Aaron Brooks knocking off the rust

If Lowry showed that he can drop 30pts when ever he gets hot when Ab was inured... then your argument would be valid. But it's not the case with Lowry.

It's no secret that his defense is better than Brooks defense, but Brooks can light it up any given night and compete with elite pg's offense.

Like the old saying goes " Fight Fire With Fire"

 

I have been reading the Brooks vs Lowry arguments for a while now.

It's great to think what Adelman is going to do, but this is a fan's opinion forum, not an Adelman prediction forum.

The way I see it is. If chemistry is not there, make a change. If it is there and you are winning, DON'T make a change.

Did anyone notice recently that the bench points have been floundering while the starters points have kept us in the game?

How many times last year when Lowry was playing did the Rockets commentators raise the differential between the Rockets bench points and our opponents bench points. Last game against the Warriors, the top 5 scorers for the Rockets were all 5 starters, including Hayes.

On top of that, last season when Lowry got injured, did the team start to go down hill. Loss of chemistry and also cohesion. If Brooks was the better PG then he could have helped the 2nd unit and that would not have been an issue. On top of this, when Brooks got injured this season and Lowry fully returned from injury, the Rockets also started to take off and have played very well with great chemistry.

I think it is pretty obvious that whoever Lowry plays with will perform better than if Brooks plays with them. So the real question is, which unit needs to perform better? the starters or the 2nd unit?

Is Chase finding it harder because Lowry isnt in the game with him much anymore?

I think with Miller in the lineup, the leadership/directing duties are covered so Lowry's skillset is a little bit put to waste. Additionally, both units need a good defensive platform to work from. Having Brooks and Martin in the starting lineup is the killer. I do not believe that such a poorly defensive backcourt can win alot of games. Both units need a good balance of offense and defense. Martin and Scola are the offense in the starting unit, and the 2nd unit's should be Brooks and maybe Miller. Having Williams in the 2nd unit for defense also will solidify the lineup too.

My opinion the lineup should be like this:

Lowry/Brooks
Martin/Lee
Battier/Williams/Budinger
Scola/Hill/Patterson
Hayes/Miller

Trade Jefferies and maybe Budinger for a tall shot blocking centre.

Let's look at keeping a balanced lineup for our units not stocking 1 with offense and 1 with defense.

 

That's pretty much the situation here. Except Vick was a great player before his whole thing but when he came back even Reid couldn't just ignore what he was doing for his team.

Also reading back through this thread, I want to correct something. PG is NOT the least important position on the court defense wise, not even close. C is more important and the be all end all...but PG is extremely important.

If you let the other PG run around and have a field day against you, you will pay dearly for it. Especially if the other PG is one who loves to get EVERYONE involved like a good PG should do. While a PG does not need lockdown defense, he can't be terrible allowing guys to just penetrate the lane whenever they feel like it.

Either way there is no weak link position in basketball on defense. When you understand that you begin to play great defense. That's why the best defenses in the NBA always relied on all 5 players on the court to bring it.

 

That is a welcome and surprising change of tone from someone who declared Lowry a career backup. And this is not a snide remark either. I can respect someone who can put aside his own ego and look at things from an objective perspective, or at least attempt to. The best of us are wrong many times as well. Who cares? The opposite would be delusionally hanging on to dated arguments even as reality comes crashing down around you. A fate that a few others here seem to be doomed for.

The difference in the two types of people are one is simply a fan of the Rockets, while the other is a fan of himself. That his ultimate desire is to be right, or at least try to prove himself right in the face of the laws of nature and logic with all Hell's fury.

 

Who specifically has he made better?

 

I would really like to see a 2nd unit running with Williams at the point and Brooks and Lee on the wings. I think that would flat out devastate all of our opponents and force them to overplay their starters, which in turn would lead their starters to be in foul trouble and tired in the 4th quarter during winning time. That is, if they were still standing during winning time. I want to see Williams running down the middle on the break with Lee on the wing and Brooks trailing for the 3 ball or the finish after he fakes the shot. That should be wide open. Throw in Patterson and Hill for rebounding and move Miller back to where he should be, on the bench besides Hayes for situational half-court offense.

 

19.6 points on over 16 shots per game isn't exactly lighting it up.

I'll take Lowry's efficient 12-14 points per game along with 7-8 assists any day over what Brooks did last year. Lowry is shooting well for the last 17 games or so. It'll be interesting to see if he can continue shooting over 45 % from the field.

 

He's shooting with more confidence. No need to to take it to the hole as much when you're sticking the jumper.

 

Kevin Martin? Luis Scola?

 

I assume this is due to him playing with starters. When he is surrounded by players capable of scoring like Martin and Scola, he doesn't need to take it upon himself and his body by running in there and drawing contact. Why sacrifice yourself when you can dish it to someone else for points? In the 2nd unit, the offense was more run and gun as there are no real established scorers.

In the 2nd unit we have Lee (if he could consistently create his own shot he wouldn't be a backup), Miller (relies on dish outs and pump fakes from the high post to the perimeter), Hill (who still looks lost fairly often), Budinger (still cannot play D for beans and can no longer shoot for beans anymore either), Jeffries (he cannot make layups, enough said), Ish, and Hayes. Being a true point, Lowry elevates the game of those around him. Without Lowry, the 2nd offense bogs down because no one is setting players up for easy buckets or breaking down the D through relentless penetration. With a secondary unit like this, we NEED a playmaker or established scorer (Brooks). Now if Martin and Scola were not so bad defensively, I would be OK with Brooks starting. The problem is that we DO have BOTH of them in the lineup. Adding another defensive sieve (also a poor passer and coward in the lane) in Brooks to the starting lineup is NOT the answer.

Our secondary sucks at scoring. Brooks is a scorer. Lowry is doing fine with the starters and we are winning. I don't see the problem with Brooks coming off the bench. I do agree with lavs, DD, and leebigz though that we do need both of them, at least until we finally get that superstar Morey is soul searching for.

 

AB is far from knocking off the dust.
He is significantly slower than before. What did really happen to his foot?

 

Its not about taking shots away or anything like that. If you look at the game log with martin and the rockets in general, they struggled against the top defenses they faced this year. Martin in general points,fg,ts, and everything goes from 45% and 24 ppg to 16ppg and 36%. Now to me, thats playoff level basketball. When and if the playoffs start, where are the points going to come from? Now if you want a stat w****'s dream regular season team, go ahead, but I know what I saw and will see in the playoffs. I'm not saying lowry wont be effective, I'm just saying if you go in depending on martin against a tough defensive team, you will be disappointed.

 

So you'll take Lowry's current hot streak playing alongside KMartin's hot streak versus what Brooks did last year playing alongside Ariza for the whole year? Sign me up for that too man.

 

How has Lowry made them better this year? You act like it's obvious. Go ahead and spell it out for me then.

 

Martin is basically useless when AB is on the court. I caught him shaking his head against the Warriors after a possession where he didn't touch the ball.

AB has become one dimenensional in his return. 11 of his 15 attempts are 3 pointers.

 

i find this top defenses argument amusing

if it was easy to score on them they really wouldnt be top defenses now would they?


and if you could score on them you probably are an all-star/superstar and do the rockets have any of those right now too?


the team has been playing well and most importantly winning with Lowry the last few weeks I would like to see him stay there and not have anything disrupted right now. Hopefully adelman feels the same way because that bench unit really could use Aaron's scoring ability

 

Lee, you know exactly why. You have posted about the reasoning yourself. This goes back to our argument over the "eyeball test"- which I am fully in favor of. I do not doubt your knowledge in basketball, as you point out very astute observations from time to time, and other times you are just dead wrong about your conclusions.

Anyways, the reason for the drop off in drawing fouls is a change in roles. Last year he was used as a change of pace off the bench. He was asked to play with max energy, and be as aggressive as possible.

This year his role is the STARTING PG of the Houston Rockets. Which means he must control the pace and tempo of the team, and sustain it for the entirety of the game. He cannot afford to be as reckless, neither from an energy stand point, or an organizational stand point.

That is why he is drawing less fouls.

The problem is, at the time, you failed to connect the dots and assumed he would play the same role even as a starter. This is why you concluded that he would be less effective, since no one would be able to sustain that type of energy level over the course of the whole game. That was a fine assumption, but you did not anticipate Lowry not only changing, not only embracing, but EXCELLING in a new, different role.

You underestimated his adaptability. And while he is not drawing as many fouls, which was one of his biggest strengths before, the overall game has slowed down for him and he has blossomed into a very, very good, and complete basketball player.

 

Do you remember how Lowry looked for the first 2-3 weeks after he came back this year? Were you not around for all the fat jokes?

 

This is interesting, since it seems that Martin's TS% last year was .586 with the Rockets and .535 with the Kings, in basically the same number of games. How could that be if AB has rendered him useless?

 

Because they both do exactly the same thing.