I'm talking about OVERALL progress. Steve Nash in his 2nd year avged 9ppg, 3.5asts compared to 11ppg for AB and 3asts. I cant think of a pg off the top of my head that avged a double-double in pts and assists in his 1st 2 yrs. I know its only 2 games in, but avgs of 18.5pts, and 8.5asts sounds pretty special to me.
everyone's curve in developing (or not developing) skills is different. you can't take a player's first x years and compared them to another's and draw conclusion.
Oh yes you can....LOL...this is sports, we compare people all the danged time. If you are purely looking at AB's stats....he is killing it right now. And he had 2 turnovers last night that were complete HORRIBLE officials calls..... He is playing great......if Lowry wants to start, and he has that skill passing the ball....he needs to learn to shoot..... You can not have a good passing PG that can't shoot, we have seen that show these last few years and it is not pretty. DD
Brooks had a good game. How is that any different from last season? Clearly the short GS guards who aren't good defensively helped AB have a good offensive game. As we know, Brooks is inconsistent. Lowry on the other hand consistently gives you good defense and can run the team better. If the other starters around him were really talented offensively, he would EASILY be the starter. But you just can't start him when Hayes and Battier are. Brooks is the better fit. Doesn't change the fact that Lowry is the better PG.
I'm not drawing a conclusion. It all comes back to the dreaded word "potential". He can end up being a flop like Steve Francis. We don't know that. All we can do is speculate and predict. I predict he'll end up being one hell of a player and teams are going to have to make defensive plans to stop him...I'm sure teams are already aware of AB-zero.
I'm interested to see how many assists Brooks puts up this year. Though he'll never be mistaken for a pass-first PG, I think his low assist average (3) last season was more due to his role in the Yao-centric offense than his ability. On the other hand, the 12 assists vs. GSW is more a reflection of the lack of defense played by the Warriors, IMO.
so your saying 20% of 18.5 ppg, 8.5 assist.??? cause if its 20% more of that... that would be terrific. oh yeah.. his 3 pt % is at 25% right now. and we all know that will rise.. so hopefully his ppg will rise as well too.
no one is saying ab is playing terrible. on the contrary, all i hear are praises. we're talking about his "potential" here, are we not? ab and yao don't fit well. i will think that until i see otherwise. ab to yao is like sam to dream, in a way. each can still have a good game and the team can still win, but it ain't a preferred combo. that's all.
You wrote: "ab still seems clueless a lot of times when he penetrates and is within 3 feet of the hoop. to me that is not a trait of a quality pg. in the portland game, it worked better when we played lowry at the pg and ab at the sg." If you're trying to say that the Rockets were better off against Portland with Lowry handling the ball instead of Brooks, then I'd like to know what good did Lowry's superior point skills do us in the second quarter when we got outscored by 16 points in a 6 minute span? Lowry is better at drawing contact close to the hoop. But I think he does a much poorer job of keeping his dribble alive and getting out of there when no good opportunities present itself. That's something great PGs like Stockton, Nash, and Paul did/do very well. Brooks has gotten much better at it. Lowry is less controlled in those situations. Another thing with Lowry is his lack of outside shooting really limits his options when running pick and rolls in the half court offense. Brooks can shoot a 3 if they go under, he can blow by if they get too close and stick it from midrange, or he can get into the lane. Lowry will generally either pass it or try to get all the way to the basket. Against teams with big front-line where finishing at the rim is more difficult, that makes him a far less effective offensive player. Its why he had comparatively less success in the playoffs last year against Portland and LA.
can't say you don't have a point. but it's a fact that we made a good run in the portland game when lowry was running the pg and ab was at the 2. like i said, let the season play out a little and we shall see more clearly.
Was that a subtle comparison between Lowry and Alston? Alston's problem was that he couldn't shoot, but kept doing it in volume. There's more than one way to play a position. Rondo and Andre Miller can't shoot, but they're both great PG's because they create easy buckets and defend so well. Lowry's hustle out there is immediately noticeable: he's getting rebounds and loose balls, defending well, and finding his teammates. Remember that pass last night to a wide open Brooks down low for a easy layup? That was Lowry's highlight. Our best look so far in this short season has been Brooks and Lowry playing together. Lowry is actually the traditional PG and Brooks is the undersized scorer. Together they give us some semblance of a normal offense.
After the two games (maybe sample is too small), I think AB should be the starting pg. Because I found Lowry's performance was not related to rockets' win or loss. But, if AB played well, the rockets won.
"fallacy"? if you claim something is fallacy, you'd better make your point to prove it. at least give it a try. that, will be a good debating manner.
