Have you seen a game where Yao doesn't help the Rocket's defense at all.....just because you are in-effective on one end, doesn't mean you can't be effective on the other end. Stats for changing shots, boxing out re bounders, setting good picks, blah blah don't get tracked. Yao has flaws, but its silly to say if he ain't score, he isn't doing much. What can you say about AB, when he isn't scoring.....defensive juggernaut....
It has nothing to do with being a fanboy. Brooks and Lowry are both great players. Brooks is better though and fits better alongside Yao. Thats it, thats all there is.
I am not talking about you and I agree that Brooks is a better fit with Yao until Lowry has a serviceable outside shot. I am talking about people like DD who seem to deny or have unrealistic views about Brooks's shortcomings.
It's not just a question of Brooks vs. Lowry. Let me be clear, I am not hating on AB, because he's an extremely talented scorer and with his three-point shooting, he's also a better fit with Yao. However. My guess is that Brooks will be very expensive to retain. Look around the league at the outsize contracts being given to mediocre performers, let alone a young 20 ppg scorer in his prime. I don't think it's at all unrealistic that someone could offer him 10 mil per. Are we really comfortable committing that kind of cash to a 5'10" SG with with weak D and pedestrian scoring efficiency? No, Lowry can't light it up the way AB can, but given the advantages Kyle's got in defense, +/-, rebounding, passing, and free throws, is AB really so much better that we can justify the premium he's going to command? I say ship out Brooks while we can still get value from him. Let someone else overpay for his services.
The entire CBA next offseason will be reworked and it is likely that salaries will go down. Speculation on how much he is worth or will be offered at this point is pointless because there are too many unknowns.
aaron brooks is and will be a very very good player. he's a terrific offensive player, and can be amazing at times with his shooting when he's feeling it. and i do agree with those who say we should keep him rather than lowry (until we have an all-star perimeter playmaker, which we won't anytime soon--melo is not it). AB's quickness is really a change of pace from our other players. and his unlimited range is something we don't have since a prime tracy mcgrady. and that's killer b/c he can shoot from out to 25ft if you don't guard him. and he will spread the floor for yao. so the pros are everything about his offense. the cons: 1) his D is terrible. it's due to his size and that's all there is to it. that is why when we play better scoring PGs, you see lowry in a lot of the time. this is no disrespect to brooks: he's just skinny and short. 2) his passing/playmaking is AVERAGE at most. for a guy with the ball as much as he is, playing in a VERY UPTEMPO system, he only averages 0.8 more assists than lowry, who plays 11 less minutes. that's terrible. sure, adelman doesn't emphasize a passing PG, but damn, when you have that many good scorers on your team and playing 35 minutes in an uptempo system, he should easily get 7. lowry would average 9-10 assists while still racking up 15-16 points. defense and playmaking are where lowry is vastly superior to brooks. but again, we need offense. we need spacing. we need 3pt shooting. with yao back, our defense will improve b/c of his size. therefore, we need brooks. if lowry develops a consistent shot, he would be a better player than brooks easily. but he can't shoot so....
AB is eligible for an extension now, it would be interesting how the Rockets handle that....IMO, they got burned by Lowry and Scola, and benefitted by Landry..... If they go that way with Brooks it could burn them, or it could benefit them.....I would not be surprised to see Brooks sign a 3 year extension with a significant salary bump...say around $7 million just to get the security before the new CBA, and Morey would be smart to do this because it would be locking him in below market value.....at least the current market. I think they have to make the decision by October 31st, so we should all pay attention to that. DD
When yao isn't scoring, he's detached from the game. There have been many threads about yao being a zero and not rebounding at the same time. You can search the logs and see many games when yao will have an avg offensive game and multiply it by having a below avg rebounding game as well. As the center, that shouldn't ever happen and thats part of the reason many consider howard the bets center in the nba. You don't many games where he will have 12pts 6 rebs. In fact, when he has 12 pts, you might see 15-18 rebs.
Thing is, stern can extend the cba by a year if I'm not mistaken to give them time to work on a new cba. I remember posters *cough* bimathug, talking about the cba cap dipping to 51m and all the doom and gloom,but it actually went up a smidge. Point is, brooks is a 8-9m player in this league. His ability to get a shot contested shot off the dribble over pretty much anyone is at a premium. His speed and ability to draw defenses in on penetration is also at a premium. His explosion and age is also at a premium. Is he perfect? No, but lowry is a talent step down from brooks. Its not a large step, but its a step.
That is why you are a rookie...No one is an AB hater. All of us acknowledge that AB is a great scorer. What we are debating is beyond being a great scorer, what does AB really have to offer to the team over Lowry. Most of us who support Lowry as a starter have provided excellent reasons of why, while AB fans continue to cling to his only strong point and when that fails, make up stuff or skew how he actually performs. YOF are idiots who follow around Yao like puppies and are only loyal to the team. At least AB "haters" are still real Rockets fans.
Go look at the game logs(healthy year, not including his 1st and 2nd year) and you tell me how many dud games he had in 1 year..........Its not like he has 20, 30, 40, 50. Even if Yao doesn't grab 15 rebs block 8 shots, his length is helping our defense out simply by clogging up the paint, playing decent 1 on 1 defense. If you disagree with on this, you may as well tell me you hate Yao. DH is the best center in the league because no other center can stay healthy. He doesn't get challenged enough on his 1 on 1 defense, so he is allowed to roam free to block a lot of weak side shots because he of his agility and quickness. There is a reason why DH plays terrible against Yao. -Length, size -Yao makes him work on the defense side, hell half of the times they might not even use DH to defend Yao - DH is unable to grab a lot of rebounds because Yao does a great job on boxing DH out -DH is unable to block a lot of shots because he needs to stay with Yao. In the 80-90's, this is exactly why DH would never garner stats like today because he would be forced to face good-great centers who can actually post up, score, make him really work.
Because only haters can ask this kind of stupid questions: what if AB is not scoring? what does AB really have to offer to the team over Lowry if the fact that AB is a great scorer is ignored? The YOFs correlation: which AB hater is not a Chinese?
So answer the question. What can AB do when he is not scoring? and how does that compare to our $6 million backup PG (who in my mind is also not good enough to start, however if we add Melo, he can start) How the hell is that a YOF question, its a straight questions.
I don't see any serious person would ask this kind of stupid question. What can you do if you are not breathing? Can I conclude that you are worse than a pile of ****? Scoring is AB's best strength. Scoring is also basketball's most basic and important skill. why take out AB's strength and compare with someone who does not even poseess the basic NBA skill? When AB is not scoring, he is worse than Rafer. Is AB worse than Rafer? what's the point?
Full of fail. The 1st sign of failure. - Resorting to personal attacks. I mean really... 2nd sign of failure - Scoring= most basic and important skill. Why isn't Terry Porter Starting, why isn't Manu Starting, why isn't Maggett starting, why isn't Al Harrington starting...
