You don't get it. People who defend Rafer are well aware of most you stated above, you overexaggerate weakness and undermine his advantages. For example, you claim his doesn't play a lick of D when just recently Adelman praised Rafer for his smart defensive ability along with a efficient defensive cohesive starting unit. On the other hand, your Rafer bias is so strong that you will not hear anything anyone has to say when its advantagous for Rafer's situation. I'm not even going to bother reasoning with you why his on the starting line up last year and this year. Your senior level status makes me assume you have read countless posts stating Rafer's strengths and why his on the team and you have never even bothered seriously considering them. it's the constant crucification of him that is getting extremely annoying hence I suggested making this a Rafer bashing thread sticky so we Rockets fans who don't want to hear the same issues again and again feel the need to address the issue with more patience and conventional wisdom times and times again. And then come a linked problem with fans (generally rafer haters) who believes Steve Francis is our solution (Come back from your 2002 dreams and get back to Reality). I watch the Rockets game, I'm well aware of Rafer's streaky shooting and suffer the same sting of pain when he misses an open 3, but I don't choose to blow up on an internet forum and just bring nothing but negativity into a forum that is relatively impatient and OFFER NO SOLUTIONS. Instead of spending all your time insulting Rafer and creating threads and posts stating the obvious weaknesses of Rafer, find a trade scenario. You can't? I didn't think so. Might have something to do with not having any PGs that has the experience of Rafer with the starting unit defensively and offensively available (If there is, prove me wrong, but don't throw names like Jarret Jack or TJ Ford around if you think they will improve the Rockets); And your thick skull, sir. For a senior member since 1999, I expected more then throwing a personal insult to approach a discussion/debate. _ Blues
I guess its common place for the Coach to bemoan a players abilities when he is self choosing to play him over two superior players. LOL. No his D is terrible. I dont know what game your watching, but his rotation is poor, he is out of position alot, and gets caught being lost on the floor. As suggested by Worrell "There goes Rafer again looking the wrong way". Keep suggesting Rafer is a quality Defensive player, it makes you look foolish. What is your deal with Senior Status? Are you driven by petty jealousy? This is a forum. For discussion of my favorite team. I can't help it that you seem to have a serious case of penis envy. Until you see Francis play with the starting unit, you have Zero basis for your claim. Seems more and more people agree with the assesment that at least give Steve a shot. I mean, its not as if he couldn't do what Rafer does. Shoot almost under .300...Im sure he could. Hit less than .200 from three's..Im sure Steve could do that also. Stand around the three point line while defenders sag to TMac, Yao, or Bonzi. Sure Steve could handle that too. You are making this a little too easy. Actually, Rafers continued suckitude makes it easier and easier. Its like you are stuck defending the player you choose no matter how much more miserable he plays. If playing Rafer more = conventional wisdom, then everyone outside of Adelman must be wrong. Ok first of all, you lose all credibility when you call Rafer a streaky shooter. Once again for YOU since your comprehension seems to be on the lesser spectrum. Rafer is a lifetime .375 shooter. THERE IS NOTHING streaky about that. He is the worst shooter over the last 27 years, as linked to already in another thread. I do offer a solution. Give Steve a chance. If it doesnt work out then sit him. But until you see him with the starting unit, you can not claim Steve would do worse. 1. I don't believe I started even one thread on Rafer. 2. I don't need to find a trade scenario, being that I believe that Steve offers more than Rafer ever could. He gets to the line, he attacks the rim, he hits his free throws, he rebounds with the best of guards, he is a lifetime 6 assists a game guy, he can hit a clutch shot, he can score and put pressure on his man by making him play defense. He opens up room for TMac and Yao by not allowing his man to sag so much. Until Steve at least gets some time, there is no trade scenario the Rox need to explore. 3. Again with the Senior status issue. Look, I don't need senior status to be able to see that Rafers D is atrocious. To see that he doesn't run the Offense, especially not at the end of games. To see that he cant hit NONE of those wide open shots Tmac and Yao are garnering for him. But I do see that he can run the ball up and pass it off pretty well and defer just nicely. 4. Finally, there isn't ONE starting PG on any team that is as crappy as Rafer is. Nuff said, Final Blow, the fat lady has sung....FATALITY on you ROOKIE. No go hug yourself some rafer nuts and get back to me when he can hit a shot, not have his man play roaming D, get a rebound, hit a freethrow, or do anything other than be able to Dribble a ball and pass it to Yao and TMac.
forget all of our pg's lets just completely lose the season and get someone like oj mayo or derrick rose
You are right. The PGs you name, their FG% is too high. If the ultimate goal is to have a PG shooting 30%. Telfair and Lue can compete with Rafer, Smush would be perfect, but no team would want to trade for those guys. See, you are right.
The Rockets are 6-1 with Rafer Alston as our starting PG. I love the concept of Rafer Alston! And once our offense starts flowing, he won't even be taking 5 shots a game.
Rafer sucks, obviously he is either blackmailing Adelman, or he is one hell of a workaholic. Whatever the case may be, I hold Adelman responsible just like I did JVG last year for mismanaging our squad
noone can really argue that rafer holds any true 'value' to our team... but, winning is all that matters. i dont care about point differential and what not, all i care about is getting the top seed in the west. thus far we are 6-1 having played a tough schedule (teams we have played are 22-11) with rafer in the lineup, so maybe we should play rafer alittle bit more? what about running a few more set plays for the alston? the sky is the limit
You're joking, right? I mean I'm not supposed to take this seriously, right? Because if I do then you're an IDIOT! If otherwise, disregard.
I won't try to embarrass you the way you tried to do with me with your post format, but I'll follow the basic way you responded: You don't understand the concept of a team defensive unit and is a smart defender Rafer is not a bad on-ball defender (he won't shut anyone down, this is the NBA, only Payton and Kidd had the ability to shut PGs down).I won't bother explaining or offer any stats, your hate on Rafer is too great for you to heed anything I have to say. Simply because I put you on a higher level then the junk-posting rookies, and yes your posts do possess much more intellectual contents but the immaturity is just astonishing. I do not envy a penis thank you very much. My zero basis for a claim is better then your zero basis of a claim because the Houston Rockets coaching staff is insisting not giving Stevie playing time from the process of training camp til' today, I'm sure those men know their players better then us fans. I very well encourage giving Stevie a shot, I hope very well that he proves me wrong and becomes everything Rafer isn't and be able to contemplate the strengths of Rafer's game (Obviously you don't believe he has any). Elite basketball minds have and will start Rafer. I prefer to lay my trust in few people with basketball credentialsthen one million forum posters who post about penises. If you go back to the interviews in training camp, you will realise Adelman called him a streaky shooter, just recently in an interview JVG called him a streaky shooter. The term streaky is only borrowed from those who know his shooting more then you or I do. I would call him a horrible shooter personally, but I have seen him shoot very well in a streaky fashion in rare occasions. There is SOMETHING streaky about that. Your solution is very predictable, will it work? Probably not. Prove me wrong Francis. Maybe that day Rafer will be gone as a Rocket and the Rafer bashing will stop and I will eat my words, that is perfectly fine with me. But I'm pretty sure you Rafer haters will move on to the next clear target to hate on, Chuck because of his limited offensive ability. 1) I was stereotyping unknowledgable Rafer bashers. I never have my way of thinking be skewed by personal matters, therefore you won't find my logic to be skewed. I was not personally attacking you so don't take it too personally. Relax. 2) Give Steve a chance, I encourage the trial, I'm cynical about it's results. That is just my opinion because whatever Steve is doing it's not working right now. 3) Being a senior member in a forum renders you more respect. Your immaturiy shown in your posts is losing that respect. 4) You are a biased Rafer Hater, even your grandma can play better then Rafer, I understand and nothing I say will change your mind. Goodwork you performed fatality on me and you made the fat lady sing, medal perhaps? I will not post in this thread again. Please continue posting Rafer hate on this thread, its what its here for. Enjoy your victory. I dont have a medal for you. _ Blues
I just hate when Rafer always go over the screen as opposed to under it. He does that all the time with Paul/Parker/Williams and gets burned every single time. When will he ever learn that you would much rather have these guys take jump shots as opposed to driving to the hole.
Coaches are usually the ones who make the call on whether to go over or under a screen based on their defensive schemes. Sometimes a player will do the wrong thing (go over when the coach wants under or vice versa), but if it is a constant thing then odds are the coach wants it played that way.
of course im joking sherlock holmes but why am i an idiot? do you think we can win championships with the pg's we have?
I believe it is you that have taken the very first personal tones in these hate on rafer threads. Please dont make me do a search to prove you wrong. Rafer does NOT have to shut down Other teams PGs to be playing solid D. I do understand enough about Ball to state that. But I watch the entire game. I see who is out of place. Like Scola on many many occasions, and that TMac can get caught flat footed flashing to the passed ball on the perimeter as the offensive guy immediately drives the lane on him. Rafer rotates poorly, often choosing the wrong player to rotate too. He fights around the screen intead of through it or over the top, every time. He should know to funnel his man into the middle by playing off the ball towards the baseline but rarely does, is often caught looking around intead of at the ball. On Pick and Rolls when he should obviously switch, he doesn't leaving someone Like Yao Ming exposed to coming over and leaving his man open for a Dunk. Please rewatch first lakers game and game against mavs for proof of this glaring problem. And JVG had who else to try at the point guard last year? John Lucas? LOL. VSpan? Exactly. You don't know what JVG would of done if he had Francis or James. I believe that JVG after Steve left gave Steve some really great praise as a player. There is only ONE coach who has decided Rafer. Rick A. As I have stated over and over, its not like coaches haven't had "beefs" with players and sat them. We witnessed it last year with Bonzi. It will cost the rox in the end. Look at the stats Rafer is putting up. Not only that, when Rafer is on the floor the Rox offense is slower, putting up less possesions and points. The team has a worse hands rating, and while he is on the floor he is loosing the PER battle most significantly. Coach speak my man. Get used to it. If a player is the absolute worst shooter in the NBA over three decades and a coach decides to play him, streaky is the word to use, its not like Rick is going to say. "Yeah, I got Mike James, and Steve Francis over here, but Im going to start Rafer who is the absolute worst shooter Ever." I dont need to move on from Chuck. I have on many occasions stated that the Rox cannot hope that running out the same team as last year is going to result in success this year even with Bonzi and James. Chuck is a giant liability as is Battier to a lesser degree. But those two offer alot more in other area's that Alston does not. Rebounding, getting charges, hustle, loose balls, defense, off rebounds, and passing. Rafer does ZERO well. He is only capable of standing at the three point line. But the combination of Battier/Chuck/and Rafer is death in the playoffs. Which is why we need to have a strong bench with Bonzi, James, Scola AND have a decent third option in the starting 5. Sorry, but the rox got beat last playoffs because the Jazz exposed Chuck/Rafer for the complete offensive liabilities on offense and sagged hard off of them, and Rafer for his complete lack of anykind of defense. We would of lost to the Jazz, Spurs, Mavs, Suns, and probably the GS Warriors in a series last year. 1. And Im only stereotyping stupid Rafer huggers. 2. What is Steve doing? He got Zero chance in the preseason to play with the starters like James and Rafer. He has had Zero chance so far this season. You get so pissy about Rafer hate, but have no problem hating Steve. Lets call your rafer love what it really is...Steve hate. 3. Thanks Man!!! I love you to. 4. And you are a bonafied Steve hater to the tune of wanting to play a complete worthless player ahead of him just out of spite. Here one last time for you. .300 from the field. .200 From three's. 2 Rebounds a game for his life, 4 Whole assists a game in his almost 30 mins and 2 turnovers. Yeah, right on track for his entire career. LOL. Oh and the offense is much more sluggish and producess less points, and possesions when rafer is on the floor. When Rafer is on the floor the PER differential at the PG position is the worst on the team AND he has the worst Roland rating of any player that Rick decides to play...BY a TON. Yeah all that = Rick being smart about his decision. Good luck to you Rook. Enjoy your status for the long haul.
well, although alston is currently starting, and his minutes are rising, and the rockets are winning alston is going to start, his minutes are going to rise, and the rockets will keep winning so... yeah.
