When healthy Tmac is in the lineup, we need floor general more than scoerer. There is only one ball, but needs to be distributed. Again, AB is not and will not be the deciding factor for championship. The weakest position for current Rockets is still PG, and AB is not the solution to get Rockets over the hump. And a PG like AB can't be find in almost every draft, or can be acquired from trade if you have reasonable asset to trade for, there are so many of them. That's why if you might trade him for a can't miss prospect who has a chance to be great.
1) tracy was the primary playmaker when healthy. the difference? AB could have shot the open 3 or take it to the hole and be effective at it. all rafer did was brick 3s or did his floater that never went in. just that would have been HUGE. 2) you cannot simply judge how AB is by simply half a year of starting. it's rare that a 2nd year player can elevate their type of games in the playoffs like that. 3) devin harris took 4-5 years before he developed into the scorer he was. tony parker took a few years also. i don't care if AB developed their playmaking skills or even as good as them, but 75-80%, he's a keeper. 4) and how is rubio a can't miss prospect? again, if u want him, YOU TRADE YAO and restart. b/c rubio isn't gonna do jack for 3-4 years but play garbage mins and ride the pine.
This is sad that DD has started a big thread over losing AB and suckered some of you to believe that he's the next Parker.
1) Brooks has the highest value now 2) Brooks was the only player Yao has called out and let the public know about it 3) Brooks can score, but many of his points were coming from the pocket of Yao From what I see, the team is open to trade Brooks because they want to satisfy Yao. Morey mentioned today that Rubio has the best passing skills, so it won't surprise me if Morey is trading Brooks for the Rubio...
1) Tmac is a playmaker, he was a primary scoerer too. A distributer who can shoot 3 well is going to be the best solution in that situation. But both Rafer and Ab were shorthand in one department or another. That's why both are not perfect solution for Rockets, both are tradable. 2) Again, I don't see anything else he does besides scoring AB gave this team. He "elevated" his game just by getting hot against slow PGs. 3) Again, you need to take a look at how young Devin Harris was when he was in the league. And Harris wasn't in the right situation in Dallas with all those scoerers, just like AB with Rockets when Yao is here. Plus, There is a huge difference between those two in defense. 4) Rubio needs time to develop. Once he defeloped, he could be much much better than AB. If AB is very good PG that Rocket's championship is depeding on him, I've no problem to keep him. But in rality, he isn't.
I'm open to trading Brooks but I wont go as far as you and say he is our weakest link. We upgraded that when we got rid of Rafer. When we had Rafer, some complained that he sucked at shooting, which he did, and we needed a scoring PG. Well now we got a scoring PG and some still arent happy. The weakest link on our team now is a wing player, someone that can create his own shot if needed, and a back up C. Brooks can be serviceable (and we could probably make it to the finals) if he has the tools around him, and still then without it, he is pretty good.
My point is that from what we've seen, Brooks has the potential to be a Parker like player. My draft pick response was to state the that the Rockets organization obviously has faith in a young player like Brooks. Just like the Spurs did with Parker. No, Parker was not a top pick for the Spurs and he did struggle in the beginning just like Brooks is now. It took time for Parker to become a great player. Why can't we just keep Brooks and develop him into one? Yes, Brooks made a lot of mistakes. I'm sure you would too if you were brought in to start the remaining 35 games in the regular season.
You trade Brooks only if you can get a guy that you know will be able to play at his level IMMEDIATELY and have the potential to get better. If there's nothing out there in the market, there is no harm done in keeping him, he is a more than capable starting point guard in this league. I would dangle him around to see what he can fetch in a trade since his value is at a high after the playoffs but if nothing comes up, I have no problem at all with him starting next season. As for the rumored trade that fell through, it is a tough one as I am very high on Rubio but the Yao factor plays a significant role in this. If Yao was 2 years younger or not have gotten major injuries as many times as he has, then I would do it. Back to reality, Yao can opt out and is not a guy you can depend on staying healthy as he ages so the window to win with him is closing and I would stick with Brooks.
From one of Yao's interview. Yao was saying that he told Brooks in the locker room to stop doing whatever he likes and command (in a military sense) Brooks to do what Yao said.
U could easily say that brooks was the rockets best player in the playoffs. Give me the guy who ups his game in the playoffs like brooks did over a guy that stagnates any day. That tells me he's not scared of the moment. Chewie, u say the rockets won game 1 cause of yao, but I remember yao doing his damage in the 1st half and brooks really punishing portland throughout the game.
We actually didn't upgrade PG at this moment. Lowry is for the future. Rafer/Brooks would be better than Brooks/Lowry in this playoffs. But trading Rafer for Lowry was the right decision because Rafer/Brooks won't be the solution for championship once Tmac went down. We might just try to develop Lowry since he has potential. Now it's the same situation. AB is like Rafer, Rubio is like Lowry. So far, PG is still the weakest link of Rockets team. No one dimentional payer at other starting positions.
Not me, hah hah! I'm open to trading Brooks. I wont give him away though like in that proposed Memphis deal.
