The Blazers have adjusted by crowding the paint as soon as Ron or AB drives to the basket which resulted in lots of blocks for the Blazers. Portland is just really daring the Rockets to beat them from the outside. What I don't understand is why does Adelman continue to allow Aldridge to be guarded one on one on the post up. The Blazers are not the superior defensive team but they are out defending the Rockets. The Rockets have more turnovers, are shooting a lower field goal percentage and have lesser blocks. What's saving them right now is the rebounding. With that said... I don't think Brooks is the only problem and I honestly think it would have made no difference even if he sat out game 5.
So are you saying it is a matter of making our outside shots (and of course get Yao involved)? Because aside from Scola, I haven't seen that many good jump shot opportunities for the Rockets. Most seem ill-timed or contested.
I don't think he shoots that well consistently. At least he hasn't proved that in his career yet. Don't just assume. Any team can keep a body on him outside the 3 point line then AB becomes useless. His drive more often than not results nothing. If a PG needs other players to create for him to be effective, he's a bench player material.
Well, I wanna say everyone has an off-day, Yao has off days sometiems. However, when u sucked in FG%, you should pass the ball the teammates who were hot that day, instead of rushing to shoot everytime or drive like crazy for 15 seconds every single offense play. As the leader, Yao would like to do whatever the coach order him to do, as long as we can win the game. He would like AB shoot most of the balls most of the games to help him learning and growing up, but in such important games in playoffs, AB just considered Yao's help into himself the one, the hero. AB thought this is his team by Yao's kindness.
Brooks can create his own shot. But if he was playing next to someone like McGrady, who constantly draws double teams, he also has the ability to really exploit the open opportunities. Brooks has proven that he can hit open shots and be offensively aggressive, at least to me, which would solve the main problem we had with the Alston/McGrady backcourt. I just don't think it's fair to judge him strictly on this series, where there's too much pressure on him to create for himself and for others.
AB can't create for himself if he's denied at 3 point line because he can't finish his drives. Throw up contested 3 pointers is not create his own shot. PG needs to create for teammates, not himself alone. Obviously AB can't, that's why he belongs to bench. How AB play next to Mcgrady on offense still need to be seen, but Rox defense in back court will be horrible. I don't judge Brooks by this series. Even though Lowry might have a worse series, I still consider Lowry has more upside than Brooks. Lowry is also not good enough to be a starter yet. At this moment Rockets just don't have choice. Next season, I'd like to see Lowry gets developed instead of AB. Lowry has better court vision, bigger and stronger, better defender, finish better around basket, and younger. He simply has more upside than AB. All he needs to learn is shoot better 3 pointers and get used to play with starters.
He deserves to learn from bench. Too bad Rockets don't have a choice at this moment, so it's not entirely his fault.
Brooks did plenty of scoring in the first two games. It's when the Blazers focused on stopping him and Artest that he began struggling. Brooks can also create for others. He makes some good passes off his drive-and-dishes. But for now, his playmaking abilities are limited. OTOH I'm also high on Lowry and love the upside of both our young PGs. I do agree Lowry has better court vision, is a stronger and better defender. I think, however, Brooks is the better offensive player, while Lowry picks his spots more in the offense, sort of like Battier. And we need Brooks' offense more than Lowry's steady hand in the starting lineup, both right now and with McGrady. That said, if you traded McGrady and brought in another star perimeter player, the question of which PG starts would have to be reevaluated. For me, the answer depends on what the lineups need. Anyway, I doubt we're going to convince each other to change our opinions. And the OP doesn't like his thread being derailed from its original (Brooks-bashing) intent.
Aaron Brooks doesn't think his starting job is in jeopardy. he seems cocky at times which is good for some but not for us when he doesn't respect Yao enough too pass the ball to our best player. He needs to have the same mentality as Rafer: Yao is the President and I'm his assistant, not the other way around cause it seems like it a lot of times. When I see them on the court it doesn't seem like they have the best chemistry together, atleast not on the same level he(Yao) and Rafer had and it seems like Lowry communicates better with Yao when he's on the court than Brooks too. Lowry is a better PG for us to start than AB right now period. And people thinking its a good idea to start Brent Barry at PG must be smoking some strong stuff.
I will explain what is going on for some perspective. 1. The Blazers started fronting Yao, but more than that they put a long defender in the lane, behind him as well. 2. Brook's job is to penetrate and look to score or set up his teamates. 3. With the Blazers adjustment there are really tall athletic players in the lane now, and when AB goes in there he dribbles through the lane as he is SUPPOSED to do. 4. The way to take advantage is for the OTHER players to move their butts when AB penetrates and give him some cutters to pass the ball to, which takes advantage of the defense rotating to stop AB. 5. If the other players, namely, Ron, Battier, and Scola stand still, AB has no where to go with his pass and dribbles back out, as he is supposed to do. This is a TEAM problem, it is why Rick is harping on execution.....the only player on the Rockets that is consistently moving off the ball is Scola...and AB has had no problem finding him open for that elbow jumper. The rest of the team would be blowing Portland and their junk defense apart if they would only move their bodies and not stand around...and yes...that includes Yao. This lesson was brought to you for free, the next BBall lesson will cost you. DD
This sounds good ... I agree that his teammates need to make themselves available for the pass more. A good part of the problem is, though, the way AB takes the ball to the hoop. 1) Brooks often drives when the lane is not open, nor does he look to the weak side and see if there is defensive help ready to cut him off. Proof: How many times did you see 2 7-fters meet him at the rim? 2) Before he drives he does not locate his teammates before hand. If you watch other great PGs, they just don't do it in a whim, they only do it when they know their teammates are ready. They locate the teammates in the corner, on the weakside ... first. Proof: How many times did Brooks drive by himself and no one else was ready? 3) Sometimes when the teammates are in position, AB can't not find them either. He works in 1 mode: get to the rim. Many times, he does not create the angle for himself to see and pass to his teammates. Proof: When Brooks drove the lane and got cut-off, he took off from further out to get the shot off, these were the times his shots did not fall. If you watched Parker or Nash, when that happened, they continued their dribble to the other side and looked for something else. That is worth 2 cents but I won't charge you either.
Brooks is doing EXACTLY what he is supposed to do, the rest of the players are not..... Every good PG in the league drives through the lane and keeps his dribble alive. You don't need two seven footers to stop him, just one......but the fact that there are TWO there already is what I am talking about...we need a cutter...ala Robert Horry and Mario Elie.... This is basketball 101....it is not Rocket science. I read threads like this and know that tons of people don't really comprehend what is going on...drives me nuts. Is he perfect, no...he is making mistakes, but you guys are overeacting on what is going on.....listen to DMorey talking right now....he is saying Brooks being aggressive is what we need..... DING DING DING...school is in session. DD
no, no he cannot. Not on a consistent enough level. He makes some really acrobatic shots......RARELY. Most of the time he is getting blocked or the ball is flying off the top of the backboard.
LOL - no he's not....you are pulling out every shyte argument in the book (like conflating the stats to try to erase the fact that he had three lousy games in a row , trying to distract people by bringing up irrelevant references to Artest, who has no bearing on Brooks' inherent problms). Why? Because a "DD favorite" is being criticized and so you fell the need to protect your BBS pride even if it means acting ike an ostrich - and now you play the "I KNOW BASKETBALL!!!!" card....evidently you don't because you are missing a number glaringly obvious facts here. DaDakota - the constant feature of Brooks game all season has been this: He's fantastic at getting to the rim. Unfortunately, he doesn't really know what to do with it once he gets there. On multiple occasions in a game, Brooks beats his man off the dribble and gets under the hoop - however, quite frequently the result is either 1. a missed shot due to his poor finishing in traffic (understandable givenhis size) or, more likely; 2. Brooks runs underneath, can't decide what to do, and ends up running back out. Rarely does he ever pass the ball (hence the reason for his low TO numbers), and don't tell me it's because his teammates are out of position, Battier camps in the corner all game ready to spot up, Scola is always ready to sneak in behind the defense, even mount Yao will come off the ball and sneak in for a putback every now and then. Hell even Ron spots up and waits for a pass sometimes. This is even more obvious when he attempts a P&R - he simply hesitates, and engages in, to paraphrase Clyde "analysis by paralysis" - while the defense recovers and then closes down the screener. The end result is a waste of time. The bottom line is that he's just not that good a passer or a scorer in traffic, at this stage in his career, which makes his abilitiy to penetrate less useful(and HIGHLY overrated by you.)...and soemthing that teams can exploit if he's going to be indecisive. I'd rather he just shoot the ball or attempt a pass. The "run-under/run back out" play doesn't help the Rockets one iota. I don't hate Brooks, I hope he succeeds (and for the record I think the Rockets will still win this series) but I'm willing to acknowledge his flaws sicne I don't have skin in the game like you do (he's not an "SF Favorite"). His decisionmaking is mediocre and "penetration" alone doesn't help if he can't do anything once he gets there.
