Interesting take by Bill Simmons on the Rafer/Lowry trade. Looks like he may have been a steal. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090227 The most important trade for playoff purposes? A seemingly minor three-teamer between Houston (landed Brian Cook and Kyle Lowry), Orlando (landed Rafer Alston) and Memphis (landed a 2009 first-rounder from Orlando). It happened because Memphis is hemorrhaging money and supposedly saved $2 million, even if it meant turning Lowry (who had been outplaying 2008 lottery pick Mike Conley for two solid seasons) into a meaningless pick in one of the worst drafts ever. I'd say the Grizzlies hurled a flaming bag of dog feces at their fans, but they don't have any fans. Still, that trade (as well as the canceled Chandler deal, New Orleans' way of turning the Turd Sandwich into its team's official mascot) reminded me of the shady stuff that happened in the late '70s and early '80s, when the league struggled to find a foothold, franchises hopped around, and every trade happened because of money or because a team wanted to nefariously dump a starter who was snorting enough cocaine to kill a police horse.
It is like asking Brooks to develop court vision and passing skills as in CP3. A player is who he is.
Yeah, because no professional basketball player has ever developed/improved his skills after the age of 22.
You may not be able to develop court vision or passing skills, but you can develop a viable 3 point shot. People that weren't jump shooters have become decent-to-good jumpshooters in their careers.
We're not asking him to become Reggie Miller. He just has to be able to be somewhat of a threat so that teams can't pack the paint with defenders.
Not to change the subject, but during the playoffs I was burning Scola for his poor free throw percentage, and someone responded to me that it's not possible to get better at free throws at his age.... yet... over one season his percentage went from .668 to .755, nearly 9% I can't stand it when fans have this notion that players can't improve.
A jump shot is easier to improve on than the court vision and athleticism advantage Lowry has over Brooks. It remains to be seen if he will make that improvement still...
similarly, i think it's been famously reported that karl malone, when he initially came into the league, had very poor FT shooting. he worked on it, and eventually became a great FT shooting 4.
Oh yeah, look at Marvin Williams three point shooting throughout his career and then this season. 05-06 .25 - drive please, drive 06-07 .24 - why are you still shooting these 07-08 .10 08-09 .36 wow! keep jacking!
Rafer didn't. I do agree though....regarding Brooks vs Lowry, we need Brooks 3pt shooting threat in there with Yao to give him room to operate. DD
I think Lowry can develop into a Kidd type 3pt shooter. Look, it's obvious that Kidd is not a great 3pt shooter, and he's not your spread the floor quick catch and shoot guy. That said, the guy shoots a decent % because teams absolutely ignore him on the outside like he's Rajon Rondo. Kidd gets a buttload of time to catch, set, wait and make sure there is no layup pass, and then shoot. This is the great amount of time that Lowry will get where the defense is totally collapsed. If he can hit those 3's the way Kidd has learned to, then it will be great for the Rockets.
PG...I thought he MIGHT become the Rockets PG of the future, and wanted him to get some playing time because the team wasn't going to win the championship that year anyway. It drives me nuts when people look at a players ROOKIE year as if that is all they will ever be, it is so stupid, and ignorant that it is not even funny. I still think VSpan would fit in nicely on this team.....and what was your handle before as you just signed up, were you banned? Another former banned poster, huh? JVG certainly was a problem as far as developing player, especially creative ones, he was too risk averse. DD
