It was just a terrible trade for us, MJ was exactly what this team needs. I fear whoever we get to give us what we already had in MJ will not be as good. Should be on the list of top 10 bad trades the Rockets have ever done.
Mike James would have been what this team needed providing we had Rafer or a PG to distribute the ball and not MJ.
The trade for Mike James is not as bad as you are stating it is. Sure, Mike James would have been the better option for us THIS year, considering that all of our firepower is almost nonexistent because of the injuries. That is why a team like the raptors is perfect for him-a team where he can control most of the ball handling and take a large portion of the shots. In the long run, it would be hard for Mike James to co-exist with Yao and T-Mac especially with the emergence of Yao Ming from an all-star to a superstar. James even keeps saying that he wants to get "paid" which I really doubt is possible with the amount of cap-space we have now. Atleast we got Rafer out of him.
Yup, and next year too. and ironically, the injury to Sura is why we panicked and ended up shooting ourselves in the foot by getting Alston - who the Raptors hadn't been able to GIVE away before. which we needed this year. ...considering he was in a contract year, the long run commitment decision could have been postponed yet he managed to do so quite well last year -- the fake rumors to the contrary not withstanding. See all of GATER's posts - it was not only possible but probable that we would have been able to pay him An albatross of a long term contract for an inadequate player who does not do the things we need the most: shooting and defense - who will have no value until he's expiring cap room - which is 3 years from now.
i listen to the interview in its entirety & found nothing wrong w/what he says. I was impressed by his demeanor (considering the critiques). by the way..... Rod Tidwell let the Cardinals to the playoffs.
exactly. unfortunately, not many ppl realize this... a year ago most of the ppl were bashing James for his inability/unwillingness to feed the post. now that our post players (both PF & C) actually score more than last season (which naturally results in less points from our backcourt players) some are again complaining. some people will never be happy and will always find something to complain about and yet they don't seem to realize that you can't have it all... especially while having two superstars like T-Mac & Yao on our team.
GATER's analysis about Alson being outscored by PGs like Parker has merit but not 100% convincing. Ben Wallace consistently gets outscored by good centers. According to GATER's logic, if Detroit's goal is to beat the elite teams in their divisions such as Miami and Cleveland, Wallace is trash because his scoring deficiency requires Billup and co. to outscore the opponents more than they otherwise should.
good find, CCR. mike james - WHO? mike james - is full of himself. it's funny how every line he says gives the fans and media more fodder with which to criticize him. what a fuh*in losa. good riddance.
IMHO, there are two huge holes in your analysis. First, Detroit is already competing with the best teams in the league. We aren't and I (sadly) have a strong sense that we won't. Secondly, if Shaq comes in averaging 22 ppg and Wallace holds him to 15, Wallace has effectivley added 7 ppg to his low total. That's 7 fewer ppg his teammates have to get to play even with the Heat. Wallace blocks shot, rebounds on both ends of the court, and provides a safety net at the rim for any teammate who gets beat off of the dribble. He's First Team All Defense. In spite of his lack of scoring, he is the NBA's 41st most efficient player. Alston on the other hand, passes the ball to Yao and TMac in a half-court set after he's nearly used 10 seconds of the shot clock. He's also the 80th overall and 34 among guards in Efficiency. But Alston is a good "fit" because he doesn't turn the ball over. Ask yourself a question. Is it effective basketball to only have two players on the court that can get their own shot? The problem I think a lot of you are having is that on the surface this Rockets' team looks like the inside-out Championship Rockets' teams. But it's an illusion. Not all of the mid-90's Rockets stood around at the arc. Some Rockets like Cassell, Elie, Vernon Maxwell and a young Horry actually could get their own shots when the illegal defenses weren't being called. Mike James can get his own shot. A healthy Bob Sura could get his own shot. Last season's younger pre-knee surgery David Wesley could get his own shot. In transition, Jon Barry could get his own shot. Rafer Alston is a bad 1on1 defender and he can't get his own shot. This apparently bothers me more than the majority of you.
I totally agree. Also, one of the reasons he is a new Yao is because Rafer has giving him good entry passes for easy baskets when he gets his position. Some people don't realize that Yao would not be flourishing right now if Mike James was on this team.
Have you been following the Pistons lately? Your statement seems to resemble real life events. Apparrently Wallace has been sitting more and more because his offense has dropped to abysmally low levels and the Pistons have had to come from behind. HIs dissatisfaction became public and it culminated when he refused to go back into a game on Friday after being benched in the 4th. http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060409/SPORTS0102/604090344
What does that have to do with the argument? Are you saying that if we had James instead of Alston, we would have been competing with the best teams? That's not your argument. You were arguing that because of the point deferential Alston creates (caused by his lack of both scoring ability and defense), Yao and TMac have to make up for that. In fact, you argue that it doesn't matter what else he does (passing, protecting the ball etc.) the simple fact is that his deficiency against other elite PGs makes him a bad piece for our team. If that's not what you meant, then I misunderstood you. We all know what Wallace brings to the table. That's exactly why I use him as a counterexample for your logic. I am not comparing the value of Alston to Wallace's. I am saying that you should not dismiss his contribution just because he is not as good as the elite PGs. BTW, since you mentioned about his "10-second tendency" I have paid special attention to this and found that you are not totally fair. He typically starts the halfcourt offense at around 17 sec. mark, which is quite reasonable. I don't expect him to be as fast as Nash or Parker. How long does James take to start the offense? (not a rhetorical question) I don't agree with all these. James can get his own shot, sure. Sura can get his shot only in the sense that he can get to the basket for layups, but not jumpers. Sura is no better jumpshooter than Alston, imho. Wesley has not been able to get his own shot since he became a Rocket. What he could do when he was younger is irrelevant. Barry is a spot up shooter. Are you talking about his pull up 3pters in transition? That's pretty unique for him. Other than that, I don't really know what "getting one's own shot in transition" means. I am not defending Alston as if he is a great player. I am not an Alston fan. I am not even arguing that the James-Alston trade was good. What bothers me is that people like you and SamFisher seem to bash him beyond what he deserves. I think he is an average PG who has a decent contribution to the team if we have at least one more good shooter other than Yao and McGrady. I will be ecstatic if we can get someone who can push Alston to the bench. BTW, if we had both James and Alston, I think Alston would probably still be our starting PG with James either coming off the bench for both guard spots (Head's current role) or as our starting SG.
I'm don't know how to make my point on more clearly than what I have said thus far. What Ben Wallace delivers on court more than makes up for his lack of scoring. What Rafer Alston delivers on the court is not made up for by what he gives up. That's not comparing their abilities at all. That's comparing what their teams gain or lose by their presence. Are you going to disagree that the NBA is a game of matchups? Assume Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady both shoot 50% from the field. Now assume Rafer Alston is directly responsible for getting them 8 more shots per game than Mike James. (That's 10% more considering the Rockets take fewer than 80 FGA's/g). At 50% shooting, Rafer Alston has added 8 more ppg to Yao and TMac than James. What I'm questioning and will continue to question...is that 8 points more or less than what Rafer gives up to Tony Parker, Jason Terry, Andre Miller, Sam Cassell, Steve Nash, Smush Parker or whoemever will be starting for MEM? I am firmly convinced that the answer is "No"! If the sum total of what you bring to the table is average at best defense, so-so spot up shooting, poor finishing at the rim...you are going to have to get Yao and TMac 8-10 more shots each to affect the game. And that's not going to happen at the tempo Alston plays the game. James' Rockets were a 100+ ppg with Spoon starting and Bowen in the rotation. Alston has trouble consistently getting the Rockets past 90 even with McGrady. (Go back and look at my "pieces" post). And Alston has Juwan, Stro and Luther Head. (If you think that's a downgrade from Spoon, we'll have to agree to disagree). Taking it one step further.... The Spurs are not the Spurs when Duncan is hurt...the Suns are not the Suns when Nash is hurt...the Mavs are not the Mavs when Dirk is hurt...but they are not as pitiful as we are record wise. And that will be the embedded problem on any Alston-Rockets team when TMac and Yao are not on the court for any reason. The root difference is that all current elite teams have more players who can get their own shots than totally complimentary players. In fact, I would say that all elite NBA teams have PG's that can get their own shots. We have assembled a team of dump it into the post spot up shooters...and IMHO it's not good. I am getting very tired of this process so I will likely ignore whatever responses are made by you or anyone else. You can consider yourself the "victor" in this discussion. I have rotated what I consider to be a very fundamental concept through every possible vantage point. The real proof will come next year if Alston is still the starting PG. We'll beat the bad teams and struggle vs the elite teams. I'll resurrect the logic again. (Only with more venom if we're dumb enough to draft Redick). In conclusion... As far as my comment about when Alston initiates the offense...watch closer. If he's "starting" it 17 seconds, he barely beat the 8 second clock. Watch how long it takes before the ball gets inside the paint or is reversed to weakside for an easier angle on an entry pass.
This conveniently forgets the contributions of Sura, Barry, Padgett, and Mutumbo - all of whom last year were better than much of the crap fielded in this year's team. The Rockets were never "James' Rockets" - he led the team in assists exactly twice. He was never the creator on the team. Sura was the primary point guard. When Sura was hurt, McGrady controlled the ball. Alston's role is to take the pressure of managing the game off of McGrady, given that we knew this year Sura wasn't going to be healthy and didn't want McGrady having to play point all season long. James never did that last year, and he has yet to prove capable of managing a game anywhere. He needs to dominate the ball to be successful (nothing wrong with that, depending on the type of team) - with a healthy team, that was never going to happen here. We needed a point guard. Mike James was the most tradable commodity, so off he went. You can't compare James and Alston's role on the team because they don't play similar roles for this team.
This pre-supposes a vision of Sura passing to McGrady coming off the double screen for the catch & shoot like Mark Jackson and Reggie Miller, or him wrking the pick and role like Stockton and Malone No. His assists were nice, but that is not what happened. His role and James role were pretty much the same - and they didn't perform it that much differently either (look at the game threads from last year - find the "stupid sura he shoots too much...damn you sura bad shot" and start counting). Sura's job, just like Charlie Ward's job, and Steve Francis' job before him....and Mike James job - was to get the ball down the court and initiate the half court offense - which relies heavily on set plays anyway. McGrady didn't "handle point" when James was in the game - that's a total fallacy. He was looked upon to create just as much regardless of who was in the game. They didn't run two offenses. The only thing was that James was not as hesitant to pull the trigger on the outside jumper as Sura - as well he should have been, considering that he was stat wise a better shooter than Sura (and McGrady too, for that matter) No. Again, you want to have it both ways. The Rockets ran the same offense regardless of who was in the game. Wrong. He was one of the more accurate long range shooters we had and functioned quite well as a spot-up shooter. He was a key backup on a championship team. I guess this myth goes along with fabricated stories about him waving Tracy off and them being on bad terms -- which have been proven false. No, they play the exact same roles with the exception of the fact that Alston can't play SG. Their roles are also different insofar as one of them 1. CAN run a fast break, 2. CAN finish under the basket, 3. CAN shoot from outside 4. CAN play defense. Oh, and one of them has a contract which will soon evolve into a millstone. This whole post is a sophisticated way of saying "But Alston is a pass first PG, thus better fit". I don't care about fitting, I care about winning. Alston is lesss likely to help this team do that, as he's not as good a player.
Sam, if James played the same role as Alston (or as Sura for that matter), the Rockets management (probably including JVG) didn't see it that way. If they did, tell me why they traded him away when Sura went down? If they thought James fit (yeah, I use this word just to make you explode ) the starting PG role, they wouldn't have traded him away, period.
