Off to an auspicious start with our new point guard Rafer Alston. He was officially part of the Magic for a few hours and steps in plays 29 minutes. Although he went 1 for 9, he played a good game. He played fluidly with his new team and dished out 8 assists and only 1 turnover, which is an awesome 4:1  assist to turnover ratio. He was able to penetrate and create some good looks for the Magic’s shooters.

I have 2 concerns:

1# His shooting percentage is on the season is .365, which blows and teams are going to layoff him and dare him to shoot until finds his range. You’d much rather have Alston dropping bricks off pick and roll than Howard creating a poster out of you or Lewis and Turkoglu draining 3’s. Rafer make the extra pass and think ala John Stockston.

2# I understand it’s a recession, but how much would it cost and how much time and effort is needed to get a brother a jersey with a name on the back. Old boy stepped on the court with just #36. We are talking about 6 letters, I could understand if we picked up Azubuike in a trade and equipment manager said, “Hey, WTF dude has a Z, K, and 2 U’s”, but A-L-S-T-O-N are some common Wheel of Fortune letters. My final thought is if you’re going to spring and pay the guy millions of dollars, I’d think you could get a jersey with a name, so you can start selling them.

Check out the highlights.