Will Rafer be released outright before the start of the season?

Oh my ppl hate Skip

 

Stockton, Nash, and Magic are not playmakers, then, by this logic. They are good at making players for others, but they are good at many other things.

 

If he is not gone by training camp, or before the season, I could see the Rocket's releasing him with a buyout.

I think Rafer has played his last game as a Rocket, they will try to find someone to take his contract.

Doleac is looking pretty good about right now.

DD

 

I think Daryl is chasing something better than Doleac

 

Stockton, Nash and Magic can score anytime they want. But, their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd options are to setup their teamates.

 

Rafer doesn't make any plays except for missed shots about 70% of the time

Playmaker is one of the dumber cliches in use on this BBS.

We have two playmakers on the team, they are numbers 1 and 11.

 

Exactly, what what I saying. TheFreak said "'Playmaker' means you can't really do anything that great." That's the point. Being a playmaker "doesn't mean you can't really do anything that great".

 

By the TheFreak's definition of a playmaker "means you can't really do anything that great". Magic, Stockton, and Nash are not players that "can't really do anything that great", so they don't qualify to him. To me, playmaking means putting your teammates in a position to score.

 

Now why would they just release him if they can get something for him and another option would be to keep him and play him

 

If this assault charge turns out to be legit then it's not out of the realm of possibilities that we could release him, but there must be someone out there that needs him.

 

DD, do you honestly think the Rockets, with several players in the last (guaranteed) year of their contract (Sura, Snyder, Wells, Butler, Head, Lucas, Novak), why would the Rocket waive a guy with three years left on his deal, let alone a quality rotation-level player? Rafer has been a good soldier for the Rockets in his tenure here, and I don't think he'd be a cancer in the locker room if he were demoted. Heck, I still think the team could use him, since there is no true PG on this team aside from him. Plus, his contract is actually fairly decent. Why throw that away when the team could always use it at the trade deadline.

Bottom line: I think Morey, Adelman and the Rockets are completely content with keeping Rafer on the team if they can't get a deal that helps the team basketball-wise or financially.

 

Because he will get absolutely NO playing time. By the trade deadline, after his assult charges and no one seeing him play in a half a season, he will have ZERO trade value. Rafer is a decent backup pg, but Mike James and Steve Francis are both significantly better basketball players than he is.

 

This thread is a bad notion. It makes no sense to release player signed for multople seasons in the future. He's not that bad of a player. Granted his time is running out to nobody's surprise, not ever his own!

He may have hurt his own trade value, but Im sure he doesnt care because its obvious that he doesnt want to leave, but his shooting wont cut it if we want to be a serious title contender!

 

Rafer's drive and dish ability only works against the dumbest of defenders. Most defenders have figured out that you give Rafer the drive, don't cut him off, and don't give him a wide open layup...basically force the floater...and last year, every decent defensive team (and crappy one) knew that if you forced the floater it would be a miss about 75% of the time. Every once in a while, some defender would forget and Rafer could dish to Yao or Deke or Jho for some inside scoring, but the vast majority of the time, the Rockets were screwed everytime Rafer put the ball on the floor and tried to create. He's quite possibly the worst finisher in the NBA (given the fact that he's had the most opportunities to prove his ability to finish in traffic and has failed miserably at it).

Rafer does have great vision. If the PG defender sags off of Rafer, and someone makes a good cut blowing buy his defender, Rafer will make a great pass for the layup 9 times out of 10.

The problem is anything great that Rafer can do can be negated simply by a defender that will get in his face, which would force Rafer to put the ball on the floor and "create" which he just can't b/c unlike T-Mac, Rafer doesn't draw defenders when he puts the ball on the floor, because it would be stupid of any defense to double-team a Rafer drive.

Last year, the only alternative to Rafer was Head, and if defenders got into Head's face, it was an automatic TO. At least now, we have Mike James and Steve Francis, and while they aren't the greatest vision capable PG's out there, they do have LEGIT handles and LEGIT finishing skills. Hopefully Aaron Brooks has those two qualities too...and it's really not even an asset or quality, but more of a necessity as an NBA PG.

Seriously, is there any starting or backup PG in the NBA whose handles are worst than Head's or whose finishing skills were worse than Rafer's. The list would be quite small. Last year, the Rockets were really handcuffed at the PG position. I don't know what the PG situation is going to be like this year, but I'm just glad that they finally have some real options.

 

I generally agree with everything you say here except for the notion about James. He's just not the type of PG that makes the team around him better while keeping the offense on track. He's not that great a passer and when things get sticky in a half court game, he'll always look to his own offense first and not to Yao or Tmac. Then there's the poor decision making factor that both he and Francis both possess. I may be wrong here but I don't recall him being all that great a defender either. There's also the question about how much he'll really defer to Yao & Tmac because I recall him chaffing at having to defer to Garnett in Minny. To me, the trade for Mike James was an attempt to get an older better version of Head which now makes Head expendable. I understand that this is an unpopular stance but Rafer is actually the best pure PG they have when he's asked to be a traditional PG and not a prime scoring option. And they are going to need a PG who can handle the pressure while keeping the offense on track in tight games.

 

No way, DD! Rafer has value, and would make another team an excellent backup point, if they can afford him, or an adequate starter in the right system, if the bar is set very low. I think we trade him, and we'll get something for him of value. True, his brush with the law is a bummer, but I don't think it's really that big a deal, just very ill-timed. (to say the least)

 

I really don't get a lot of comments being made here. With Steve Francis, Mike James, Aaron Brooks at the point guard position, Tracy McGrady, Luther Head, Kirk Snyder at the two guard/three position, Shane Battier, Bonzi Wells, Steve Novak (3/4) at the three.....................


Just exactly how do people think playing time is going to be distributed ADDING in Rafer Alston?

As it is, Luther Head at MOST can get 10-12 minutes a game or Kirk Snyder 10-12 minutes a game if a bigger guy is needed on defense.

With James, McGrady, Battier, and Wells even if Head is benched all year, there is NO, I mean ZERO playing time for Francis at shooting guard so why so many people keep bringing that up makes no sense.

At the point guard position itself, Steve Francis has always in his career produced and produced big time when playing point guard, when playing shooting guard he has never in his career ever been good. He simply cannot play shooting guard, yet so many people think he is a shooting guard. He absolutely sucks as a shooting guard. To say otherwise or even that he's better as a shooting guard is to say you have not paid attention at all to Francis' career at any point on any stop. He is terrible offensively as a two, I mean absolutely terrible and on defense he's nothing but a shadow at the two. Have so many Rockets fans really forgotten so much about Francis? He can ONLY play point guard. It is about the most slam-dunk fact about his game, he can ONLY be worth anything playing at the one on both ends of the floor.

Mike James can on the other hand play shooting guard on offense very well but then you have an even smaller guy than Luther Head on defense and yes Mike James is a good defender at the one, but at the two he is without doubt one of the very worst defenders in the NBA (Luther Head is a world beater compared to him on defense at the two, to not know this is again to not pay attention to his game at all), but if you move him to the two on top of that then that means Alston is now getting more minutes likely than Bonzi, Head, and James overall.

Considering the team already has James, Francis, Brooks, why on earth would they use Alston to get him MORE playing time and take away playing time from Wells and James also as well Battier and to bench Head for the whole year when all Alston could now be used for is 3 point shooting and he stinks at that? 36% from 3 when wide open most of the time is not good.

Considering the team now has Francis, James, McGrady who can make things happen, Yao and Scola who will run high post and Scola is a great passer and creator, and has several finishers, PLUS 3 point shooters in Battier and Head that can do the same thing Alston does (just stand there wide open and shoot a three) but can do it FAR better............

I am just baffled why so many fans don't realize Alston has to go.

The new offense under Adelman does NOT even use a point guard. It's like the Kings back in the day saying Bibby and Jackson won't cut it, we need to start Alston because he's better at bringing the ball up the court. Craziness, sorry but it's true.

What Rafer is good at is controlling the ball and pushing it up court in a faster game, which I think is maybe where a lot of fans are getting this notion that he is needed because Mike James is a finisher and shooter and Francis obviously his main weakness is what Alston's main strength is.

The huge problem with this line of reasoning of course is that Yao/Scola/Hayes/McGrady/Battier/Wells will be making the vast majority of the decisions on offense and the point guard will be required to play defense and FINISH, whether at the line or penetrating or behind the arc.

Alston can not finish in the lane, his penetration does nothing and he is not as good of a 3 point shooter as other guys are like Battier and Head and all he is doing is taking away those 3 point shots if he is playing.

Another argument is change of pace, well of course the Rockets ALREADY have change of pace, that's why Francis was signed.

Change of pace is obvious. James does what Bibby did, Francis does what Jackson did, and I don't mean starter or bench, it's better to have Francis start, James is instant offense off the bench.

James has always been good for instant offense, give him more than that, not so good. Francis has stunk up the joint when asked to come off the bench.

But James will shoot 3's and spread the floor and finish scoring plays like Bibby, change of pace from Francis who will drive, penetrate and get free throws like Bobby Jackson did.

Rafer Alston can really help a team like the Clippers, Bobcats, Nuggets, Kings some team like that but he simply has no place on this Rockets roster at all.

He could be traded right now to the Clippers, Bobcats, Nuggets, Kings, probably even the Lakers and be a starter or 6th man, which is the role he's had the last 4 years in the NBA.

Or he can ride the bench all year in Houston, I wonder what his choice would be? I wonder what the Rockets choice is let him ride pine all year and bring his trade value to zero or negative or deal him now when they might still get something useful at least like a trade exception and 2nd rounder?

 

Don't forget that we saved money for the next two years by not having Juwanathan. Just think: if we got James for that, there must not have been much demand in the market for him outside of us. He is NOT the solution to PG, so I have no problems keeping Rafer until we found out what the best answer really is.

 

I agree on Francis, not James. James was asked to score off the bench for us, he did. His Toronto team sucked, so he had to score. But James was a back-up PG on a world champion. He played a more traditional PG spot other places too.

James distribution numbers and A/TO are not all that disparete from Alstons--I wouldn't say he struggles at running a team. Fairly marginal differences, particularly when you consider Alston passes from a lot of spots where James has a shot you want him to take. Teams can get away from sagging off of and pressuring Alston they cannot get away with against James.

 

The bolded comment I have is I think you nailed Francis. The idea with him is Luther + the ability to drive versus an overplaying defense, the latter Luther can't do and good defenses realize you just have to mark him and he is a non factor (unless Luther has improved in those areas).

While James probably is great in sticky situations, not sure Rafer is either. As like last year, Tmac will have the ball in sticky situations. But James is good enough in ball handling to safely get the ball up and punish the pressure/overplay, the former Head can't do and the latter is an Alston weakness. (Alston is solid at getting the ball up against pressure safely, but nor does he punish teams for trying it and allows them to reset the defense). James will also be the best FT shooter among our ball handlers, he will be important in the closing lineup and punishing teams trying to pressure to delay our half court set up.

Steve Francis is a wildcard. You cannot base what he will do from the past. If he was anything like his past PG years NY wouldn't have discussed just buying him out, and Portland, with a young team in need of leadership, scoring and PG play (they signed Blake)--wouldn't have basically paid him his full contract just to leave.

Francis, has never, ever, had a respectable A/TO ratio. Not even in his best PG years. He is not even close to Mike James caliber in ball security and decision making with regards to teammates, let alone Alston caliber. Francis doesn't have the court discipline to be a PG--even relative to Mike James. If he can't adjust to a combo guard kind of role where he is slotted as an off the ball SG with a lot of freedom and not a lot of responsibilities--than his days of heavy rotation time in the NBA are limited.

Now maybe you can do a hybrid role with James (or Alston or Brooks or Tmac) and Francis on the court at the same time. But Francis should not be the primary ball handlier or primary organizer in any of these combinations--that is one of the surest things we know from Francis across of range of coaches and situations.