All people are saying is that Rafer was missed tonight. You dont have to take it as an attack on Brooks. I think it just showed why Alston should still be the starter. Brooks obviously struggled on defense tonight, and that was against George Hill. Im scared to think what might happen tomorrow with CP3. Saying Hill was due for a career night and might have done even better on Alston makes no sense cuz you could make any random statement like that. For instance, I could say it is just as likely that Rafer playing D on Hill would have shut him out and we would have won. Cant prove either statement so it makes no sense. All we know is Brooks struggled guarding him. More importantly, Brooks seemed to really struggle in the role of starter instead of his bench role of instant offense. He shot too much at times and too many of his entry passes were low or kicked by the defender. I think he is perfectly suited to come in and fire away which shouldnt be the case with the starting unit. Finally, saying Alston was missed simply means it would have been nice for him to take the min that Head and Wafer got. Head is simply not a point guard and Wafer didnt offer much more.
Of course there are things Rafer does better than Brooks but most of those things are because of experience (setting up the offense, playing team defense). I don't think Alston offers anything offensively that Brooks can't bring, other than handing the ball off to Tracy or Ron or Yao more often. Alston is the better choice to start right now but I'm not so sure he makes the difference tonight when Tracy is a no show and Yao isn't protecting the rim for crap. Yes, Alston is better at calling out plays and getting people in their spots but it's not like he's great at creating. He usually just hands the ball off to another player and stands out on the 3pt line. With the way McGrady played tonight, we needed Brooks' scoring. We very well may have lost by more with Alston in there. Maybe we would have won. Nobody knows for sure. Alston missing may have had no impact at all. Alston's team defense is better but his one-on-one defense is consistently overrated. He gets burned just as easily as Brooks. Watch carefully next time Alston plays and we can revisit this. I am willing to bet that Rafer gets beat just as much. Usually there is better interior defense from our bigs when guards burn by Alston. It could have just been crap defense from our bigs tonight. It's not like our interior defense has been anything special to start the season. Our team defense has been awful in several games. You are leaning toward Alston's presence being the key down the stretch. That very well may have been the case but it's not like we haven't blown games like this with Alston starting. The bottom line is I still think Alston should be starting for now but we may be getting close to the time where we need to hand the reigns over. Alston has plenty of weaknesses that hurt us game in and game out and Brooks solves some of those problems. Brooks will improve at several small things that just take experience. Alston will never improve at his weaknesses (poor shooting, lack of penetration).
TMac isn't as good as he used to be at creating for himself. With Rafer running the offense, he can get the ball to TMac coming off picks and Yao down low. Face the facts RA haters. This game proves that Alston is by far the best floor general we have. Until Morey trades for someone better or Brooks improves enough to be better than Rafer(which I think he will), Rafer is our starter. That's not saying Rafer is more than an average PG. That's saying we go with the best point we have.
rafer haters are hilarious when tmac sucks it up like he has so many times this season, they still blame rafter..........when their barack obama pg mesiah in aaron brooks stinks it up like he did tonight it's now "ohhh it's Tmac's fault, he shot 2-12"
I just felt that most people were going to overreact so I wanted to pump out some counter-arguments to balance out the discussion. I agree that we needed Rafer tonight. There is no doubt about that. I just wouldn't put much blame on Brooks, if any. Several other players played poorly. As far as worrying about guarding Paul tomorrow, the dude torches Rafer and most every other player in the league. I think Rafer's real value is mostly with team defense. He is much better than Brooks in that regard right now but Brooks' offensive abilities roughly nullify Rafer's advantage in that area the way I see it and Brooks' team defense will improve with experience. I am still not convinced that Brooks can be a quality starter in this league but I've never seen Rafer as a quality starter either. In that sense, I'm about in the middle on who should be starting. I understand that it's better to have a PG that defers with our starting lineup but we also need a guy to hit open shots. I think Brooks can more easily learn to defer and set up plays than Rafer can learn to shoot and penetrate/finish.
Tracy has a history of being a no-show when Rafer misses games. That could make a difference. And if you have better perimeter defenders preventing penetration, then Yao isn't exposed as much in the interior. The blame for all those George Hill layups can't be solely placed on Yao. Remember what JVG always stressed? Guys have to take pride in their individual man defense. We don't know for sure. But its clear to me that Brooks isn't as comfortable playing with Tracy and Yao as Alston is. We can chalk that up to experience, but I think that was a factor in this game. I don't agree with that. I think Alston has better strength and length as well, so he's better at recovering off screens and contesting shots. Also, there isn't a clear distinction between team defense and one-on-one defense. Part of being a good individual defender is understanding angles and knowing how to shade your man to best take advantage of help. Alston is more advanced in this respect. Alright.
You know BrooksBall, I knew this silly ass thread was coming. I forgot the rox are undefeated with Rafer. I forgot the team avg 110 per game with Rafer. I forgot all these great things Rafer does for this team. If you want to tell me Rafer being out shortens the bench, that's cool, but when we hear how nothing goes right without him, go look at the last 10 games when he was out last yr. Bobby Jackson and Brooks did well as did the rox. What we have is a case of overblowitis. The rox lost the game because Tracy and Yao didn't play well. Hill and Duncan did. Brooks had nothing to do with Duncan dropping 22 to Yao's 13. Brooks had nothing to do with tracy going 2-12 or matt bonner scoring 11pts. Now Hill on th other hand, brooks couldve played him better, but its his 1st freaking start. I've seen rafer getting torched a lot by younger guys. Does anyone remember the playoffs when williams killed him in the 4th. The team has to play better, but this whole Rafer is the greatest is crazy.
This is a new year and we have Brooks and Head. Luther Head is not a point guard. Nobody is making Rafer out to be the greatest player. This is less about Rafer and more to the fact that without Rafer or Brooks we will struggle because we don't have a third PG.
You make good points, durvasa. Rafer is definitely the better defender. I still think his defensive advantages come more from experience than being 2 inches taller. He knows angles better from experience and I think that Alston is a poor pick and roll defender. I don't think he has any significant physical gifts that give him the edge over Brooks. I think the gap would close considerably with Brooks getting experience. Having said that, we shouldn't throw Brooks into the starting role right now but we should continue increasing his minutes. No matter how one twists it, Rafer has tremendous weaknesses for a starting PG and we have to start moving in another direction, whether that is through trade or increasing Aaron's role. As far as T-Mac underperforming with Alston out, I'd have to see the statistics. He was a better scorer when he first came to Houston when Alston wasn't even a Rocket yet. I think that was mostly due to health but I still have doubts about how much Alston impacts Tracy's offensive performance. I don't see enough that Rafer does to create easy shots for him and others like good PGs around the league do. T-Mac is a one-on-one player and I don't see Alston feeding him that often with McGrady coming around screens. He usually hands it off to to him somewhere on the perimeter or passes it to him after he posts up. I'm pretty confident that Brooks is capable of doing that too.
T-mac has performed well with Darrell Armstrong,Tyronn Lue running as his PG. His underachieving has to do with injuries and him mentally not being there. Doesn't have much to do with Rafer being there or not being there.
I respect everybody's opinions but I'm 100% with you on this one, leebigez. Everything you just said, I tried to bring up in earlier posts. And, yes, I remember Williams blowing by Rafer for two massive dunks late in the 4th as if Rafer wasn't even on the court. Most of Rafer's defensive advantages, in my opinion, stem from experience. I don't think Brooks will ever be a terrific defender but I think he can improve a lot. I also think that Brooks' potential at the other end far outweighs the differences between the two players on defense. Brooks can improve at the subtle things like cutting off angles and playing better defense, calling out plays and getting others in position. Rafer clearly won't improve at shooting, penetrating and breaking down opposing defenses. In the age of no hand-checking on the perimeter, good guards will always blow by even the best perimeter defenders. That's why interior defense is so critical and why the Celtics are so difficult to score against. Any slight advantage Alston has in height/strength is balanced out by Brooks' unparalleled quickness. Brooks seems to be a good listener and willing to learn. He can shore up more defensive weaknesses than Alston can shore up offensive weaknesses.
I would dispute that. I think McGrady is most comfortable playing alongside Rafer Alston. And Bonner scored most of his points on PnR's involving Aaron Brooks. I'd mostly fault Landry, but Brooks does have to share some responsibility for those scores.
Adelman blamed those open looks for Bonner solely on Landry: Bonner hit his two 3-pointers when Carl Landry stepped away from him to follow the point guard, rather than cut off the ball-handler and return to his man. "If he makes the point guard veers out, he's only two or three steps away from his guy," Adelman said. "He showed flat both times and couldn't get back in time." http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6113262.html
Like I said, I'd mostly fault Landry. But one of the things Rafer is good at on defense is he communicates. Landry is less likely to make that mistake if he's guarding that pick-and-roll with Rafer alongside him.
He would have made no difference tonight at all...Tmac still choked in the 4th quarter, with Brooks running the show they built a 14 point lead....then Tmac took the ball and blew it. DD
Durvasa, Brooks had nothing to do with mcgrady's poor shooting. Rafer doesn't get tracy any easy baskets, he doesn't set him up either. Now if its emotional, then I don't know what to say about that. All that said, the Rox were up by 10 with 5mins left and gave up a 12-0 run. All they had to do is run a pnr with brooks and say artest or just put artest in the blocks and let him work. The team is still trying to figure it out, but they shouldve won this game.
when you need your entire team complete and present.. to win against a team missing two of the three players they most depend on in their offense... it's just a flat out ridiculous joke.. and when the only player missing to have said complete team is Rafer Alston.. and your team has Artest, Yao, Tracy, and role players the likes of Landry, Brooks, and Scola.. its an embarrassingly poor excuse of a joke.. when will people wake up to the absurdity of this situation..?
