westbrook is a defensive stopper at the pg position. on the okc telecast they mentioned that he has been compared to gary payton defensively, and i can totally see it. the kid is strong, quick, and has good hands, he stayed with aaron all night long, unlike anyone up to this point in the season. when/if he develops a decent jump shot, he is going to be hard to stop, he really uses his strength to get to the hole well. aaron is still going to kill 95% of pgs in the league, there are very few as good as westbrook defensively, rondo maybe the only other.
Non-fact checker. Westbrook's scoring broken down: 14 total points (5-14 shooting, 3 TOs), only 2 reb and 2 ast in 28 min 2 points in the 1st half when he played mostly against Brooks 4 points against Alston early in the 2nd half (2 straight baskets) 2 points off FTs after Barry fouled him 2 points off a TO by Barry 2 points off FTs after Hayes fouled him That's 12 of his 14 points. Brooks stole the ball from Westbrook once. WestBrooks stole it from him twice. His other 3 steals came against Barry, Artest and Yao. Brooks didn't have a great game: 8 pts (2-5 fg, 4-4 ft), 4 ast, 3 to in 20 min... but he certainly didn't get dominated by Westbrook. If anything, Westbrook owned Alston and others just as much, if not more, than Brooks. This thread fails.
I'm not the least surprised. Westbrook is bigger and taller than Brooks and is known to be a good defender. Brooks is an important player but he is not starting material.
Ever wonder why there's no such thing as an elite defensive PG? PG's are too hard to defend with the new rules. Using Westbrook as the barometer to judge Brooks' defensive play isn't fair either. Westbrook is basically a Devin Harris clone: world-class athlete, dynamite speed, range and a slasher. If you're writing up a scouting report for a PG they don't get much trickier than that. You can't play off him or he'll bury the shot. You can't play too close to him or he'll blow by you. You can't let him post you up or he'll shoot over you. I'm not saying Brooks is some great defender or anything, but he generally does a good job of staying in front of his man. He's got the quick hands, good instincts and is merely learning the concept of help/team defense. Give him some time. Sure, "power PG's" like Baron Davis, Deron Williams and others are going to chew him up -- and we need to adjust match ups accordingly -- but let's give the little guy some more time before we declare him helpless defensively. Basically what i'm saying: his defense is good enough for a guy you bring off the bench for 20 MPG. He's out there for the offense/change of pace and his defense isn't anything bad enough to negate what he contributes on the other end of the court. Ideally, you want a guy like Brooks leading the second unit so maybe i'm judging him differently than the rest of you? I just never even remotely considered him a starter. I loved his flashes of dominance as much as the rest of you but I try my best to not trick myself into making more out of it.
Excellent post. I've made that point a number of times about the no hand-checking rule. Alston gets burned plenty, like most perimeter defenders do, but some people are selectively pointing out when it happens to Brooks. On top of that, Brooks did not get dominated tonight. Westbrook did more damage against Alston considering how much more Brooks covered him. I do think Brooks is best-suited as a bench player on most teams but I think he may be our best option to start. Alston had a good game tonight but he won't shoot 46% from the field very often. I still see Alston's offensive ineptitude as a major problem.
I disagree with you about Rafer. Part of defense is knowing where the help is coming from and funneling your man to that part of the court, and Skip does that very well. The other major skill in perimeter defense is fighting through picks, which he also does well. Brooks has always been pretty good at fighting through picks due to his quickness (and probably also because of veteran teamates behind him to direct the defensive traffic). Until recently, though, he couldn't keep his man from finding open space to shoot or make an open pass. It seems that he's now making better decisions on defense, using his quickness to deny his man open lanes.
I agree with what you are saying about Rafer but I think most of those abilities are learned as opposed to innate. That's why I think Alston is overrated when it comes to defense. I think Brooks can close the gap between him and Rafer defensively more than Rafer can close the gap offensively. Brooks can learn where the help is coming from. Brooks can learn to funnel his man where he wants him to go. Alston can't learn to shoot with good form and make shots consistently at this point in his career. Alston can't learn to penetrate and break down defenses with ease. He can't learn to hit floaters.
Brooks got 8pts but just used 5 shots and 4 free throws. Westbrook led brooks in points by 6 but also wasted 9 missing shots(5-14) while brooks just missed three. Brooks also led the team with 4 assits while westbrook just made 2 during the whole game and also missed two free throws. Tied in To(both with 3). How many points would westbrook get if he played 20min instead of 28min? Where the hell was brooks dominated by westbrook? Brooks did what he should do so that's enough for a younster who was drafted at 26 instead of 4th ovl. A thread with no clue.
To further add to your points, see post #28. Westbrook spread his damage across Alston, Brooks and other players. He didn't really dominate anybody.
Westbrook is like a combo of baron davis and marbury. he's really athletic and strong. he's going to physically wear down his defender most of the time. brooks already struggles defending the average PG because of his size, so of course a guy like Westbrook can go at him with ease. brooks won't start until rafer alston retires, because that starting job is his till death.
Yes, it counts. Your opinion matters. You are important. Don't let anybody make you believe otherwise. Things aren't that bad.
westbrook's poor field percentage and his inexperience running the team cost the thunder down the stretch. Brooks had some bad turnovers, but with Mcgrady out, we needed him to be more aggressive going to the basket. I thought our team defense overall was outstanding in the second half.
You need to realize that not every negative thing said about Brooks is an endorsement of Alston. The thread says nothing about Alston yet you and DD turn it into a so called "Alston lover" thread. Plus when pointing out facts, you cant only use them to your benefit without full disclosure. Im assuming one of the baskets you credited Alston as giving up was the one where Westbrook played the passing lane, stole the pass and scored uncontested. That hardly was the blame of Alston. Brooks has struggled lately. You can not deny that. When Alston sucks it up, there are tons of threads about him so why cant someone do the same about Brooks. Dont get so defensive about it, cuz it makes any good points you make seem overly biased. Again, Im not an Alston lover. But I do see holes in Brooks' game. Did he get dominated by Westbrook. No. But is the savior some made him out to be after a good early start? Probably not either.
Not yet, but he is growing, right? Which is all you can ask of a 2nd year player getting his first extended playing time. DD
