I usually am a big supporter of Brooks, however the starters did not play well together at the start of the season. Once Lowry entered the starting lineup and was healthy, they all started clicking. Even when Brooks was running the point since returning from his injury the offense had been all disjointed. Did anyone else notice this?
I think it was more of the team trying to shoe horn Yao back into the lineup. If the team would have just started the year with brooks,martin,battier,scola,and miller and brought yao in with the 2nd unti to find a rhythm, they would have been fine. The re-introduction of yao and the in and out really hurt the team. When lowry came in, it was like last year again. Spread the court, uptempo,shoot 3's. Yao in the game clogging the paint and trying to feed him for the time he was in there hurt the squad.
he meant the last 2 games where brooks returned from injury. and yeah i noticed it. i think in the 4th, where jordan hill had his guy pinned and wanted the ball, brooks didnt pass it in. happened at least twice. and his pass out to the open man or switched defender was late, allowing the defense to recover. also a bad turnover passing to brad miller. i think aaron might have to win over the starters position over lowry. rick cant give him back starters position outright just cause he was starting before the injury.
integrating yao was certainly part of the problem early in the year, but i would not overlook brooks. he had become comfortable in his shoot first, play defense never role and was miserable in setting up the offense early on. No one knew where the shots were coming from. was it aaron, yao, martin, scola? pulling both of those guys out created some stability for shot distribution and increased our defensive presence in the backcourt. during his two games back, aaron has again struggled with where he fits into the offense. adelman even tried to jump start him in the last game by putting the lowry/brooks combo out their and aaron just looks lost now. i understand a significant portion of this is the ankle, but like budinger, aaron looks likes he lost his confidence and doesn't know how to fit in. his passes are soft and 'passive', leading to turnovers. he doesn't know when to look for his shot. his mind says dribble drive penetrate and his body says settle for a long three. i'd like to see him go back to the tenacious d he played when he first entered the league and every guard was going to challenge him. let the shot come last and let the d come first. after reacclimation, he could play a pivotal role off the bench, providing an offensive spark ala robert pack, jason terry, et al.
Of course he's struggled, really the whole thing was disjointed because of the uncertainty. When yao went out, they just played ball. When yao was in, they made a serious effort to get him the ball, plus he clogged the baseline. Now, yao's not there and the offense is free flowing again. Offensively, they didn't have a problem just now, the defense is still the problem. I think they should've either inverted yao to the high post or brought him off the bench until everyone gets accustomed to what he can and can't do again.
had the inevitable not occurred (second stress fracture), I believe that's exactly what they would have ended up doing. edit: although i will say that the offense has bogged down (small sample size) when aaron has been back on the floor
