I don't know Rafer sucks that much, but I know Brooks sucks more, at least now. Everything you blame Rafer, inconsistent, etc, you can say the same about Brooks. In addition, Brooks can't play the point.
Well both are NY born and from the interviews when we got Ron I can see his sympathy for Alston. I don't think he likes this trade so much.
Brooks may have the better shot, but, you can't sit there and tell me he'll run the offense better than Skip. Don't believe me? See: vs. the Jazz in the playoffs last year when we didn't have Skip. It was a mess. Also take into consideration while Brooks is as quick as lightning, Skip held more then his own on the defensive side of things. Good luck to Aaron Brooks guarding the opposition's PG.
Player G GS MPG FG% 3p% FT% OFF DEF TOT APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG Rafer Alston 48 48 33.1 .370 .348 .789 .50 2.50 3.00 5.4 1.19 .15 1.83 1.50 11.5 4 millions salary for these stats. Not bad.
Rafer is a great backup PG, barely servicable starter. But he's still the best PG we've had for the past few years. And he's always been professional about his business. People would not be complaining about this trade if his replacement was actually marginally BETTER then Rafer.
Whats the deal with people saying well now we have too undersized PGs? Lowry is short but hes stronger than rafer. And its not like rafer was a big guy either. This is an upgrade IMO, and a good move to get younger at a position of need.
I am somewhat of a "Rafer hater" but due to his good personality and attitude he has also grown on me. His often times questionable shot selection and subpar shooting % will strangely enough be missed....until Brooks and Lowry have excellent games, then the mourning will quickly end. Although my concern is that a Brooks/Lowry backcourt may not be better than an Alston/Brooks backcourt....
Never understood this whole running of the offense thing , me and my boys used to run this "offense" in our driveways. It aint that hard to run, drop it down to Yao and stand there, if your man leaves to double, get ready to shoot, it aint Rocket Science people. Where we MAY miss Rafer is on defense where I could see AB getting abused by the bigger points in the league. Offensively we will not miss Skip to my Brick.
the Van Gundy influence. Plus they have good three point shooting in place already, they can afford to have rafer on the court. Its a good fit for the magic.
Lowry could barely get playing time on a lowly Grizzlies team. He's not that good, point blank. As another poster above me said, had the Rockets got a player marginally better than Skip, then this trade would be more palpable. We didn't. And Brooks isn't ready to play 30+ minutes a game.
If you were going to get rid of Rafer at least get a guy that was clearly better. We now have two backup PGs, Lowry couldn't even win the starting PG job on a poor team like the Griz, I don't get it unless it was a salary cap move.
I thought Rafer was the only 2 players that knows how to throw a pass to Yao, now he's gone, i'd really see Brent Barry play 1, with Wafer, Ron, Scola and Yao starting.
Rafer succks monkey nads! Lowry is a better defender, finisher, more athletic, dont tell me rafer is a facilitator, cause he aint. The only things Skip has better is a better 3 point shot. Anything within the 2 point range, Lowry smokes him. This guy is a beast on defense. Watch.
