You're basing your judgment on the fact that we had HAYES, BATTIER, and ARIZA starting next to brooks for more just under 65% of the season. Ariza played out of position and forced the issue and threw up enough bricks to rebuild Toyota Center. Hayes couldn't hit a basket if it was the size of the Gulf of Mexico, and Battier had one of his worst shooting seasons of his career (shot just under 40% for the season). Brooks wasn't selfish, but he was the ONLY one that could score with that starting lineup on the floor. You saw what he could do when he had JUST ONE additional shooter on the floor (K-Mart)...and even HE had a down year because of his wrist injury. His defense is also HIGHLY under rated. A team's defense is only as good as your help defense...help defense last year was terrible because of a 7'6 missing piece defending the paint. It takes 5 players to play defense, not 1. They dont call it a TEAM sport for nothing. And how many PGs can you name that SHUT DOWN Aaron Brooks???? Here are AB's stats against the top 5 defensive teams in the league last year: Orlando: 20.5ppg and 6apg Miami: 12ppg and 3apg Cleveland: 25ppg and 4.5 apg Chicago: 14ppg and 4apg LA Lakers: 23ppg and 5apg I wouldnt exactly call those numbers you see above "poor" or even "mediocre" for a guy who started FULL TIME for the first time in his career. You're basing this on the 35 games he's started with Yao in the lineup?? Not a fair assessment IMO. Other than McGrady, or Shane Battier, can you name any other player that was/is good at the entry pass to Yao? You cant say Lowry was better.. we don't have enough sample size to say that he was indeed better. Half the entry passes to Yao are ON YAO to block his man out. How many times have we seen an entry pass go into Yao, but Yao cant hold his man back, and the ball is taken away? I think Brooks is the PERFECT compliment for 2 reasons: 1) If Yao's in the post, whose going to be the help defender? PG (leave Brooks open?), SG (leave Martin open?), SF (leave Ariza open?)? If you're going to double/triple Yao, you have to pick your poison..all are proven outside shooters. 2) The pick n' roll game hasn't been mentioned much. Yao's HUGE and can set HUGE picks which benefits BOTH Brooks and Yao. With just Yao setting pick at the top of the key, it'll open up A LOT of the offense and gives brooks MULTIPLE options and MANY MORE opportunities to set teammates up. Yao sets a pick, Brooks to Yao for a jumpshot Yao sets a pick, Yao rolls to the basket gets fed from Brooks (not very likely due to Yao's size). Yao sets a pick, Brooks to the rack Yao sets a pick, Brooks jumpshot Yao sets a pick, Brooks drives (help defense collapse), Brooks dishes to open shooter Yao sets a pick, Brooks drives (help defense collapse), Brooks dishes to shooter, shooter makes an extra pass for another open shot. And haven't you Lowry Lovers already stated that LOWRY plays at a faster pace than Brooks?? Do you REALLY THINK that Yao can keep up with LOWRY's pace??
i say keep him until the RIGHT deal presents, it would have to be an all star most likely, then we strike like a black mamba and trow Ab in :grin:
It would be great to hear what other NBA players who have the repsonsiblity of checking AB would say. I would love to hear from Kidd, CP3, Nash, Fisher, Blake, Deron, Westbrook, Parker, etc... I agree, AB passing skills are in need of improvement. However, he can put the rock in the hole on a conisistent basis and doesn't allow his man to rest on D, which hurts their offense. I'm betting that the players mentioned above would enjoy checking Lowry more than AB. As stated in the post, once Lowry dumps the ball into Yao, his defender will be in Yao's lap like a Treasure dancer. This gets much worse in the playoffs (i.e., Kobe refused to check Rondo beyond the paint and sat in the lap of Celtics post players) So all of you that think Lowry is the answer, try again. I'm tired of watching teams drift off Shane, Lowry, and Ariza sometimes because they can't shoot straight. Go AB, continue to give them buckets.
Sorry, but if the right deal comes along, Brooks is packing his bags, and that's how it should be. Team before players, always.
If the "right deal" brings in a top 15 player...of course. You dont just trade away Brooks, 3 other rotation players, and future draft picks for ONE TOP 20 player... Morey is not dumb enough to do that. If he was..it would have been done already.
Exactly, but Granger is not the right deal. You say team before players, well AB was the most important part of our team last year. Now some around here want to trade him for another player who has yet to prove he can lead a team. AB has already proved that he can lead. So you are right, team before players.
What about keeping Brooks with the handles he has and his overall play is hard to find, plus he is only getting better each year. Memphis has been our b**** before why not again? Imagine Marc Gasol going up against his brother in the playoffs instead of watching Yao get picked apart, plus Thabeet hasn't impressed anyone perhaps we can give him to Hakeem as a project. We know he can shot block and rebound (poor mans Mutumbo). What about a package of: Pick Hill Budinger Jeffries for Gasol Thabeet
It's a shame that such many fans think AB is the best player of the Rockets, apart from Yao... The clear best player after Yao is Scola, hands down.... Even in what AB is his main strenght, scoring....check Scola's scoring post-landry, about the same as Brooks....and Scola contribution is far more than just scoring, FWIW, he was the best rebounder of the team, and his very High Basketball IQ bring a lot of intangibles to the game.... Brooks has a severe lack of court vision and Basketball IQ....I'm not saying he should leave as a priority, but neither should be ignored the possibility to trade him while he's still at his peak trade value (recent MIP award, and less likely to score that much when healthy Scola, KM and Yao are on the floor sharing the scoring load).... So I guess trade Brooks should always be an option without some fans feeling 'offended' by others mentioning it...don't you think?
More value, huh, now why is that? Oh, and you guys do know you can get more for a $6 million dollar a year contract than you can for one around $2 million a year. I have never seen a team win championships by being afraid to pay their best players. It is staggering to see folks worried about paying Brooks what he is worth. The championship organizations do not worry about that...they just keep their best players and keep on winning. To bad some fans don't understand that way of doing things. DD
Value doesn't = how much a player is getting paid.....you of all people should know that. IF Pacers traded Granger to us and wanted AB (because he has a higher player value), we would package him and provide filler to match salary. Pacers wouldn't say "Oh AB makes 2 million" lets take Lowry so we can get the salaries to match.....
No, but the Pacers aren't offering Granger are they? Hey maybe if Bill Gates gave you $7 million for your keyboard you would sell it to him huh? LOL All I am saying is that Brooks is worth it, if teams are willing to pay it, that is the free market economy. And why does anyone here care if Les Alexander has to pay Lux tax? He has made more money these last 2 years because of Insurance covering Yao and Tmac's contracts than probably any other NBA owner. He has the money to pay these guys, so let him. DD
I was comparing some stats on basketball reference when I remembered how many people on here thought that Brooks had bad court vision and it couldn't be improved. That got me thinking about Steve Nash, and how great of a passer he is. Well, after comparing Brooks' and Nash's stats for their first few seasons, it proves that Brooks CAN improve on the vision and passing ability. Last year was Brooks' third season in the league, and he averaged 5.3 assists per game, which isn't that bad. In Nash's third year in the league, the season where he also became the Suns starting PG, he only averaged .2 assists more than AB per game. Granted he did only start 40 games because of injury I suppose, it still shows that Brooks' can get better with his vision and passing. In fact, Steve didn't average over 6 assists per game until his fifth season in the league, when he averaged 7.3 per game compared to 2.9 turnovers per game, which happens to be .1 more than AB had last year in his third season. Basically my point is that you can't give up on AB's passing and vision yet. Seeing as Nash is now averaging over 10 assists per game in the past few seasons, he wasn't able to eclipse the 6 apg mark until his fifth year in the league, like I said before. Aaron is only going to be in his fourth year in the league next season, so let's wait a couple of years until we deem that Brooks' won't be able to improve those qualities. Brooks' 3rd season compared to Nash's 5th: http://www.basketball-reference.com...um=0&p1=brookaa01&y1=2010&p2=nashst01&y2=2001 Brooks' and Nash's 3rd season comparison: http://www.basketball-reference.com...um=0&p1=brookaa01&y1=2010&p2=nashst01&y2=1999
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No problem, I just don't understand why everyone is already labeling Brooks as a player with bad vision and awareness when he has only played three seasons, only one in which he was called upon to be a playmaker. People are judging too quick, and need to be patient with Brooks. Those stats prove that Suns fans needed to be patient with Nash, so give him some time, and then we can start labeling Aaron more accurately.
Because that what can you see with your own eyes!!! over and ove rignoring wide open teammates over and over, and failing his shot/penetration isntead of giving the ball to the open teammate (many times Yao or Scola, not precisely crappy palyers, don't you think?)....you didn't see Nash doing that, not even in his rookie season Assists is an issue that can be analized with more detail to get a better insight, the quality of the teammates, the playing style of the whole team, how many of such assists were a very difficult play to get a very difficult pass to get an inside player with advantage to score, how many were passes play to an outside shooter with zero merit for the guy making the 'assist'.... Let's make ti simple, will you deny that AB keeps ignoring wide open teammates regularly, despite his final assist number in the boxscore?
If you would of watched the Rockets last season, you would of noticed that the big fella was out for all 82 games. So in a way, I guess AB did ignore him. AB is not perfect at finding the open man, but he is getting better and better. I'm sure he will kick it up a knotch this year. Also, when you shoot 40% from threes, AB's shot is a lot more valuable than an open jumper by anyone else on the floor.
