Flying Under The Radar: Kyle Lowry The Best Of The Bench Bunch Kyle Lowry has come a long way from being the 24th selection in one of the worst drafts in recent history. Selected behind the likes of busts such as Adam Morrison, Saer Sene, Patrick O'Bryant, Hilton Armstrong, and countless others, Lowry is creeping into relevance in NBA circles with his gritty play and never quit attitude. Soon he'll be creeping his way into the discussion of the top 10 PG's in the league. No, I'm not kidding. If you haven't had the pleasure of watching Kyle play, well, then you better find a way to get in front of a 42" plasma the next time the Rockets are on NBA TV. I would say on TNT or ABC, but the Rockets weren't scheduled for any nationally televised games this year. Strange for a team in the top 15 of all relevant power rankings since the second week of the season. While Kyle's averages seem modest at 8.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.7 assists, and 1.1 steals, you have to look a little deeper to understand what makes him arguably the most important bench player in the NBA. Listed at a generous 6'0", Kyle's per 36 minute ranks tell only half the story and are as follows: FTA (10th), Offensive Rebounds (1st), Defensive Rebounds (3rd), Total Rebounds (1st), Assists (9th), Steals (7th), Assist-to-Turnover Ratio (10th), and Charges Drawn (1st). He also leads the Rockets in on plus/minus with a + 9.6. If there was a stat for hustle plays, I'm willing to bet the rent that Kyle would lead the league in that too. For the other half of the story, you need to look past the box score. Did I mention Lowry is the only 6 footer in the league with the ability to guard two positions? Despite his vertically challenged stature, Kyle holds opposing PG's to a PER of 15.0 and opposing SG's to 17.7. Not bad considering he gives away at least 4 inches to almost every opposing SG in the league. Kyle's versatility is integral to the success of the Rockets because it allows Aaron Brooks, the only legitimate scoring threat on the team, to play alongside him. The speed and pressure put forth by the Lowry-Brooks tandem makes them a near impossible cover for any team while not causing the Rox to give up too much on the defensive end. Having Lowry and Brooks on the floor together also helps both players focus on their strengths. On offense, Lowry plays the one, and on defense he covers the two. This allows Lowry to fight for offensive rebounds more aggressively since he doesn't need to worry about stopping the ball after a missed basket. He has mastered sneaking in behind defenders as soon as they come down with an uncontested board and poking the ball away usually resulting in an offensive rebound for a teammate (with no mention of his play in the box score). This is a huge reason why the Rockets are fifth in the NBA in offensive rebounding despite starting the smallest center in NBA history, 6'6" Chuck Hayes. Brooks on the other hand, gets to play off the ball which allows him to get open behind the line with more regularity. When you have a shooter on your team as lethal as Brooks, you have to find a way to get him open. If teams choose to guard Brooks 25 feet from the basket, he blows right by them and into the lane opening up the offense. People laughed at Rockets GM Daryl Morey when he said trading away Rafer Alston in the three team deal at the trading deadline that netted the Rockets Lowry made them better at the point guard position. How could it be that a guy who couldn't get significant minutes in Memphis could contribute on a playoff team? Well you have to look no further then the team that traded him. The Grizz have a history of being amongst the worst teams in the league when its comes to evaluating talent. I'm looking at you Stromile Swift. And you Marcus Banks. You too Darko. Lowry becomes a restricted free agent after this year and you can be bet will be making a nice deposit in his bank account this offseason. Whether it will be courtesy of the Rockets, who declined to extend him this year, or another team remains to be seen. For now, Lowry is limited to being the leader of the best bench in the NBA along with 6th man of the year candidate Carl Landry, high flying rookie Chase Budinger, and 29 year old rookie center David Andersen. http://*******************/articles...-radar-kyle-lowry-the-best-of-the-bench-bunch
Lowry is a good player. He has what it takes to be a very good player in this league one day. Just if he works hard on his shot and all his weaknesses. Upside to Lowry is that he's only 23 years old so his future is looking bright.
Nice writeup, he can't shoot though. What is weird is that our three best defensive players (Battier, Ariza, and Lowry) are our three worst shooters (excluding Brian Cook).
Your link is mangled. I like to read full articles from the original source. If you tell me the source, I can go find it.
I actually urge him to take the threes . I have noticed that he is slowly getting better at three (better then ariza for sure, still like ariza btw)
Over the past two seasons, I've become a huge Kyle Lowry fan. The guy is a ball of energy the minute he steps off the bench, and makes excellent decisions with the ball that gets everyone involved and energized. That said, I see his style of play being suited to a backup PG role and backup minutes. More often than not, his intensity and efficiency seem to take a noticeable dip after about 10 minutes on the court. It's like he's running at such a breakneck speed and level that he can't sustain the pace for more than these bursts. As a PG off the bench, there's no one I'd rather have on the team. But I'd have to be convinced that he perform as well while averaging 34 minutes.
I remeber Matt also saying Kyle & Aaron work well together. One game I would like to see him start & either Ariza or Battier come off the bench and see what happens, we know what we have now is needing some major help
I believe it's from b1eacherreport.com. Googling the non-mangled part of his link "/articles/325600-flying-under-the-radar-kyle-lowry-the-best-of-the-bench-bunch" led me to it.
Thanks. Not sure if you can edit, OP, but if so please indicate that this is a bleacher report article at the top of your first post. The thing with Lowry is he can't shoot that great, but he does everything else really well. He leads the team in +/-, the Rockets consider him to be the best in the league at increasing the pace of the game, and check this out. Top Guards in "Hustle" Stats per 40 minutes: HUSTLE = 0.7*OR + 0.3*DR + 0.7*BLK + STL + CHG Player Name Pos GP Min OReb DReb STL BLK CHG HUSTLE 1 Kyle Lowry PG 41 24.8 2.4 4.1 1.6 0.3 1.3 6.0 2 Manu Ginobili SG 35 26.1 1.4 3.7 2.2 0.6 0.8 5.5 3 Dwyane Wade SG 40 37 1.5 3.7 2.0 1.4 0.2 5.3 4 Andre Iguodala SG 40 40 1.1 5.8 2.0 0.6 0.3 5.2 5 Thabo Sefolosha SG 41 30 1.2 6 1.6 0.9 0.2 5.0 6 Rajon Rondo PG 38 36.4 1.2 3.2 2.7 0.2 0.2 4.8 7 Corey Brewer SG 42 30.9 1.5 3.6 1.8 0.6 0.4 4.8 8 Chris Paul PG 32 38.2 0.5 4.2 2.4 0.3 0.6 4.8 9 Sam Young SG 40 16.6 2.2 3.5 1.3 0.4 0.5 4.7 10 Rudy Fernandez SG 23 22.3 0.9 3.6 2.4 0.2 0.4 4.7 11 James Harden G 41 22.8 1.3 4.3 1.8 0.4 0.4 4.7 12 Stephen Curry PG 39 32.9 0.5 4.2 2.3 0.4 0.5 4.6 13 Larry Hughes SG 28 27.6 0.8 4.7 2.0 0.5 0.3 4.6 14 Stephen Jackson SG 30 40.1 1.2 3.8 1.9 0.5 0.4 4.6 15 Jason Kidd PG 41 36 0.5 5.3 1.8 0.6 0.4 4.6 16 Ronnie Brewer SG 41 32.6 1.2 3.3 2.3 0.3 0.2 4.6 17 Jamaal Tinsley PG 27 16.3 0.6 3.7 2.2 0.4 0.5 4.5 18 Kobe Bryant SG 41 38.4 1.2 4.3 1.9 0.3 0.2 4.4 19 Baron Davis PG 40 34.2 0.7 3.3 2.1 0.7 0.4 4.4 20 Tyreke Evans PG 36 37.4 1.1 4.3 1.6 0.5 0.4 4.4
There is probably a reason why its mangled, it's a Bleacher Report. Plus its been posted here somewhere before. Just google the article title. However, I think it's a nice article by an aspiring amateur writer--but not related to any national media recognition. His claim to fame only an Editor's Pick award by Bleacher Report staff.
Do you think DM is going to Landry him this offseason as a RFA? How much can you see another team offering him? I don't see teams going hard after him knowing the Rockets aren't worried about a hard line on spending...
Without doubt. I love Brooks but if we make a play for a huge name... you know they want Brooks in the deal, at least if that happens we are still left with an excellent player. People will comment on his shooting but he has steadily improved and is a bit like Rafer as in when hes on he can be on.. sometimes he takes too many but he needs to keep hitting a few so the defenders know he can, keep the doubt in their mind and that can be all he needs to drive past them.
If the Rockets are hoping to free up enough money to sign free agents (without their MLE), it would be in their interest to sign him as soon as possible because he's got a cap hold of 6 million.
I don't know why my link is mangled. http://*******************/articles...-radar-kyle-lowry-the-best-of-the-bench-bunch Hope this doesn't mangled...
One more time lol www.*******************/articles/325600-flying-under-the-radar-kyle-the-best-of-the-bench-bunch
