Update: Rafer Alston out a week (part of playoffs)

We are in some big trouble now. Are depth just took a hit, we will now be forced to live with atleast 10mins a game of Luther and Brooks on the floor together. Rafers defense is definetly the best of any of our point guards, and what is the strength to this freakin team? What about that game against CP3? Man we needed him to play big in whatever matchup we got. He does have off shooting nights but so does this whole team. I hope he gets back soon, because when he is on we are really hard to beat.

Lets see how you guys who think so highly of brooks think of him after this series. I hope you dont judge him by it because he is going to be abused night in and night out. All you hear the so called experts talk about is how you need great point play in the playoffs and we officially have the worst starting pg situation except for maybe Orlando.

F#*K!!!! Why us, every freakin year?!?! Makes me sick.

Oh well, BJ and Brooks how you play your asses off and dont crumble at the challege.

 

I would love for T-Mac to play the Point on offense, while Brooks, Jackson and Head take the role of secondary ball handler and scorer.

On defense, T-Mac can guard Deron, and the other guys can guard whoever's out there based on matchups.

I like it. Take away T-Mac's responsibility to score, but still give him the opportunity to do so, while turning up his other skills.

Start Scola and Landry.

Scola
Landry
Battier
Brooks/Head/Jackson
T-Mac/Jackson

I like that team against the Jazz. It will completely throw them off.

 

Three rookies starting in the TOUGHEST homecourt in playoff. VERY nice. It will probably throw ourselves off faster.

 

I could not agree more. But Tmac cant guard Deron. He could he just wont.

 

Brooks needs to run major minutes with McGrady and Head needs to run with BJax. If McGrady and Head are in together, the opponent will just take the ball out of McGrady's hands with the double before he crosses centercourt. This sets up Luther with the ball and forces him to have to dribble/pass, which he is horrible at. But Brooks would flourish in open space. Then Novak should be spelling McGrady for 10 minutes a game and we should spread it out with Novak, Luther, and Bjax on the perimeter.

 

On a side note, our trainers and medical staff have screwed up yet again.......letting Alston actually play at Denver with a serious to severe groin strain and waiting 10 days to even perform an MRI

 

We need some FIRE KEITH JONES!!! threads

 

Steal the Suns' training staff.

This one hurts.

 

Dude.... Keep dreamin'.

We'll get past the 1st round where Rafer will mess our chances up quite nicely.

 

brooks cant shoot for jack. maybe he will do better under pressure.

 

If...............Brooks can't shoot, what does that say about Rafer and Bobby?

 

Damn. Why on earth would this thread become a 5-star? As much as Rafer sucks, he is the best PG in our team right now.

 

Well... Again fate has pushed their back against the wall, just like the dismal start of this season and Yao's injury, I hope the playoffs are gonna be Rockets' finest hour..

 

5* for the quality of the news/thread, not 5* because Skip is hurt.

 

this is like yao having a stress fracture all over again..

Why are we the unluckiest team in the nba? What is wrong wiht our freaking karma? Someoen tell me? Jesus ****ing christ im about to go insane.

Get well soon rafer! Bring them CTM docters right now! Stick some needles in rafer! Im angry pissed and sleep deprived. GO ROCKETS!!

 

Oh I didn't mean for Brooks to start, I just meant a 3-headed monster could be used there.

Although, for some reason I feel like Brooks would play much better if he started than if he came off the bench.

If our chances of winning are so slim, we might as well get MAXIMUM exposure for our rookies, and perhaps the volatility of their production could sway us close to a win.

I don't think we have ANY chance if we're relying on Battier, Hayes and Rafer to push us. We KNOW what they can do, Utah KNOWS what they can do, and they just can't do what we need. We need to draw on all the skills of our team.

 

Honestly, I'm somewhat happy about this news. I don't think Rafer has the capability of taking us very far into the playoffs. He's too inconsistent. He has bad shot selection. And when he's not hot the entire team suffers terribly.

Let's be honest here: it's a real long shot that we go anywhere in the playoffs this year without Yao. We should use this as an opportunity to see how Aaron Brooks and Bobby Jackson can run this offense without Rafer. Basically, the playoffs are on T-Mac this year. Scola and Landry need to keep up the intensity, but if T-Mac pulls lackluster performances in the playoffs like he did in Utah, we're doomed regardless of what happens. I don't think Rafer really makes a huge difference to be honest.

 

I have to admit I have been a Rafer hater here and there but he has stepped up big for us in some games. And often when he didn't fall in love with shooting when he wasn't on still quietly helped us win by running our offense efficiently. Like it or not, he is our best PG and it hurts our depth if nothing more to have him out. I agree that talk of a Championship is crazy, but I don't think we should give up on making some noise. I think we all, as well as maybe our players, have forgotten our amazing win streak and how well we can play. Let's not throw in the towel just yet!

 

The silver lining:

Aaron Brooks, over the month of April:

18 mpg
51% from the field (3.6 -7.0)
47.8% from three (1.6 - 3.3)
85.7% from the stripe (1.7-2.0)

10.4ppg
3.1 apg
2.0 rpg

only 1tpg

0.1 spg
0.1 bpg


It might not quite be so silver though considering we've played Seattle twice, the Clippers, Portland and Sacto

oh well - at least he's hitting some shots, especially happy about the 1.6 3s per game at 47.8%.

If he can bring that for another 5-7 games then we should be ok!

 

Hey Bobby is pretty good shooter, at least better than Rafer and Brooks