Rafer Alston coming back home?

I heard on ESPN 1050 this morning that Alston said he was going to start the season playing for either the Knicks or the Heat...even tho he is currently on the Nets.

Anyone hear about this? I personally think he would be a great addition to our team. Plus it's the last year of his contract, no affect on 2010. Not to mention the Nets have a future star in Devin Harris at the point and don't really "need" Rafer. I wonder what kind of deal would get him here??

I hope Rafer Alston comes to New York. Toney Douglas can't be the team's main PG. Plus whenever a rookie comes to a team, it always good for him to have a precedent from a veteran player that offers knowledge and exprience.

A good example of that would be in Chicago: Lindsey Hunter for Rose, whose great prefromance can be partially acredited to the guidance of Hunter. Alston can be a precedent for Douglas to follow. Rafer isn't costly (his price tag is the veteran's minimum) and he offers scoring ability and good defense. He would be a fan favorite at home.

you just compared derrick rose to tony douglas.

Stop it.

Rose could of been mentored by marbury and still snatched ROY.

dan1608 said:

I hope Rafer Alston comes to New York. Toney Douglas can't be the team's main PG. Plus whenever a rookie comes to a team, it always good for him to have a precedent from a veteran player that offers knowledge and exprience.

A good example of that would be in Chicago: Lindsey Hunter for Rose, whose great prefromance can be partially acredited to the guidance of Hunter. Alston can be a precedent for Douglas to follow. Rafer isn't costly (his price tag is the veteran's minimum) and he offers scoring ability and good defense. He would be a fan favorite at home.

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The part I bolded becaue that is a good point. Rafer is a veteran player who took over for Jameer Nelson when he was hurt and helped the Magic reach the championship. Alston is good wherever he goes and with one year left on his contract would be a perfect Donnie Walsh move to get Alston.

I agree that Douglas can't be used right away to have a main role...he is raw but can play good defense which is his speciality even though he averaged big offensive numbers in college. A combination of Duhon/Alston/Nate is solid for Point Guard depth. Along with Chandler, Hughes, possibly Morris Almond...we have a decent and very athletic back court.

Alston and Simmons, for Harrington and Jefferies works under the cap...

This wouldn't help us win games, but it does help the 2010 plan. I think Jersey would have to throw in a 2nd rounder as well though. It's a good trade from Jerseys point of view, they need a starting SF...

Probably won't happen, but it could be a way to get rid of Jefferies...

Alston would be great in NY i would love it, i think he's a good pg who can fill in the gap for a couple of seasons till Douglass is ready to take over. Douglass is really impressing me after i watched videos and watched him in summer league. douglass is going to be one of those arenas players who bust out and make wish they woulda drafted him. i got that feeling when i watched him play. he's got the control and skills to be good.

point is bring Alston to ny

Err Im not to high on Raefer.

LOIOSH30 said:

Alston and Simmons, for Harrington and Jefferies works under the cap...

This wouldn't help us win games, but it does help the 2010 plan. I think Jersey would have to throw in a 2nd rounder as well though. It's a good trade from Jerseys point of view, they need a starting SF...

Probably won't happen, but it could be a way to get rid of Jefferies...

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Not a bad idea, its just that NJ is thinking the same in terms of cap space, I doubt the take Jefferes. Now Al Jefferson and Cuttio for Rafer,Simmons, and Hassel works for both teams.

I think Rafer would be as much an upgrade as adding Sessions to the team. He is not the playmaker Ramon is, but he is a much better scorer. I think this move would be an upgrade

New New York said:

Not a bad idea, its just that NJ is thinking the same in terms of cap space, I doubt the take Jefferes. Now Al Jefferson and Cuttio for Rafer,Simmons, and Hassel works for both teams.

I think Rafer would be as much an upgrade as adding Sessions to the team. He is not the playmaker Ramon is, but he is a much better scorer. I think this move would be an upgrade

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I would go for that trade in a heartbeat, we give up Jeffries, add Alston, Simmons and Hassel, and Kahn and the T-wolves throw Al Jefferson to NJ as a sign of good faith for screwing us in the draft! Lol I know you meant Al Harrington I just couldn't help myself. I don't think Harrington is a long term solution but unless we get something worthwhile (or Jettison Curry or Jeffries as you mention) I don't want to get rid of Al, think he can help our chances of looking respectable next year to attract other players

dan1608 said:

I hope Rafer Alston comes to New York. Toney Douglas can't be the team's main PG. Plus whenever a rookie comes to a team, it always good for him to have a precedent from a veteran player that offers knowledge and exprience.

A good example of that would be in Chicago: Lindsey Hunter for Rose, whose great prefromance can be partially acredited to the guidance of Hunter. Alston can be a precedent for Douglas to follow. Rafer isn't costly (his price tag is the veteran's minimum) and he offers scoring ability and good defense. He would be a fan favorite at home.

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Rafer has one year left on his current contract at 5.2M. He is a good defender but an erratic scorer, only shoots about 38% for his career. I doubt this happens unless the Nets take back Jeffries contract but they won't since they're trying to clear cap space to go after Lebron just like the Knicks.

Rafer Alston aka New York's "Skip 2 my lou" belong a Knick more than Marbury. Alston was the PG we were supposed to go after when the Bucks had him sitting on the bench for two seasons. And each time he was a FA.

In the Ruckers Tournament we all knew "Skip" could'nt shoot worth a dime, but his passing-skillz and court-vision at the age 16 & 17 was off the hook and rated as high as the star PG in the NCAA.
When the Championship Coach of UNLV (forgot name) came out of retirement to coach Rafer Alston one year in college he to was impressed by Alston creative passing-skillz.
Although, I say "Skip" should've stayed two or three years in college to get a better rep & hype for the NBA, rather than being a 3rd tier PG behind PG-Cassell his first two season in the NBA.

My assessment about Donnie Walsh lazyness or clueless procedure only gets stronger when the chances of getting Rafer Alston or Session this offseason was an easy cake walk with Mobley (Insurance contract) for teams that are stuck on their salary-cap and Luxury Tax.
The Nets Owner Rat....would've made that deal b/c he was incline to selling the team.
The Bucks would've been the better team to trade Mobley contract to for veteran Kurt Thomas and Session b/c the Knicks are in dire need of a bigman leader on their roster even if he only gives 12 to 24 mpg in the rotation, Kurt Thomas veteran presence in practice, lockerroom, bench, and on the court would've been the best thing for Curry, Lee, Hill, and Darko this season.
And Session (or Alston), Nate, and Duhon would've provided for the missing SG on the roster (Hughes is not dependable), while programing Douglas to be able to step-up his combo-position to NBA level.
This way Chandler, Harrington, and Gallo could take big advantage of the SF position by playing tandem SF with tandem PG in an uptempo system.

StEpHoN_mArBuRy said:

Err Im not to high on Raefer.

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You should be.....the only thing headcoach Dantoni brings to the Knicks is the steady movement of the ball from teammate to teammate, and that is what Rafer Alston talent ranks very high in.
His teammates passing-game gets better as the season goes on, which is something the Knicks could use with all 6 of their drafted players on the team during the rebuilding process "Lee, Nate, Chandler, Gallo, Hill, and Douglas".

No offense to Magic PG-Nelson, but when Alston creative passing had so many options to hit Howard, Lewis, Turk, Reddick, or Pietrus, the Magic offense stepped up a level or two, but in layman terms "seven seconds".
I'm not saying PG-Nelson 33-9 regular season before getting injured was not great, but the combination of PG-Alston & PG-Anthony Johnson made the Magic offense unstopple-able in every series.

StEpHoN_mArBuRy said:

Err Im not to high on Raefer.

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I agree...we need a PG who can average over 15 ppg and 8 assist. Rafer isn't that dude....neither Duhon.

metrocard said:

I agree...we need a PG who can average over 15 ppg and 8 assist. Rafer isn't that dude....neither Duhon.

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We can't be picky right now though.I rather have two solid point guards then tiring out Duhon again.

Of course, I still would like them to give Nate a chance, but yeah...

I would rather let Toney Douglas be our backup PG than get Alston. I don't see the point of picking up a veteran like him for 1 year, when he's not much better than Duhon.

RunningJumper said:

We can't be picky right now though.I rather have two solid point guards then tiring out Duhon again.

Of course, I still would like them to give Nate a chance, but yeah...

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Nate is pretty efficient and should be a starter IMO...Duhon stinks.
But if we want to be competitive, we need a PG who can average 15+ and 8+ assist.

if we combined Robinson/Duhon, we'll almost have the best PG in the NBA, except for the fact neither mastered the pick and roll.

StEpHoN_mArBuRy said:

Err Im not to high on Raefer.

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I feel the same way about this guy. I mean just couse V. Goundy says he is a star it doesn't mean he is. He is average and has been playing in some good teams with some great big guys and never in my point of view i thought about him as being a great point guard, more importantly he never did anything at all to prove me wrong and kind of make a statement.

WNY_Knickfan said:

I would go for that trade in a heartbeat, we give up Jeffries, add Alston, Simmons and Hassel, and Kahn and the T-wolves throw Al Jefferson to NJ as a sign of good faith for screwing us in the draft! Lol I know you meant Al Harrington I just couldn't help myself. I don't think Harrington is a long term solution but unless we get something worthwhile (or Jettison Curry or Jeffries as you mention) I don't want to get rid of Al, think he can help our chances of looking respectable next year to attract other players

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Whoa must have been that crack that I am on! LOL, no it's probably from arguing with that T-Wolves fan that hangs out on our site.

I like Al too, but we are very heavy in PF's and SF's and thin at the PG position, so I think a trade of Al for Rafer would be even. I think both players could put up great numbers with Dantoni

metrocard said:

Nate is pretty efficient and should be a starter IMO...Duhon stinks.
But if we want to be competitive, we need a PG who can average 15+ and 8+ assist.

if we combined Robinson/Duhon, we'll almost have the best PG in the NBA, except for the fact neither mastered the pick and roll.

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I hear you, but consider that Duhon averaged just 5 pts and 4 ast with The Bulls, and doubled that as a full-time starter in Dantoni's system. Rafer averaged 12 and 5 last season, so you would have to think he could get the 15+ and 8 you speak of. His turnover to ast ratio is decent as well, and he gets steals



I do not think Rafer is at all a long term solution, but he would be an upgrade over what we have now for sure.

I really hate backcourt with bad shooting numbers tho!

LOIOSH30 said:

Alston and Simmons, for Harrington and Jefferies works under the cap...

This wouldn't help us win games, but it does help the 2010 plan. I think Jersey would have to throw in a 2nd rounder as well though. It's a good trade from Jerseys point of view, they need a starting SF...

Probably won't happen, but it could be a way to get rid of Jefferies...

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The Nets will in no way take Jefferies contract that will be on the book for another year. Alston is a pretty good chip and they will either want to use him to get a SF like Chandler (Which I can bet you they will demand from NY) or to tag on a bad contract to clear off their books. Either way, they do not take back a bad contract like Jefferies; especially since Jefferies is done and doesn't offer NJ anything they will be paying him to sit on the bench like we have for the past few years..