Its obvious that Lowry does not look like the same player who was playing like an all-star through the first 3 weeks of the season, and much of last season as well. Its not just him missing shots. What I noticed in the last 2 games, in particular, is that he just looks really slow. What could be the reason for his recent sluggish play? Some theories: Lack of confidence in his outside shot has affected his entire game. He's not seeing the same openings as before without being a threat from outside. And his frustrations on the offensive side is negatively impacting his defensive intensity. He is just exhausted, having overextended himself for a month. Not used to being the number option while playing close to 40 minutes a game. His foot injury from earlier in the season is still an issue that's affecting movement (burst, defensive quickness). He was just more "ready" to play than the rest of the league, so he came out of the gate and was torching guys. Now, the rest of the league has caught up with him, defenses have tightened up, teams understand his tendencies more, and he's reduced to simply a solid role player. He is mentally distracted by off court issues (the battery case against him), which has affected his play. Any thoughts on which of these or something else might be the cause of this?
How about tired as Fruck We way overused him IMO, we need to rest him before he hurts himself, knock on wood
Did you see him criticize the coaching in the Chronicle article? http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...point-third-to-roll-past-rockets/#commentform -------------------------------------------------- But Rockets guard Kyle Lowry said there was more missing than that. With the coach he fought to keep after last season down the hall, Lowry said the Rockets failed to adjust to the Minnesota offense, making it clear he was referring to strategy. “They made some shots tonight,” said Lowry, who did not play at all in the fourth quarter. “We got to make adjustments in game. We just got to make adjustments. We got to do something different. A guy gets it going, we have to figure out something to stop him from going. Team. Scheme. You’re not going to stop anybody one-on-one in the NBA. You have to do something different. “I think we could have done a few things differently. Once (Beasley) got it going … it was kind of late to try to do something different. Once he got it going early, we should have done a few different things to stop him.” -------------------------------------------------- Something is definitly bothering him. DD Courtney Lee offered the same critique. “We have to make adjustments,” Lee said. “When we had guys going they made adjustments and kind of slowed us down. We got to do the same to them.”
6. Teammates making him shoot difficult shots when the shot clock is running down. Ex. When Martin passed up a 3 against the Bucks to give it Lowry to shoot a 30fter when he wasn't feeling it in the first place.
I don't think it's a matter of the rest of the league catching up to him-- he was doing well in the 2nd half of last sesaon, too, and, presumably, the rest of the league was quite ready to play. Seems more like a matter of exhaustion or minor injury. Morey mentioned wanting him to play starter minutes but play more like he did as a backup in prior years. He did so at the start of the season. In fact, he often played even longer minutes in a more compressed schedule than he did as a starter last year. It probably just was not sustainable. Maybe he needs to dial back the physicality of his play to last year's level if he wants to play starters minutes.
How about "all of the above?" My first thought would be that there is something bothering him physically. That's what I thought with regards to Scola's play so far this year, and I still think he's not entirely over the knee surgery he had in the off-season. The compressed schedule plays hell with that sort of thing, and could certainly be doing it to Lowry. I think McHale put too much of the burden on his shoulders early, and he was playing too many minutes at a tremendous pace. It's caught up with him. Perhaps it's caught up with him and affected everything else.
After creating the poll, I instantly wanted to change it so that mutliple options can be selected. I don't think I'm allowed to edit it now. If a moderator can make that change, I'd appreciate it.
I am not suggesting anything, but I don't think it is constructive to have your team's leader to be actively questioning the strategy in the press, do you? DD
Interesting. Battier used to say that he prefer starting off defending a good offensive player rather than taking over that duty from a teammate after the guy already has a rhythm going. The first guy to defend Beasley tonight was Budinger.
So everyfan not named Rocketsfan was right. Lowry's All-star production triple-double threat / night was unsustainable.
He is not an all star level player now...he was trending that way, but no way now....he would have to have a huge turnaround. DD
Honestly, if Lowry is playing bad just cause of his coach.. that's bad. Terrible. I would never imagine Lowry to play bad just cause of his coach. No good player does that.
I agree, its better if he did not say that openly. But I'm glad he's at least showing some fire there. And, actually, even last year the Rockets did not like to double-team. A player like Beasley, though, who's not known as a good passer ... I would think a double team would make sense. I would be interested to hear an explanation from the defensive coach (Sampson) on why he chose not to double there.
Maybe a simple reminder to the guys guarding him that he always goes left? We were saying it in chat......some guys are not good at taking the scouting report to the floor.... Courtney...cough cough..... DD
He wont take the same shots he did earlier in the season. In fact he no longer takes that long three and never steps back to shoot that just inside the line jumper anymore. He never makes those crazy layups he used to make last year. He straight up is passing shots. There is something up more than just teams adjusting. He is open and gets the same seperation for these shots as he always has. He just DOES NOT TAKE THEM!
I can think of two "all star" players that are dragging a team down because the coach can't get them to work in his system...
