I apologize if someone already said what I'm about to say...I didn't bother to read the entire thread. This is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It doesn't matter. The addition of Aaron Brooks, alone, to this roster doesn't make us a contender. The back and forth of Aaron Brooks and Lowry on this board is ridiculous. Neither player is worth the effort you guys put into this argument.
I like a the contrast at the PG spot we have in Brooks and Lowry......one is an offensive bomber who can pass pretty well and is not good on defense, the other is a defensive stalwart who can pass pretty well but is not good on offense. It is a good contrast to have, and gives the coach lots of options each night based upon matchups. That being said, Ish Smith, as poorly as he played last night has shown a lot of court savvy, and even last night, after 2 bad turnovers made a great behind the back pass to Miller for an elbow jumper and was promptly taken out. Ish should have played in the 2nd half, Lowry needed a blow......Kyle's career has been built on energy, transition, and toughness, he can go all out in his 20mpg, but as a starter, he can not do that for 40 minutes and his effectiveness dwindles, and he is exposed as a backup player that he is.... That being said, he still needed a break.... Against the better teams, we are just not good enough right now....we have lost a lead in every 4th quarter and ultimately the game against every team over .500...... Last year the team was 42-40...bascially a .500 team, if Yao is not healthy, that is probably where we land again this year. Go start a "what can we do to be a contender" thread. DD
Most of those calling for Lowry to start early in the season did so out of the premise that the Rockets would have an abundance of offensive talent this season. Suffice to say that has not been the case. If anything, Lowry's offensive deficiencies getting exposed should be an indictment on Martin's inability/unwillingness to take over games in the fourth quarter. We can blame Chuck for trying to do too much offensively in the 4th quarter, driving to the basket and throwing up ill advised shots. Or we could blame RA for not starting Scola in the beginning of the 4th quarter, even with the 4 fouls, in order to ensure that we stayed in the game. And those arguments have there merit, no doubt. But seeing your star player and most prolific scorer with the ball in his hands in a close game pass it almost immediately, making little to no effort towards creating his own shot, or turning the ball over on a bad pass, is disheartenting, to say the least. As much as we trumpet Martin's efficiency as a scorer, he is not a premier guard in this league. This is not an isolated event- its become routine that we see him play well through three quarters, only to disappear in the fourth. Scola keeps us in games, we need Martin to win them. Martin's best fourth this season was against the Pacers when he hit that big 3, and we need to see that type of production from him more regularly. Our offensive output in the fourth quarter has made Brooks a more valuable commodity to this team. I still contend that, when fully healthy, Lowry is the better point guard, but based on our teams needs, Brooks has to get the bulk of the minutes, particularly in the fourth.
Stop posting the same **** over, and over, and over, and over. We know what the **** your opinion is.
You might wanna add Yao's constent injury problems as another one of those problems to you'r Signature.
Yeah and Brooks' offensive is a lot more efficient especially when you consider that Lowry has to score like 10 points for every 5 that are counted...
All true, and exactly what I have been talking about. Kevin Martin is not a go to guy late in games because he can not create for himself, he doesn't have that ability. He needs someone to draw the attention away from him to allow him the space and time he needs to score the ball. AB is that guy, he has a unique skillset that is desperately needed on the Rockets, or any NBA team, the ability to get a quality shot late in contested games, either for himself or others. Unfortunatly, he is the only guy that has that ability. Ish can also do it, but if he is the shooter, it is not a quality shot.....at this point in his career. DD
Yeah, you are right. They both bring exciting things to the table, but at the end of the day they are both role players.
Until and unless we get some all-star pg, I wish Ishmael Smith would start and play most of the games. I'd very much like to see what we have with that kid. I'm also hoping Kyle will get in shape and be a more effective backup pg down the road. Right now, I'm not worried about Ish being more of a liability at either end of the court than Kyle has been. When Aaron eventually comes back, I'd like to see him shine in an aggressive, high-scoring, sixth man role, either as a score-first pg or sg. Dish has shown flashes of brilliance, and stupidity-- but enough brilliance I wish Rick would let the kid RUN! C'mon Rick, push that button. You want to win, put Dish in!
There are only about 3-4 players in this league right now that can create for themselves against double and triple teams when the game is winding down, Kobe, Lebron, Dwayne, and Melo, and that is because they have the size to rise and shoot over everything not 7' tall and if the 7' monster comes diving at them, they can easily bait them into a foul or blow past them for the dunk. Brooks, although incredibly talented, although one of the quickest guards in the league, although one helluva shooter, cannot create for himself down the stretch. He has to have screens, multiple screens, and then when teams figure out (which I'm positive they already have) that we are going to Brooks to close out, they will canopy him and force him to give up the basketball. If we are going to depend on Brooks to be our closer, we are a lower echelon playoff team or a lottery team. Our go-to guy on this team is .....LUIS SCOLA....and none other. Down the stretch in close games, with 6 seconds left, we'd better get the ball to him on the block and let him make a decision with it. If the defense collapse on him, then we can use Brooks and Martin to hit the bomb. That is a much higher percentage closing play than trying to isolate Brooks. At the end of games, all the great teams run plays. When the play breaks down, then they get it to their gunner and he guns it as a bailout. When you got Kobe, James, Wade, Melo with the bailout shot, perhaps throw in Roy, Dwill, CPaul.....that's about as good as it gets, and they are only going to knock it down about 30% of the time in those situations. Once again, Brooks is NO WHERE near that class. We got to run a play and get it to Scola. And yes, I do miss Brooks' offense. We could have used his shooting or somebody's shooting last night. We needed another shooter. Bud wasn't there. Lee is stinking it up. And Brooks was gone. If one of those three doesn't happen, we win.
Jop, You completely swung and missed on that post. Brooks has been our only go to guy late in games for the last 2 years, they run the 4 flat play for him exclusively at the end of quarters etc. DD
I don't think either Scola or Brooks can do it. If Scola could, he would have shown it already. Yao needs to get healthy.
No **** - effectively neither is the team. Lottery Team last year, likely lottery team last year, my care-o-meter between a 44 win season and a 39 win season is about zero at this point. I have been following the Rockets for too long to give a crap about mediocre teams that have no shot at even winning a playoff series, let alone winning a title.
You might be right, but I would like to see what they could do with everyone healthy before turning the keys on in that tank. And it doesn't do any good to tank when you can switch picks with the Knicks. Not gonna be as much fun if we are going from pick number 10, all the way to pick 7..... DD
My thoughts exactly. Brooks is a flawed PG. Lowry is a flawed PG. Both are playing poorly to start the year. We needed to make a bold move this summer and swap 4 good players for one great one. Morey's tried, but that's always easier said than done. Who knows, maybe (MAYBE) we're getting to the point where it's time to have a Florida Marlins fire sale and start unloading the chips piecemeal to teams like Cleveland and Toronto for TEs and draft picks. If you can't lure a star here, the only other recourse is to start playing the lottery for one.
This was EXACTLY my point in the "Is trading for a Superstar a real strategy"... You are relying on others to WANT to trade you one, versus, going out and developing through the draft, which to me, is a much better strategy. DD
You people saying Lowry played poorly are so clueless. This game proved what many of us have been saying, this team would be really really good with AB coming off the bench. We win this game by 15 if AB comes off the bench to spell Lowry.
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