The guy wanted to stay with Houston, he was hurt when he was traded, he did a lot for us in the short amount of time he was here and we just threw him to the curb for a heartless Rafer would could care less where he is playing as long as he's getting a paycheck. Horrible Trade. IMO
Are you sure you didn't get your mental roles reversed? Just tell us "I hate Rafer for no good reason" and be done with it. At least it's better to be honest than to just throw out blatantly false characterizations like this.
If Mike James is such a poison to the Raptors, why is it that they have played better over the course of the season with him on the floor? Of all the players who's played significant minutes, the top three in +/- have been Bosh (+5.5), Villanueva (+6.8), and James (+3.5). Well, since James is playing most of his minutes with Bosh and Villanueva, maybe his +/- is benefiting mostly from what they do and he's actually dragging down there's. EXCEPT, if you look at performance of pairs on the court, that's not what it shows: Code: [b] minutes +/- +/- per48 Net[/b] Bosh, no James (21%)560 -33 -2.8 -2 Villanueva, no James (34%)617 -72 -5.6 -8.1 James, no Bosh (10%)237 +6 +0.0 +0.9 James, no Villanueva (48%)1127 -124 -0.1 -3.8 Bosh, James 2098 -37 -0.8 Villanueva, James 1208 93 +3.7 Bosh, No Villanueva (50%)1323 -162 -5.9 -9.2 Villanueva, no Bosh (27%)489 -71 -7.0 -10.3 Bosh, Villanueva 1336 92 +3.3 It appears that the pair of Bosh and Villanueva together has a huge impact. They should definitely keep that frontcourt intact. But both Bosh and Villanueva's +/- benefit from having James on the court with them. Interestingly enough, their +/- benefits more from having James on the court than James's +/- benefit from having them on the court. That doesn't mean James is their most valuable player, but it does indicate he probably has a positive influence on the club.
Look, I get that he is a me first type of player, and with Sura healthy etc, it was a decent trade. However, this current Rockets team needs someone who can create their own shot....DESPERATLY, and we had him...we traded him away for a guy who can't hit the broad side of a barn from 5 feet. Bad trade.....I was for the trade.....and I was wrong......just admit it....this was a HORRIBLE trade for the Rockets. DD
No it wasn't. Of course we could have used his offense this season. But hypothetically, what if we had magically forseen all the injuries we went through this season and decided not to do the trade? Fine, we would have snuck into the playoffs this year and gotten beat in the first round. Then Mike James would start demanding more money, and we would be even more sick of his ball hogging and wannabe superstardom, and would have had to let him go for nothing, while we try to somehow find a serviceable true point guard with no appreciable assets to trade with. How is that better for the Rockets? Nobody even considers that maybe *this* sort of thing right here is the very reason why the Rockets found it prudent to put him on the trading block in their search for a real point guard. We already know that with a healthy T-Mac, Rafer is a better fit for Houston than Mike James. Fine, it's OK to concede that Mike James is an overall better player and maybe we could've gotten a bit more for the trade. But regardless of what happened or didn't happen this season, the Rockets still did the right thing by letting him go while he still had value.
Ah, the good old "fit" cliche. Q: Is there any non cliched defense of Alston? A: Trick question, we all know Alston has no defense. If you keep repeating that James is a better fit 10 million more times, people might believe it. I don't know how a guy who can't shoot or defend is a better fit. But keep repeating it. Meanwhile, instead of capitalizing on his worth - or at least cutting our losses after getting 1.5 productive seasons out of him, we get saddled with a multi-year Alstonbatross. Wait till another year from now when people are b****ing about our pricey back-up PG who we can't unload.
Point is that now we have a PG, and a good draft pick. Which is better than sneaking into the playoffs at numer 7 or 8 and getting embarrassed worse than game 7 of last year. Rafers numbers a way below his career avg. as far as shooting goes. So maybe he will get it together in the offseason. Hopefully pick up a lil D too. But at least now we have a chance in the lottery to pick up someone like Carney or Brandon Roy or maybe even a PF. Then pair these guys next to a healthy T-mac on the wing when he gets back and we become instant contenders With Mj, we would still have a bad season cuz of injuries. Get dropped out of the lottery cuz we made it into 8th seed. Get raped in the playoffs by Spurs or even worse, the Mavs. Then have nothing to show for it when Mj leaves the next season and we dont have a good draft pick to use.
Sorry I thought the point was to win. Well there's all kinds of ass trades we can make if that is our objective. Let's get rid of Yao for Channing Frye and the Knicks no. 1 next year. That way we'd have a Forward and a better draft pick. And we can also send T-Mac to Charlotte for Gerald Wallace and thier 1st rounder this year. Sounds sweet to me, let's do it.
Read the rest of my post and dont act like an ass. There was no way that we were winning anything this year. Not with the injury to T-mac. You think MJ would have led us to even the 2nd round. That is all speculation. We dont even know if he could have taken us to the playoffs. Also, nobody wants to think about the fact that one of the reasons Yao might be doing better this year is because we have someone who can get the ball quickly to him while he is in position. MJ has Chris Bosh, but still doenst get him the ball. If you watch a Raptors game, a lot of his assists do come from bail out last second passes. He doesnt try to feed the post when Chris Bosh gets position. Like he said himself, he likes to jack it up and pass when necessary.
Mike James is a very good player with the somewhat rare ability to create his own shot -- he puts up solid numbers every night. The Rockets lost the James/ Alston trade badly -- hindsight is 20/20, but we have to face the facts.
Try not to hurt yourself while reaching, Sam. So you would rather have us in the 8th or 7th seed this year, and then facing the prospect of entering next season without Mike James, without a serviceable point guard, and no trading options? Perhaps we would be able to select a great point guard in this draft with the 15th or 16th pick we would have. This is the very definition of the myopic fan. "All I care about is what you have done for me lately. Who cares about the future?" Never mind that just a few weeks ago, this same team was on a 14-4 tear with Rafer, T-Mac and Yao together on the floor. Nah, "fit" is nothing more than a cliche. Nice attempt trying to dismiss the point. It's amazing how even after hearing from the horse's mouth "I've been jacking my entire life", people still stubbornly refuse to understand just why Mike James doesn't work with the Rockets championship plans.
Ha, ha, ha, I love the "the only reason why Mike James gets assists is because he passes to other players and they make shots" line. It's really a sad commentary on the ineffectiveness of Alston that james "jacking" away and playing BOTH guard spots (where the Rox desperately need help) managaes to come up with more or less the same assists. But that's what happens when you're a human liability when shooting the ball. Anyway, that line is right up there with the "All Cris Carter does is catch touchdowns" line. I don't know why you guys think we have a serviceable point guard now. Defense & outside shooting are paramout for either Rockets guard with Yao and tracy. Paramount. Rafer does neither, while james did both. Watch the games - or did you not bother since you're such a big fan of having thrown this season away for a high draft pick?
You people will say anything to justify things, in your mind. What? Now, getting an lotto pick is also somehow the justification for that trade? Since when not making the playoffs is a good thing to perceive? Tmac may or may not get injured regardless of Alston/James trade. He actually could come back in the playoff if necessary, according to himself. Rafers numbers a way below his career avg? He never shoots over 40% in his entire career! MJ may or may not leave Rockets after this season had he stayed. What's teh facination about the guy wanting to be paid? Gater has already break it down to you that he could be had with a reasonable price. Houston had his bird right, if he worths that money in that reasonal range, pay him. Who's to say he absolutely won't be accepting that MLE to 6 Mil range? Only thing certain is that he will now get a lot more money than had he stayed in Houston.
my favorite is the "vince young has high completion percentage because he's always passing to an open man", like that's what he's supposed to do idiot
Sam, sometimes I wonder which is more: your hatred of Alston or your love of James. The point Samar posted was valid. James is a role player. He is not going to lead us anywhere without both Yao and TMac. Why do you keep repeating "if we had James we would have been better with all these injuries"? It wouldn't matter whether it's James or Alston with all these injuries. James is what he is, a good role player. His role would be replaceable easily if JVG valued shooting as much as he does hustle and intensity. BTW, I don't think Alston is as bad as you paint him to be.
sam does have a point about defense, how soon we forget the mavericks series just last season. better defense from the point guard spot could have turned that series.
MJ-RA trade will go down in Rockets history as the worst ever. I posted this when it first happened, and it is showing itself true in less than one year. We need an arrogant attitude like MJ brings.
