Brooks' best game against the Blazers was Game 1, but Yao was clearly the star of that game. In the remaining 3 Rocket wins, Brooks shot 3-11 (11 pts), 1-5 (5 pts), and 5-11 (13 pts). Yeah, he clearly destroyed the Blazers.
The Oakland Athletics. Moneyball. Ariza didn't fit salary wise and now he's gone. I fell AB will be in for a large pay increase...on another team.
Just curious, what were Lowry's stats in that series, or the Lakers series? What were his playoff stats overall? I somewhat agree, though I think it will be Lowry that is traded. DD
I know right, I mean AB was a starter for like 20 games and led them in the playoffs with Yao playing. It is simply bizzare, people have made up all this stuff around AB....just flat out lies. AB can't pass: WRONG ! AB has gotten a lot better at passing and if you watched the games, his passing stood out a lot, the wrap around, the alley oops, hitting Martin on time on the curls, he can pass very well. AB gets owned on D: WRONG ! AB has some games where he struggles but so does every player, and his quickness disrupted a lot of the PGs people see as Elite, he outplayed both CP3 and Billups on several occassions and played Rondo to a stand still..... AB can't make an entry pass to Yao : WRONG !!! AB proved he could do it very well, especially on the bounce, this one is very funny because it has been a consistent beef about PGs and Yao for his entire career....PSSST...it ain't the PG folks. AB is a poor decision maker: WRONG !!! AB made great decisions last year, check out the videos of him freezing out Trevor Ariza, and passing to other better teamates, THAT my friends is court awareness. DD
As long as you're asking for irrelevant things, would you also like me to tell you about the weather today? The contention was made that Brooks destroyed the Blazers. He clearly did not.
Interesting question. We won that game by 27. Collectively as a team, the Blazers played poorly, and since Brooks' defense is lackluster, we can safely assume that without Brooks in the lineup, the Blazers would've continued playing poorly. Conversely, without Brooks in the lineup, his 17 shots need to be divided up. Aside from Brooks, the Rocket players with the 3 highest FGA were Artest, Scola, and Yao, and they shot 58%, 79%, and 100%. Assuming that these 3 players take the bulk of those 17 shots, I don't see too much of a drop in production. I think its fair to say that without Brooks, we would've still won game 1, but it wouldn't have been a blowout.
Thats why oakland has never won anything in baseball. They couldn't even win a playoff series and I'm glad you brought this up. I rate drawing fouls to walks. The A's for years wanted the high walk guys to help generate runs eventhough they weren't a high steal team like the 80's cardinals and some of the older national league teams of the 70's. Once they got into the playoffs and played against premium pitching, the walks were gone and now they couldn't produce enough runs even with their great pitching. Just like some of the dominican players say, you have to hit your way off the island. In hoops, especially in the playoffs, you can't be gun shy or wait for the perfect shot. Thats why you need players who can get shots outside the offense.
So, just so i got this straight, yao scored all his points in the first half, correct? Brooks scored his points throught the game, correct? So if brooks isn't scoring and yao isn't scoring,who was going to hold the blazer off? Basically you're saying the game was over at half time.
I agree and that's where I think a star player comes into play. A player that commands double teams like baseball players draw intentional walks and a homerun hitter. The question is do you believe this team has a player of that caliber? I don't think so and I think Morey is after one. AB has been a great stop gap in terms of scoring but is not the answer on a championship level team. If the opportunity irises to send him away for cheaper talent, a star or draft picks I think Morey will do what he did with Carl Landry and trade him.
No. Brooks took 17 shots in that game. If he weren't in the game, someone else would be taking those shots. Since Yao, Scola, and Artest took the most shots (outside of Brooks), it's logical that their FGA's would increase if Brooks weren't there. You can't assume that if Brooks weren't there, the Rockets as a team would have taken 17 fewer FGA. And this does mean that Yao would take shots in the second half. The main reason that I feel the Rockets would've won game 1 w/o Brooks is b/c Yao, Scola, and Artest were all shooting the ball extremely well.
I agree, but i don't think you can keep getting rid of your better players because a guy can almost do the same. I don't think the rockets can get that dude everyone is talking about either. There are only a fw of those guys and the only 2 availible are paul(doubtful) and melo(doubtful). I do think they can be better served by having a pistons type of team and try to win it that way. They can do that by getting a guy like iggy and yao returns somewhat. Pay brooks his 8-9m, trade for iggy, resign yao at 10m and try to roll like that. The bench can be filled with young cheap guys and mle types, but the starting 5 would produce alot of points,rebounds and everything else. Iggy is a playmaker at the end of the game, brooks is a shotmaker at the end, and with that attention, yao can get some cleaner looks at the end also.
You seem like you watch a lot of Rockets games. Have you seen the game where Yao isn't scoring and getting shots, and the Rockets try and force him the ball, or Yao tries to do too much? We turn the ball over, and Yao isn't down at the other end to stop the break. We don't get more shot attempts we just turn the ball over. It's happened time and time again.
Then you didn't either watch or understand the Portland series since you fail to appreciate how critical Lowry's ability to draw fouls against Portland's foul-prone lineup was.
Yup, happens a lot. Part of the reason is that Yao's window of opportunity is small. When he's open, he needs the ball immediately. McGrady could do that. Even Rafer could do that. So far, Brooks hasn't been able to. The key to solving this problem would be to acquire a decently sized post entry passer who can attack the basket when Yao is fronted. I'm hoping Martin or Lee can do this. Brooks is simply too small. The team would be best served by him coming off the bench in a Jason Terry role.
This post 10000 times. Funny how buckets make people forget about how horrid a post passer AB is. Not his fault though, he's just too short and bounce passing to Yao is a recipe for a turnover. AB is a scorer. Not a Point Guard.
