Think about what you're saying. Top 15 pg. 30 teams. That mean's he's an average pg. There's nothing idiotic about calling an average pg a backup.
I made a thread about it several weeks ago. If we fail to land Bosh or Amare, we should go after Manu for the MLE and use the LLE for Camby. This lineup could contend next season: Lowry/Brooks Martin/Manu Ariza/Budinger Scola/Hill/Draft Pick Yao/Camby/Hill
Except I have seen multiple plays where Lowry does fire the three with time left on the clock when he can not find anyone open. Sure, generally he's open, but that's irrelevant given how much he sucks at the 3. So Morey offers Brooks and Battier for Rubio, and turns down Lowry for Camby. (And I NEVER heard of any offer for Iggy involving Lowry.) Consequently, we can draw these conclusions: Brooks + Battier < Rubio Lowry > Camby. Explain how you got to Brooks < Lowry again?
Yes, he is. But I can' see him cover up all those mistakes by AB/Martin/Dbud etc all by himself. You need good offensive players to play good offense, you need goo defensive players too play defense too. You man not need 5 good defensive players, but you need at least 3 to play close to top level defense. With AB/ Martin/Scola, the defense will be inconsistent. That just as predictable as Hayes/Battier/Ariza in the lineup for offense.
Tony Parker led the LEAGUE in points in the paint one year. His FG% is off the charts, and his defense is better simply because he is bigger. I do think AB could be a championship level starting PG, as well as Lowry, but it's all about who you put around them. Aaron Brooks would be best suited in a "Mo Williams" off the ball kind of role. The problem is that Kevin Martin and Trevor Ariza are also FAR better off the ball.
What exactly does he need to learn? He needs to learn to hit all of his shots always? He needs to never have a turnover ever? He was dominating in the first half and got shut down in the second. Maybe Pop changed his defensive scheme? Not chuck the ball? What were we supposed to do tonight? Run a play for Mike Harris of Taylor? How about ice cold Scola? We flat out didnt have enough firepower tonight.
I said he was in the top 15. I didn't say he was 15th, and I actually think he can be top 10. That is not a backup PG, unless you have one of those better PGs whom we're not getting.
Don't cut him too much slack. Brooks and Ariza played like complete boneheads. I would love to see AB get a couple damn hockey assists for once, and Trevor Ariza made Jermaine Taylor look like Earl "The Goat"...
That's the beauty here. AB was shooting lights out in fisrt half, but guess what? Hill scored similar points on less shots and dished out more assists. And Spurs were winning. That's what lack of defense can do to you. Good look stats without winning. Score 59 points, gave up 64.
Throwing out an arbitrary number of required defenders is extremely subjective. Having Battier and Yao in the lineup with Brooks/Martin/Scola (Bosh!) would be fine defensively.
I can live with Lowry shooting the occasional open 3, he's still developing his shot and he's just seeing if he's got it that night. What you don't see is him keep chucking 3's even after he's missed the previous. There's a little message in his brain saying "this isn't the best play for us right now since I've missed a couple before". AB needs to that message alert for his drives to the basket and overall taking care of the ball.
He needs to learn to look for contact when attacking the basket. One of McGrady's biggest criticisms was that he was afraid of contact. To avoid contact, he would contort his body and make the shot much tougher than it needed to be. Brooks has the same mindset. Lowry and Brooks average about the same number of free throws per game yet Brooks plays 50% more minutes.
I don't see how we get Bosh without losing any major pieces. So no Bosh here. Brooks/Martin/Scola with Batteri/Yao wouldn't make the defense elite. I can't remember when was the last time a team with 3 weak defenders in the starting lineup to win a Chamionship, if there is any.
I only saw bits and pieces of the first half, so I'm not reliable, but I don't remember Hill doing a whole lot during the first half - most of the damage was done by Duncan and Manu from my recollection. So I'm guessing he went nuts in the second half, when as stated by others, Brooks got shut down. Besides, the Spurs in the end have massively more talent and offensive firepower than we do at this point. You're acting like this is a shocking loss and Brooks should be blamed for this, which is just not true.
Who cares about McDyess and Duncan, the point is no matter how many points AB scored, he might just give up more in return on many nights, directly or indirectly.
