You guys are arguing the wrong issue. the issue is not about the rafer trade being right for the rockets but do the rockets have the right superstars to lead this team to the NBA finals. Rafer is doing what he always does. I am not surprised by hot/cold shooting, he has done this his entire career. It is the winning that matters. Orlando is on the brink of the nba finals while the rockets are at home fishing. This shows the rafer is not the problem but maybe yao and tmac are problem. Orlando in yr 5 of their rebuilding is a game away from the NBA finals, while houston in yr 5 of the yao/tmac era is happy that they got to second rd of the playoffs.
That's cute. Except Brooks scored 34 and 26 points in 2 of those games against the Lakers and shot at least 60% in both. We more than likely wouldn't have seen a 7th game with Rafer.
If Kevin Garnett was healthy, Orlando would have lost to them in the 2nd round and they would be exactly where we are.
Lakers got fast break easy baskets...off our 15 turnovers..we got next to nothing off their 19 turnovers...those turnovers is what led to the blowout...Experience Matters..how many times did Lowry and Brooks get the ball stolen from them...game 7 was lost in the 1st quarter...when were standing stagnate offense..no offensive flow..turnover after turnover...is what lose the game...1,4 ,6 we jumped on the Lakers...and won...games 2,3,5,7 Lakers jumped on us..if we would have taken care of teh ball and played our game..we might have had a chance to steal it at the end..
If Jameer Nelson was healthy, Orlando would have the best record in the league.What's your point? Results matter, not your fantasy IF's.
rafer??? one good game...kyle lowry has been beastly for us so far! EXACTLY what we need...lowry plays exactly how rafer, tmac, and artest DONT play...he is tough and drives to the lane and INITIATES contact! not saying that rafer, tmac, and artest arent good or anything...but those 3 DON'T do that! and that is what we need! tmac artest just settle for jumpers 90% of the time while rafer takes 3s and does them floaters while trying to avoid contact.
Wow, Alston is the only rockets player who could survive for the NBA playoff finals this year. He is still a rockets player in my heart. When Morey traded Rafer for nothing, I was really pissed off at that moment.
A really good point was made on the previous page. I don't have the stats off hand but I'm fairly sure the Rockets offense was the most efficient it's been in years since Alston/Brooks was replaced with Brooks/Lowry. It very well is probably due mostly to McGrady being out but Alston is, was and always will be one of the least efficient scorers in the league. He certainly didn't contribute much, if anything, to our efficiency as evidenced by years of us finishing in the bottom tier of the leage in terms of offensive efficiency. He may have contributed to Yao's efficiency ever so slightly but not overall efficiency. As much as Alston would have been much, much better at running the offense, there was almost nobody to feed the ball to. We needed more and better offense from our PG once we lost McGrady for the season. Plus, Lowry is better than Alston and Brooks and he's a decade younger. It was a great trade. Alston would not have put us over the top in the playoffs. I think a better argument is that we wouldn't have done as well. For all his game management, we would have had even more trouble scoring. He would have been too unselfish and Ron would have been taking even more shots. We lost to the Lakers because of the Lakers and because we were missing Yao and McGrady - not because of Brooks or Lowry or not having Alston or any other reason.
If anything, I think you could make a better argument for Rafer's defense being the most important thing we lost since Brooks was getting the majority of the minutes. The fact is though that Lowry is better than both Alston and Brooks defensively. Anything Rafer/Brooks added over Brooks/Lowry in terms of game management, controlling the tempo, getting the ball to Yao before Yao broke his foot again would have likely been offset by his inability to score the ball, especially given the fact that we had 2 SFs in the starting lineup and we needed scoring from everywhere as well as the fact that Brooks shot well and did about as much as we could expect from him in the playoffs. Lowry provided better defense than Alston would have when he was on the court, especially against Portland. That offset some of Brooks' subpar defense. Plus, it's not like Rafer is doing anything with Orlando than he didn't do with us. Before tonight, his playoff numbers were entirely unimpressive. Even after tonight, his numbers won't be that great. Rafer was always capable of the occasional big game (Lakers game during the streak last season off the top of my head) while his overall numbers always remained pretty constant. Rafer has been a stop gap filler for the Magic. With Jameer, they would be even more dangerous. The reason the Magic are doing so well is mostly due to Howard, Hedo and Lewis. Anthony Johnson has actually outplayed Rafer on a number of occasions during the playoffs. They actually pull Alston in late game situations frequently to let Hedo run the offense.
It seems this board forgot to take its bipolar medication again. I swore I actually read that people miss Rafer.
For all of you smoking that REEFER weed, I hear they are taking applicants here: http://orlandomagiczone.com/eve REEFER is not on this team anymore. Even if he was, the stats I posted and what DoD posted, he is still doing the same thing. Brooks and Lowry - they might of turned the ball over a lot during the playoffs, but they are young, up-and-coming PGs that Adelman will groom into his offense. For 2 inexperienced PGs to lead us to the 2nd round, I see great things from our PG position.
Good for Rafer. I'm really happy for him, as I am with any ex-Rocket. And I was sadden when we traded him. BUUUUUUUUT, I love watching Brooks/Lowry play. Absolutely love it! So, Rock On, Rafer, Rock On.
You're damn right we would have beaten the Jazz with Rafer in the lineup in the games he missed.....he was very well much a reason we won 22 in a row without Yao for the rest of the way and T-Mac needed him in those 2 games. T-Mac was a force in game 6 then Skip went oput again. LETS GO RAFER AND SHOW THESE FANS THAT SO WANTED U GONE OUT OF HOUTSON 2 SHUT UP AND TELL THEM HOW YOUR A** TASTE!!!!! LOL!
THAT REMAINS TO BE SEEN....DWIGHT IS A BEAST AND I BELIEVE GARNETT WOULD HAVE HAD TROUBLE WITH HIM!!!!
First off, you are saying that Rafer knows how his own ass tastes. That is funny. Secondly, Jameer will be asking Rafer "How's my ass taste?" next season when he returns and Rafer is on the bench or traded away. Rafer has been a stopgap since Jameer went down. Anthony Johnson has outplayed him on a number of occasions this postseason. Furthermore, Rafer is often taken out late in games so Hedo can run the point and so they can get better scorers on the floor. The reason Orlando is winning has more to do with Howard, Hedo, Lewis and Pietrus than Rafer. Rafer is the 5th option in that starting lineup. He got hot behind the arc for one game when they left him wide open. That is all. He started bricking heavily in the 2nd half. One of those bricks even happened to go in.
