Not to shoot down any credit Brooks deserve, but lets not forget Yao Ming combine with Ron Artest's perimeter defense. I believe Mutumbo played a big part for us against POR helping us win before he got injured. I don't think AB could've taken us to the second round all by himself. Look at what happened the following year when our team lost Yao and Deke. Artest gone was kind of a squash since Ariza followed but losing our best interior defender/scorer and one of the best ALL TIME defensive backup center only netted us 42-40. The Blazers had the best team they ever had two years ago with Oden, Pryzbilla along with a healthy Roy and Fernandez playing like 6th man of the year. People, the media and other wrote us off before the series even started. What a joke becasue Portland had NO ANSWERS for us. Roy played lights out but still had no answers because we were too big for them with Yao/Deke. Yao/Tmac was a failure. Lets see if Yao/Brooks can take us even further this year. Brooks in a 6th man role may be just as effective.
Wow. No player can take to a second round by himself. Not even a player like Kobe (you know the history). And yes Brooks was our best player.
Yep and unfortunately with the start they're having, no way he gets moved any time soon. Also if Okafor stays healthy finally, they'll continue to succeed.... He's underrated IMO. (off topic)
The problem with AB on this team is not AB himself. It's when you have both AB (great scorer w/ big heart, a little too much ego IMO) and Kmart (great efficient scorer and great at drawing fouls) together. It's hard to decide who should be the primary perimeter scorer, thus lack of consistency in offense. What makes things worse are both of them lack in the department of defense. And when defense suffers, i.e. give up easy layups, the team spirits suffers and everyone plays worse. One of them should do what Manu did for the Spurs: come off the bench but play starter minutes. Are they too proud to do that?
Yeah, who needs shooters, better to play 3 on 5 on offense when you are trying to make a comeback. And man, we looked great at the end of quarters without AB's one on one abilities. Funny how teams are leaving Kyle and Ish wide open...and Yao can't get any touches..... Now, who was it that was saying that/?????? DD
It is very possible that we would have gotten beat down by 30 with Brooks and Yao in the game. Both were 0-5 before tonight... We need HUGE upgrades, because Aaron Brooks/Shane Battier/Kevin Martin/Yao Ming/Kyle Lowry etc, are not going to cut it. We need more two-way players...
We just need guys that can score the ball effieciently and are committed to playing on defense. AB doesn't have to be a lock down defender, but if he is average, we are golden. Ish is playing well, but Lowry is shooting 20% for the season now.....oh man.... DD
Get well soon! <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iaIM4z85rS4?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iaIM4z85rS4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
We never got beating badly with them and we lost games we should have won vs really hot team. Where is this gotten beat down by 30 come from. Did you watch the games? We couldn't score at all vs a 1-5 team in the east.
Get well soon AB, even the Haters are starting to realize how important you are..... Just remember to play a little bit of defense too. DD
That's ultimately the problem with him. Tonight showed the true value of what AB can do to your 4th quarter, "winning time" offense. Just having a guy like him on the floor can really help this team out tremendously on offense (and so much more if he could use some court vision and find the open man as well). But then you realize that what you gain on offense is actually lost on defense because he falls asleep for a second, gets beat by his man, the rest of the team is forced to try to help him, and somebody hits the open jumper. Not that I'm treading any waters here, but it's going to be pretty hard to sell to me his overall value to this team until he figures out how to focus and buckle-down on defense.
People wanted him gone. I wanted him to be utilized differently let it be starting or a 6th man role. Whatever is best for the team. But in late game situations, he is our go to guy and thats without a doubt.
Look you can win with guards that are not good on defense, Tony Parker sucks at defense. Kenny Smith was horrible at it..... What you have to do is close down the lane with a shot blocker....that is not Aaron Brooks fault..... But people mistakenly blame Brooks..... The new rules make it almost impossible to contain people on the perimeter, you can't touch the player...... So, you can pack the paint and force them to shoot over the top...right now....other than Hill there is no one guarding the rim. Yao can...but he has to be healthy and play 30mpg. DD
I agree that all good defenses have to have a shot altering presence in the middle. However, we aren't getting beat that way as far as I can tell. We are getting lit up on jump shots. Our guards especially aren't fighting over screens well, leaving guys open all game. Once these guys get hot, it's game over. They need to mix it up better and maybe just allow more penetration. If just 1 big man helps in this situation then we either force a bad shot or foul. We have enough passable bigs to afford these sorts of fouls.
But then again, this isn't what this thread is about. I think you will get far less objections to raising an issue with his defense than you will about his offense.
