i agreed bad> bader MJ is all dribble and shoot..no pass. hence the splitting of time and thus balance.
Come on, Alston did have 7 assists in 27 minutes. James had 1 in 20 minutes. They are just different type players. Alston wasn't all that bad as you people sound like. After all he is +6, James is +2. Actually people should be glad we have both pgs instead of bashing, otherwise either nobody from bench can make a basket or Yao doesn't get the ball.
Well I was at the game and I thought Rafer did just fine on Parker. It was clear that the strategy was to funnel TP to the baseline and Yao or whoever was down there would cut him off. It worked quite a few times as Parker would dribble baseline, get cut off and dribble right back out. It failed occasionally such as once when TMac was guarding a man down there, TMac turned his back to follow his man, TP dribbled baseline around Alston and got past TMac before he turned around to contest the shot. I like MJ better when he's not dribbling too much and/or when he's on like he was most of this game, but if he's not or we're in a situation where we need handles, gimme Skip. The current arrangement Adelman is using seems just fine to me. Stevie can be injury insurance and competition to make sure these guys keep working. btw, wrong thread, but I would also like to give props to Battier for guarding Manu. That guy was insane, but I was less nervous when Battier was there since whenever Duncan set the pick, Battier was able to prevent the pick-and-roll somehow, forcing Manu to take that teardrop over Yao which he made a couple times, but which he also missed a few times and is much harder than hitting the cutter. And of course, props to the one and only Spurs Killer. We have a good team. GO ROX!
Reefer was getting schooled on the defensive side. We might as well have a mannequin guarding Tony Parker. Whatever the strategy was, Parker was going baseline, middle, over and basically running circles around Reefer.
Rafer has played very mediocre starting in the regular season. I don't mind him starting over MJ, who's the spark on the bench, but I DO mind, if he plays significant minutes in the playoffs. We won't go far with Rafer playing big minutes like last year vs the playoffs.
Rafer is going to catch the majority of the flack because he doesn't put up the categories people like to count. For all the love Shane gets around here you would think some of it would leak over to skip. MJ and Rafer compliment each other well, one without the other would be painful but thankfully we have both. Tonight they combined for 15,4,8 with 3 to's...not horrendous considering Spurs pg's had roughly 23,1,6 with 4 to's...if we can play that matchup to a semi draw as we did tonight we are going to win the majority of the contests against the spurs. And yes DD Rafer is a NBA quality PG, who happened to start for a NBA playoff team. If you held a fantasy draft with all players available I have no doubt he would go in the top 50 of PGs making him at worse a backup for some team, thats a very foolish statement and you know as much. My wish is that posters around here will soon realize that the prototypical PG they covet so much is actually a very rare commodity. There are what I would consider to be 10-15 GOOD NBA point guards, everyone after that has severe holes in their game. With the Rockets already having a top 5 wing AND top 3 center...how realistic is it that we would also have a top 15 PG?? They can't all be all stars guys, the sooner you realize that the quicker your frustration will subside. In a dream world I understand wanting a better PG than Skip starting, but seriously, enjoy what we have and learn to love his strong points, he's not going anywhere.
Manu is nightmare player, kind of like Josh Howard. They are both relentless. I think the Rockets can beat both the Spurs and the Mavs in seven, but either would be an epic series. The teams are closer than they were last year. I think by playoffs, the Rockets will make the most improvement. The Mavs and Spurs are essentially set, they are what they are. The Rockets, however, are a work in progress. I think we are one well made deal away from getting over the top.
