That may be part of it, but it's plain and simple, he'll exert the energy on defense if he has to. He doesn't exactly fight through screens ya know? If the game is on the line, he'll play D. Otherwise, he'll coast and use his energy on the offensive end. Love it or hate it, that's what it seems to be. Until it starts to actually cost us games this season, I'm not going to gripe about it.
I think it's more the fact that Rafer is just that much better defensively than the other PGs on the roster. Plus there aren't a ton of PGs who go off for big points night in and night out. Off the top of my head I can think of Baron Davis, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Tony Parker and sometimes Steve Nash and Chauncey Billups. Add Iverson if you consider him a PG. That's leaves 23 other starting PGs who, more often than not, aren't going to put up dominate performances, especially against such a great team defense (Rockets as a team have the highest defensive rating in the league). Holy comma overkill, Batman!
Tmac plays defense down the stretch... he needs to rest a little on defense since we rely on him to be the play maker on O. How about last night when ran down that guy on the break and blocked his layup?? Was that lazy?? running down a freaking PG on the break and then jumping above the rim to get the block... give the guy a break...
If Telfair is gettng 12 assists and 0 turnovers on Alston, I cringe to think what the good PG in the West will do come playoff time should this team make it.
I think people mistake his style of defense for laziness. There is no way that he can be as great on defense and on offense so he sags in the paint to help in the post and play the passing lanes. The only other perimeter player on his level offensively that plays "lock down" defense is Kobe and I think he is an even beter defender than he is given credit for. Did anyone watch USA basketball? Kobe shut down everyone he played but he didn't score like usual. When the season started he wasn't shutting those same Barbosas and others down. When Tracy was on other teams he showed more defensive tenacity because he wasn't depended on to run the offense (Yes he runs the offense and better than anyone else here see recent wins).
He is definitly a peaker....same as Francis and they lose their men too often. But when the game is on the line he locks down. DD
Well, according to the Minnesota announcers last night, Telfair plays like Steve Nash. And they also said that Al Jefferson is a better post scorer than Yao Ming. Of course, according to this board, Carl Landry is either going to be the next Amare Stoudamire or Carlos Boozer. The folly of judging a player by 1 game.
The Magic weren't depending on TMac for offense? What are you smoking? Thats why he led the league in scoring with them. They had absolutely no one else. He was option 1 2 3 and 4 for them. The reason his scoring average has gone down with the Rockets is because we have Yao and others to help. As we have gotten better offensive players he has attempted less and less shots and thus scored less. But this is a defense thread so let's not argue a topic that the answer is obvious anyways.
What I am saying isn't really speaking to how good Telfair is on offense but more on how Rafer is getting beat at PG. Chris Paul and Deron Williams recently just ate him alive and those are the kind of PGs he is going to see in the playoffs.
You're right, I was more so thinking of his stint with the raptors were they used his length and athleticism to guard positions 1-4. But the idea remains the same, even if he was as good as them on defense, he couldn't play defense like Artest, Bowen, Marion, Bell, Gerald Wallace because the team would suffer offensively.
Wow that's just wonderful, the thread didn't even mention Tmac effecting Yao and there's always gotta be some TOF or YoH to step up and start attacking Yao. Well done~ wut u just said was more of Anti-Yao than complaining about the Anti-Tmac threads.
Its anti Yao, sure, but there is a reason for it. Because while I was watching the game I kept thinking man Al Jefferson is killing Yao and Yao is sucking on defense, 5 rebounds total!!!?!! Al had 16!! Forget points scored, I don't care about that, great offensive players are hard to stop, but 5 rebounds?! Funnily what do I see after the game? This thread.. lol talk about YOFs pre-empting any comments about Yao.. haha its crazy. I see it as attack on TMac when clearly at least this game Yao didnt do well defensively.
He definitely doesn't go all out on defense the whole game, but considering how much he already does for the team, he's got to conserve energy somewhere. I agree that when the game is on the line though, he definitely goes into lockdown mode.
Yeha the Raptors sure used TMac well. They used him for defense and didn't allow him to be a offensive guy along with cuz VC. Imagine if they had TMac and VC at SG SF all these years. If they could find a decent post guy that would be a contender without anyone at the other two starting positions. Off topic but I think the trading away TMac without getting a lot in return is when VC first started thinking about getting out of Toronto.
