Rafer Alston

Alston survived a training camp battle to become Houston’s starting point guard and held on to the job all season. He was a nice fit for the Rockets, who don’t need much more from a point guard than to play some defense and take the pressure off Tracy McGrady every now and then. As such, don’t expect a lot of assists from Alston in Houston’s offense. The biggest question throughout his career has been attitude, but there was no hint of that last year. He’s an above-average perimeter defender, so as long as he’s comfortable with coach Rick Adelman, he’ll be the starter. As a full-time starter in the past five seasons, Alston is averaging 1.47 steals per game. He was the Rockets’ third leading scorer and shooter last season, but the addition of Ron Artest should limit Alston’s scoring opportunities. Although Alston stepped up his scoring when Yao Ming went down last season, he isn’t a great jump shooter and the Rockets don’t want to rely on him scoring to be successful.

Alston played a full season at point guard, starting all 82 games and playing over 37 minutes a night for Houston, but still finished behind Tracy McGrady in assists. That’s all you need to know about the point guard job in Houston. Get the ball to McGrady and provide a shooting threat to keep defenses from doubling McGrady and Yao Ming. The Rockets brought in several guards during the offseason, so Alston will have to beat out Steve Francis and Mike James. First-round draft pick Aaron Brooks should not be too much of a factor, if at all, in the rotation. In addition to competition on the court, Alston’s immediate future is somewhat hazy because of allegations of felony assault – his second arrest of the summer. Assuming he’s still with the team, Alston figures to be sharing playing time with James and Francis, which calls the fantasy value of all three players into question.

One wouldn’t think that a streetball legend like “Skip to my Lou” Rafer Alston and a by-the-book coach like Jeff Van Gundy would be able to co-exist peacefully, and initially they did have some growing pains. But as the season progressed, Alston developed a pretty decent rapport with Tracy McGrady and posted solid numbers in scoring and assists while nabbing about a steal and a half per game. With finishers like McGrady and Yao, assists should come in bunches for Alston. He’ll probably butt heads with Van Gundy from time to time, but there really aren’t any other options on the Rockets roster to man the point, so his position is at least reasonably secure.

Welcome to the "problem child" portion of the program. New York City playground legend Rafer “Skip to my Lou” Alston parlayed his 2003-04 season averages (10.2 points, 4.5 boards, 2 treys per game on 37% shooting from beyond the arc) into a fat contract and starting role in Toronto. The news from north of the border wasn't nearly as good, as Alston repeatedly clashed with management. Lost in all the drama, though, were season totals that bettered his coming-out in Miami by a fair piece. Alston upped his scoring to 14.2 ppg, dropped 6.4 dimes per game, improved his shooting from the floor to 41% and still managed to hit 1.7 threes per game while shooting 35% from deep. In October, Alston was dealt to the Rockets where he'll likely start at the point, though Bob Sura could cut into his time once he comes back from a knee injury.

Schoolyard legend Alston finally started to figure out the NBA game last year. Thrust into a starting role with Miami, he responded with 10.2 PPG, 4.5 APG, 1.4 SPG and a ton of three-pointers (161, to be exact). Signed to be the Raptors’ point guard, Alston is one of the bigger wild cards in the Eastern Conference. He has as much talent as anyone, but his breakout ’03-’04 could just as easily have been a fluke as a first step towards stardom. We like Alston’s odds to keep improving, however. Draft him for another 10 points and five assists, with lots of threes and some steals, but don’t be surprised if he hits for at least 13.0 PPG and 6.0 APG.

Alston’s situation heading into the season mirrors that of the above-mentioned Coles. Being forced to guess, we’d say that Alston will begin the season behind Coles on the depth chart and deep on the bench watching Riley go through his carousel of point guards before looking Alston’s way. Don’t look for help from “Skip to my Lou” unless there is a major change in plans in Miami.