Aaron Brooks

aaron brooks is going to be a very good starter in this league, and he has been that for us this year. he's not going to be an all-star, so people need to have that kind of expectation.

AB has been great for us this year. 16 pts and 6 dimes on 43% shooting is what i expected and more. his lack of a midrange game and ability to get to the free throw line really hurts his consistency in the ability not only to score, but control the game.

when his shot is off, he's not going to have a good game for the most part. he's a scorer, and brooks needs to score/look to score in order to set up other parts of his game. the games where he has struggled this year, he doesn't take enough shots -> not very aggressive. when he's not aggressive, he's not attacking the basket and thus not making the games easier for his teammates.

but that's just nitpicking. like i said, AB has been wonderful for us this year. he's not a star so i don't judge him like he's a star. role players aren't expected to be consistent night in and night out in terms of their impact.

however, we do have a great backup in lowry. whenever brooks has struggled, lowry has been able to pick up the slack. but if both of them struggled like they did v. the mavs, we're screwed because they're the only 2 legit ballhandlers that we have.

long-term, we need a player like tmac. hopefully morey can acquire that kind of talent (those players are rare). we don't have anyone on this roster right now who's capable of being that type of player. even when yao returns, this is not a championship team until we get that type of player.

all the championship teams in recent memory has had a dominant/borderline dominant perimeter player (kobe with lakers, pierce w/ celtics, parker w/ spurs, wade w/ heat, billups w/ pistons).

 

Dunleavy is weak defensively although he can pass and shoot. He also lacks athleticism. His injuries make him even a bigger liability and will lead us into mediocrity.

Hinrich is better than him and might fit in well if he can remain healthy. His 9.5 M 3 yr contract is reasonable. Shane and Dorsey works for him on the ESPN trade machine. I would nevertheless like to see him play better before proposing such a trade.

 

There is some truth in what he says. Look up thecabbages blog. he has pointed that out quite nicely.

 

If you consider both offense and defense, AB's ceiling is an average starter. He's on Rafer's level right now, shooting a little better than Rafer, but he couldn't take care of the ball like Rafer, and his defense is worse than Rafer.

 

rafer had always played with either yao/deke, so that gave him an advantage. look at shane's or trevor's defense this year without a guy in the paint to protect the basket. but i wouldn't disagree with you that rafer is a better defender.

but it's laughable to say he's on rafer's level. rafer was HORRENDOUS shooting the ball, and that was enough to warrant no more than 12-15 minutes of play on this team (if we had lowry).

AB is always a threat offensively; it's up to him whether he wants to be aggressive or not. when he is, he can change a game (rafer never had that ability).

PS - teams do game plan for AB. teams treat rafer like he's shane and just leave him wide open when he starts entering the parking lot of an NBA arena.

 

They are two types of players. Rafer can't shoot, but he can set up his teammates much better than AB, and with enough scoring threat, he'd have a bigger impact than AB.

Under current team AB will make a bigger impact because Hayes and Battier are offensive liability. We can't afford to have three non threat on the court, that's also the reason Lowry doesn't fit the starting lineup as well as AB.

But the current structure can't win you anything. If you insert 1 or 2 offensive minded players, then Rafer and Lowry could very well fit the starting line up better than AB, because once we have enough scoring talent, defense becomes more important.

That's why AB and Rafer is still on the same level. Both are only role players, their impact will depend on how the team is structured.

BTW, AB's shooting isn't as good as you think. He's streaky as hell and his shooting ability is overrated. His career 3pt% and Rafer's are the same.

 

rafer played with tmac and yao and he often played 35+ minutes a game, and usually gets around 5 assists a game. that's good. AB, this year, plays with zero playmakers (outside of lowry) or dominant scorers and he's putting up 5.7 assist per game this year. he is a much better playmaker than rafer for the simple fact that he can penetrate. he has done a great job of setting up guys (though still somewhat inconsistent). if we had rafer alston right now, our offense would be terrible b/c this offense is predicated on one's ability to shoot and score. rafer is not that. if rafer was on this team, adelman would start lowry with zero hesitation. rafer would not get more than 15 minutes a game.

what rafer does better than AB is handle the ball (but he rarely penetrates to have turnovers, it was always tmac's job) and defend.

plus, you can't look at fg%. AB is a THREAT to score. rafer never was. if tracy returns to the court right now and regain his form, AB would never be left open like rafer was. rafer was always left WIDE OPEN (it's like his defender had a restraining order against him). rafer is shooting that % on WIDE OPEN SHOTS.

ariza takes open shots only like rafer did, he would shoot 46-47%. but b/c he takes more contested shots, his fg% is around 39%. that's why you can't just look at stats.

see rafer playing with no stars (on the nets right now): he's shooting 34.6%. that's just beyond horrific.

there is zero doubt AB is a better player. ZERO. if you think they're on the same level, i disagree completely.

 

Never said Rafer shoots as well as AB, but AB's 35% 3pt career shooting without getting doubled doesn't put him into elite shooter category. And as bad as Rafer is shooting this year, his worst sin is his floater, his 3pt is still at 34%.

You can't just look at the assists numbers per game without looking at how the game is playeed. Rafter played with Tmac and Yao for similar minutes AB is playing now, getting similar assist stats despite having the ball in his hands much less than AB. Both Tmac and Yao required the ball in their hands a lot, and the game was played mostly in half court, the chance for Rafer to have high assists number is much smaller than current AB. If AB played in similar system, his assit average will become much lower, yet ast/TO ratio will still be much worse than Rafer. 18Asts/22TOs in a 7 game series simple won't happen to a PG who knows how to protect the ball.

AB doesn't take really bad 3 point shots, he usually uses his quickness to have an open look, yet his 3 pointer still doesn't fall. He's overrated at his 3 point shooting. He got hot in playoffs last year and many people thought he's a great shooter, but that's not happening now.

Again, I don't think there is ZERO chance Rafer is better than AB, it depends on what team they are playing. With a team loaded with offensive threats, Rafer's setup and defense will be more needed than AB.

BTW, Ariza won't be a 46-47% 3 pointer shooter over a season no matter what defense he faces. Please don't overrate his shooting ability either.

 

AB is a good shooter, streaky or not. no coach in their damn mind would leave AB wide open all game like teams do with rafer.

no no no... the 2nd point is wrong. rafer RARELY created for tmac and yao. all he did was "give" the ball to tracy and yao (those are "easy" assists). and JVG and adelman NEVER asked rafer to create. all he had to do for the most part was bring the ball to halfcourt and wait for tracy to get open and pass or give the ball to yao. (if they score, those are assists too ). AB has a high turnover b/c he just doesn't stand outside the 3pt line. he actually goes into the baskets, tries to take his man off the dribble...

AB is being guarded as the best perimeter player on this team and he's shooting 43% overall and 34% on 3s. those are "good" numbers. i'm ECSTATIC with those %. he's not a star like i said. but those % is pretty good for a role player trying to play like a star at times. and i agree with you he's not a "great" shooter. however, if compared to rafer, he is. rafer is a TERRIBLE shooter (i can't explain how bad he is in just with the english adjectives).

AB would be much better on the nets right now than rafer. AB would be much better on a team with tmac and yao (if we had this AB or the playoffs AB last year with the tmac and yao combo earlier, we would be talking about losing in the conference finals, rather than the first round). there is no way teams would be leaving rafer in the parking lot with AB. AB would make teams pay (as he did v. portland last year specifically when teams fronted yao). AB is flat-out a better player. no ifs and buts about it. daryl morey would laugh if you ask him this question.

BTW, ariza WOULD be a 46-47% shooter OVERALL if he played with a star and thus takes open jumpers more often; i never said on 3s. i think he would be a 38% or so 3pt shooter though. he's one of the better spot up jumpshooters in the L.

 

OK, AB is a good shooter, not great. That is the only thing I agree here.

Last year, AB has proved he plays better without Yao in the lineup, and he'd be worse with both Yao and Tmac in the linup, because he doesn't know when and how to get them the ball like Rafer did.

Last time I checked, Rafer was still the starting PG before he's traded, he had some locker room issue with Artest was said to be the biggest reason for that move, not being outplayed by AB. And Rafer showed his value on a team loaded with offensive talents, reached NBA final.

On current Nets? Devin Harris didn't make their record better than when Rafer startes. Rafer had a triple double but still couldn't bring them a win, they are just a bad team from head to toe. I can't see AB would ever get close to triple double here, since he only has one attribute better than Rafer: scoring. And I can't see AB would make any difference on that team.

When both Tmac and Yao was on the team, as I remember, Rockets' had a much better record with Rafer than withour Rafer, people were trying to cut Head's head off when he replaced Rafer. Cluch even had an article mentionging it seems the difference between good and bad was Rafer Alston playing or not. So don't overlook Rafer's importance to that team, and I don't think AB would do any better because he simply can't impact the game in other way without the ball in his hands.

Moery won't laugh about the opinion that Rafer could be better than AB on certain teams, as he watched Rafer went to NBA final with a team loaded with offensive threats.

 

rafer is a good player. i liked him when he was here. but AB has already surpassed rafer as an NBA player IN HIS 3RD YEAR. i think the team wanted to trade rafer the moment morey became GM, not just b/c there were conflicts with artest. but b/c he was a veteran and AB was still extremely young, he got the starting job. but you can see his minutes dipped from 38 with JVG to around 33-34 with adelman.

also, here's what you don't seem to get: AB has the "ability" to change games. he has numerous times this year. and he's going to get better. rafer never had that ability.

and it's fine to disagree. i think AB has been a much better player for us than rafer ever was. like i said, if we had this brooks alongside yao and tmac from 04-05 to 07-08, we would be talking about how to get out of the conference finals.

we wanted more creators/shotmakers around tmac and yao. we never had one. AB of the end of last year/this year would have made a tremendous difference.

 

And this is exactly the reason why the Rockets traded Rafer Alston away at the first opportunity, t_mac1.

I personally found Alston to be a very serviceable player (and that's exactly what he should have been, instead of the player getting the lion's share of the minutes and the shots that would come from teams crowding McGrady and Yao), but the one GLARING weakness in Alston's game was his woeful shooting.

In your backcourt, ideally, you'd like the players to be similarly skilled in ball handling, passing and decision-making. But ordinarily, one of the two guards has to be consistently effective from 20-feet out or more. Especially with Yao Ming. You can't have enough guys around players (who draw too much of a team's defensive attention) who can shoot the ball. Alston was here for the better part of FIVE seasons, and couldn't improve his perimeter shooting.

Interesting, also, that the Rockets acquired much the same type of guard as Alston in Kyle Lowry, to me, t_mac1.

Might not be the place to offer this, but Lowry looks, at least in his effort and playing style, to be a lot like Rajon Rondo is in Boston with the Celtics: a consummate "garbage" man or "dirty work" player.

The same type of player Rafer Alston could have been for the Rockets, if there was ever any desire or attempt to get someone to split minutes with him.....

 

AB had the ability to change the game when he's really hot, Von Wafer had that ability too. Every offensive player has that ability.

But the problem is they also got the ability to destroy the team when their shots are not on. Those are one dimensional guys, they can't save the team by any other means when they are cold. They are meant to be inconsistent.

Tha's why I say they are not the same type of players. Consistency Vs. the ability to change the game on any given night. I prefer the former, since Championship requires more consistency.

Unless AB becomes multi-dimensional or becomes a great shooter, he'd be better used as Vinny Johnson type 6th man for a championship team. Him being the starter means Rockets don't have a championship level team yet.

Nobody knows what would happen if AB was on the team in 04-05 or 07-08, we might passed 1st round, we also might got a lower seed. He's too inconsistent.

 

But is it his fault?

 

Even the best shooters go in to slump sometimes. The difference is great shooters have fewer slumps and recover in fewer days, great players can contribute in many different ways.

AB's life depends on his shots, and he's not a great shooter. He's made to be inconsistent.

 

He is a sixth man. I got railed for saying it, but I will say it again. Without an elite guard to help him distribute, he should not be a starting PG. I love him to death, but I wonder about things, like why DM went after Rubio with guns loaded. I hope it works out.

 

b/c rubio "may" turn out to be a superstar/all-star, while AB is a lifelong starter. that's not a diss at brooks, it's just a compliment to rubio.

morey has always said he's looking for a star. none of the guys we have now will become stars (and yes, that includes chase budinger).

 

I've never doubted that Brooks is very in consistent+no brainer, the best he can be would be rafer. why did DM sent Rafer to orlando? At least he is more experienced than AB.