Bickering about how good he is aside, I'm extremely happy for the guy and will root for Orlando in the finals
that's ridiculous.........you acting like rafer did nothing this entire series......he was the 3rd leading scorer of the entire game for 2 out of the 6 games in the series..........that never would've happened with anthony johnson, tyronn lue......when was the last derek fisher was the 3rd leading scorer of any game much less a conference final?? it dont matter if rafer doesnt have the ball late cause that's how every team without an elite PG operates........late in the game, it's kobe with the ball, for the cavs, it aint mo williams, it's lebron, the nuggest, basically give it to carmelo and everyone else gets out the way, atlanta doesnt have mike bibby handle it late, the rock's with joe johnson........it doesnt mean bibby's trash cause he aint handling it in crunch time.
Hedo does most of the playmaking throughout the game, not just in crunch time. He led the team in assists throughout the playoffs and by an even larger margin in this series.
Blatantly obvious. My comments were directed toward the people giving too much credit to Rafer for the Magic's success. The Magic are where they are in large part due to that 7-foot beast in the middle who has dominated the paint and glass at both ends as well as those two near 7-footers that can put the ball on the floor, hit 3s and create mismatches defensively for their opponents. Pietrus' solid two-way play off the bench was even a bigger factor than anything Rafer did. Not to mention that Hedo was their acting PG, doing most of the creating and playmaking and leading the team in assists throughout the playoffs, most notably in this last series. If you want to state the obvious and fairly meaningless, the Lakers made it to the finals with Derek Fisher as their starting PG. Period.
blatantly obvious. if you want to state the obvious, the lakers are where they are in large part due to that 6'6" gunner of a SG who dominates every game they play. period. (btw, when are you going to change your handle to "Grasping at Straws"?)
That's my point. Much like Kobe and Gasol are largely the reason the Lakers are where they are, the Magic got this far mostly due to the play and mismatches created by Howard, Hedo and Lewis. Why should I change my handle?
yup, it was really stoopid. because everyone knows that a Yaoless team would have turned Rafer into a superstar against the Lakers. without Brooks, the Rockets don't win game 1 or 6. heck, i'm just glad that finally there's a team that can knock those punkarse Lakers onto their arses. strangely, i think that the Rockets would have matched up quite well against the Magic. Brooks and Lowry would tear up Rafer and hopefully get Howard in foul trouble while they could completely ignore Rafer on the other end and commit to double teaming Howard.
Hey, Im happy for Rafer. I dont see why we have to hate him just because hes not a Rocket anymore. Beat that Laker ass, Orlando!
That's the thing. I don't think the detractors, like myself, are hating on Rafer. I certainly don't hate Rafer Alston. From what I see, he seems like a pretty cool dude. From a basketball perspective, I just don't think he was the answer for us once McGrady went down. We needed to go in a new direction. I think some people, like myself, are just arguing that we shouldn't regret trading him and that he's where he is now mostly due to guys like Howard, Hedo and Lewis much like Fisher has gotten this far mostly due to the play of other Lakers. The only reason I waste my time posting stuff that comes off as "hateful" is that I don't believe we should regret the trade one bit and I don't like seeing that message being sent by fellow CFs. If anything, both teams made out well in that deal. Had we kept Rafer, I don't think we would have gotten any further than we did, possibly not even as far. In terms of the future, this trade was definitely in our favor. Unless you believe Rafer would have put us over the top this season, I see no reason to regret the trade.
what if rafer and the magic beat the lakers in the finals. One would say rafer is more than capable of putting a team "over the top". Sure its nice to play with howard, hedo and lewis who are your bread and butter, but w/o rafer these guys would not have been in the finals. The notions that rafer sucks, or is not a championship caliber PG needs to be put to rest because right now rafer is proving everyone wrong.The guy is a below-average shooter but he does have other skills. Skills, that has put his team where it is right now.
No need to hate on Rafer. He plays hard and is a good player. He obviously can run a championship level team, at the same time given our injuries to T-Mac and then Yao were likely better off with Aaron Brooks playing a lot more minutes. It's a rare case when both sides won.
Well, Magic fans can celebrate Rafer helping them enter finals, while Rockets fans can celebrate Brooks played a couple of good games when ( and only when) the team star Yao was not there. Is this a win-win situation?
Nobody's hating on him. But it's really annoying to see whole so many posts praising him, after a game where he played badly. Had Rafer shot 5-16 and 2 assists for the Rockets in the playoffs, there would be AT LEAST five "Rafer sucks and we need to get rid of him" threads in GARM. Yet when he does it for Orlando he's suddenly a good PG? You know a PG sucks when you have to compare him to Anthony Johnson to make him look good.
and joe johnson leads the hawks in assists over mike bibby.......it doesnt mean mike bibby plays shooting guard and joe johnson plays point guard........rafer alston is still the pg who gets the magic in their set.....i'm not saying he's the reason the magic got this far........but he's certainly one of the reasons and not just along for the ride. now since you give rafer just about 0 credit, i hope you give him 0 blame when they go down to the lakers, which they certainly will.
Rafer really isn't much better than Anthony Johnson. Did anybody watch Johnson when he started for Indiana a few years ago? A lot of Pacers fans were hoping they re-signed him. As for the argument about why Rafer has started for so many years while Johnson has almost exclusively been a backup, there is a difference when you play behind Jamal Tinsley in his prime versus competing against some of the PGs the Rockets have had for the last several years.
actually, you know you're desperate to trash someone when try to convince people anthony johnson is better than him.
Unfortunately, I think that Rafer will be a factor in them losing against LA. I think the length of LA will make things much tougher for Hedo and Rashard and Rafer will be forced to take more shots. That, or not having a PG like Jameer that could make the Lakers pay for giving more attention to Hedo and Rashard will end up costing the Magic. Rafer may outplay Fisher but Fisher won't be forced to do as much for the Lakers because Kobe will be eating the Magic's perimeter defenders alive. If the more offensively capable Lakers frontcourt gets Howard in foul trouble early and often, things may get ugly quickly.
First of all, theres no need for exceptonal praise or hate for rafer. its great to see him and orlando make it to the finals, but honestly, he did NOT carry the orlando to the finals. he played his usual mediocre game like he did in houston, but with a better teammates he's able to make it to the finals. so this does not make him a better point guard or worse point guard than he was before, and i seriously dont understand why people are freaking out about him, some even r****ded enough to doubt the trade..... well no shet they wouldnt have been there without him, but does that really make him a better point guard. im pretty sure they wouldve gotten to this point too with jameer nelson and any points guard with good amount of experience, alrite shooting and speed. and no i dont thin he put his team where it is now, he was simply doing what he was traded there to do, put up ok stats and let the rest of the team do the job. saying its him that put his team into the finals is like saying trevor ariza or lamar odom put lakers in the finals.
