Put lowry and brooks together in the back court, move ariza to the bench, give aaron license to jack up 30 shots a game. he's always struggled to balance running a team with scoring, now you put the ball in lowry's hands to run a team and just put aaron in attack mode all the time. I think lowry's a good enough defender and rebounder even at his height to make this workable for most matchups.
I would be ALL for this myself, pending we weren't playing against a lineup like the Lakers' starting five. It's not going to happen because RA doesn't want to hurt Trevor's feelings, but at a certain point I think he needs to call a spade a spade and make Ariza earn his minutes. Lowry has been our MVP about as many games this year as any of our 15 point per game scorers. I don't know what it could do to the bench brigade's effectiveness, but we can't keep digging ourselves in holes forever, and for the most part the team plays better with K Low on the floor.
DD and many others called it from the start. you cannot start shane and trevor at the same time. that pretty much sums it up.
That is the problem. I would love to see Shane and Trevor's combined +/- numbers when playing together. It has to be very negative.
From last night's game, I think only the bench warmers would have their +/- numbers positive, most of the Rockets got negative numbers, especially Landry -17, and Shane and Trevor's combined +/- numbers is -20.
The even more baffling thing is that Shane and Trevor would be great in rotation with each other. Start Shane, and bring in Trevor when you need more athleticism and speed to change the tempo. I don't think it'd be wise to start Lowry at this point. He's the reason our bench performs so well (along with Landry) and keeps us in games that the starters are losing.
Whether it's starting or not, I've been saying for awhile that the Lowry / Brooks backcourt is easily our most effective. The only downside is that defensively you've got to put Lowry on the opposing 2 due to Brooks' size, which means that you don't get the benefit of Lowry's defense on the opposing point. But they're dynamite together in the half court and on the break.
Adelman has continued to start Shane and Ariza that only means one thing. One is being shopped. It's easier to sell someone who has better numbers than usual.
Oddly enough, Brooks, Lowry, Budinger, Landry, and Andersen are the top +/- 5 man unit for the Rockets and 13th in the league. Also, this is the top 5 man unit with only 1 starter. I think it is easy to say the Rockets have the best bench in the NBA....it is also easy to say the Rockets have one of the worst starting lineups if not the worst in the NBA. I think Adelman plays Ariza and Battier just to slow down opposing starters because he doesn't think the 5 best Rockets can match the 5 best of most other teams. He has loaded the bench with scorers hoping they can run a face paced game and rake up a lot of points versus the other teams bench. Adelmen keeps Lowry off the starting lineup because he wants a slower pace as the Rocks get hammered to keep the game close. Granted, this theory doesn't fit with Ariza logging around 40 minutes.
Per 48 minutes, Wayne Winston's adjusted +/- player ratings (through 1/20) would predict them to be 5 points worse than average on offense, and 3 points better than average on defense. So, in sum, 2 points worse than average. Looking at the raw lineup data, and not adjusting for opponents faced or teammates, lineups with Ariza and Battier are getting outscored by 2.6 points per 48 minutes. I imagine it is significantly worse than that since the start of December (Rockets starters were performing very well in November).
I like this. Plays to both of their best qualities. But Brooks' height might be a problem defensively.
CORRECTION: you cant play Battier, Ariza and Chuck all at the same time, it only leaves two starters who are scoring players .
Sadly I agree. It causes Trevor to try too hard anyway.. On another note, and I said this in another Brooks/Lowry thread.. if they start together it will take a toll on the energy of our team since one of them always has to be on the floor. I think one of the reasons Lowry is so effective is that he can come off the bench and be a constant motor. I think it has been evident in recent games (especially against Minnesota, Milwaukee where they play extensive minutes) that Brooks and Lowry are, in fact, human and can get tired!
That's the point Trevor is 3 and Budinger is a 2. We aren't playing and D anyway so we might as well put Trevor in his natural role and let Bud take Trevor shots.
Aaron is more of an iverson like pg anyways so I'd like those 2 in the back court. DO keep ariza as a starter though and lets by him a shock collar so he can't leave the 3 point perimeter, sort of like an invis-a-fence they use on pet dogs
