How many teams have a pg whos ONLY job is to set up the offense????? <br> Not very many <br> WORD JUST IN: a pg should do more than just set the offense up <br> something that reafer can't do
Kirk Snyder could defend Terry. He's fast enough, young enough, athletic enough and tall enough. I think Rick should've let him in the game after JET burned Rafer and went on a scoring binge.
One thing Rafer's good at is pushing the ball and putting pressure on the defense, which can result in fastbreak or secondary opportunities for them
Rafer is very replacable, just not with the likes of Steve Francis (as of now). The majority of my defense for Rafer comes with him geting way too much hate then he deserves. Having the majority hating on him has given some of us a purpose to defend him and his contributions to the Rockets that are worthy. We are reasonable and understand Rafer's value to the team more then "hot garbage" unlike majority of people which just blast him off without watching the game or trying to understand what he brings that is valueable. We could definately do an upgrade if it is available. You wanted the Mike James trade last year Clutch, and we got it, do you see any other available trades we can jump on now? In the mean time, Rafer is a part of a great starting 5 and is not that big of a problem. I sympathise with all fans that his poor streaky shooting might be exposed in the playoffs, but that is no reason to diss him after every single game and call him insulting names and not respecting a fine character and decent basketball player he is. His shooting NEEDS to improve, otherwise his cons will completely outweigh his pros and he should definately be replaced for his offensive liabilities, he can pick up his shooting, he is definately a quality playoff PG. Those who say that elite guards like Iverson, Davis and D.Will will torch us. How many PGs in the league is able to actually stop these guys anyway? Maybe Earl Watson, Kirk Hinrich, Jason Kidd can hope to contain these guys. _ Blues
Everyone has been saying it for years. Rafer isnt good enough to play in the NBA. Yet he got significant minutes in Miami, Toronto, Milwaukee and the Rox (for two coaches now). What was wrong with this game. We know he is a poor shooter, but when you only take 5 shots thats not a big deal. 7 assists and 2 turnovers. That is over 3:1 ratio, again not bad. Even better, he came in late when the team seemed to be breaking down again, and fed Yao the ball, kicked the assist on Battier's big three, and the assist to Bonzi on his late layup. He was terrible in the role he had last year. We know he shouldnt be the third option on offense. On this team, he is realistically the sixth or seventh scorer and hasnt played terrible. By no means is he doing great, but he has been good in his role, just like James has been in his.
Rafer is the best pg in the league. NOT! I CAN SAY THIS OVER AND OVER AGAIN. RAFER PLAYS LIKE .... I DONT EVEN KNOW HE JUST SUX. HE CAN DRIBBLE AND PASS AT TIMES BUT THE LACK OF SHOOTING AND DUMB DECISIONS MAKE UP FOR THAT. I HAVE NEVER SEEN SOMEONE IN THE NBA WHO SHOOTS SIDEWAYS. HE LOOKS LIKE CURIIOUS GEORGE. " I WONDER WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF I THROW THIS BALL UP"
Why are so many people fixated with who starts. Would you feel better if James started and played 25 min and Alston came in off the bench and played 25 minutes. With your D-league players comment, again what does that matter. There are plenty of teams who have players who went undrafted or played overseas. The D-league is as good as most euro leagues now. Hayes has proven he is an NBA player, same with Alston. Rafer has been on several NBA teams now, and Hayes would get a roster spot on almost every team. It shouldnt matter that they were former D-leaguers. Would you feel better if we had Bobby Hurley instead of Rafer. Hurley was a Dukie, drafted early first round, that must mean he would be better then any former D-league PG. Lastly, yes we do have to expect lower quality players in the other positions since we have Yao and Tmac. Thats how the NBA works. The best players make the most money and you cant have the best players in every position. Look at Boston, they start Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins. Not exactly the strongest PG and C in the league. Not too mention their bench has very little to offer. Would you want Scalabrine, Tony Allen, Eddie House, and Scott Pollard coming off our bench?
Alston+Francis+Snyder+Head+Novak for Mike Bibby *Kings dump $8.8M from their team salary next season. Another $8M if Artest opts out. *Trade can't be completed until Dec 15. Alston for Steve Blake *Portland hyped off-season, poor start. *Trade can't be completed until Dec 15. Alston for Jarrett Jack+Channing Frye +Landry via min salary exception *Portland tried to trade Jack in the off-season. Frye not doing so well and is rumored to being shopped. Alston for Chris Duhon+Thomas Gardner (non-guaranteed) *Bulls poor start. Alleged friction between Duhon and Bull's management. *Trade can't be completed until Jan 2.
The Bibby trade has been discussed in another thread and it seems that the majority believes he will actually be a downgrade on defense and court awareness and only provide a better shooting presence in which Mike James already provides, and Sac Town will have no reason to bite on the trade. Steve Blake is pretty much the same type of player as Alston without the 2 years experience Alston has with playing with Yao and Mac Alston is MUCH BETTER then Jarret Jack. I like the last trade, I've always been sold on Duhon. His a solid pure PG presence with solid defense and a good stroke from down town, somewhat of a poor man's Hinrich. I don't know if his upgrade over Alston but Duhon would be a very fine pickup. _ Blues
Is Rafer replaceable? Of course. Question is who you replace him with. Is Steve Francis the upgrade for the 25 minutes? Probably not for the moment. Eventually? Perhaps. That was probably the plan when they signed him. Just hasn't worked out this way. Is there someone Rockets can obtain to upgrade these 25 minutes from another team in a realistic trade scenario? Daryl Morey would know better. On another note, The Rockets won by 9 points. While Rafer was on, theywere +7, including +2 during the last few minutes when the 7 point lead ended up as a 9 pt win. So, for the rest of the game, the Rockets were +5 when he was in there. May not be because of him, may well be despite of him, but they were +5, and whatever he was not doing wasn't bad enough to prevent them from being +5 during a period when he was supposedly terrible.
Hi, i must admit that at this point i´m considering two things, first i don´t like how James and/or Alston are playing, and second, the team is not winning or loosing because of this two guys performances. That said, i realized that the team offense motion is not what it can be, there is not enough ball movement from my like, so i would like if coach A starts testing the other 3 PG that we have on the team, i wouldn´t mind if he gives 10 mins per game randomly to any of the other 3 PG´s on the team, for what i´ve seen on videos i would like to see Brooks play some garbage time at least, i think that he could be an improvement on the ball movement department, but also having other PGs on the rotation will encourage the competitiveness inside the team. For what we have on night to night basis we have a PG that is meant to be a play maker who is not (Alston) and a Fire Will PG who is shooting under 40% (James), I say is time to see others, i don´t think that the team will be negatively affected by this move.
Nope garbage is about what he is. You guys love to show Rafers Assists, but coming into that game he was averaging 4 per game. For the love of God, what else is he to do. All he has to do is pass. When it comes down to it, Tmac runs the O all he has to do is pass the ball. Rafer is shooting .358 percent PEOPLE!!! He is hitting the Three at a .222 clip. He is still a lousy Free throw shooter at a wonderful .600. On top of all that his D is absolutely atrocious. The guy is averaging 4.5 assists and 2 turnovers a game. What are you guys smoking? He broke the press at the end...lol. Wonderful, he came in did a spot job of taking and inbound pass on a play where the spurs didn't press quite as hard as the first two plays. Thats what Rafer should be relegated to. Spot jobs.
The only concern i have with Rafer is defense. He just too small to guard Parker and Jason Terry....letting them score at will. And he's weak at attacking the basket. Other than that i like his ball handling skills and quickness and decision making and passing and shooting. I think James is perfect but can he handle making great passes under pressure and can he pass to Yao. I mean Rafer make it so effortlessly. So i mean Rafer is alright...it isn't like he's going to be in with Yao and Tmac the majority of time even though he's starting....ur going to be seeing James just as much time.
