Hmmmm... looks like CD was right about Rafer having turned a corner. His numbers took a HUGE jump in February ... FG% rose to 42%, shooting over 48% behind the arc. In the 3 games since the ASG, he's shooting 50% from the field and 51% behind the arc. Hopefully this boost carries on well into May and perhaps June.
He seems to have good form on his shots, hard to explain his inconsistency. Shooting is an art as well as a skill, so many factors: vision, touch, perception, judgement, timing, release, arc, location, attitude, confidence, distractions, concentration, etc. Some are just naturals, some are not. The first few games I saw Alston play, I knew he wasn't a "natural" shooter, in fact, he is actually a poor shooter overall. I agree with Clutch that this is a bad trait for a Rocket's guard to have. However, he handles and distributes the ball really well. The team needs consistent shooting from some other player. Hayes, not. Battier, has a good average (?) just seems to rarely hit a shot in games. Wells, not so far. Synder, never plays. Head, when he is hot. Mutombo, forget about it. Compared to Dallas, the Rockets are very shooting-impaired. For the Rockets to beat the elite teams, they need more shooting. Alston becomes the lightening rod for this problem.
Rafer single-handedly screwed the game. I don't know how else to explain it. You know how when T-Mac gets in a zone, it seems he counters every shot the other team takes with one of his own and he's able to continuously hit ridiculous shots and win an entire game for a team? What Rafer did was exactly on the opposite end of the spectrum. I'm so pissed, it's not even funny. We had them under control by going to the basket repeatedly, so why suddenly decide to take 9 3pters? I'm Rafer's biggest fan on this board. But tonight, I spit on his performance. Inexcusable. It has nothing to do with "sometimes the shots are not falling". Tonight could have been avoided with some simple common sense. Horrible performance. Utterly disgusting.
rafer alston sux... he is not starting pg material. I dont know about his avg but the last 3 games, he totally sux and the rockets lost 2 out of 3
Rafer is not cut out to be the player he was forced to be tonight. He's going to struggle in that role, its not what he's good at. Its equivalent to asking Chuck Hayes to post up repeatedly. Skip is not a dribble into your own shot type of player. He is a spot up shooter and distributor. Tonight is one of the few on the season (hopefully) that we would've needed a PG to be able to create his own shot. Yes Clutch this goes to you to, just didn't feel like quoting both of ya. This had to be expected, I really wish he would've hit a couple more of those shots but I'm not surprised that he didn't. I'm more disheartened by Battiers game considering he was still, for the most part, taking the shots he usually takes and shot 1 for the world.
No, that's bull****. We can contend with Rafer at the point when Yao and T-Mac are in there. But tonight, Rafer and Battier wasted the team's efforts. The team put forth such a spectacular display of heart and they shat on it. We know Battier's not a scorer, but 1 of 12 is inexcusable. Rafer was even more horrendous, hitting less than 10% of his shots, and 10% of his 3pters. Nevermind that, he has 6 assists to 3 to's, a paltry 3 rebounds in FORTY minutes, and only hit half of his 6 FT's. I can't believe JVG didn't have the balls to yank Rafer for taking all those ill-advised 3's. 10%??? Right around 1 of 6, Rafer should've been out of there. Very selfish performance from him. It was clear that he was just looking to prove to himself that he could do it and let everyone down. This is, to me, BY FAR the most dissapointing loss of the season. Getting trashed by the Mavs, losing to the Hawks... I don't care. This game killed me.
Riiight, you prefer to go the way of b****ing about how sorry his is after he has a good game...seems a little backwards to me...dyslexic perhaps?
Rafers= NO ring, it's easy as that, I guaranty that. Even with Yao Ming coming back we need a decent PG. Rafer is below avg, this guy shoot 1st pass later. He seems to have more games where he miss more than his points and assist put together. This guy is a coming off the bench material, not starting except when you play for JVG. Like I said, JVG give this guys too much of a break and he never seem to yank him out even when he does stupid things...
That really isnt saying much. You could say that with Spanoulis or Lucas as long as Yao and T-Mac are in there. Any point guard in the league could contend with those two. Rafer is trash.
1 for eternity and not taking it to the rack. Everybody knows it. For the 5-8 spectacular games Rafer has given us this year, we've got 25 toilet specials. Here's another.
Excellent post, solid. Your comments are especially pertinent after tonight's game. Scrubfest 07 will be remembered for seasons to come as a classic exhibition of basketball incompetence or how not to shoot the basketball.
i dont have a problem with him shooting when tmac and yao are out of the lineup...but do 10 of his 11 shots have to be threes???? he took it to the whole once all game and got fouled....you would think he would keep diong that
