But that's the thing, ron wasn't really cutting to the basket,he was getting the ball at the top and then trying to create himself, did you watch the series ?? In fact, most of ron's turnovers came when HE tried to pass the ball to a cutter, he kept trying to force it in between two lakers and would get it knocked away.
We still could have used Brooks speed and scoring...just at the sg position..he probably would have scored more...cause that's all he would have been called on to do...when brooks is called on to run the offense and set up other players...DISASTER..
Someone feel free to double-check me on this (I did it kind of quickly) : Rafer's playoff numbers this year as a Magic prior to Game 4 vs. Cavs : PPG : 12.4 FG% : 38.5% 3P% : 33.8% APG : 4.60 SPG : 1.60 TOPG : 1.67 Rafer's regular season numbers as a Magic this year after being traded : PPG : 12.00 FG% : 41.2% 3P% : 31.7% APG : 5.10 SPG : 1.76 TOPG : 1.79 Rafer's regular season numbers as a Rocket this year prior to being traded : PPG : 11.5 FG% : 36.9% 3P% : 34.8% APG : 5.38 SPG : 1.19 TOPG : 1.83
Maybe Ron wouldn't be passing as much if Rafer was still here...when, where, how to pass is very important..brooks didn't know when, where and How to get the ball to Artest or Yao same story...the entry pass is difficult...brooks made many turnovers trying to pass the ball to Artest or Yao...hopefully he'll learn with time....
The problem is some of you seem to have this expectation that Rafer should have matched or out play opposing all star PG's or he is worthless... If you need your PG to carry your team with scoring on a nightly basis Rafer is not the man for the job. But if you have good players at your other positions then Rafer is more than adequate as a role player to win as Orlando has shown. That certainly doesn't mean Rafer is any one's first choice as starting PG, merely that he can be a solid role player on a contending team. Your not going to have all stars at every position. Besides there is no rule that says Rafer couldn't have been the back up PG behind Brooks if Adelman wanted to go that way. Down the road I think Lowry will improve and should surpass Rafer, but as for this playoffs where we were one game away from the western conference finals, Lowry shot 33% from the field and 25% from 3 pt, making Rafer look like Reggie Miller in his prime.
Ok, i'll give you Yao, although that's completely irrelevant since he was out the last 4 games so i dont see how it would have helped, i doubt we would have won games 2 AND 3 with rafer......but with ron it's not about giving him a certain type of pass, he's asking for it up top, a high school can make that pass to him. Rafer wasn't going to make a difference there. and do you think Brooks was a disaster int he first round? Do you think he was a turnover machine against Portland?
i dont care about #'s.......just like everyone keeps saying it aint LeBron's fault, he had 40+ pts, he could score 100 pts i dont care..........all that matters is getting the W...........and in this case, i dont care what #'s you're trying pull up on rafer.....his team is getting W's and he's a big reason why.
What kept the Rockets in the series was the fact that our guards could consistently blow by Laker PGs. When was the last time Rafer could blow past ANYONE? And when does drive, when was the last time he actually MADE a basket?
that's the point though, Rafer didn't fit, that's what most of us are saying here. The reason they decided to ship rafer out instead of having him as a back up is because they still needed a PG who can attack well, brooks doesn't attack consistently at the rim yet, and Rafer was reluctant to do so. Houston didn't have a player who could get FTs like that, they needed it and Lowry was perfect for that, plus he was younger, and like you said would prob pass up rafer eventually, it's a deal you have to take if it's on the table because it's going to pay off long term
did you see today's game? the man was on.......he banked a 3 in lebron's face, and another time basically drove right into lebron and laid it in.
Umm..i'm not "trying" to pull up anything on him, it's factual numbers, it's there to be seen i'm not trying to pull any trick here....last time i check the score was a number. You may not care now because they're winning, but remember that these games have been close, as in one shot may make all the difference between being up 3-1 and down 3-1. So if it's THAT close and your worst perimeter shooter in your starting lineup is shooting 13, 14, 15 shots a game, i'd be trying to shift some of his attempts to the better shooters. Winning is great, but barely winning is risky, especially in the conf finals when you may not even be facing the best team yet. sure, maybe LA or denver put up a weaker fight, but i wouldn't be hoping for that, i would think they would want to tighten up their efficiency as much as possible so they would have more control of the outcome instead of hoping the other team doesn't hit a game winner.
The offense was almost none existent in game 7 ...it was basically Brooks and Artest isolation offense...Rafer gets the offense set up faster then Brooks...he pushes the ball up the court and gets the team into their offense "quickly" not slowly...players have more time to make wise decisions with the ball...when Rockets would get the ball with 5 secs on the shot clock ..bad things happen...shot clock violation, turnover, chuck up a bad shot...offensive flow is very important...the games rockets won 4 and 6 rockets had good offensive flow...games 5 and 7..the offense was stagnet..and rockets had trouble gettinginto offesne...I think Rafer would have been better then brooks at getting Rockets into their offense...
I'm as big an Alston fan as anyone here, but the Rockets won't go anywhere had they not making the trade with the Magic. Without TMac, the old Rockets team was just not good enough, especially on the offensive end. Trading away Alston was a move for the future, as stated by Morey. It was a surprise for most people that Brooks grew up in the hurry, played better than the team expected, especially in the playoff. Alston is a good fit for the Magic because they have a lot of offensive options, so he is not pressed into scoring. His ball handling enables the Magic to control the game pace with low TO, which is the KEY in the late round playoff games.
You don't understand...I don't want Rafer taking it to the basket..those floaters kill me..I want rafer setting up the offesne, and handling the ball...i want brooks drive to the basket and score and hit shots...understand
Ok so what "offense" was he going to get the team into? Scola did what he could, so did Landry, rafer wasn't going to turn Wafer, cooke, barry, etc into all -stars. We just didnt have enough firepower, it wasn't even about the point guard position. It's insane to say he would have been the difference. and the rockets got blown out those 2 games, game 7 specificially was a massacre inside, unless Rafer was going to pull down 10 boards and gets a few blocks, it wasn't going to make a difference.
Rockets could have at least made it competitive had they taken care of the ball...those turnovers made it a blowout...pacing is important...in game 7 we weren't playing Rockets pace..we were playing Lakers pace and got blown out...if Rockets would have controlled the tempo of the game we might have had a chance...game 1,4,6 we controlled the tempo...
Setting up the offense for whom? Rafer never prevented teams from fronting/doubling Yao. The Rockets offense were consistently in the bottom 1/3 of the league in offensive efficiency. Do you think Ron/Scola could've gotten better shots when the Lakers never have to worry about shutting down him? Did you see Rafer the past years he's been in a Rockets uniform?
