That wasn't a bounce pass. It was a hand off and a bad play by Brooks. He's allowed to make mistakes just like McGrady and Yao and Scola and Battier, etc...
If McGrady remains the main passer and I think he will,then it's ok to have Brooks start. If Rafer is coming back,then he needs time before he can work his way as a starter. We should be flexible,if Brooks starts to struggle then Rafer will have to start. Any update about his health since the game ended? Hope it was just something minor but with us one never knows.
Adelman just said in the post game interview that Rafer will most likely regain starting role if he's a go tomorrow, he doesn't like players losing starting role due to injuries. But he said it's a goal to get AB on the floor regardless.
I'll admit I had doubts with Brooks as the starter, primarily because how effective he can be on the defensive end. But what I saw tonight, Brooks' best defense was his offense. He just wore down Harris on the offensive end, and Harris wasn't able to establish any sort of rhythm of his own. Now with three great games against Chris Paul, Chauncey Billups, and Devin Harris, Aaron is seriously making his case for starter.
Exactly, and it was not a bad pass by Brooks per se, it would be great to anyone other than Yao....Yao just can not catch it there on the move. DD
Well crap, but Rafer seems to respond to his job being challenged, so if he plays well due to the challenge it will only make the team that much better. DD
Wow what? Yes start the injured point guard over the guy who just owned Devin Harris, Cp3 and Billups. Makes perfect sense to me Dude is rolling as a starter why mess that up? C'mon Adelman...c'mon!
Wait...Adelman said..."Most likely"....and "If he is a go"......sounds like he is leaving himself some outs..... DD
Pretty much sums it up for me. If there was an NBA point guards ranking it'd pretty much go like that. Youth and upside is on one player's side over the other, and its about accelerating that upside. Even if that upside just gets him from 29th to 26th place, its better than putting the 30th place guy in who's gonna slip to 33rd. Brooks is 23 about to turn 24, a good age where he's young enough to still get better yet mature enough to grasp things without getting rattled. Its not waiting 5 years for Sebastian Telfair to get it. I already said though I'm in favor of Rafer starting. Just increase Brook's minutes.
Every time Adelman fields a question about Brooks recently, it seems like he's trying to hold back his excitement. He knows what's up but he won't make the change yet.
Brooks needs to start. Rafer's fragile ego will have to accept that he is nothing more than a backup at best. This is inevitable. Will Brooks struggle? Sure, but he will never struggle as much as Alston has over the past 3 seasons or so. The best scenario for Houston is Brooks starting and playing over 40 mpg and Alston playing about 8 mins or less per night.
6 games is hardly a good sample, especially when you are comparing 22 games with Yao/Tmac/Artest playing like crap vs 6 games where they are all playing well. Unless you want to try and tell me Brooks is making them better which is just ridiculous. But having said that, I think I'm coming around. Billups got held to less than 10 points, Paul got held to way less than his average, and now Harris. I don't know if that is because of Brooks, but I'm kind of at the innocent until proven guilty mindset with Brooks' defense now. Although, Artest is getting 30 minutes coming off the bench. Maybe the answer is he just needs to get more minutes.
At the end of the day, this is good for Alston. Now that his starting position is being jeopardized, he usually starts playing a lot better. Still remember trading for Mike James and signing Steve Francis to replace him last season
What? Brooks is making them better, by taking the pressure off of them and forcing the defense to honor him at the 3pt line giving EVERYONE more room to operate. Teams leave Rafer wide open, they WANT him to shoot.....not with Brooks, he makes the entire team better, just by being on the floor. True, if he gets the most minutes that is ok, but the Rockets have been getting off to such EXCELLENT starts with Brooks in the starting lineup, I don't want that to end by us playing 4 on 5 again with Rafer. DD
that's true of rafer's shot on some nights of the past few seasons (especially in the start of the season) but you have to admit that rafer has been shooting very nicely from behind the arc for the past 10+ games.
Artest is not a player you want to run your offense through, in my opinion. He's not a guy who's adept at creating off the dribble, and he'll force a lot of low percentage shots. Right now, we have a couple players in the starting lineup who can create good shots in Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. Brooks is the third guy on the roster with that ability, and I'd rather we allocate that particular skill to the second unit.
