Will someone explain to me the Rafer Alston love affair?

I love Rafer as a player and a person, but with Steve and Mike James, there's no room for him. He actually has a lot of value. Trade him for Haslem. I'd also look to deal Luther Head and Sura, maybe Snyder as a filler.

 

I actually agree with most of this post...

 

I just have sympathy for the man because he was asked the be the 3rd scorer and carry more of the load than he was suppose to.

 

I'd trade him ASAP. I'd keep luther if at all possible though, he is the best 3 point shooter in the team and clutch player after all and could be our specialist in that.

 

So did Ryan Bowen. I could care less for Assistant coach pet players. Deke helped the team win alot of games when Yao went down and Assistant coach never even gave him a shot in the playoffs when we needed inside D and rebounding, but he allwoed Rafer to jack shots up like he was Kobe.

 

dont get confused between fear of the return of dribblemania and love of rafer alston.

rafer got the team into the offense quickly. he kept the ball moving and almost never turned it over. james waived of tmac in game 7 and steve still dribbles the ball of of his foot.

don't get me wrong, i'm definitely in favor of the moves that were made. io'm just pointing out that with all of rafers flaws he still braught us some comfort knowing that the ball will get to yao and tmac without being turned over.

 

We needed offense more than defense, and McGrady was inconsistent, in three out of seven games he did not play up to par. If we gave Deke heavy minutes we would have lost even worse. Besides, Deke's playoff +/- wasn't even very good, it was -8.3, -5.8 net.

 

I'd keep Head.

Alston is already 31, with a 3-year contract left, never been a starting level PG, and you have a lot PGs, esp. when PG market is wide open,

you got to trade him to get value as soon as possible.



The Alston love fair is the extension of JVG love fair.
---------->"Alston is all we need at PG"<------------

 

Again, how does this explain how bad Rafer Alston sucked as a player.

 

Exactly. If the talent doesn't mesh on the court, the team will underachieve. Remember when the Lakers put together a team of 4 Hall of Famers? They didn't exactly steamroll to the championship, did they?

For all his faults, Rafer makes a fine post entry pass (watch Luther Head throw it right into his defender's hands when he tries it), and he gets it to McGrady in good spots (backdoor cuts, off curls, etc.)

 

I was responding to your statement that Deke should have played more minutes.

 

I agree with the original post. I have been saying for months that his constant 3 point misses and mised layups are as bad as turnovers. And I am sick of this "but he gets us int our offense quickly." No he doesnt. He dribbles the ball to half court and handed it to tmac. He did nothing. I think i could have done that. He is not needed, but those of you who think we can get Haslem for Skip, there is no way in Hell the Heat would do that. They can get a mediocre PF at best for rafer, like reggie evans or something.

 

I like Skip but I think he has value and will be gone now.

Man, we still have some tools to get another good player. This is crazy.

*cue James Brown* I feeel good...

 

This right here. Don't get me wrong, I cringe every time Rafer shoots, like any Rockets fan. There's no way he should have been playing 40 minutes a night. But Rafer Alston gets the ball where its needed and he can run a break. Those are things that Steve Francis has never done.

I'd much, MUCH prefer to get rid of Rafer and get a real point guard. But simply ditching him and turning his job over to Francis scares the **** out of me. Francis doesn't move the ball or move without the ball. He BOUNCES the ball. I'd much rather he took over James' role, but I don't see how that's possible.

 

Because, before Rafer, the Rockets hadn't had a real PG since, well, let me think...


Hang on...


1996 - Sam Cassell. That's right, 11 years of knowing how much talent can go to waste without a floor general. And how even a mediocre floor general makes up for that.

 

Tmac was the floor general

 

man, people give Skip a worse wrap than he should take for his three point shooting. .363 isn't terrible. I can understand not wanting the guy for 37 minutes a game on your team but I can't see how you cannot appreciate how he handled the ball and ran the offense.

There's a reason that he has value right now. Throw in Sura and scrub change and look out.

 

No he wasn't. Rafer brought the ball up, called the plays, started the offense. T-Mac was the creator, but Rafer ran the offense.