Rafer alston can be the starting pg of a championship team. I hate it when people say player X is not starting material on a championship team. Even mediocre players can make it under the right circumstances.
Rafer in Q1 tonight: 1-5 from the field for 3 pts. 0s across the board in every other statistical category. They don't keep stats for being a non-factor. This could end up being yet another playoff game where Anthony Johnson outperforms him. Is it unreasonable to focus on 1 quarter of play? Yes. Just like it was unreasonable to make Rafer out to be something he's not after one half of good long distance shooting when nobody was defending him.
Most here have hit the nail on the head already. Rafer's a serviceable pg on a strong team where he is the 5th option. He could be a team killer when forced top be anything other than that as a permanent role due to his erratic shooting, fiesty temperment, and horrid finishing skills. The absolute ideal situation is having him serve as a backup to a dominant pg, ala parker, paul, or williams. As for 2.0's comments that rafer/brooks would've been better than brooks/lowry, i respectfully disagree. We wouldn't have gotten aaron's offensive explosions if alston were.here simply due to ack of pt, both in the playoffs and in the regular season. Those juggernaut games were a direct result of pt and confidence, neither of which were completely attainable with rafer onboard. Moving forward, the trade is even more of a no-brainer since either brooks or lowry will be better trade assets than a 30+ pg that has hit his ceiling. GMs are often intoxicated with the twinkling star of Potential, of which brooks and lowry are loaded. Brooks' outbursts were against the lakers, so you KNOW the entire league witnessed.
before you guys wet your pants, you should realize he is still only shooting 36% from 3 during the playoffs and 31% during the regular season with the Magic, which is actually worse than he ever did with us. The guy had a good game, simple as that. Every nba player has them. A stopped clock is right twice a day. Am I still glad they kicked his ass to the curb? Hell yes.
I like the ambiguous wording of this thread title. We won't have to create a new thread when Rafer puts up a couple of WTF? performances. The Magic would very likely be exactly where they are right now if Anthony Johnson was starting with Tyronn Lue backing him up. If they had Jameer, they would be playing even better. The reason for this is that Howard, Hedo and Lewis are the real difference makers. You could even argue that Pietrus has been more important given his efficiency and the fact that he has had to spend a lot of time guarding Lebron at the other end.
So far, Rafer is 1-for-9 tonight for 3 pts. No FT attempts. 3 assists and 3 TOs. His +/- is -18. The next worst on the Magic is -7.
4th 4:46 ORL - C. Lee enters game for R. Alston 4:46 CLE - Shooting foul on D. West 4:56 CLE - L. James makes a 7-foot turnaround jumper in the lane 5:17 CLE - L. James defensive rebound 5:18 ORL - R. Alston misses a 26-foot three-pointer from the left wing 5:29 ORL - R. Alston defensive rebound s.vangundy know how to use rafer. xddd
No, it's actually ingenious. The thread title is ambiguous. Now, it's WTF Rafer??? for the 1-for-10, 3 ast, 3 to, game high -20 performance.
Yes. Put him with LBJ, DH, Kobe and Duncan and watch him start on a championship team. He'd still be in the top 3 player in shots taken though Let's face it, Alston has been now been exposed as a shoot first pg. A lot of the people here excused him as being forced to shoot more, but now on the magic he often the 5th worst offensive option on the floor yet he still chucks it up. Even in a game when he's shooting horrendously, he still has the second most fgs in the team. Not really hating on Rafer, but man am I so glad he's not here anymore
Rafer was the X-Factor tonight. If you look at his shot chart, there are Xs all over the place. I actually like Rafer. I wouldn't mind seeing him succeed if people around here wouldn't make him out to be something he isn't when he does. I like CFs and don't want to hear exaggerations about his abilities for the next year or so. It's simple: Lowry > Rafer. How the Magic perform this postseason does not change that fact. It was a great trade for us. I guess the Magic could be content but I don't think they needed to do it. Anthony Johnson is basically the same player.
I wonder if Smith is kicking himself for even involving us. Couldn't they have traded for Lowry directly instead of getting Reeefer?
Face it. Rafer Alston and 'Skip to My Lou' are different people. “He wasn’t Rafer Alston, he was the playground legend ‘Skip to My Lou,”’ - D.Howard on ECF Game 4. ECF Game 5 - he's Rafer Alston. FG 1-10 3Pt 1-7. Back with a thud! Skip to My Lou is rarely seen.
