This thread was started like that, AB had been playing fine, had one bad game, and boom...this garbage. Meanwhile the team was still up 3-2 and coming home to play game 6. As someone who understands knee jerk - thread starting, this was right up my alley. As far as it being brought up, I ain't scared, it is all just opinion anyway...mine just happens to be the right one. DD
well, brook did not pass the ball well to yao last year, it was a problem. this year, with yao out, we do not have this problem anymore and brook shows his strength on offense. but we need to read it under the context when this thread was created. i did not read more than two pages on this thread, so i may be wrong.
Yao is a lot of that problem...he does not present a good target, does not hold his position well, and fumbles too many passes, his window for accepting the pass is too small, he needs to get better at that. DD
I do not think Yao can get better at this part, hoping that it is not going to be getting worse, but that point is still right for Brooks, he was not a good passer last year, just look at his assistance number, it was very low, but this year, this number is quite high. Brooks is progressing very well from last year (or from the playoff).
This might ring true if every other person trying to get the pass to Yao didn't have such an issue. Yes Yao doesn't always seal his man the best, and the lob is a challenge for him, but up until Brooks, it was never such an obvious weakness. Brooks needs to learn how to hit the pass when the opportunity is there. Somehow I don't think the Stocktons, and Magics of the world would ever of admitted they couldn't get a 7'6" center the ball so consistantly. Ill go as far as to say that Brooks didn't make it his priority nor did he want to on a regular basis.
Well considering that all we have is conjecture from a few fans, yet Yao never said anything about it, I have serious doubts about it's reality. Every year someone gets the blame for their inability to get Yao the ball, first Sura, then Rafer, now AB..... I mean it is laughable in it's consistency. And since AB had only started about 25 games with the big fella, let's just chalk it up to the chemistry of getting used to playing together. DD
With all his faults, I kind of miss Rafer. He did a good of a job as anybody getting the ball to Yao in the post.
To be fair, since Yao cannot play this season. It doesn't matter whether or not AB is able to pass the ball to Yao. So far, it seems the rockets won if AB played well. I said before, AB's biggest problem is his consistency. But, he has played consistently well in the first 3 games. I hope he can keep playing like that.
I have no desire to hate on Brooks, but I want to present a logical alternative to the "Brooks is trash" or "Brooks is god" arguments. I like him as a player and he's a really nice guy too, but by the time Yao comes back next year it's my hope that we will have traded him for an asset that could fetch us an upgrade at any of our other positions. Here's why: 1. As a player, his value might not ever peak higher than it will this year, either at the all-star break or by the end of it. He will never get as much playing time nor will he be as close to being #1 offensive option with full reign on all decision-making as he will be this year. His stats might never be better. If we are ever going to get anything for him before we let him become a free agent this would be the year. 2. I remain unconvinced that he is a player that will fit in with Yao Ming when he returns next year. For the past seven years ever since we drafted Yao our lament at the PG position was that we didn't need a superstar, just someone who could get the ball to Yao in a decent position without turning the ball over too much. Of course as DD has said many times before alot of this is on Yao, but it remains to be said that there are better and worse players for doing this. T-Mac and Battier were good at it. Hell, Rafer was better than Brooks at doing it. And right now if you had me choose between the two, I would start Lowry next year because he is better than Brooks at doing this, the most important key to our offense when Yao is in the lineup. Plus he plays better defense but I don't even need to get into that at this point. For this year it's a no-brainer that we need Brooks in order to have any shot at winning. His penetration abilities are unique, and this team is the kind of team that actually has too much ball to go around; somebody's gotta hog it somewhere. But you put Lowry's and Brooks' side by side and look at who will be a better fit to start next year, and my vote goes to Lowry. In the meantime, it would be great if Morey could sell high on Brooks.
I would then, just rather start Lowry, and have Brooks come off the bench and let him do what he does bes which is score. Brooks, speed and ability to keep the defense off balance is a premium in this league.
What are you talking about? He handled the ball more than ever in the Laker playoff wins and all playoff wins in fact. He scored more in Portland and handled the ball for the biggest shots in the fourth quarter. This bashing of Brooks is starting to make the OPs look worse and worse with every game his point per go up and we win. Lets build up his stats and inflate them at least so we can build everyones trading value for Morey. Those teams that wanted Brooks for nothing and didnt just settle on Brooks and Landry trades in the begining of the year are now gonna have to give us there best players in return just for Brooks alone when his states increase this year. Let alone Landry or adding Scolas inflated stats to the equation of any trade if any we do in the future.
I don't like this argument based on the fact that you're talking about trading a valuable asset, that may have even more value later, in order to build a team entirely predicated on a player who has proven extremely unreliable in terms of health. Brooks' value is high right now for a reason, because he's young, skilled, and still has potential. I want those kinds of players on my team rather than players like Rafer, who won't be in the league much longer.
Agree. We've been trying to build around Yao for like the past 4 years already, and its never worked because he's never around when we need him the most. Rather than going for another exercise in futility, how about we just get players who are good on their own instead of trying to build around a glass tower, mm'kay? More importantly, we don't need someone who only specializes in throwing the ball to Yao. Its better to get a good shooter to make people pay for doubling/fronting him rather than getting a raferesque player who can get him the ball but is useless otherwise. If Rafer had been a better shooter we would have reached the WCF by now.
I don't understand this at all. It would be making our starters significantly weaker. While I like Lowry, he is just not good enough to start unless he is surrounded by finishers. Teams will just lay off of him and let him shoot, and we have seen that show around here before. Your PG needs to be a threat to score, especially when you have guys in the lineup that are not finishers, like Hayes, and Battier etc. I like Lowry, I really do, but he is just a backup PG at this point. And with Yao, teams would pack it in even more....Brooks is better he can score, pass, and set up teamates. DD
I really miss Rafer too....until I looked at the box score tonight and saw his: 2 points on 1-8 shooting with 3 assist and 3 turnovers in 35 minutes. To his credit though, he did land a rebound and got a block.
