It's not about Alston and Brooks playing together. It's about no Head in the final quarter (except final 25+ secs.). That's the biggest positive of Alston and Brooks playing together in 4th quarter.
i agree that this is a good combination. i remember it worked well against phoenix i believe, when francis and rafer were both in the game at the end and we won. steve had his best game and when asked about the combo in the post-game interview, he said that having him and rafer on the court at the same time had never even happened before in practice. unfortunately, we didn't get to really see it again because of injuries to both players. hopefully, when francis is healthy we can use him with rafer again at times whenever brooks is too much of a defensive liability. that way we can still have two guards that penetrate.
I also thought it was about time that Brooks ended the game. I thought it should have been done since Golden State. 6'0 Aaron Brooks is a better post entry passer than 6'3 Luther Head. Who would have thunk? The fear of his penetration probably helps him versus Head in being better at it. When Brooks is in the game we run more plays that don't begin with dumping the ball into Yao. The ball ends up in his hand only after we made the defense react by making them guard the other players through ball movement. Bullard is right, we need to have more of the latter in the fourth. Dumping the ball into Yao to start the play is too predictable against the better teams. Hope we do the same for Tracy when he comes back.
Brooks is at the same height as Chris Paul. He is almost the same weight. If he can be 3/4 the player CP3 is, we have found our point guard.
I don't see how you can say Nelson crushed Brooks out there. There were so many cross matches in that game with Nelson and Keyon (both essentially points) going against Rafer and Brooks. Jameer had a good night shooting the basketball, no doubt about it. But I think it was a function of their offense more than it was torching Brooks. I know this, I'll take Brooks in transition over Nelson any day of the week on either side. I also know this, he's a defensive upgrade over Luther, no matter who they are defending. I saw one play last night where Orlando ran out and Brooks ran down and drew the charge from Nelson on the break. No other player on this team could have gotten back to do that but Brooks. Just wait until he gets his shot working. Then........look out. When he gets the jumper working, he is going to create a lot of easy buckets as the floor opens up.
Putting Alston and Brooks out there gives us the most speed and best ball handling of all our guards. Sets up the front line better with their penetration skils. Alston is finishing better because he's getting easier looks. Brooks can finish too and hit the 3 ball. This tandem looks to me like it could be a lighting fast backcourt that would give other teams a lot of trouble.
Weight is close, but Brooks is 2 inches shorter than Paul, and the difference in 2 inches at 6 feet is bigger than the difference at 6' 6". That being said, I thought Paul was 6'2" so there seems to be some hope for Brooks. One thing Paul had going for him was he was able to develop with lots of PT on a team that wasnt expected to do much.
That'd be awesome...Like I said before, who expected AB would contribute right away? Hey, he was in D=league for a couple of weeks.
Ding ding ding.....oh baby, we have a winnner. Let Tmac be the finisher instead of the instigator......at least a good amount of time. That is how the Rockets will really take off. DD
Let's hope TMac understands this and feels the same way. The day tracy buys in and just runs the floor hard and executes RA offensive, this team is going to be tough, really tough. Now, whether he buys in or not is a whole other discussion...
I like to call Brooks "mini-Iverson", because that's who I expect him to start to resemble as he matures. They have very similar builds and characteristics. Brooks is a tad quicker but Iverson has the absolutely deadly shooting stroke that he has perfected over the years. Once Brooks starts to get that kind of consistent shooting stroke, with his ridiculous quickness he can become a threat for 25 pts/10 assists any given night. I don't expect him to ever become as good as Iverson (Iverson was a top pick for a reason), but he doesn't have to. Heck, becoming half the player Iverson is would be pretty good. But we'll give him time -- for now, he is already ahead on his development as a rookie. Who knew he'd be contributing so much to the team this early in his career?
I'll say this now: among our guards, Rafer and Brooks are the best ball handlers and decision makers. Our offense runs a lot smoother with both of them in there, especially with TMac out. I'd like to see both of them in there to finish games. The problem with having two small guards is on the defensive end. One of them may have to guard a bigger player. Offensively I like this backcourt.
I remember in the begenning of the season when everyone wanted to hang rafer's head..... He maybe a inconsistent but he sure knows how to play pg.
When I see this thread, this goes thru my mind. Bill Murray: "Alston and Brooks playing together! Mass hysteria!!!"
