the bad thing about Rafer is : he will always wide open. in fact, no starting PG in NBA is as open as Rafer. Even being that open, he shot at 37%. That was bad for TMAC and JVG's system. That will be even worse in Adelman's system. MJ >SF >> Rafer in real game.
I have read this several times. That the trade was a mistake. Now we have them both. Seems like it worked out well to me. Last year we would have had MJ and no other pg's instead of Rafer and no other pg's. You see this as a step up I see this as a sideways move at best. The main difference is that having a 4 on the floor with no offensive game would have been diminished by James ability to drive one on five every time down the court instead of Rafer shooting open threes every time down the court. I'm not so sure this wouldn't result in the same scoring trends but you seem positive this would have been the savior of the Rockets. Where was MJ's game last year? On the bench... for a reason... I like Mike, and I believe we need him on the team. We just have different reasons for wanting him here. I want him off of the bench and you want him as our starting point guard. It is painfully obvious to me that he isn't the right starting point guard for this team. Isn't it possible that if Skip only played 26 to 28 minutes a game last year he would have been more effective? Even so, he played EVERY game and mostly played well considering our other offensive liabilities. They both have their purpose for this team. It's only been two preseason games but already we see the same thing we saw last year when Skip wasn't on the court. The offense goes into a completely different mindset and it isn't for the better. Watching that full court press during a stretch of last night's game was a perfectly painful example of what happens when he isn't on the court. I don't worry about things like that when Rafer is out there but plug in anyone else on this team (other than Brooks who still has to prove he can play defense) and I'm expecting the worst - and the worst happened about three times in a row last night. It is hard for me to believe people would want to go back and re-trade Skip to keep James. We have them both as a result of those trades (and moved Howard for James this last go-round). Seems like it worked out pretty well to me.
I would go back and reverse the trade for Alston and James in a heartbeat. I know last year with James starting I would have watched more than seven rocket playoff games for sure.
I for one would be extremely disappointed if we trade anyone of the three. With all the all-star point guards in the league (Nash,Chris Paul,Kidd,D.Wililams), I'd say we could use all three of them. Kind of like a three-headed monster, running one after the other at the others guards. They all have their own strengths and weakness and IMO would run other point guards in circles. As Coach RA said, the problem comes on the defensive side. IMO the best defense is offense. If these guys can coexist, they're keepers. That means for the 1 & 2 spots we keep Rafter, Steve, James, and Head. Let go Lucas, Sura, and send brooks to D-league. Brooks is good, But he is a rookie with no chance of breaking the line up. Now that leaves T-mac, Battier and Bonzi to fill the 3 and sometimes 4 spot. We've seen Scola step in at the 5 spot and of coarse Hayes in the 4. If for some strange reason some gets injured there's plenty of depth on the roster. BTW did anyone notice that this Rockets team didn't miss a beat without T-mac? I'd say there keepers, a three-headed monster that could easily put up 25-35 points a game. Did we get anyone that could put up those kind of numbers against the Jazz? Now we do! Go Rockets!! It's Time!!
When you look at it like, "Now we have both", then yeah ... technically it's worked out well (when you remove elements like having to pay both contracts, no Juwan, etc.). When you look at it like, "We wasted two years of prime from Yao and T-Mac and an entire coaching staff and system have been torpedoed", not so much. Who are you and what have you done to BrockStapper?
Man, we're 2 games into the PRESEASON. Let's give all these guys (the obvious ones) at least half a season to see how they pan out. I'm pretty sure we're going to be disappointed and pleasantly surprised by some people by that point.
the difference is everybody has bad games in the NBA but skip had to play the whole game when he wasnt feeling it from three wit most nba pg's if they are having a bad game they will be subbed out but skip had to play through his bad games so if he is having a 1 for 6 night you could easily put mike in or vice versa and you keep bringing up shooting % have you seen him on the bucks,miami,toronto he never shot a good % but he did other things well on the court
Great post man. Seriously that's how you battle opposing point guards, you tire them out playing defense. and most teams just rely on one guy at the point so therefore he's gonna get tired chasing around 3 different style point guards. I think that rafer and luther are not just gonna shoot threes but start shooting more midrange shots to help their game. Plus you dont stand in one spot in this offense. If rafer goes unguarded then guess what...... he's just gonna roll to the basket and make an easy shot like he did with yao in the first game. as long as we get 25-30 points from the point guard position, we are gonna score more than 100 points per game. What the heck is the problem? If you dont play these guys big minutes anyways, you are gonna minimize their weaknesses. And if one's screwing up or injured, you have someone else to plug in there and make the offense work.
how do you know that? did you see mike james last year he was horrible because just like steve he doesnt play well with big men(meaning centers or power fowards
James thrived in JVG's system. when he was with us he made 3s and attacked the basket. he was the prototypical PG in a Van Gundy offense. if we had him last year i have no doubt we would've beaten the Jazz.
i'm sick of all this James bashing. "he sucked last year" etc.... Guess what? francis has sucked ever since he left Houston!! he has NEVER done well in a structured offense. it's just sickening to see you all give francis a pass just because he's a fan favorite. the argument goes both ways, but James has actually proven he can play with T-Mac and Yao.
And I'm sick of all your Francis bashing. The only thing James has proven to us is he can put the ball in the hoop. Whether it's a pull up 3 or going 1-on-5. I still have nightmares of James waving off T-Mac in the PLAYOFFS and trying to drive on the entire Dallas team only to get his layup thrown into the stands during a crucial moment in the game. James is a great player but the only thing he's really proved is that he is a drama queen with a HUGE mouth. He had ONE good year on a bad team during a contract year. Let's wait before we say he has proved he can play with Yao and T-Mac.
He has proven that he can play with Yao and TMac. he did it a few seasons ago. If you want to base his whole season on one incident in the playoffs, well then there is no use debating it with you
He's already proven he can play with T-Mac and Yao. He gave us much needed points so many times when we were in scoring droughts against Dallas. James never waved off T-Mac. noone is that stupid. T-Mac waved at James to run a play instead of going dribble crazy. Plus, now yo know how Van Gundy feels when he was nightmares of Francis going dribble crazy You can't deny that James didn't fit in when he with us 2 years ago. James has proven he can play with T-Mac and Yao much more than Francis can.
Rafer has sucked his entire career. This thread is absolutely ridiculous on so many levels. What's most hilarious is how the OP says the only reason we shouldn't trade Francis and Head is because they have a high trade value. LMAO.
