I've got to disagree with you, one of everyone's major gripes with Skip is his lack of penetration. I'm not sure that I hardly ever see him penetrate and dish. His passing ability is demonstrated with his excellent half court passing to cutters. He himself rarely goes inside the 3 pt line. Before Rafer we never had a PG who could get the ball to Yao when he was deep and in good position. I don't know if you've noticed but Yao's trouble with the man fronting him has greatly decreased since Skip has arrived, he's able to make that difficult pass enough times that they have to think twice about doing it.
Then if alston isn't a shooter, nor is a penetrator, than he isn't starting pg material period. Also, alston isn't the only player in the league good enough to make those passes nor get yao the ball. It doesn't even have to be the point guard throwing the entry pass. But the bottom line is his shooting problems strongly outweigh that one skill he does well considering the makeup of this roster.
Just because the position is called point guard, it doesn't mean the player is supposed to be a point scorer. No he's not a penetrator but I believe Skips shooting woes are greatly exaggerated on here...Like I chronicled yesterday he hits 38% of his threes from the top of the arc and wing area's which is the majority of his shots...thats not a bad percentage from deep anyway you slice it. His shooting percentage is naturally going to be low just because the majority of his shots are 3 ptrs. If you look at his adjusted FG% which takes this into acct it is a much more respectable 46%. Our ideal Mike James is 47%...you draw your own conclusions. Having played in the post for 4 yrs in HS and 2 at JUCO I can tell you the entry pass is half of the work to scoring an inside basket, if you stay down there and fight to get position and the guy can't get you the ball early when you have the advantage on the defender you'll be worn out by the time you get the ball and usually pushed out further than you want to be. Sound familiar(Yao for the first 3 yrs of his career)
i have no problem with rafers shooting, well a little bit, but not alot compare to other people on this board. its his mistake in clutch time that drives me crazy. tear drop, brick. rafer dribbles, hits it off the foot, rafer penetrate teardrop, airball. hes just messess up in clutch time, which is more important than any other time. also sometime when rafer makes a shot, the next possesion he just jacks it up there at the same spot. usualy at the top of the key. sometime he makes it but most of time he misses it. luther could be a pg one day, but i doubt it. we need to find someone who will play at clutch time, and not mess up. i wish we could get cassel here or even pippen.
Rafer has been a horrible finisher. He shies away from contact. He doesn't draw fouls. And on top of all that he shoots, 37% from inside the 3 point arc. He only shoots 40% inside 15 feet and only 43% AT THE RIM. On, and did I mention, he doesn't draw fouls, he actually shies away from them. Hence, his career pitiful 1.06 points per shot. But this year, he is actually having a career year............................for Rafer. Rafer is what he is, a very poor shooter, whose best attribute is handling the basketball in the open floor. You get him in a half court game, and he cannot shoot efficiently, he cannot finish, and because he cannot finish, it makes it extremely difficult for him to drive and dish. Turn him loose in a 3 on 2 or a 2 on 1 fast break and he is sensational. We get about one of those breaks every 2 games or so. Mike James, on the other hand, is having a very bad year by his standards. But he is still putting up 1.18 points per shot. And he is a playmaker. He draws fouls. He puts pressure on the defense on the break or in the halfcourt set. And he's having an off year. At this point, there is no comparison.
Agree and disagree. I don't think you can just judge a player by looking at the numbers. That is sth.the ESPN folks do. You need to watch how he plays the games. By the stats, yes, Rafer is not a good finisher. But in those games which did not require him to play lengthy minutes (which he could focus more), he did pretty decent. And I won't blame Rafer not drawing fouls. He is just not quick enough and can't jump high enough. In another word, he is not athletic enough to attack the rim to draw fouls. He knows it, his opponent knows it, and the referee knows it. Even he initiates the contact, probably there will be no call. So why bother? This is also why he settles more on jumper. As long as he makes good decisions on his shooting selections, even they don't go in, I am fine. To me, his biggest problem is when he plays longer minutes, he tends to lose his focus and becomes crappy. Those moments really drive me nuts. I hope that will go away after Rockets find a qualified PG or when Span develops into one. For now, he is the only one we have..
Of course the entry pass is important, but it's not that hard a skill to master honestly. Rafer Alston's shooting woes are not exaggerated. He runs hot/cold, and can't hit anything inside the arc. The stats jopatmc posted are horrible. And in the rockets system at full strength rafer's job will be to bury open shots consistently. And his track record of shooting indicates he is not the man for the job.
