Aaron Brooks staying = ____ getting traded

I don't know, but the fact that Seattle picked up Baby Davis and that gives them 3 forwards the Rashard talks should be heating up.

 

Keep in mind they also got rid of Ray Allen. That could mean they are more willing to throw money around at Rashard.

 

Davis is going to BOS as part of the Ray Allen trade. The Sonics are going to play 3 SF's. Stopping here...I'm severely underwhelmed.

 

Seattle is doing some interesting things.

Their lineup looks something like this:
West/Ridnour/Watson
Sczerbiak/Wilkins/Gelabale
Durant/Jeff Green
Wilcox/Collison/Davis
Swift/Sene/Petro

That's 14 players. A lot of youth and athleticism. No real need for Rashard, and a lot of mixing and matching at the 2/3. On the downside, no chance they'd want Battier in a sign and trade.

I'm perplexed. Brooks would make sense if we didn't just trade for Mike James.

One cool thing about Brooks -- the lowest body fat on any player in the draft - 2.7%!

And there's just no way we go into next year with Rafer, James, Brooks, Spanoulis, and Lucas all on the roster.

I'm surprised by Landry, especially with McRoberts (who makes sense for Adelman), Fazekas, and Davis (who both make sense for Morey). If the Rockets think Landry is every bit as good as Hayes, it makes sense -- you pay a fee, but avoid paying multi-millions for Hayes. We'll see if that actually ends up being the case.

This now also makes 2 years, and 2 bought international players in the 2nd round. This is a fantastic strategy -- if you do it every year for 10 years, and one of them becomes a starter, it's still a pretty great investment.

 

That's a great point. Moneyball Morey strikes again.

 

I havent seen enough of Brooks to really comment on his long term NBA potential, but if the guy is a taller Earl Boykins or even 80% of the player than Leandro Barbosa is, then this was a great pick. I understand that team is overloaded at the PG spot, but if Brooks was the BPA which by all accounts he seems to be, then they made the right choice. I was in support of the Fazekas idea, but never that big of a fan of either Davis or McRoberts. I guess the team felt that Fazekas was too slow to put next to Yao.

The fact of the matter is that this team needs a PG that can push the ball if Adelman's system is going to work. Rafer Alston imo is for sure on his way out, and Spanoulis is questionable to return by all accounts. My guess though is that even if V-Span returns, the team will experiment with some smaller backcourts for stretches of the game ie. Phoenix Suns in order to be able to utilize the talents of James, Brooks and V-Span. I doubt that Brooks will get huge minutes this year, but imo 10-15 MPG off the bench is within the realm of possibilities.

This team, however, needs to really make a push for a quality PF if they are going to have any chance of competing against SAS, Pho, Dal, Uth, etc next season. It is imperative that they land Rasheed Wallace, Marcus Camby, Chris Wilcox or someone of that caliber. If the team does get Sheed or Camby imo they will have the pieces to get past SAS or Pho with Adelman at the helm.

 

count me in with liking the pick. i think they certainly probably reached a bit for this guy, but it's not like you have people knocking down your door to trade up to the 26th pick in the draft, so if they liked him, i don't see too much of a problem. ultimately, whoever they were going to take at that spot isn't going to see the court much next year so i would rather take a flyer on a guy who can add a new dimension to your team than pick up some stiff like mcroberts just because he fills a need at power forward. i don't think this pick means rafer is necessarily gone though. they likely don't want a rookie to be their primary backup at the most important position on the court (a recipe for disaster as we saw last year).

BTW: The GARM is unbearable right now.

PS: Clutch, do you have any more info on the Rashard tidbit Jeff passed along last night? I hope the trade of Allen doesn't sabotage that front.

 

Would McDyess be a fallback option?

 

He picked up his option in Detroit.

 

My bad...I thought I'd read on a ticker that he declined it.

 

It's the third straight ho-hum draft, I guess. I'm disappointed they couldn't move up, but if they couldn't I'm ok with the move they made - just like the last couple of drafts. I prefer Brooks to some of the other options available at the pick, at least.

 

Would this draft have gotten more positive reviews had they gotten Almond? I'm still hearing that's who they wanted.

 

Yes, because everyone knows Almond, he is from Rice. No one knows Brooks. He is some midget PG and we have 20 on the roster (nevermind that a couple of them might be traded).

EDIT: P.S. Want to know my first general reaction when they mentioned we drafted Aaron Brooks? I said "at least we didnt draft any of those slow footed stiff PFs: Fazekas, McRoberts, Davis." Then, my next thought was the skillset that Brooks could bring to the Rockets. Then my next thought was pack your bags JL3, Rafer and Head.

 

IF we can still get the power forward that fits the bill I think this will be a great pickup. I can't wait to see this guy push the ball.

And here's a gripe I have. People talk about how Yao won't fit in with a run and gun offense like Adelmans. When teams that run and gun need a fast center. Isn't it usually just a couple or 3 players on the break anyway?

 

I'd take this one further... there are about 4-5 names that have been constantly repeated as possibilities for the Rockets with their pick in GARM. Had we chosen any of those, it would've been fine with the masses in there, generally speaking. It's when you throw somebody no one's ever heard of that the crazed reactions start.

I never saw this kid play, but at least on the surface, I like this pick. Why? Because even without any scoring, he's got the ability to wreck a defense simply by penetrating or getting by his primary defender. And from watching videos, the kid is lightning quick. I read an article (which may have been posted in GARM somewhere - I haven't checked) where, after playing Florida, Corey Brewer said flat out "he's impossible to stay in front of". He was picking Florida apart with his play. Which brings up another thing I like about him - the kid played good teams, big schools, and elite players and beat them soundly. The only thing I read last night that I didn't like about him was that he didn't have great court-vision, but what're you looking for near the 2nd round in a draft pick? Jason Kidd?

He may turn out to be nothing, but I didn't see much down there that could've helped us. The Fazekas (sp?) kid I know nothing about. All I know is the #26 pick is probably a "potential" pick and I think we have a lot of potential in this kid. We'll see.

 

During the draft they were saying that Seattle planned to keep Lewis and play the 3 long tall guys together.

So did the Rockets ever bring this Brooks guy in for a look? I wasn't really paying attention to that stuff.

 

He did work out for the Rockets.

 

I heard him on the Palillo show...apparently his workout here wasn't that good but they didn't go into a lot of details.

 

http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash...orts-4/1183085704126030.xml&storylist=orlocal

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"I'm ecstatic to be going to Houston," Brooks said. "They have a good team. I'm looking forward to getting there."

Brooks was surprised the Rockets picked him — he didn't think his workout in Houston went well.

"It wasn't one of my best," he said. "I was kind of wondering what they thought of me. But they've seen what I could do in college and they watched a couple of my games."