<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">AUSTIN -- During the offseason, Rockets point guard Rafer Alston didn't take an extended summer vacation. He couldn't pull himself away from Toyota Center long enough to plan anything. "I was at Toyota Center pretty much all summer," Alston said. "I probably took about 800 shots a day on the practice court. I kept shooting until my arms were sore." He's hoping the extra work will pay off. After struggling with his perimeter shooting last season, Alston spent the summer making sure he hears far fewer clanks in his eighth season. The Rockets point guard, who is a career 38.7-percent shooter, shot 37.9 percent from the field and 32.7 percent from three-point range in 2005-06. Since he is set to be the starting point guard for a lineup that features Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, Alston is well aware that defenses will be daring him to make his open looks. He is expecting this summer's body of work to change the minds of his opponents. "I've got to help those guys," Alston said. "If you can make those open shots, it's going to make it hard for other teams to clamp down on Tracy and Yao. I'm going to get open looks and I've got to make them when I get them." During his summer inside Toyota Center, Alston essentially went through a shooting clinic. He spotted up for three-pointers from every angle. He pulled up for shots on the move. And, of course, he worked on his jumper coming off a pick-and-roll. By the end of the summer, Alston believed he improved his jumper and he heads into training camp confident that he'll make the shots that he missed last season. His coach is counting on it. "He's going to be fine," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "He has worked hard on his shot and he's going to be able to do what we need from him." Despite finishing third on the team in scoring last season and providing a boost when Yao and McGrady were out, Alston was disappointed that his shooting percentages weren't better. He expects to be a 40 percent shooter, if not better, from the perimeter. </div> Source His shooting should be extremely helpful because I remember last season he missed many uncontested shots. From the looks of the last pre-season game, his shot looks nice. BTW - This is like my first QUOTED from a site thread, so let me know if I did aight.
<div class="quote_poster">Pakman Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Source His shooting should be extremely helpful because I remember last season he missed many uncontested shots. From the looks of the last pre-season game, his shot looks nice. BTW - This is like my first QUOTED from a site thread, so let me know if I did aight.</div> Yeah, hopefully Alston really did improve that aspect of his game. I'm hoping we make a big turnaround this year in our 3-point shooting. It was brutal last year. And you did aight.
Raefer has looked good from beyond the arc thus far, hopefully he can keep it up....great to see him working on something over the summer.
