Aron's 3pt skill needs attention.In his colllage games, aron always made 3pt attempts . Brooks is more of a scorer than a playmaker indeed. However,man ,which piece is still missing in our team is just a playmaker. Francis likes scoring himself ,as well as aron and tmac.barry is more of a shooter than a passer. Man,although rafer makes assits sometimes,the level to judge a good pg isn't assists only.Rafer is not good at controling the tune of games,as a result we always saw that we were caught up and exceeded in the 4th quarter.a great playmaker is important for a western team to go further in the playoffs.man,it's rediculous to make tmac a pointguard even though that's the ideal arrangement according our roster list.Now that we have artest,it's not good to let artest become a bench player as it may annoy artest. I suggest that morey trade tmac for billups and Prince( if they agree to offer Rip,morey may as well take him instead of Prince) .Then we will have seven great rosters ,which is enough for a team to play in the playoffs.In the playoffs ,you know,man,the rosters a coach uses are just the 8 or 9 rosters ,the 8th roster should be a backup c . Then ,we'll have a lineup like this :Yao/Scola/Artest/Rip/Chauncy or Yao/Scola/Prince/Artest/Billups.Then our squad will be of more balance,our salary frame will be more proper.
Really? I thought that as the season went on he gained in confidence and looked more and more like an NBA player. I checked the stats to see what story they told - and lo and behold, check out his post all-star break numbers: In 20 games, he played 10 minutes per game PPG: 5.3 FG%: 44.3 FT%: 87.5 3G%: 41.7 (on 1.8 attempts per game) APG: 1.6 TPG: 0.7 Those aren't horrible numbers for 10 minutes a game - and the shooting %s are particularly encouraging. Certainly good reason for optimism - players tend to get better the longer they are in the league (adjusting to the pace etc). I can't see how it's possible to write off Brooks having watched his play improve as the season went on (and seeing the post-all star stats!)
our backup pg will prolly be steve, luther, or barry. if steve is healthy then he should get the job automatically. luther can play pg if he only has to shoot 3s (tmac, barry, ron can take over the point duties). if brooks is ready to play good minutes in the nba imagine the lineups we can have when we face smaller teams.. brooks head tmac ron shane/scola/yao brooks head tmac landry/hayes/dorsey yao theres too many lineups but we are no an elite team, congratulations
Yeah, but thats a bit misleading, like his best performance in that stretch being an 18 point 4 assist game in a 105 - 79 blow out of the Clippers where he shot 7 for 9. When you put together numbers from such a small stretch things like that jump out at you. What I see is more revealing is in the closest game during that stretch, a 98-99 loss to the Kings, Brooks logged zero min. I'm not saying there isn't any reason to be optimistic about Brooks, I'm just saying theres no reason to put him in a position where we expect production from him.
Brooks will get his minutes this season as a third string point guard. He will however get more minutes early on than later on in the season. The best way to improve, is to get game time. That is my theory anyway.
Brooks performed like a very promising rookie pg. every reason to hopeful about his future! the criticisms dissing his prospects lack context.
Why in the world would we trade Rafer for Tim Thomas. That would leave us with Scola, Hayes, Landry, Dorsey, Artest, Battier and Thomas at the forward positions. With that lineup, I dont even see Thomas getting any minutes. He sucks. Then it leaves us with AB, Barry, Francis and Head to run the point. I would'nt consider any of those guys starting PG material. If anything they are all combo guards at this point.
Yeah - I thought his summer league decision making was at least 'ok' Funnily enough the coaching staff thought he looked to pass too much and it compromised his scoring (which is reflected in his woeful shooting numbers for summer league)
That's what happens when you try to move from being a scorer into a passer. It's hard to blend the two together,it takes a lot of time. The coaching staff will have to be patient with him or else he will get confused. The end result could be not being able to do anything efficiently.
That's actually a very good point. A natural PG doesn't have to try too hard to balance his scoring and playmaking, it just comes... umm.. naturally. Brooks seems to be able to do one or the other and obviously, he's better at being a scorer. Play in and play out, a good PG will be able to react to the defense and make the right decision, look to score or make the right pass. Brooks has a long way to go in that regard. It will be a major challenge for him to prove he can become a legitimate PG in this league. Time will tell if he can make it happen.
He didn't play in the 5 games prior to that loss either. In fact, of the first 16 games out of the all-star break, he was very much a minor part, playing in only 6 games. Following that loss to the Kings, Brooks came into the lineup in the very next game, played 24 minutes against Portland (in Portland) and scored 12 points (including 2 threes) Then he played more significant minutes the remaining games in the season. So you can hardly see the kings game as 'more revealing' considering he didn't play in the 5 games beforehand.... Here's hoping he hits his straps for more than 10-15 games this season
With those names you threw out, none are 6'10 mobile, that can shoot the 3 and beat guys off the dribble. The reason I have and will keep pushing for Tim Thomas is versitility and flexibility. Now , you say he sux, well that's your opinion, but if you look at his playoff numbers, then you'll see a guy that raises his game come playoff time. Isn't that what its all about? I keep bringing Thomas up and I bring up flexibility as my main point next to his playoff performances. Forget that he was suppose to save a franchise. Lets look at what he is and what he could do for the Rox. He's a 6'10 3/4 guy who can shoot the 3, post up, and beat guys off the dribble. His insertion to this team eliminates the repetitous style,play, and size of our current 4's. I look at teams the rox are trying to beat out west and the possible matchups. He's a 20min a night guy behind scola, but lets look at some matchups. Utah - The "New Sonics" to the Rox. Artest really solves a lot of problems in matching up with this team, but the Rox can really put a nail in them with a guy like Thomas. I say this looking at the matchups. We know on defense, Yao will guard Boozer and Scola and the other guy will guard Okur. On offense, okur takes Yao and Boozer guards our 4's. Even with artest, asking Scola, Landry or the others to guard Okur is asking for trouble. Those guys are natural post defenders and they lose a perimeter guy like Okur in transition and just natural instincts. Top that off, he's bigger and longer than all 3. On the other end, none make boozer pay for guarding them. None can beat Boozer off the dribble consistently, nor are either rangy or good post players. When Scola comes off and now Thomas enters the game, now you have a guy like thomas who is used to playing away from the goal. He's big enough and quick enough to prevent okur from beating him off the dribble. On offense, Boozer has to guard him at the 3pt line. Not only that, he has to give up distance because he is a natural 3 that can put the ball on the floor. That's a huge advantage when the rox run the offense and they kick to the ft line extended and boozer is attempting to guard a guy like thomas. LA - They have Odom. Odom is a guy other than Ron, because of his stregnth or Tracy, because of his length, that can matchup with him. He's too quick for landry,scola, and too big for hayes when he plays the 4. Once again, this is a time for thomas. He and odom are clones of each other, but odom is better. Thomas, is quick enough and big enough to matchup with odom at the 4. Dallas- Of course we still have problems with Dirk. He's too big and quick for any of out 4's. Thomas is that matchup guy for Dirk. We could start with Scola, which isn't going to last long, then the rox will definitely see hayes nor landry will help either. What I'm saying is I would rather give up rafer for thomas, start brooks and get a solid backup maybe through trade for like steve blake or someone.
leebigez,I know you have made some good points in order to counter the mismatches we face,however I think Tim Thomas will prove to be an inconsistent Bonzi at best. We all know that Rafer himself can't be relied on but to have Brooks as the starter is too dangerous,bringing in Steve Blake won't help either. Barry can't play at the 1 for more than a few minutes especially with his weak defense and Tracy still needs to be more of a scorer than a passer. Whether we like it or not,the team has become dependent on Skip and rocking the boat isn't the correct step at the present time IMO.
Personally, I don't really care about Tim Thomas is games 1-82, that doesn't really matter to me. The rox will be good enough even with chuck hayes playing minutes to freight train people, but I'm looking playoff matchups. In parts of the game, when you can throw out Tracy,Brooks,Artest,Yao, and Thomas, teams will have a nightmare guarding that team with the off the dribble personell. All except yao in that instance, plus the pf's have to guard thomas all the way to the 3pt line. Guys like boozer,davis west,amare,gasol and other will not be quick enough to do it. I can live with Brooks at the 1 and some other guy as a backup. No young pg comes in and play perfect. D.Will struggled, Nash, even the small Jameer Nelson types are starting and struggled, but their size and quickness is what makes up for lack of size.
Why on earth would he need to learn that? Our starting PG is not that great of a passer..... And Aaron is actually a better entry passer to Yao....he does it with a nice nifty bounce pass. DD
Tim Thomas is a jerkhead who isn't that good anymore. Having him on the team and hoping he comes up big in the playoffs is silly. We tried that with Bonzi and it didn't work. Yes, Thomas had the good playoff series two years ago with Phoenix. So what? That was his finest hour. Now he's just a 31 year-old gunner who can't shoot like he used to. With our current lineup, we DO NOT need Tim Thomas on the Rockets. Just say no! Morey, just get another PG & backup C and let's roll. P.S: The ONE scenario where I would entertain getting Tim Thomas is at the trade deadline, where he might be sick and tired of the Clips and relish joining a team making a playoff/championship run. This often brings out the best in players. Maybe the Rox get hit by an injury or two (say Shane or Scola), need additional outside shooting and could plug TT in for the last 25 games.
