[Chron] Rockets countdown a look at the point guards

Heck it's still better than 4 pts 2 ast 25 % fg and 16% 3pt. That's what Lin did during the playoffs. It's also known as Choking. Someone will probably bring up "he was bruised". Well so were alot players this playoffs (parker, chris paul, and they still performed. When it comes to playoffs, it's time to shake it off and play at an extra gear. The good news is we might not even need Lin. Brooks and Beverly to the rescue!

 

I am a huge fan of Rubio but I would have to disagree. Rubio is a great play making talent but other than that he is extremely poor in terms of shooting and scoring, and he also has a tendency to make extra-risky passes which result in turnovers. I would still probably take Rubio over Lin because he's younger and may improve to be a good outside shooter (ala Jason Kidd), but you can't really say no gm would take Lin over Rubio because they're pretty much on the same level right now, and I actually think Lin is currently slightly better overall.

As for Wall, I agree. He went from being a little overrated his first year to being underrated the past couple years. I don't think he's worth a max contract, but he's definitely a top 7-8 pg in terms of talent. But then again Lin could probably put up much better numbers in Washington compared to here.

 

There's no one sane who would take Lin over Wall, but any GM in their right minds would take Lin over Rubio. Rubio is a PG who can't shoot, who can't finish at the rim, who in general can't score, who racks up flashy highlight passes without improving his team's offense, and turns over the ball even more than Lin does while contributing nothing to the offense. The only value he has are is defense and rebounding, which is not what you want the primary purpose of an alleged "playmaking" PG to be.

 

I'm not missing your point, you keep arguing that Lin could be top 10 because "outside of the top 8" everyone has the chance to break through. And I keep telling you that isn't true. There are a ton of established PGs already, you can't suddenly put them on the same level as lesser players because of "opportunity". Maybe when we are mid way through the season we can compare again, but until then the top talents of PGs are established.

Yes, Lin is talented, but don't compare his situation to Holiday. Holiday has already been playing heavy minutes before his breakout, and is two years younger.

 

You keep taking jabs at Jennings, which is pretty funny, considering Jennings and Lin are pretty much the same guy. They both had an insane stretch very early in their career that raised expectations to levels that they couldn't really keep up with consistently and recently they were paired with another ball-dominant (and superior) guard that limited their usage. During that year, they proceeded to have incredibly similar seasons from an advanced analytics standpoint.

Again, not trying to diss Lin, but if you're gonna make an example out of a player, pick another one than Jennings.

 

To which I got a reply (with rep points)

Well, no. But there is real value in having Lin as a backup playmaker, even aside from his value as a starting or even backup PG.

I think with everyone but Harden, we are still good enough to sneak into the playoffs. With everyone but Harden and Lin, we aren't.

If we lost Harden for a month early in the season, we would still win enough games to be viable, and I think Lin would be important for that. That extra few games we would lose without him would make a big difference for seeding at the end of the season.

 

What basketballholic appears to be getting at with the bolded statement above is his theory--a theory that holds some water, from a cap standpoint--that Brooks was bought out by Sacramento last season, signed for a particular amount by Houston, and then re-signed for the league minimum this season, ALL as an extension of negotiations for the Thomas Robinson-Patrick Patterson trade last February.

If you do the math on Brooks's salary for last season and this season, it comes out to roughly the same amount he would have made with Sacramento had he not agreed to a reduced buyout amount with the Kings. According to his theory (I believe), Houston promised Brooks's camp that Brooks would get "made whole" by the Rockets if he agreed to save the Kings some money on a buyout. Signing Brooks to a one-year FULLY GUARANTEED veteran's minimum deal completed that process.

First off, I'm not saying that I necessarily AGREE with basketballholic's theory, but I give him credit for doing the cap math and coming up with it. The theory is a viable one in my mind and worthy of consideration by others.

Second, even if I subscribe to his theory, I'm not necessarily sold on the idea that the Rockets guaranteed Brooks a minimum deal as part of the process. The deal may very well have been set up to put Brooks IN A POSITION to be made whole even if he got the minimum from any team, with anything above that being gravy for him. If Brooks knew to a substantial certainty that he wasn't going to sniff the rotation in Houston and that this was all just part of the favor the Rockets were doing for him, I don't see Brooks forgoing better opportunities with other teams. I have to think that SOME NBA team out there offers Brooks a comparable/better chance to crack the PG/backcourt rotation.

dobro, I agree with almost everything you say in your post above. IMO, Brooks may make the team; or he may not. I doubt anything has been decided or is being contemplated at this point on that front. I agree that Brooks being "trade bait" is a borderline ludicrous statement, given Brooks's veto rights.

I also agree that basketballholic (a very knowledgeable poster, from a cap understanding standpoint, mind you) tends to state his opinions/theories as fact far too often. But that's like pointing out imperfections in a pretty girl. Sometimes you just have to let those things go and just enjoy the rest of what knowledge is being offered.

 

That's completely opinion. What is fact is that our gm and coach put a special emphasis on MOVING the ball. When they don't get that, we get his repetitive press conferences. And for that you need an intelligent pg. Asking harden to do it is asking him to break down physically and preventing him to be the most efficient sg in the league. I trust calvin murphy's evaluation on the pg position more than people known to have an agenda. Yes, I think Lowry and Dragic could do the same here but they're not here.

 

The bottom line is a significant portion of our offense was/is created via Harden on the pick and roll and not the PG. Did that involve movement? Sure, absolutely. Was there some sort of emphasis on movement, no, not really. No more than any other basic offensive characteristic. There was a much higher emphasis on running fast breaks, if those opportunities were available, and if not, very basic pick and roll penetration, most often by Harden.

You can even go back and read all the complaints from Lin's groupies about him being relegated to being a spot up shooter. He just wasn't the driving force in the offensive last year, he was complimentary. That is not going to change this year. In fact Lin is likely to have an even smaller role since Howard is going to get significant post up touches.

 

Define smaller role. Someone has to be getting the ball to Howard if he is going to get significant post up touches.

Certainly Lin may have fewer points. Or maybe not, if they decide to stagger Harden and Lin more than they did last season.

 

Are you a troll? Of course Parker is better than Lin. Did you even read my post? I talked about their AGES. I don't care how good Michael Jordan is / was, I can beat him in basketball when he turns 90 years old

 

I do agree its being a little nit-picky for September especially. I do give him credit for the creativity at least in the theory.

Still, do under-the-table agreements happen.... sure they do. In this case, I just really don't see what difference it would make either way, and why the fans would really care. It doesn't impact the moves that could or couldn't be made either way. If it only secured a warm body for training camp only than great.

However, I would hope that Brooks didn't think of himself as such to where he would have had to take the vet minimum anyways enough to make a deal like that to secure that amount. Still, I guess I could see why its nice to have that in your back pocket if free agency went south.

But I do still think that the ULTIMATE reason why Brooks is currently on the roster going into training camp is because he actually wants to be here, and there actually might be some sort of role that Morey could envision for Brooks this upcoming year. Might he be cut??... sure.... but that doesn't make Morey "dumb" for signing him to begin with.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to having some actual basketball to talk about in a few weeks so we can hear EVERYONE'S opinions about who should or shouldn't make the final cut, and actually have some on-the-court reasons why.

 

Unfortunately, I did read your post and it likely killed a few of my brain cells.

 

OK, basketballholic, how about a friendly Tip Jar bet that AB makes the team? $20 sound about right? I have PayPal now, so I won't have to write Clutch a check. How about it? -

 

No, I don't think you did, and it can't kill much when there isn't much to kill

 

The starting point guard will be earned, not given this year.

 

Yes, it's so ridiculous to think that Lin could be better than a point guard who literally does nothing good for his offense and several things horribly.

 

Just for the record: John Stockton had a PER of 21.9, a WS/48 of 200 and a true shooting % of 601 the year that he turned 40 during the playoffs. Nash was still an excellent offensive player his last year in Phoenix. Injuries and Kobe reduced his numbers last year. Parker could (not necessarily will) have many years of greatness left, and Nash could still play fairly well for a year or two. Parker's minutes will eventually have to go down, though.

 

You have the intellect of a fire hydrant and only 13 year old girls use smilies