Yes, Lowry's reaction and feel is top notch. For example, I hardly see anybody else outhustles him when the ball is in his vicinity. 70-80% of the time, Lowry would get a loose ball with his reach. Bob Sura used to do that, and Lowry right now is doing better. Those extra posssions means some extra points every game.
We know Dwill WOULD be successful on the Raptors though. He's still putting up solid numbers on the Nets and that will improve as he learns the players there and gets healthy again. Well Lowry has those same attributes though. There are not many PGs better than Lowry defensively, to say Rondo is clearly better? I really doubt that, Lowry sure won his matchup with Rondo though didn't he? In fact he dominated him. Not only that but Lowry has been doing this for MOST of the season. He will dominate his matchup. Rondo had 4 points against him. Harris had 12. Paul Had 6. Dwill had 15 on 3 shots made... Lowry is a elite defender at his position. The only thing Rondo clearly has over him is his passing ability...but then again Lowry is a MUCH better scorer than Rondo. Yeah Rondo shoots 49% but that is all on layups. Easy to get Layups when you have Garnett, Pierce, and Allen on the floor with you. I just don't see Rondo on some other level. He's not on the floor of Paul, Williams, Rose.
I love Lowry on the Rockets, but I can't argue with dignity that these are attributes that make Lowry a better PG than the aforementioned. THose other guys you mentioned have elite decision-making and offense-running instincts. Kyle's strength is well...his STRENGTH, which is apparent in his defense. He's very well-rounded which makes him a very good player.
Rose is WAY more explosive, Rondo has ELITE vision and defensive skills and CP3 also has elite vision and offensive skills. I think a better question is what does Lowry do substantially better then these guys have shown over a number of years? I don't include Wall, dude looks the part but is a rookie on a god awful team...that would be silly.
successful = team winning. Personal stats shouldn't be considered that much otherwishe Mike James would be better than both Lowry and Rondo. With ugly supporting case, CP3 or DWill both won't be as "succesful" as surronded by good players. Rondo is playing hurt now. So that one game shoulld be taken with a grain of salt. We've seen what Rondo could do in many playoff games, he has more triple doubles in playoffs than Lowry in his career, I believe. He averaged on triple double in a playoff series, something I don't believe Lowry can achieve. If you think Rondo only gets his points on layups, you must be mistaken. He takes more jumpers than layups and still get the near 50% percentage. You don't see him on the same level of DWill, CP3, Rose, that is fine with me. Celtics is an old team, Rondo will get his time to prove what's his worth.
Sorry, love the little guy but Lowry isn't in Rondo's class defensively. The last matchup was impressive but Rondo has been injuried and has some kind of broken heart disease since his buddy Perkins got traded. Come playoff time, the real Rondo will show up. Lowry isn't even elite defensively unless you're comparing him to AB and Kevin. He did nice jobs on those guys you mentioned but not so great against Parker, Augustin and even Dowdell had a nice game. Good solid defensive pguard but nothing more. Saying Rondo isn't on the same level as the other elite PGuards is a fair argument but when the money has been on the table, Rondo has shown up BIG TIME. Expect nothing less this time around.
Good post. I think the fact that Kyle plays elite defense IN ADDITION to offense and court-vision makes him a special player. I'm not implying he is a superstar, but these "jack-of-all trades" all-star caliber PG dont' grow on trees. Most of the elite PG around the league are elite in impacting games on the offensive end (Assists and Scoring).....very few play great defense. So having said that, what would be a strong justification to "upgrade" from Lowry to say a CP3 or DWILL at this point? They are better players, yes, but are they so much better or marginally better? Lowry plays better D than both thsoe players bar none. Now Westbrook or MAYBE rose would be an exception to a justifiable upgrade from Lowry since they are young, elite scorers/playmakers and do play Defense. Your thoughts?
I have confidence in Lowry on that. The beauty of Lowry's game is he doesn't need to score to make a positive impact. If other teams focus to stop him, he'll find his teammates for a better score opportunity. This is something I can't say for AB.
We'll see. Right now the dude is playing on a stacked team. There are many players who look amazing playing with certain players then dramatically drop off once they are asked to do it all. While he does actually shoot (Rondo) Celtics fans cringe when he does and it is usually a wide open "I have to take this..." sort of thing. Lowry now is draining heavily contested shots. If successful means team winning then I guess we should knock off Paul. He's only had like...2 successful seasons with the Hornets then. Any ways Dwill has just got there, it's not like he's the reason they have the record they do. Well he's not shutting every single player down no one does that. Not Ben Wallace, Not Pippen, Not Bowen, Not Battier, Not Artest...No player shutrs EVERY SINGLE player down. I mean Brooks used to always go off on the Celtics, does that mean Rondo is not a elite defensive player? Guys have good games against Hayes too, some nights it happens. Dowdell was owning the entire team that night unfortunately. Parker is a top PG himself any ways, no shame in that. Lowry is as good a defender as Rondo is, c'mon he's more than just a 'solid' defender. Nothing was wrong with those guys, Harris, Paul, Williams...when Lowry played them. I feel like Lowry just has to do what he's doing for a entire season for people to really respect him. Right now his numbers are pedestrian because of how the season started and now he just has to do this for the next season as well. Sort of like Arian Foster having 3 good games at the end of the season, this is what Lowry is doing. Now he has to take it to next season and prove it's not just some late season push to get into the playoffs thing or some hot streak he's experiencing. And I agree that Lowry plays better defense than Dwill and CP3. Like I said, to those saying he's just above average defensively please tell me all of the guys that are better? CP3 Is not a man defender, he's much like Iverson in that he plays the passing lanes extremely well...Lowry's defense is part of the reason he was even bought here, it's always been his main skill along with his hustle and energy.
I personally don't think Lowry's quite on the level of the elite PG's being brought up in this thread. But it's pretty awesome that there's a legit comparison between him and them. :grin:
Side note, Arian Foster tore it up from Day 1. He's been a pleasant surprise since the beginning of the season. he needs to have a solid season next year so that's it not a fluke. Back on topic, I find it refreshing that we have a PG like Lowry that can play tough D on elite PGs night in and night out. like you said, this in no way implies they'll be shut down every night, but the Rockets would have their best defensive hand forward on any given night for the best chances of mitigating a superstar threat.
I'd love to put Kyle in Rondo's class, defensively, but I can't. I've seen both enough to see what each can do and Rondo just messes everything up for the opposition. Lowry is tough hard nosed defensive player but just can't go with ELITE. I'd go with a good defensive PGuard but nothing more, which is fine by me. After seeing AB try to guard people, Lowry playing 30+ a night is a breath of fresh air. If Kyle does this again next season, not 13-6-4 but 20-7-7, then I would start to mention him with the big boys but not right now. I'll just sit back and enjoy watching him work the offense and leads us to the playoffs.
Not sure if he is a star or not but ever since AB was traded, he has been playing like one. Dude is fearless, tough as nails and very well rounded. I really feel that if he does this consistently throughout the remainder of his career, he will be a star in the league.
your standards are pretty high....not even taking in consideration points scored only 13 players in nba history have average 7 rebounds and 7 assists in a season.
I'll be happy with 20-7-4. I don't think he can average 7 RPG over the course of a season (he is 6' after all).
Thing is, who is better defensivly as a PG than Lowry. Clearly for you Rondo is above Lowry but who else? Billups? Kidd? Both great in their primes but their age does show against the younger guys. Hinrich? Collison? Felton? Are those guys all better defenders than Lowry? In my opinion Rondo is not clearly better than Lowry when it comes to defense. If Rondo is the best defender at PG then Lowry is #2. Then add to that that Lowry is a threat on offense and that is why I say I'm not so sure I'd take Rondo over Lowry...well with how Lowry has been playing so far and I believe he can keep this up. Just have to agree to disagree. It really has nothing to do with Lowry being a Rocket, I've always argued that Rondo was/is much better than Brooks, and that I'd take Bosh/Amare over Scola. So I'm not just saying this because Lowry is a Rocket. I just think Rondo is not far and above ahead of Lowry and if they switched places...and it was Lowry playing in that defensive situation with the likes of Garnett and legit bigs backing him up he'd be considered league wide as a great PG too.
Westbrook's become a really good defender in recent years. It's so hard to evaluate PG defense though. Players at the position are so quick, anyone can get beat off the dribble. As long as someone's giving consistent effort and isn't getting torched all the time, that's usually all you can ask for. I think Lowry's definitely in the class of PGs who do more than just look average out there. Definitely a smaller group than you might think.
