I'm still trying to figure it out. There are posters on this board talking about we can't waste time waiting on Brooks and his mistakes. Well, Orlando shipped or let all those other guys go to allow the younf duy to go. Dooling was a pretty good pg, but a bench guy. So was the puerto rican guy that used to play for the jazz. The Magic did what good teams do, they keep growing. The rockets can't grow because we have a bench player at best, taking shots, can't shoot, holding the team back. Brooks may not be what he will be next year, but neither was nelson last year. He made mistakes, but wasthe starting pg on a 50 win team. To make matter worse, its not like the rockets have a plethera of pg talent or even scorers on the team. This didn't strart with the game last night either. Watching them play La just continued my amazement of how the rox are being handcuffed by Rafer and is handcuffing Brooks. Brooks is a slump right now and that's evident, rafer is in a slump 60 games a year. Its a joke on the gm and coach that thinks he's part of the solution and not majority of the problem. Yao would have more room to manuver with brooks out there. That's why Howard get a lot of room to move around. Teams play percentages big time. They will gamble on a guy shooting in the 30's who can't drive and shoots in the 20's when he's close. What kind of justice is that? I'm also tired of hearing how great he runs the offense. Getting the ball to half court doesn't count. Ok, so what he gets it to half court, then gives it to tracy, stands around and waits, and shoots his 3pt er at 35%. There hasn't been a team with a pg shooting as bad as rafer since bob cousy. Its been like 50 yrs and Rafer is no Cousy. Its a travesty and a joke and a waste of time not playing and starting brooks over rafer. Like DD said about tracy, he cares, he's just scared. That's what I feel about the coach and management keepong rafer.
I think you make a great point. I didn't believe in Jameer Nelson until watching him play last night. The last 2 seasons, he had short stretches where he played well and then would sink back into being one of the weak links. It's clear he has grown since then. The difference now is that we aren't an up and coming team. Do we have the time to allow Brooks to grow in to his role? I'm not sure. Of course I'm not sure Rafer is the answer either, but we're stuck in a difficult position.
Brooks has shown flashes of brilliance this year, to be sure, but it's interesting how over the season his numbers, per minute, aren't much better than last year's. He had a nice start to the season over the first month, but he's cooled off considerably. Since November, he's shooting well under 40% from the field, and about 30% from beyond the arc. That's over 1 1/2 months. Is he slumping now, or was he hot to begin the year? Probably a bit of both.
I always like to use the Spurs as an example. The drafted Parker at the end of the 1st. The guy who was suppose to take over for Avery was Daniels. They saw Parkers upside and Daniels as a backup. Preseason, they traded Daniels, starter Parker, won a ring that year and parker's development is what keeps them upper tier. Because he is climbing as a player and duncan leveled off, the team can grow. The rox have no one in their starting lineup that is getting better. In fact they have 3 guys with any kind of upside. Wafer,landry and brooks. Its extremely important that these guys develop because the other rox, especially their best players aren't going to get better. When that happens with no growth, you better win rings. If not, the team goes down hill in a hurry.
There is no comparison between AB and Jameer Nelson. They are two completely different kind of players. Regarding development, some guys are faster than others. The reason AB hasn't been thrown to the wolves is because Adelman doesn't think he's ready and the Rockets are trying to win now. Therefore, he is gradually increasing AB's minutes and responsibility as the season wears on. If the Rockets didn't have such high aspirations, AB would probably be out there more. Adelman probably feels like if the Rockets are going to make an impact in the playoffs, he can't just discard Rafer and put it all on AB. Both guys will need to be sharp to get the best results. Of course, Rafer has gotten so bad now that I think Morey MUST make a trade to bring in a serviceable starting PG because Rafer has descended into D-league status. Here are Rafer's numbers for January: 9.0/5.6/2.1 shooting 32.4%/23.8%. He does this in 33 minutes a game. What a joke of a starter.
I think here's the difference. When Parker was drafted, the Spurs didn't have a veteran PG who had been starting for them for a number of years. Daniels started some games the previous seasons, but he had mostly been a backup. So, in training camp the starting position was really up for grabs. We don't know how Parker and Daniels played in that training camp, and we don't know how they performed in practice. Parker won the job, and it's worked out great for them. With the Rockets, Rafer has been the established starting PG for a number of years. He's basically the same player now as he was when he first joined the team. He keeps in good shape and he is familiar with his teammates. So, from a coach's standpoint, it will take a lot more for him to be replaced by a young player. I'm not saying here that Rafer is better than Aaron. But the situation is different from San Antonio. If Daniels had been an established starting PG for that team for a number of years, it's quite possible that Pop wouldn't have handed the team over to Parker in his rookie year like that.
Duravasa, that's understandable, but what about a vet in a career long slump? Down for brooks is 40%, that's a hot streak for rafer. Plus the pressure he put on the opponet outweigh the pressure rafer does. Nelson had a slump last year also, but when he had a chance to be consistent as a pro, he did. Not to mention, he can get better. Brooks can get better, rafer can't.
First I thought this is about AB but obviously it's about Rafer. Anyway, I am 100% on moving or benching Rafer. Can we get Blake from POR?
Nelson- Quick and strong, knows how to get his own shot and is never reluctant to set up his own team mate to score Brooks- The fastest, scoring Guard with limited ability to set up others. Of course he could develop his playmaking skills with more experience. Athletic and lean, has great skill but little power.
The quandary is who will take Rafer off our hands? I don't see any team gullible enough to take him. And, it makes no sense to me and will further diminish him if he comes off the bench. The reality is we are stuck with Rafer until maybe his last year on his contract then maybe someone will want his expiring contract. And again I think he will be even further useless coming off the bench and I'm not ready to give AB 40 minutes a night. On thing I do want is AB in the closing minutes of a close ballgame.
That is insane. I still can't believe that Adelman took Brooks out of the starting lineup after how well he played those 4 games Rafer was out. Everybody talks about AB's slump and it started with that game when he was pulled out of the lineup in favor of Rafer. I was dissapointed for him and I can't imagine what that did to Brook's confidence to have played so well and then have the trash that Alston is come back and replace you. It's sickening. Give Brooks his confidence and the starting role back and I think you get the player people see flashes of on a more consistant basis.
Durvasa, they groomed Daniels to take over for johnson. Daniels, a fromer lotto pick was kinda coming into his own and johnson was coming up for contract the next year.They thought a year ahead and thought they had his replacement in daniels. The next season, johnson signed with the nuggetts and daniels was going to run the show, but their scouting told them about parker whom they drafted. Parker struggled big time and there was no reason for him to be the starter. He showed flashes like most young guys. The spurs saw enough and traded daniels and backed up parker with claxton and porter. Rafer was a starter for 1 season in his life before coming to toronto. If they rox wants to emulate the spurs, why not have the young guy start and back him up with a vet. If you remember, claxton finished some of those playoff games. Just like house and cassell was finishing games for boston last year. When the young guy plays well, he plays a lot, when he doesn't, the vet finishes it off. The guy earlier said nelson is bigger and finishes better. Obviously he doesn even watch the games because nelson is 5'11 at best. Anyone that watches know this.
Maybe I misunderstood, but you don't think Nelson is 30-40 lbs bigger than AB and finishes better? There really isn't much doubt about it. He is a tank that enjoys physical contact with opposing PGs. AB is the opposite. It's not a good comparison.
Nelson is a scorer, not a setup man. His strong suits are his shooting. The main setup guy for them is hedo. He's like the point forward. Not only that, people like to say how bad the defense is having a small guard, but orlando is a top 3 defensive team with hedo and lewis playing pf and sf. None of which are considered defensive guys. If you watched the game last night, you see how well they matchup with teams because u have to guard everyone on the floor. They don't have rafer and shane types clogging the paint and floor. Brooks should be starting and trade rafer for the sig I have and everything works out well.
I like this point, Rafer has had every chance to deliver. He hasn't, Brooks was delivering when he was a starter big time. He went back to the bench and the slump occurred. The Rockets must get in a development mode and I agree that development starts with Brooks, Wafer, and Landry. These are the starters/bench players that will get us to the next level. Tmac is done in mentally in Htown. We will only have Artest and Battier at prime for maybe a couple more years.
I think there is plenty of comparison. Right off the bat, they are both quick, undersized NBA PGs. They were also both 4-year college players drafted in the 20s of the 1st round. They were also both scoring PGs in college. And take a look at Nelson's numbers from his rookie season with the Magic. They were pretty unimpressive. Brooks shot 3s and FTs better than Nelson did as a rookie. Nelson had a better FG%. They produced nearly identical assists and turnovers per minute. I wouldn't call Jameer Nelson an elite playmaker, either. He averaged 5.7 apg in college to Brooks' 4.1 apg. Nelson has never averaged more than 5.6 apg as a pro and averages 4.5 apg for his career. I do agree that Nelson is the better playmaker but not by leaps and bounds. I still think some people underestimate Brooks' passing skills. There is no way to compare Brooks to the current Nelson but comparing them as rookies tells a different story.
IMO, Nelson has a consistant shot, more people to pass to that will make a shot when they are open, and a Center to throw alleys to. He might be a better defender then brooks too. Brooks has blazing speed that will cause problems for other teams. When he is on, he's on. When he's off, he is horrible.
Some people are also exaggerating Brooks' shooting slump. He had about 4 or 5 games over the past month and a half where he shot really poorly. http://www.nba.com/playerfile/aaron_brooks/game_by_game_stats.html Because of the minutes he plays, that had a bigger impact on his overall %s. The bottom line is that he probably hit some kind of wall given the large increase in playing time this season as well as the inconsistency in the rotation. Despite the mini-slump, Brooks is still shooting better from the field than Alston, McGrady, Battier, Artest and Head. Only Wafer and Barry are ahead of him in terms of guards and SFs.
