The Significance of Rafer Alston

Rafer & T-Mac are like PB & J. T-Mac can't do it without him.

 

Yeah he disappeared in Game 7 last year against Utah without Rafer.

T-mac has these type of games with or without Rafer throughout the year.

We need Rafer because he is the only one that can run the offense. When Brooks went to the bench tonight, poor ole Luther Head struggled again running the point.

 

Rafer's nickname should be "Mr. Intangibles" since everyone seems to not realize what he brings to the team.

 

How is this on Rafer not being here? It's not like we run a high motion offense anyway. Our offense is basically Yao, TMac or Ron doing a 1v1. Simple as that. What does Rafer do? Run the ball up and pass it off.

 

You need to watch Alston more carefully next time he is out there. He gets burned regularly too.

Parker has only been out for a couple of games. Hill was bound to have a career night once he got more minutes considering he's never had a big game and only started a couple of times.

The fact is you have no idea if Hill wouldn't have done the same thing to Alston, or maybe even worse. Alston gets beat off the dribble all the time. Yao was horrible protecting the rim. 0 blocks and few, if any, altered shots.

Everybody thinks they know the answer but there is really no telling after one game against one of the best defensive teams in the league.

Brooks made mistakes but he also did stuff that Alston never does. He chased down loosed balls and hit shots Rafer rarely hits.

Parker struggled mightily early in his career but Popovich played him through it and now look at him. I'm not saying Brooks is Parker but you shouldn't overreact and make too many assumptions based on one game.

What about T-Mac's disappearing act? Tracy is a one-on-one player with or without Rafer. He very well may have just sucked tonight like he did in the LA games when Rafer was playing, regardless of who was playing PG.

 

You mean like when T-Mac went 1-for-16 over two games in LA with Rafer starting?

 

You completely missed the point of my post.

 

If you can't see how Rafer not being there hurts us then I don't know how we could help you see that.

 

At least somebody else is considering this possibility.

I'm not saying I know the answer either because obviously I don't but McGrady has disappeared in a number of games this season with Alston starting.

There could very well be other explanations for what happened tonight.

 

rafer's significance is that he knows how to get Yao the ball at the low post and that is the only reason why he is kept in this team despite of his poor performance in other parts of the game.

 

Throughout the first 8 games of the 2008-2009 season...

When Aaron Brooks is on the court, Rockets opponents score 105.7 pts per 100 possessions. When he is off the court, that number shrinks to 99 pts per 100; Brooks has a net effect of +6.7 opp pts per 100 poss. on the defense.

When Rafer is on the court, Rockets opponents score 98.6 pts per 100 possessions. When he is off the court, that number increases to 106.4 per 100; Rafer has a net effect of -7.8 opp pts per 100 poss. on the defense.

Summed up, that means Rafer allows 14.5 less opp pts per 100 poss. then Brooks.

http://www.82games.com/0809/08HOU2D.HTM

All on 82games.

 

We need Rafer because when Aaron Brooks is forced to start we have no point guard to back them up.

Luther Head jumping in the air traveling in the 1st half off a simple inbound pass to get across half court should tell you guys why it is important for Rafer to not be suspended or hurt.

 

My guess is that Brooks' net effect on the game was about equal to what Alston typically brings.

People are acting like there is no way we would have lost with Rafer Alston out there. Nobody knows that. We've lost plenty of games we should have won when Rafer started.

I'd say Brooks did a decent job considering this was his first legitimate start with all the key players healthy. There are some growing pains for every player.

I would definitely put more blame on McGrady than anybody else. He's supposed to be our top scorer and go to guy. 7 pts on 2-for-12 shooting for a guy that plays one-on-one basketball no matter who is playing point.

McGrady was worse than Brooks tonight and I don't think Alston could have made Tracy play more aggressively or hit open shots.

 

Rafer is the worst starting PG in the NBA.

 

I guarantee George Hill wouldnt have his stat line if Alston played. Also, Yao wouldnt only have 9 shots. And Alston would have 5+ assists.

 

Brooks did a hell of a job and should be applauded for having the guts to drive in on Duncan at all of 4'10" when our beloved 6'8" Tracy was too timid to come inside himself.

 

I fully agree with that point. I'm also not completely rejecting the possibility that we win this game with Rafer. I'm just not going to jump to that conclusion when McGrady is a no show and Yao isn't doing crap to protect the paint.

Statistically, Brooks was decent tonight. I also don't think people should use the fact that Hill had a career night as evidence that Brooks' defense was the reason we lost. Parker has only missed a couple of games so Hill was bound to have a career night when he started getting significant minutes and his career high was like 12 pts or whatever. Alston plays better team defense for sure but some people are overstating his one-on-one abilities. He gets burned all the time too. He ususally gets better help in the paint than what our bigs offered tonight.

 

Unless you think the Rockets GM, coach, and player personnel guys are idiots, you must recognize that there are things Rafer does better than Brooks. Otherwise he wouldn't be the starter, getting most of the minutes. Obviously Alston isn't a better shooter. He isn't a better one-on-one player. He isn't a better finisher. What does that leave? Setting up the half-court offense, making decisions in crunch time, and playing defense. That's what we were missing in the 4th quarter of this game.

 

I agree with what you're saying and understand. People need to get over this thing of T-mac having a bad game because Rafer isn't here. T-mac has up and down games like this no matter who is the PG.

I think coaching has been the biggest problem. The princeton offense just isn't working with this crew. We need to pound the ball into Yao instead of having him play in the high post.

 

Ahh I screwed up it was Game 6 and Rafer played until halftime. I still think the difference between T-mac having a bad or good game is how aggressive he is.

T-mac being aggressive on offense has nothing to do with Rafer being there.