pre-season.
i took that into consideration by looking at the minutes played which give francis some slack because he's only played half the minutes of MJ & RA
RA led those two in all categories last season as well and he helped the rockets get to the playoffs which can't be said for MJ or Francis last season
He missed them both, huh? That b*stard! He may never make one. Except of course FG%, 3P%, FT% and any other non-volume stat not impacted by ridiculous minutes played by Rafer. Might be hard for them to help the Rockets get to the playoffs last season when they weren't on the roster. The funny thing is both are ex-Rockets who have done just that. Keep spinning those smoothies.
Do you think the same could be said about MJ and SF3? I'm sure of one thing, and that is when the Rockets acquired those two either via trade or free agency, they had aspirations that either one of them would just get on in and replace Rafer as the team's starting PG much the same way that Kenny Smith, did in replacing Eric "Sleepy" Floyd 17 years ago. Let's just say that if either one of them don't succeed, then we all will be disappointed with those two, won't we? Aaron Brooks might be able to eventually replace Rafer at some time down the road. Right now, he just needs to shake off the butterflies, if anything. It might be best if the Rockets send him down to the D league to give him a chance to play his way out of his nervousness. If he starts tearing it up over there, then that is when they could try bringing him on into the rotation.
the hate for Rafer and love for Francis this summer has been a bit ridiculous. i like both players, but on this board people seem to be talking as if Francis is going to magically become the player he was years ago while Rafer shouldn't even be in the NBA. i think Rafer should and will be starting for us at PG at the start of the season. I wouldn't say he's necessarily the best PG on the team, but I do think he's the best PG to run this team at this time. only time will tell, but i do think he does a good job of running the team and compliments the other starters on the floor better than the other PGs on the roster.
That was Brooks' first game in the NBA. If it had been Rafer or MJ we could have blamed them but that was the rookie. I can even say he amaze mt with his speed.
Last season I detested Rafer Alston and thought he was the key to the Rockets failures, but if you look at the stats the Rockets success and failure had very little to do with Rafer Alston (Wins and losses were not determined at all by his shooting %). The Rockets success and failure have a direct correlation with T mac and Yao's percentages not with Rafer. Be angry at the fact Yao Ming did not dominate Okur last year in the playoffs. Be angry at the fact Yao couldn't get a rebound at the end of game seven. Be angry at all the jump shots T mac took in the first half of game seven instead of taking it to the hole every time like he did in the third quarter. Be infuriated at the fact that when the Rockets were coming back in game six T mac took two jump shots instead of taking it to the rack. With that being said I love both players and (If Yao is healthy all season he will win MVP this year) and our starting line up last year. If you look at the Lenovo stat from last year the Rockets I believe had the greatest points of any time in terms of their starting line up. They weren't the best team last year because they lacked that third consistent scorer which has been more than addressed this season. Keep the starting line up as is from last year and use Wells, James, and Scolas to add an offensive punch when need be. Oh yea and lets see if because of rest Rafer's shooting percentage doesn't go up some.
