On offense, I think you are right because AB's skillset is varied enough to take what defenses give him. He can hit the spot up jumper from long range, can stop & pop, can go to the rim & finish/dish and he has quickness and handles to create something from scratch. If he continues drilling open 3s when left alone, teams will take that away first. Then it will be on AB to either (1) dribble, re-set his feet and nail a closer in jumper or (2) take it towards the rim and make something positive happen on a regular basis. On defense, teams are going to start attacking AB with vigor if he continues getting minutes against primary players to start and finish games. Bet on it. The Rockets must continue the good team defense and help AB out when this happens. rocketsregle, this is why Chauncey wasn't successful posting him up. Help came fast; so fast the Nuggets basically gave up on it. Specifically regarding Chris Paul, AB has the ability to harass him and stay in front of him like few other NBA PGs. And Paul looked completely out of sorts trying to post AB up because it's not something he's used to doing. Paul could barely figure out how to pass from the post position once he got there. Next time we play the Hornets, Paul will be better prepared.
I'll admit I thought AB0 would have huge problems against Devin Harris. Brooks took the attack to the Nets and made things easier for himself. He isn't doing badly on defense but A_3PO's comments are spot on.
One other thing that I noticed is that Rafer seems to have a calming influence, and that is 100% the opposite of what a team with Yao and Tmac as the stars needs. Brooks speeds it up, and seems to get them to play a little bit faster and get into the games a little bit more. The tempo under Brooks seems to be much better for the entire team. DD
its a combo of the two. brooks has improved a lot defensively. last year keyon dooling torched brooks so bad he had to be benched. tonight dooling could still penetrate but he wasnt finishing as well. opponents can go at brooks much more than they can go at rafer.
After tonight, it definitely has become clear that Brooks has improved significantly on defense as the season has progressed. His performance against Harris today was impressive, and if he continues improving at this pace he just might be the Rockets' point guard of the future. While he has improved defensively, this was pretty much an ideal matchup for him, pitting him against another quick guard who typically uses his speed to his advantage. It looks like Brooks has the ability to win those matchups every time because of his ability to match or surpass his opponent in quickness, while having a superior shooting touch. The one standout performance to me is still the one against Billups. I'm still against starting him over Alston, although I am in favor of giving him more minutes.
brooks is just a gamer. True PG or shooting pg, I don't really care for the classification. He has a killer instinct and will be competitive on both ends of the court. If he's a defensive liability now, he will improve. Meanwhile, he is also making himself close to unguardable on offense.
Mugys Bogues played 15 years in the NBA 30 minutes a game at 5 foot 3. A point guard can compensate for lack of height (in Mugsy's case the most extremest lack of height ever, even for a 7th grader) with quickness, good ballhandling, dribble penetration, low turnovers, and controlling tempo apparently. Maybe they let him get away with more hand checking back then, who knows... Sometimes bigger receivers in the NFL cant exploit height mismatches cuz they cant get upfield past the guy in front of them with quicker feet. And sometimes smaller receivers are tough to guard in the slot (Wes Welker). Those analogies in Brook's case maybe he's both a little tougher to guard and the bigger guards dont dribble penetrate past him much.
Well after his performance the past 5 games exactly what scenario would you start him over Rafer? Ab has done everything, everything you would expect from your starting guard and MORE. He could discover he's the long lost twin of Cp3 and people here would still want to start Alston over him. The irony is its not like we have Nash as our starting PG; we have freakin' Rafer Alston. Yet people here still want to start him over the guy who just owned 3 of the top pgs in the league. Crazy man, just crazy
This is the most important point to me. What NBA point guard is comfortable in the post on a regularity? Penny Hardaway is gone. If someone is posting him up, that means they are going away from their normal offense and trying something unfamiliar simply for the sake of exploiting some supposed mismatch. Sorry, but I'll take my chances with AB guarding Deron Williams in the post if it means it takes the Jazz away from their bread and butter plays, especially factoring in the bonus of having Brooks' offense.
I'll add that every single one of us here would have been relieved had each of these 3 point guards simply scored/assisted/wreaked havoc at their averages or slightly above. We didn't want AB in the starting lineup because we feared he would get demolished. He didn't just keep them from going off. He owned these guys. And we're here debating whether he is a defensive liability.
How about the simplest answer, which others have hinted at? For the point guard position, the best defense is a good offense. How do you think Chris Paul is regarded as a good defender??? 1. He gases his opponents, and 2. He plays the passing lanes nonstop.
When you combine AB on the wing with McGrady coming from the top, I don't think most of us fully appreciate what Brooks takes out of the opposing point guard's legs by having to chase AB around the perimeter so much. Anybody that has played the game knows how that wears you down when you go back down on the offensive end if you've been having to chase a waterbug around the court because dude can flat shoot it or get to the rack and finish. AB causes a tremendous "wear down" factor on the opposing point guard. It makes them slower offensively, and it takes away their most important asset for hitting the jumper, their legs. Rafer simply does not bring this kind of pressure. Everybody in the whole league fades off Rafer to help on McGrady. They want Rafer shooting it 17 times. The league has figured out that they can't let Brooks shoot 17 times but they also can't help defend him because that leaves somebody like McGrady too much room to operate. That leaves the opposing PG stuck with the chore of having to doggedly chase down a player that is smaller and quicker than he is that is constant movement and can flat score the basketball. The opposing PG has to defend to try and deny Brooks the ball. That's totally different than standing around and fading off of Rafer. Brooks should be starting with McGrady, allowing McGrady to run the show up top, 6'9" playmaker, and forcing some undersized shooting guard into single coverage against McGrady while Brooks is driving the opposing PG crazy running from one side to the other. When you combine Brooks running the opposing PG's legs into the ground on the offensive end, and then they come down defensively and 9 times out of 10, Brooks has the quickness advantage on the opposing PG defensively, it makes for a much tougher time than Rafer ducking behind screens and playing help defense. Would you want to be a concrete legged PG coming down the floor with the ball and trying to play keep away from a quicker Brooks? Brooks offense and his shooting are primary reasons for his defensive success. They're not going to be able to continue to deny him minutes even when Rafer comes back because he is getting more and more efficient and confident offensively.
I've noticed Artest in the starting lineup has a similar effect as well. A good reason for having either Brooks or Artest as a starter.
Keyon Dooling: 17 points 6-10 shooting 2-3 3pters 5 assists 1 turnover. But he still did one hell of a job on the offensive end and those 3 fouls on harris was critical to winning the game.
Thanks! Great post. It is the Reefer Madness...people just wanna believe in it despite their own eyeballs.
Be careful what you wish for. Deron Williams is the guy best suited to abuse AB from the post. Like Jason Kidd, he does know how to scored and pass effectively from the post. I've seen him crush other smaller PGs by throwing his weight around.
It happens all the time. People do it against Yao. Guys like Tim Duncan rather than banging in the post like usual, they settle for the outside jumper. Its because they know Yao doesn't like to contest that shot. Tim Duncan's offense isn't hitting that outside jumper, but if Yao is giving it to him they will take it. Same thing with AB, while posting up probably isn't in a lot of these guards offenses. They know how to do it. And if they are up against a guy that is giving them 5 inches and 50-100 pounds, they might decide to exploit that matchup. We havn't seen it a lot yet, but thats because AB has been coming off the bench for 20 minutes a game. Teams rarely gameplan that deep into a matchup in the regular season. But in the playoffs, when you play the same team 5-6 times in a row, expect them to exploit that every time. Especially when you have guys like Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Chauncy Billups and Jason Kidd as potential first round matchups.
The counter there is that Williams can abuse Rafer in the post pretty easily as well. What we know about Williams is that he doesn't like defending against really quick guards. Brooks could potentially use his offense to tire Williams or get him in foul trouble.
