It's funny how opinions of this guy has changed, now that he is a Rocket. Not very good reflection of 'unbiased' Rocket fans.
Shocker, was checking tsn.com about my fantasy football teams and saw a story about this and had to run over here to see what is up. Looks nice, hopefully it pans out for everyone.
Thats actually not a horrible contract. If after 2 years the Rockets realize that Alston is not working out for them I dont think it will be impossible to trade that contract. After looking at some of his stats I think he can be a big upgrade over James in terms of passing the ball and running the offense. His 3 point shooting is about the same as James (though with Yao and T-mac he should get alot more open shots) and I dont know how good of a defender he will be. Hopefully he leaves his attitude in Canada and buys into the team concept that JVG preaches about. Also just looking at the bios and player stats of these two players I realized that they are extremely similar. Both the same height, same weight, almost same age (james 1 year older) and very similar numbers.
UNBIASED AND FANS dont fit in the same sentence..........this was a surprise move as in who came in....but James' days were numbered.. ROckets wouldn't take in any bigger (okay with longer) contracts that will push the team into luxary tax zone..
Any rumours of Main Event or Hot Sauce getting non-guaranteed training camp contracts? I really think the professor could bring some energy to our bench.
I wish we could dump Moochie or Ward to get Skip instead of James. James is a perfect backup. I have mixed feeling about this too. How much defense can Alston play? Wonder if JVG called up his big brother Stan for his advice.
I wouldn't trust that number from wikipedia. Both patricia bender's site and hoophype has alston's contract at approx 6 year, $26 million. So that's 5 years and 22ish left on his deal. And someone earlier in this thread said that his last year is not guaranteed. If that's true then even better.
JVG saying he didn't want any more "boneheads" was probably a pre-cursor to this trade. He didn't want the team to be alarmed with this trade, so he let them know he wasn't getting anyone that would hurt the team. I think Alston can be an ideal long term guy if everything works out. I didn't realize Alston shot the 3 that well.
Good point Deckard - also, Sura's glum "retirement" quotes were a bit puzzling at the time. With advance knowledge of his starter role going out of the window, he might have been thinking about how he is going to rehab his butt off yet again only to be rewarded with bench minutes, and began to have second thoughts about whether it's all worth it (or said so publicly to discourage the Rox procuring a replacement). Now I'm worried about Sura. Oh, and Sura faints.
okay i've seen Alston play all last season...(Raptor Fan in Toronto)..we are glad we got rid of a trouble maker….but to my favorite team …here are some things I saw from last year: 1) His D needs VAST improvement…he lets people get by him…however he’s quick enough to keep up with players….though I think a good D coach like Van Gundy will help his game. 2) he tends to think he’s better than he really is…though with McGrady and Ming I think he will realize he is far from the #1 option in Houston 3) Great ball handling skills 4) Inconsistent…will play really well for a few games …then have a few off nights 5) Tends to like to shoot out of shooting slumps 6) If you want to know more about this guy go to www.fan590.com ...they are talking about him right now.
I think for the most part I'm echoing other peoples' thoughts here, but... Our biggest loss here is James' defense. There's nothing wrong with Rafer's D, but I haven't seen any attacking, aggressive defense out of him, as I've often seen from James. He's just... safe on D, not an impact on D. Plus, James is a better shooter, IMO. However, we do gain a playmaker, and the impact of that can be really tough to measure. I'm really sad to see Mike go. This is a big risk, and here's hoping it works out for the best.
i love this trade. alston is an above average 3 points shooting, good defender and good passer. all the things that mike james wasnt, he might not as fast as MJ though. i am even more excited now. this offseason as has been amazing.
I was one of maybe 3 people who liked the Wesley trade, and I'm going to give this trade my endorsement as well. Alston is probably the best passing PG we've had since...John Lucas? He has proven that he can hit the 3, and he will be a good enough defender. We now have 4 very good to great players entering their prime with long contracts. I read an article about skip last year, and his main beef was that the Raptors organization and coaching staff were a joke. Not to mention their best player was openly tanking games at the beginning of the year. Good trade. DA can help fill James' void as far as bench scoring.
