Well, the season is almost over so I felt it was time for a summary of what our players can and cannot do. I hope it can help us spot potential mismatches, both in our favor and against, in the upcoming playoffs. Yao Ming- best player in the league in the low post one on one. Once he has the ball in that area and no help comes, will dominate most defenders no matter their style due to his size, variety of moves, and shooting touch. Can be fronted and denied the ball; beating that depends on his teammates' awareness of said defensive tactic and changing their offensive approach: instead of forcing it into Yao and turning it over or taking Yao out of the low post, just find the open man or drive to the basket or shoot it themselves with Yao in great offensive rebounding position. Flustered by crafty weak side defenders who know how to execute double teams from his blind side, creating turnovers and low percentage shots. Average facing the basket game. Inconsistent passer- sometimes makes great decisive passes that set his teammates up with easy buckets and sometimes turns the ball over repeatedly. Terrible handles due to his size- two dribbles is one too many. Unselfish almost to a fault. Average rebounder- no lateral quickness and slow reflexes but due to sheer size grabs a fair amount. Great one on one post defender- no one can consistently score on him in the low post. Terrible pick and roll and perimeter defender due to slowness. Elite paint defender and underrated shot blocker who shuts down would be finishers at the rim. Basically dominates centers who have no outside game but terrible against guys who have a jump shot. Ron Artest- persistent and intense competitor with zero strategic awareness. Good three point shooter. Good post up player due to his size and strength and dogged determination. Does not utilize his or his team's mismatches effectively. Average handles and passer for a guy who has the ball in his hands so much. Average finisher at the rim due to below average athleticism and average jump shooter. Gambles a lot on defense- results have high variance (sometimes looks great, sometimes looks terrible). Overall a slow but physical defender who will wear you down over the course of a game. Makes a great tandem with Shane Battier with their contrasting styles and ensures Rockets will always have a good/elite wing defender on the court at all times against all teams no matter what the offensive player excels at. Luis Scola- excellent jump shooter out to 20 feet. High offensive bball iq. Clutch, tough competitor with history of winning. Capable passer though is rarely forced to. Good low post player. Good rebounder. Despite not being athletic, is a good finisher around the rim. Lack of athleticism severely limits his defensive capability. No shot blocking whatsoever from a power forward. Lateral slowness and no hops means he gets eaten alive by taller guys who can shoot and quicker guys who can finish at the rim. Overall below average defensive player. Von Wafer- hit or miss from the bench. Very streaky shooter. Uses his athleticism to dominate most second unit defenses, can make inside and outside shots, demoralizes opponents with highlight reel finishes at the rim. A defensive liability- falls for too many headfakes and loses his man too often. Undersized as a defender and has poor defensive instincts. Occasionally his athleticism will bail him out on defense. Improving passer who is beginning to take advantage of the mismatches his athleticism creates instead of chucking low percentage shots when the defense focuses on him. Shane Battier- elite defensive player and highest bball iq in the league. Good three point shooter. Minimal face up game. Below average post up game. Great post passer- important on a team featuring Yao Ming. Good weak side shot blocker. Aaron Brooks- clutch shooting is his only calling card. Terrible defensive PG, gets burned on defense on a nightly basis, lets fast PGs dribble past him and gets posted up by stronger PGs. Poor passer due to his 5'9" 150 size. Inconsistent. Sometimes gets by his man and finishes at the rim with his quickness, other times gets blocked due to his size limitations or turns the ball over not being able to see the court well. Above average three point shooter. Carl Landry- great energy guy off the bench who feasts on weaker opponent second unit forwards. Very athletic around the rim, energizes team and fans with thunderous dunks. Good offensive rebounder and converts a high percentage of put backs due to his athleticism. Average defensive rebounder. Good jump shooter out to 20 feet. Weak post game and minimal face up game. Falls for too many headfakes defensively and overall a weak man to man defender due to being undersized. A good weak side shot blocker though. Kyle Lowry- great energy, intensity, consistency, and toughness. Great defensive player- if Kyle Lowry can't guard his man effectively, then no point guard in this league could have either- overall top tier defensive PG. Good court vision. Good point guard instincts, passes well, has good handles, good floor general. Good two point jumpshooter, poor three point shooter. Great at driving to the rim, drawing fouls, and finishes well. Deserves more minutes. Brent Barry- can knock down wide open jumpers. Good bball iq. Lateral slowness a huge liability in perimeter defense. Chuck Hayes- Great one on one post defender AND great pick and roll defender. Great offensive rebounder. Good defensive rebounder. Offensive liability. Dikembe Mutombo- a defensive and rebounding force. Poor offensive player. Remarkably consistent and prepared to play given his limited minutes. Great locker room guy.
Brent Barry - Poor decision maker...and lack of passing skills. Turnover prone. John Barry > Brent Barry
Nice job. I think you sell Landry's face up game a little short. He has a nice face up jumper, and he's quick enough to put the ball on the floor and get off a good percentage shot in the lane. Chuck's probably our best passing big. Maybe that's not saying a lot, but its worth mentioning anyways.
Forgetting that big 7'6" guy? But really though. Yao, I think, is the best passing big on this team. The TO's that he amasses are from weakside defenders usually stripping the ball, or from his dribbling. Not from his passes.
Did you even watch the games?? He's been turning over the ball way too many times giving the limited time he got. Sometimes he passes the ball when there isn't anything there and resulted in turnover. I was totally surprised in some of the decisions he made on the court because i thought he has high basketball IQ. And i am talking about turning over at crucial moment in the game too.
What the heck is this line Yes, brooks is small, but he actually is 6' 170 as much as anyone else in the NBA is their listed height and weight... I've read worse reviews/ scouting reports - but that doesn't mean yours was any good... Sorry.
Good assessments. I would just modify and add a few things about Brooks. First, he is not 5'9, 150 lbs. Below are his actual pre-draft measurements (height, weight, wingspan, standing reach) compared to a few other notable small PGs. He is taller and weighed more than 150 lbs two years ago. He's probably added a couple of lbs or stayed the same since then. He has long arms and hands for his height and actually has a taller standing reach than Chris Paul, who is 1.25 inches taller than him. His passing issues are not related to his height nearly as much as what is between the ears. He just doesn't have great court vision and doesn't make good decisions or dictate play well. Brevin Knight is a terrific passer yet is probably 2 inches shorter than Brooks. As a lot of people have said, he is more of a SG, mentally, than a PG. He does have the ballhandling skills of a PG but lacks other attributes. His turnovers (which aren't as high as some people make it out to be) are mostly due to bad decision-making rather than an inability to handle the ball. For all his weaknesses, Brooks can dribble, pass and finish extremely well with both hands. I also believe he is a very good outside shooter even though his percentages don't show that yet. He may or may not learn how to finish around the basket more consistently. He actually has great touch around the basket and off the glass. The problem is he doesn't have the body mass to finish with contact and he doesn't find space with his speed (and change of speed) the way Parker does. Defensively, his weight and inexperience are bigger issues than his height. He has played good defense for stretches even though most people will laugh at that notion. He also puts forth the effort even if it is still a weakness. The bottom line is that Lowry is undoubtedly better at almost every aspect of the position. As far as the upcoming playoffs are concerned, I'm pretty sure Adelman will be much quicker to bring Lowry in when Brooks is getting beaten on defense and not producing at the other end. We can already see Lowry finishing halves and games in the regular season. Adelman isn't blind. He sees everything CF posters see plus a lot more. He knows Lowry is better and will not let Brooks cost us a playoff series. Next year, Lowry will obviously be starting with Brooks coming off the bench if Brooks isn't traded to fill another need. Brooks still has the potential to be a good scoring, change-of-pace PG off the bench for us or another team. ----------------- His pre-draft measurement w/o shoes was 5'10.5". With shoes, he's 5'11.75". NBA height is typically based on a player's height w/ shoes and rounded up to the nearest inch. That's why you see Brooks listed at 6'0" on NBA.com and other sites. Almost every player in the league is listed as an inch-plus taller than their actual height (with certain exceptions like Scola who was never measured in a pre-draft, Scola's actual height is 6'9 making him 6'10 by NBA standards). The first two columns in the pics below are height without and with shoes. The last two columns are wingspan and standing reach. Once again, Brooks actually has long arms and big hands for his height. Here are a few other mini guards for comparison as well as average heights and measurements by position. I couldn't find Lowry's measurements on DraftExpress but my guess is that his measurements are similar to those of Paul. http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-pre-draft-measurements/ -----------------
Agree. Add some information: http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Kyle-Lowry-608/ It list Lowry as 6'1" on DraftExpress. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=163125 Daryl Morey on 1560 recap: Host: How does Lowry defend at only 6 feet tall. Morey - He is a thicker point guard, he is actually a little bigger at 6'1" but it is build that matters and he is very strong - should be fine at that spot.
Yao can see and pass over the defense, Chuck has to see through it and around it. Chuck passes well out of the high post, Yao does well from the low post.
I see Kyle Lowry as a pg version of Chuck Hayes, defensively. He has extremely strong hands and strong body. Last night he was switched onto Butler(or was it Posey) and he tried to back him down, Lowry didn't move an inch, just like Chuck against Kevin Garnett or LaMarcus Aldridge. Lowry is smart as well, he snuck in after a rebound(which he does routinely) and stole the ball from David West during the 3rd quarter. My favorite play from last night was his block from behind on Chris Paul, Chris looked around like what the hell was that. Lowry's offense is icing on the cake, he was brought in mainly b/c he can develop into a defensive force for the Rockets. The Rockets knew they were getting a guy who attacks the basket with reckless abandon but I don't know if they realized he has as good court vision as he does. He runs the offense well, finds open guys, and doesn't settle for long jump shots. I've become a big Lowry fan, I love watching him push the ball up the floor and getting a layup when it looks like he has no where to go. He is going to be a very important piece for the Rockets going into the future, but he is completely indispensable when it comes to guarding JKidd, CPaul, DWilliams, and Tony Parker in the playoffs this season.
Like Hayesfan said, they're good at different things. I do have to say that Yao has looked much more comfortable and in control in his passing since the break in schedule. He's played very well.
With that scouting report, how would you defend the rockets? This is what I would do. I wouldn't double yao at all. Sounds crazy right? The deal is if you're a opposing team, what do you want? Do you want Yao to get 20, scola to get 14, and shane to get 10 or would you rather Yao try to get 30 and shut scola down and stay close to shane? This is what a team like utah has done and will do. I don't think yao could score 35 a night if he's singled. When team don't double yao, he should score 30 every night. When that doesn't happen, teams can justify staying closer to scola and shane. When this happens, there are 3 guys that can create a shot, ron,brooks,and wafer and to a certain degree lowry. The thing is, how confortable are you depending on those guys is the answer to how much success the rockets will have in the playoffs.
I think Battier description could have been more. Battier occasionally (quite frequently I think) go MIA offensively though he is offensively potent.
That's because he has no handles,can't create his shot. His shooting skills become limited when Yao isn't playing. In game against GS he went 1-5 from 3 point range and ended with 5 points. He does hit an occasional clutch shot though.
