Alston runs great with the offense, very fast on the court and dishes it to the people when they're open, as well as hitting MOST open 3's. Perfect starter. Mike James is an excellent bench player because he provides a SPARK off the bench, which is what the team needs during the middle of the game.
Can't blame JVG now! Didn't the "Rafer is JVG's boy so with the new coach he will be gone" talking point sound so good? Oops... he's still the starting point guard.
There was one sequence in the first half where Alston has the ball on the perimeter and Scola comes up to set a pick for him. Alston waves him off because he sees Battier on the inside battling for post position. He gets Battier the ball and Battier gets his. I don't know, I see a fair amount of this kind of play from Alston, which is what you'd want out of your point guard. You can definitely see a difference in play when James is in there. Though I'm still concerned about Alston's shooting percentage, I don't think making James the starting PG is our answer.
So, is a new thread to b**** about Rafer going to be a tradition after every game? I like Rafer, but even if you hate him, why would you want them to change? THEY'RE WINNING and James is a great spark and scorer off the bench.
<br> there was also this play when alston was running the fast break and T-Mac went up for a dunk.... <br> instead of passing to T-Mac he shunned him and ran back to the 3 pt line <br> T-Mac was visibly disgusted and pissed judging by his body language
I saw that play and I disagree. IMO Alston didn't think he had the angle for the alley oop and so decided not to throw it up. (IIRC, there were a few Blazer bodies between him and McGrady). He wasn't trying to intentionally shun McGrady.
Are we really going to try and critique every play? Tmac took more shots (23) than he had points (20) tonight. Battier's shooting 9-26 for the first 3 games which is worse than Rafer's 8-21. Neither of them is going to be benched any time soon either.
Threads like these just simply highlights the difference between knowledgeable fans and blind fanboys. I rest my case.
'Cept for that AIRBALL. I expected Rafer to "get by" tonight, not much of a test. I fear Monday & Tues will be repeat piss poor performances like the Lakers/Jazz games. There's a reason Rafer has ZERO trade value people. LOL, If you honestly believe Alston would be a starting PG on any other NBA team today, you are out of your freakin' gords.
Oh for god's sake - Battier had two straight airballs against the Lakers. Get some perspective, PLEASE.
holy crap though he made a running floater tonight!!! and it happened to be right when none of my friends were watching....of course no one believes me
im a rafer hater, but if he goes 3-6, and 4-9, i have no PROBLEM WITH THAT. Rafer can stay. I just have a problem when he's shooting the ball 14 times
Yep, now all we have to do is just play the other 80 games against TBlazers or equally crappy teams and he'll be great! But based on how he plays against good teams, Rafer will not be our starter come the all-star break.
The funny thing is that Rafer actually looks to have actually improved his 2-point shooting this year. He's making a fair percentage of his layups/runners, and I don't think I've seen him miss a midrange jump shot yet. We already know he's a good/above average 3-point shooter, so if he can improve his midrange/inside shooting *and* keep the shot volume down, he's going to be more than OK. The things that he hasn't done well so far this season are actually things that are traditionally his strengths -- not turning the ball over and 3 point shooting. He handled the ball much better tonight, but his 3 point shooting was still sub-par. Hard to see that objectively every time he clangs a shot, though.
Exactly! I was thinking the same thing with that frantic wave-off. He did that all last year also. Both JVG and RA understand what Rafer can do for the offense. And fwiw, those 6 assists Rafer had ALL came in the first half with the majority of his minutes (and our biggest lead). A 6-assist half isn't tbad at all.
