I thought we're talking about who starts the game, not who finishes it. Late in the game, it's about matchups and who is playing well. Like tonight, I think a Lowry/Brooks backcourt with Martin sitting out would have worked well. We needed both Lowry's defense and Brooks's offense down the stretch. In the starting lineup, though, I just think Lowry is a better fit on both ends of the court. And so far it's been effective as we have gained leads in the first and third quarters. Of course players have to make the shots, but I still think this entire starting lineup has been good at getting the ball to the open player, and it has started with Lowry as the PG. He's not perfect but he's making the right decisions overall. The 4th quarter wasn't just a matter of players missing shots. The Bulls were playing good D and our ball movement slowed. But most of all, our guys seemed to tire out from playing too many minutes.
Bottom line it's just too many one way players imo... with brooks were better offensively with lowry were better defensively. Our defense and chemistry has been better with lowry because he's looks to set guys up more and never gives up on a play defensively. With Brooks he's our best go-to man down the stretch but he's not a great fit with yao, martin, and scola in the line-up because he's a shoot first player trying to be a distributor which is a big adjustment from last year that's why struggled this year.
Dude, you are going to be arguing this all year, because Coach is not going to bench Brooks. Just because Yao can't clog the middle quite yet, doesn't mean we pick who to match him with based on when he's back. We'd just be flipping the rotation all year. We need chemistry. What Lowry gave us last year is chemistry and identity over the 2nd unit. That's a KNOWN. We ran with that 2nd unit. We beat teams with it, and we went small a lot to get both PGs on the court together. Just leave them be. Let Lowry get that 2nd unit running again and playing with fire. You are arguing about something else...at someone else. Not me and not Coach. You are arguing for the sake of winning a 2yr old argument, it seems.
If the bulls were sinking into scola's lap tonight, what do you think will happen when yao is playing? How many swings do you see. Battier took hayes place and lowry took shane place so the difference is still the same to me.
I don't want to sound like an Adelman apologist, but there really weren't many options besides playing Lee. He was already playing Lowry, Martin and Battier 40+ minutes each. Lee looked lost out there, but in a tight game, I can understand why he'd go with Lee instead of experimenting with Taylor.
Lowry has all but proven that he can't close out games. Can't create for himself/teammates, PREDICATABLE! Brooks has proved the same. Can't control tempo, can't play defense. I wish we could have gotten Darren Collison in that 3-way Ariza deal. Courtney Lee sucks ass.
Big difference. Don't forget Martin. Yao inside, Scola midrange/inside, Martin outside. That's enough for offense.
How many 0's do you see staring for the lakers,spurs,celtics or magic. There is no such thing as enough offense because guys have bad games. Factor in yao and you have no clue as to how the team will play him back and again this team is headed the wrong way. Team will make shane and lowry beat them as a starting unit and thats not a good way of winning.
I would rep you if I could, but I was thinking more on the line of penetrating, Lowry doesn't penetrate like Brooks, Brooks can beat anyone of the dribble, Lowry can't, he can sometimes, but he relies more on his strength and tenacity. This along with the ability to hit the three point shot are what make Brooks so special. His defense is sub par, really I am surprised that teams don't go at him more just because of his size. As some of you have mentioned, Lowry also tends to drive erratically and isn't as good of a finisher as Brooks. I think Lowry is an excellent back up, but I don't think he fits in the starting lineup. I assume none of this will matter when Brooks comes back, but for now the question we need to discuss is who should we start Ish or Lowry. I am leaning slightly towards keeping Lowry simply because Ish is a good open court pg and I think he would benefit more with the athletes like Hill, Lee, Chase (if he returns soon), even Hayes who has definitely improved his touch and craftiness around the basket.
It doesn't matter what I'm arguing. The important thing is if it's good for the team overall. Never say never. You don't know who RA is going to play after AB comes back in several weeks, and you don't know what RA would do if AB starting doesn't look as good as Lowry starting. At this moment, Lowry is starting. Isn't he? Even if he keeps starting job after AB came back, that's not "slipping the rotation". That's how Yao got his starting job from Kato, that's how Hayes got his starting job from JHO. Lowry didn't give 2nd unit chemistry all by himself last year. Chemistry must be created among right players. Lowry had that last year in 2nd unit, but not this year. I've said the reason many times. And tonight Lowry couldn't do anything with 2nd unit.
There is no such thing as enough offense, but there is a sure thing called lack of defense. When you have have 3 scoring options, put a 4th one in it isn't going to give you the same impact when you add another defender to one and a half defenders. It's very simple, the more balanced a team is, the more change you win. And in playoffs, defense is even more important than offense. History has proved that. Only one team in last 30 years didn't have a top 10 defense to win NBA championship. As you said, there is no one good way of winning. Put Lowry there, it gives you a chance to win games by both offense and defense. Put AB there, you only have a chance to win by offense.
Celtics, Spurs, Lakers and Magic all have multiple good defensive players in their lineup. We don't have. That's actually one more reason why we need Lowry there.
We need to stop comparing our team to the elite teams, we had our chance with Yao/Tmac/Ron, we all know how that turned out. Unless a significant move is made we will probably miss the playoffs again, saying goodbye to Yao/Yao taking a massive pay cut is the only way the team can move forward. So there is no point going crazy arguing over who is the better player out of AB and Lowry since we aren't really going anywhere this year (plus they are both not good enough :grin: tank for the next Wall/Rose!!)
How many top 5 defenses did the rockets have when they got eliminated because they couldn't score points? I agree balance wins or helps the team win, but the negative created by lowry isn't going to cut it. Not to mention, since starting, he's a walking,talking to machine. You could put gary payton in his prime at the point and he would get done in because our frontcourt is terrible at recovering after a show. Its bad enough they're playing the gate, but guys are still getting to the rim. Guys aren't supposed to get to the rim when the big opens the gate. The big is suppose to be far enough back to the point the guard can cut the guy off, but with scola,miller,and yao along with a preoccupied battier, its terrible. I will leave this alone until yao comes back and then maybe you and other will seethe 3 on 5 defense again.
With Battier and Lowry?? I'd have to see it to believe it. That team is just begging for a front to Yao with hardup D on Martin outside. Sure, Martin may beat them for backdoors(especially with Yao being fronted) but we will have to see how they deal with this should it come up. I think this will be the key to where Brooks can play. I do like the comment that since Lowry was so good last year with Budinger and Hayes that he might still be better there. Remember the Blazers series where it was Brooks, Scola, Battier, Yao and Artest. Brooks' game 1 made them choose Scola to beat them. Scola had a great series.
Man, Morey got schooled on Lowry's contract, paying 6mm for a 2mm player just because a desperate cavs GM was willing to pay that much. Now we have an untradeable scrub. Scola is looking like a bargain though.
That contract is looking really bad, especially with Ish Smith displaying the talent to probably be better than Lowry in a year or so... Disgusting that we might have had Darren Collison...
Rose still would have lit us up for 30 ....At least Lowry kept him on the perimeter most of the game.....Dude was just on fiyah....If Brooks was there he would have had his way in the paint which causes a)foul trouble for our pathetic defensively challenged frontcourt, b)more scoring opportunites for their pathetic offensively challenged frontcout, c) a career high assist game for Rose, d)a final score resembling 125-115 (Brooks may have scored 20pts) e)more threads saying Brooks is a defensive liability
yeah but had he left , he probably would have found his stroke like most players the Rockets jettison!!!!
