I'm watching the Clippers game and Rafer is having a monster game; 13 assists, ONE turnover, 17 points on five for seven shooting, and ifve steals in three quarters. More than that, I really like the way he runs the offense. Wow! But I can't help but notice that his defensive assignment had 25 points before getting tossed in the third quarter. This is not the first time his man has had a big game offensively. I go to games and the last two games I have been focusing on Alston on and off the ball. He leaves his man a lot. I mean a lot. Overall, what do you guys think about his defensive game? Do the steals make up for giving up the open shots? Is it a coaching decision to have Rafer leave his man? I'm anxious to read your comments.
it's the star player. nobody complains about yao's defense when shaq goes for 25. nobody complains about t-mac's defense if kobe goes for 25. there is no reason to complain about skip's defense when super-sam goes for 25. IMO at least.
Rafer has basically dominated games with his steals lately. His defense is fine, he's working hard and playing better D than some naysayers thought he would. Did anyone really not expect Cassell to light us up? I mean seriously. That's what that guy does to us, no matter who's starting at PG.
Rafer is not a good defensive player. He's not strong enough to keep guys like Sam out of the paint, and he's very poor on P/R defense (he doesn't fight through screens tough enough, and he usually takes bad angles when he goes under the screen). But his poor position defense is mitigated by his fast hands, and high number of steals and knockaways. Combine this with everything he provides for you on offense, and he's well worth having out there. Although bringing in a quality defensive minded PG would round out our 1 spot nicely.
Rafer is not a defensive stopper, as a matter of fact, he is below average in that department IMO, and we knew that when traded MJ for him. His slow lateral movement makes him a bad on-ball defender, and he lacks the court awareness when guard opponent away from the ball. He has tried to compensate his weakness by going for the steals, and have some success lately. Fortuntely, the Rockets' strength is the team defense, so Rafer's deficiency has not been highlighted yet. However, we signed Rafer for who he is, a good ball handler with great court awareness on the offensive end, and a very good passer with extremly low TO rate. That's exactly what we needed. TMac & Yao are the go to guys on this team, but Rafer is leader on the court. He makes the team run smoothly out there.
I don't mind point guards scoring on us, as long as its outside the paint. If they get their shots off against Skip, fine, atleast they're not driving in the lane drawing fouls from our bigs or getting other players involved like point gaurds are supposed to.
Rafer is not a great defender but.......................... he's not as bad as you think either. It's obvious that we need him on the court to run our offense. A 13:1 assist:TO ratio is out of sight. And you can't measure defense altogether in how many points you give up. It has a lot to do with how inefficient you make the other team play. Rafe had like 6 steals. He does cheat a lot and play the passing lanes, but he also causes the opponent's offense to account for that. Personally, I'm of the opinion that if the PG scores too many points it actually takes away from the team because everybody starts standing around waiting for the shot to go up instead of moving and looking for the ball. Cassell didn't necessarily do that although he did put up 17 shots in less than 3 quarters of play. But the key is balancing the offense and defense. Rafer put sooooo much pressure on the Clips to get back on defense it wasn't funny. His running the court is the main reason that Sam got run because he forced Sam to foul and the frustration finally boiled over the top. I don't look at Tony as a very good defender. I think he has improved. I think his coach has forced him to improve his D. I'm convinced JVG will force Rafer to do the same thing. He's already improved from the beginning of the season. Lastly, point guard is not a position that you develop defensive stoppers. The vast majority of PGs in the NBA are quick enough to break down each other on the dribble constantly, especially in light of the defensive rules not allowing any handchecking or contact. The key to a PG playing defense in this league is in their ability to take away one thing that the opposing PG is doing to break down the entire defense. If the guy is driving right and destroying the defense by clumping everybody up inside, then the defender has got to force him left, and take away what is working. Make the PG have to adjust to something else and to keep adjusting to something else constantly. Just look around this league. Nash, Iverson, Parker, Kidd, BDiddy, Paul, Marbury, Stoudamire, Chauncey, Cassell, Arenas, Bibby. You can't stop those guys. It's impossible. If they want to put 25 or 30 points on the board, they can do it. The way the game is called, the ways the rules are interpreted only add to their offensive potency. It's a matter of being smart and efficient, and raising the level of play of your teammates, and influencing the opponents to be less smart and less efficient.
the guy is just wondering about what we feel about his defense. yeah rafer pissed sam off. that's for sure. sam cassell is a good player, and 25 pts. is pretty a pretty good defensive job on cassell, i would say. IMO rafer > mike james and whether it was a good trade or not is your opinion, but we've got alston and i like him and i'm sure tons of rockets fans like him. btw i don't think the 5 steals necessarily count you in as being a good defender, because it's the same with shotblocking, you often give up good postion to go for a block/steal that could lead to buckets, or it could lead to a defensive stop. dalembert is definitely not a good defender. he's just a good shotblocker. sometimes, if someone else knocks away the ball and you pick it up, that counts as your steal. so it all depends on how it's looked at.
Stoudamire? don't forget about Stevie , Wade, Terry, Tinsley, Jason Williams, T.J. Ford, even Andre Miller and Hinrich, and of course Rick James.
Per Pat "But I can't help but notice that his defensive assignment had 25 points before getting tossed in the third quarter. This is not the first time his man has had a big game offensively. I go to games and the last two games I have been focusing on Alston on and off the ball. He leaves his man a lot. I mean a lot. Overall, what do you guys think about his defensive game? Do the steals make up for giving up the open shots? Is it a coaching decision to have Rafer leave his man? I'm anxious to read your comments" No Rafer is not the "glove", but I do not think it is as critical as pushing the ball up the floor and controlling the tempo of the game. He is not a lock down defender and I am not worried about that. He is making plays. To get back as quick as he did and drive our offense and break with that much control is something we have not seen in years from a Rockets point guard. I real pleased with Rafer. His lack of D is not a concern.....
It must suck when one of the first things you want to do after a blowout win on the road against one of the best teams in the West is b**** about the player who was named player of the game by the broadcasters. No, Rafer's not a great defensive player, but he's not costing us games with his defense. Last night, he did a good job of keeping Cassell out of the paint and away from our big guys where Cassell is a master at drawing fouls. It's already been pointed out that we didn't bring Madness down here for his defensive prowess, rather it was for his ability to run the offense which he did spectacularly last night. What we've seen out of Rafer lately is exactly why the brass made the trade. This is the team we've been wanting to see and they're not disappointing.
Well I have been sleepin for the last couple of hours. It helps to relieve my anxiety . FYI, I think Rafer is exactly what the Rockets need in a point guard. I could not be happier with his overall game. The trade for James was a great move for the Rox. We gave up quality and got quality back. I am sure Toronto is happy with the trade, but man James could not give us what Rafer has been bringing lately. No knock on James. It is just that Rafer is bringing the exact skill set that we are (were) so desperately missing. But above all of that I respect (many) of ya'lls opinions. I go to about 15 games a year and I watch about 65 more on tv. So I see a lot. But I just wanted to read your opinions about what I have been seeing. I think I am a pretty knowledgable fan, but there is a lot about the game I just don't see. I know many of you see things in a more technical way than I do, and I wanted you to share it with me. You know, I was excited about the blow out win and I wanted to talk Rockes with Rockets fans. Thanks.
