I hope you were saying the same thing after the Golden State game.....got to be consistent, right? DD
Sure, give him the excuse. I'm just saying Lowry has been hurt and is still working himself into game shape.
I actually think Lowry's done well as starting PG given the circumstances, but OP makes a good point about experience. Ishmael Smith would benefit from being surrounded by veterans, while the bench could use a more experienced PG to steady the ship. Right now, the backcourt of Smith and Lee with Jordan Hill seem too raw and too slow to adjust when the opposing team goes on a run. What was a strength last season is a definite weakness right now.
They both can't shoot well but both can give a nice assist. I figure, atleast, K.Low can force a foul and won't have to rely on that awful and inconsistent tear drop Ish tries to force up. He's had a few nice 3ptrs though.
Really? What has he done well in your view? Admittadly I am biased here, but here are his stats for the year: http://www.clutchfans.net/players/kyle_lowry/ PPG 6.1 APG 4.9 RPG 4.4 FG% 28.6 3PT% 13.3 FT% 61.9 TPG 3.4 Assist to turnover ratio 1.44 That does not look like he is playing well to me, that looks really really bad, shockingly bad honestly. Other than his rebounding, which has always been good for a PG, and shows his back must be better....the rest of his game has stunk. I just don't see him playing well at all. DD
Im not sure he should start, but I would not mind seeing him close out the game. At least he can create a shot for others when our offense goes stagnant.
Is it fair to say he's in a funk and can't remain this bad all season? I was at the game last night and he spent alot of time on the floor holding his midsection, I don't know if he was trying to sell fouls (which he wasn't getting any calls his way all night) or if he's still hurt and is just playing through the pain when his team needs him to. Last night ish seemed more interested in scoring than passing, but he was on so can't complain. I think one of my favorite duos so far this year has been ish+hill in transition, It would be nice to see them both on the court at the same time as much as possible. On topic... Back ups always look better than they should because they aren't playing vs starters, but Lowry sure doesn't look like he's earned any of that contract yet.
So when Ish becomes the starter, fails, and gets injured who else are ya'll gonna want to see as our starting PG? Garrett Temple??? I swear this board can NEVER be happy with what they have.
I think Lowry is still working himself back into shape. He's not as quick as before and his shot isn't there. As long as his back holds up, there's no reason these elements of his game won't get better as the season progresses. I have no real stats to back it up, but I like how he's meshing with the starters. I don't think it's a coincidence that our starting lineup has built big leads in the first quarter and has outscored the opposing team to start the third. He just seems to know how to dictate the pace of the game, and while his assist numbers may not show it, I notice he usually makes the right pass. The ball movement has been excellent, and putting Lowry and Miller in the starting lineup has been the reason for it. He's made his share of mental mistakes and errant passes, but a lot of it is due to not having played enough with the starters, not knowing their patterns. IIRC he didn't get many minutes with Martin last season, and he's just getting introduced to Miller's style of play. I think the mistakes will decrease as he gets used to them. His defense has been good as well, though he's still working himself back into shape. I thought he actually did a good defensive job on Derrick Rose for the most part, forcing him to be a jump shooter and keeping him out of the paint, which was the strategy. I give him a pass for the fourth quarter meltdown vs. Chicago and the last game vs. the Thunder where Westbrook ran him ragged. I see these as more due to fatigue (too many minutes, not being in basketball shape) than a flaw in his game.
I think our defense has picked up significantly (with an exception to last night - Thunder), but i think that was a result of a back to back and Lowry playing 43 minutes against Chicago. Ish has had his ups and downs, but has looked pretty good IMO when he's gotten an opportunity to start. In the 3 games he's stared, he's averaged 27minutes per game. Played only 12 minutes in his 3rd start since Lowry had a pretty good game. Lowry has averaged 34 minutes/game in his starts. So just looking at the numbers per 34 minutes, Ish has been more effective and efficient (even taking into account that he only played 12 minutes against Indy). Ish per 34mins (as a starter): 36% FG|50% 3pt|50% FT|4.1 Reb|4.1 Asts|2.5 TO|7.9 PPG Lowry per 34 mins (as a starter): 29% FG|0% 3pt|62% FT|5 Reb|5.6 Asts|4.3 TO|5.3 PPG Of course i haven't taken into account the over all team performance, but looking at the numbers alone, Ish hasn't done to bad for an undrafted rookie. Rockets are also 2-1 in his starts (although one was where he played only 12 minutes). I've gone back and forth on who should start between Brooks and Lowry. At times i feel Brooks should continue to start, while at other times i feel we'd benefit with Lowry starting. At this point, i think Lowry should be the starter over Brooks (i Know you'll disagree, DD) simply because we've seen struggles from our bench in closing the 1st and beginning 2nd; end of 3rd quarters and beginning 4th without a go to scorer. Brooks can play the "Jason Terry" role and still get his shots and minutes, but provides a scoring punch against the weaker bench PGs and open things up for the rest of our bench.
Sorry guys, Lowry is struggling enormously, no excuses, he just is... If you compare the stats of AB and KL who have played about the same amount of minutes etc (Kyle playing against much weaker competition)....they are not even close. AB dominates in all the key categories...... You used to be able to say, yeah, but Kyle is a better defender....but man, the way he is getting lit up by everyone these days, you can't even say that. DD
I think that's a result of lack of conditioning. Coming back from injury - especially from a back injury - its difficult to be in best of condition. He didnt play much in the preseason, and hasnt played in more than half of the games this season. I'm not saying Kyle is better then AB by any means. I think for our team at the PG spot, its 1A and 1B... they're both good at what they do. But i think its more important for us to be able to start off better in the 2nd and 4th quarters - an area where AB's ability to provide instant offense would benefit. We've seen that with Kyle, even though HE doesn't provide a lot of offense, the offense doesnt suffer that much. It opens up more looks for Scola, Martin and eventually for Yao.
Gotta agree with this. Really frustrated with the Rockets right now...but moreso Lowry. He's made some really bad decisions in the past few games...almost to the point where I cringe whenever he gets the ball. I'm sure he'll get out of his funk at some point...and this is what keeps me wanting to see him play. But if Ish is playing at a higher level...he's gotta see more minutes. This one is completely on the coaching staff.
i agree with DD. the stype kyle plays doesn't fit to our current starting lineup very well. he is more or less a bulldog player, liking to force the issue. well, ra likes players to react. ish is the one who works with km, scola, miller... very well. those players like moving around and get open. ish can pass when someone gets into a good position.
I can go as far as to say Smith should have gotten more minutes against the Thunder, given the game Lowry had. But, I don't really want to rely on Smith's defense against starting PGs. There's a lot of good PGs and he's going to keep getting taken advantage of. Lowry hasn't gotten it going as well as last season, but he's still considerably better than Ish in defense.
One difference between Ish and Lowry is that even though both are horrible shooters, Ish knows he is a horrible shooter, and Lowry doesn't. Lowry keeps jacking up bad shots early in the shot clock. Ish should be starting for now until Lowry regains his form from previous years. He is just playing really bad right now.
So why do you think, for example, the starters built up an 8, 9 point lead at the start of the Chicago game, which the backups promptly lost, and then outscored Chicago's starters again at the start of the third quarter? Do you think this happened despite Kyle Lowry being the starting PG?
I think playing in the first and 3rd quarter is vastly different than the 4th quarter....when teams are trying harder. Other than last night the Rockets have led in the 4th quarter of every single game. DD
