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Houston Adds Alston

After losing Bobby Sura to injury a week ago, the Rockets have traded Mike James to the Toronto Raptors for Refer Alston. Alston was on his way out of Toronto after butting heads with head coach Sam Mitchell all throughout last year. By trading for Alston the Rockets obviously didn?t feel that anyone on their roster could have fill in the spot.

Alston, also known as "Skip to my Lou" from his street ball days, is a very different player than James. First of all none of them is a true point guard. The problem toady is that natural point guards like Steve Nash and Jason Kidd are so hard to come by, so a good ball handler like Alston gets labeled as one, which is something that I take offense to, but I digress.

Alston is a better ball handler, while James is a better shooter. Jeff Van Gundy?s offensive scheme doesn?t require a true point guard. The whole idea is to surround Yao Ming with shooters and dump the ball inside to the big man. Mike James gave them exactly that, which is why I?m a bit puzzled by this trade.