Yes, I understand adjusted field goal percentages, you could even go a step further and look at their true shooting percentages which takes into account their free throw shooting. My point was that the Magic are doing very well despite many of their shots coming from poor shooters (i was referring to Pietrus as the third guy, not Rashard). There is much much MUCH MUCH more to basketball than shooting efficiency...just ask the Phoenix Suns.
This is called availability bias. It may seem like every player that we trade gets better, but that's mainly because those are the guys who make news. For every time you have someone like Skip light it up after we trade him, there's a Stevie Francis or Eddie Griffin.
There's a factor there that they have that we dont and that's Howard. It makes a huge difference to have a guy like that, especially on the boards and on defense. He also shoots like 13 shots a game at almost 60%, so that's going to make up some for their lower FG% on the perimeter. Also, there's a difference between guys who can shoot and just take bad or rushed shots and guys who can't shoot and take bad and rushed shots. The magic has the first kind for the most part, except for Rafer, meaning they can settle down some and play smarter to tidy up the offense and make their % better. Lewis shot almost 44% during the season and is up to almost 47% in the playoffs. Lee is up from 40% to almost 44%. also keep in mind that you're looking at FG%, the magic rely more on 3pt shooting, and they shoot a solid % from there, 38% , the % is not outstanding, but it's pretty good considering they shoot like 26 threes a game and that's 3 points instead of 2.
i just thought that was interesting considering your sig...do you think it still may be Yao, or are you saying they should find someone else?
Rafer is jackal and hide as far as his overall play including his shot. Plus he still throws up that nasty looking floater. Whoo! that shot is ugly and it never goes in.
I understand your points: Dwight Howard's dominant defense/rebounding, stepping up in the playoffs, and three point shooting. I'm not disputing the fact that there are reasons why the Magic have made it thus far. I'm just pointing out that the argument (which started a few seasons ago) that you can not win with low percentage shooters taking alot of shots on your team, is flawed. Throughout the season Rafer, Hedo, and Pietrus have been low percentage shooters and they are successful with them. I think the combo of Rafer/Hedo/Pietrus is similar to the combo of Rafer/Mcgrady/Battier (from a couple years ago) in what they bring to the team. The consensus amongst an overwhelming majority of the cf community has been that Rafer/Mcgrady and their shooting woes were the cause of our lack of success. I think it's interesting to see that Rafer/Hedo/Pietrus are VITAL to the success of the Magic.
Rafer is playing with house money. He knows Jameer Nelson is the starting PG next year and at this point in his career Rafer has no chance of stealing that job. Back in Houston, he was always under pressure to play efficient within the system. Plus after Morey picked Brooks, Skip knew it was only a matter time. Removing this kind of pressure away from a player can really let him unleash his game. Many of those 3 pointers in the last couple games were ill-advised but in Orlando where everyone jacks up treys, it was acceptable and even encouraged. That kind of stuff would get you benched by the Rockets.
I'll agree that those trios are similar, but it's a 5 man team and the magic trio also had Lewis on their team, we had no one like that next to the rockets' trio. That's pretty much the type of shooter i've been hoping for though, someone who can not only shoot the three, but also the midrange shots, but i'd rather have someone that's not necessarily an all-star type (since we'd have to give up more for him) and just someone who has good accuracy with solid handles to move to the open area to pull up. but i think the main cause of any problems we've had has always been injuries...plain and simple, maybe without them we'd have consistency and would have done better with those guys, but i think there was still an issue there and that's the lack of penetration. Tmac's injury or love for the J kept him out in the perimter too much...shane can't drive well, and rafer also fell in love with the J too much....so we'd have trouble gettinn easy points like free throws.
Posted today on nba.com...not sure if someone posted it yet Alston making Cavaliers pay http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/john_schuhmann/05/27/cavs.magic.offday/index.html
I don't regret the Rafer trade, I'm just happy he's doing well. Besides Parking attendants, he's been cool.
Brooks = a better player by far than Rafer but a much worse point guard than Rafer. Lowry = a complete scrub of epic proportions compared to Rafer. Morey blew that trade BIG TIME.
Yeah, pretty much. People underestimate what Rafer brought to the team. Sure he wasn't a consistent scorer, but he knows how to manage the team, is the obvious leader on and off the court for the team, a great ball handler and people underestimate how good he is on defense. If we would have had a healthy Rafer, we probably would have taken the last Utah playoff series to seven games and may have won it. All the good points people point toward Kyle Lowry doing, Rafer did for us, except he wasn't nearly as fast.
I think rafer could have stuck if Yao showed more superstar cosnsistency, but i think it's almost clear now he'll be stuck as a 20 and 10 guy and thats what i think pushed the team over the edge to get rid of Rafer....also people forget his age, personally i'm tired of finding rentals every year, Rafer would nee some replacing in 2 years for sure and that would be a very bad time to change starting point guards, well assuming we're making championship runs by then, which is what i think the team expects.
Eventually these Rafer threads will go to the NBA dish, like the Francis and Mobley threads. The Rafer only fans will leave like the Francis only fans.
Rafer is notoriously streaky. He knows it too. "The Orlando Magic is known as a 3-point shooting team. They have long and lanky shooters who can knock it down from long-distance in the clutch. There have been daggers from Rashard Lewis and heart-breakers from Hedo Turkoglu in this Eastern Conference finals. Which is why the Cavaliers opted to leave point guard Rafer Alston wide open for most of Game 4. "I'm probably not the most consistent one out of all the bunch as far as making threes," Alston admitted Tuesday. Cleveland tried to capitalize on Alston's streaky nature by switching to a defense that assigned LeBron James to the 6-2 guard so James could more easily switch to double-teaming the Magic's powerful center, Dwight Howard. Cleveland Plain Dealer
rafer sucked in 06-07 game 7 fist round playoffs vs. the jazz. 3 -11 (.273%) for 11 points. wish he would have played like that when we had him
People really do have short memories. Have we forgotten Rafer's teardrops and transition 3s after just a few short months? The next time we see Rafer blowing by defenders and wreaking havoc on opposing defenses will be the first. Was happy with the trade at the time, and never regret it even once. This team is better both this season and in the future with Lowry/Brooks rather than Alston/Brooks.
