Won't argue that, but steals are not easy and hint towards the defensive effort of the player. Ex: Artest, great one on one defender that gets a lot of steals even though it involves a lot of gambling.
the problem with scoring from the foul line is if the ref is not calling the fouls you're not going to the freethrow line. it is basically throwing your scoring into a decision made by someone else. while it is effective this shouldn't be your means of scoring the majority of you points. agreed We are lucky, I hope we do not take that for granted like imo we did for Landry.
I was wrong earlier when i said he holds them to lower productivity, it seems that Paul is the one that he normally does and it jumps out and I absent mindedly extrapolated that. In my opinion i think he is a good defender that pays selective attention to the defensive/offensive end like Kobe.
Do you realize that this has actually been a break-out season for AB? His socring, assists, shooting percentages are all up from a year ago. This has been a great season for him and all I see on this board are complainting about his game. The truth is that Brooks is a very good and improving PG in the NBA and does deserve to start on the Rockets. I agree that Brooks does have his limitations. His size will always be exploited in the league and he will never be a great defender. In a perfect world AB's best role would probably be the sixth man off the bench and provide instant offense and change the tempo of the game. However, on the Rockets right now that is simply not a choice. Lowry, albeit being a very good floor general and defender, is simply a liability in half-court offense until he can knock down his jump shots consistently. I love Kyle Lowry's game, but there is a reason why he has not gotten a starting role in the NBA.
Right now... No. But if I could've chosen the one to start this year I would have picked Lowry. with ABs breakout season I wanna keep him as the starter but at the end of the game if the game is on the line I want Lowry to be the guy handling the rock and creating; especially with Martin here now. Lowry handles the pressure better and rarely ever looses the ball. He can find open players, finish better than AB with contact when taking it to the rack , and/or get fouled while attacking the basket. He's just the better creator than AB. IF THE GAME IS ON THE LINE, I want Lowry steering the ship and bringing us home.
Who should run PG next year? (+/- Combination stats) If you look at +/- stats, AB is very effective with Kyle Lowry (a true PG) on the court, instead of AB running the point. There is a big +/- dropoff when AB is at point guard without Lowry. Now I know +/- stats don't mean everything but they are still important. Look for yourselves here: +/- Stats NBA.com Out of the top 10 combinations: AB PG w/o Lowry combo used: 2x Lowry PG w/o AB combo used:3x AB/Lowry combo used: 4x Also nice to note that with Lowry in the lineup, he is part of the top 4 combinations. When AB is out there without Lowry, those combos are in the 8th and 9th spot. I know these stats are old now since the trade, but it still proves Lowry's worth to this team and that AB really is playing out of position. Now that Kevin Martin is in the mix, we need someone to distribute the ball TO him and not keep dribbling it AWAY from him. We also know that Martin plays well under Adelman's system, especially when it is run like it is supposed to be. Lowry is alot better at setting up the offense and running it like it is supposed to be. The biggest question for next year: Who is better at the entry pass into the post? The answer is Lowry. He needs to be in the starting lineup to get the ball down to Yao and run the offense. I believe Brooks will also play much better off the bench, either as a SG(Jason Terry role) or backup PG. Also AB usually doesn't get started until the 2nd quarter anyway. So what does everybody else think?
It's too early to say. Let's see how Martin meshes with Lowry and what rotations are effective when the team has everyone back. We've got six quality players for the 1 through 3 spots (Brooks, Lowry, Martin, Ariza, Battier and Budinger), which allows for a great number of permutations. But the entry pass to yao question is something I'm wondering about, too. If Martin struggles with it as Brooks has, then it will be difficult to have a starting backcourt of Brooks/Martin next season.
You do know that it is possible for anybody to make the pass to the post right? Depending on how you run your offense, you want your most consistent passer to be able to make that pass. Hell, I bet Lowry could even make that pass if he was playing PF. So your post = fail.
A pure PG that plays defense will fit in much more nicely... Good luck re-signing AB if it happens though... Unless AB changes his game, AB+Martin+Trevor+Scola+Yao will NOT work... And some people want to add Amare my god... We only have 1 basketball...
Lowry, while I love his hustle, can not shoot the ball, he gets exposed in the playoffs for that reason. AB is the starter all the way. DD
I said it is possible for anybody to make the pass. I also said some people do it better than others. If you read correctly, you would see I am discussing it between two individuals. NOT from a position standpoint. You have only made 7 posts here? Two of them are in this thread but I would hate to have to read the previous ones.
Lowry shot 47.5% last year as a Rocket... I wouldn't declare he can't shoot just yet. AB is at 42.6 and KL is 40.6 overall. AB can shoot the 3 however to a decent degree but he is not as strong in so many other areas.
You are totally missing his point. With Yao and Lowry on the court together, teams can completely leave Lowry wide open and double down on Yao without paying for it. AB and Lowrys true shooting percentage are identical.
^ I believe this to some degree. AB isn't a point and his skills are starting to show that he can't command a team like a traditional point but Where does that bring the Rockets? He does work well with Yao as shown in the Playoffs(although he was flying under the radar). This team is very short on just about everything so it's hard to determine who's going to work with who next year. AB while he could do well at backup will most likely want out if he does take backup. Amare imo could have brought us to the play-offs this year. It would have been the perfect time to get him aclimated to the team. Next year would have been the time to contend but we are now in limbo. I'm curious about which PF Morey can get this off season.
I do understand the reasoning behind this would be that we want to continue to surround Yao with shooters. Especially shooters that can hit from behind the arc at a high percentage. So AB is going to have a lot to work on this off-season if he wants to hold his starting spot. But hopefully Lowry develops a better 3-shot or we go for the "other" section and pick up Hinrich or something similar. (Hinrich/Battier swap?)
I like both guys and think they need each other due to the fact that they both have strengths and weaknesses. Lowry would not look so hot if he had to play 35 minutes a night. Teams would eventually expose his inability to hit the long ball. His defense and energy would almost certainly suffer as well. Brooks isn't much of a defender and shows increasingly that he has spells where he gets the Ariza-itis and refuses to pass. Combined, however, the guys are pretty fantastic. I will say that I think the Lowry/Martin combination in the back court is going to be insane. Both guys love to run and it won't take Lowry long to learn where/when Martin likes the ball. I expect that combo is going to close a lot of games for this team.
