I have been thinking long and hard about Rafer and Brooks, and whether or not I think the team could win with them as a tandom. At first I was thinking...sure...why not...if Rafer struggles bring in Brooks and vice-versa. However, the problem is when Brooks struggles...you bring in Rafer.....and Rafer is so bad, that it doesn't work. Brooks was struggling against the Pacers, BUT......his penetration still puts pressure on the team and it stops they from being able to front Yao. Why? Because it allows Yao to seal his man and opens up the middle for AB to drive. Rafer does not do this, he stands on the perimeter and tries to force the ball to the wings and hopes Yao can get position. This makes the Rockets too predictable on offense.....when Tmac is playing, he takes advantage and drives (Well he used to -pre knee injury) but with him out, the team has to have a penetrating player on the floor when the opposing team goes to front Yao. AB is the only option.....so when Adelman pulled AB and put Rafer back in....it was like watching paint dry as the lead dwindled away. It is time to play AB...and live with the results in crunch time, and limit Rafer's minutes...... Rafer can not run the offense without Tmac......he is too much of a liability. DD
Both of them are not the answer to our starting pg position. BTW, if you think our goal for this season is to win the title, your expection is too high!
LOL - I know.....I was actually leaning towards thinking that the team could get by with them rotating, but it seems that Adelman trusts Rafer more and has a short leash with Brooks. It should be the other way around....because without Tmac in the lineup, Rafer is just about worthless. I don't like Rafer, but I can understand people saying he runs the offense well...and when Tmac is out there, I can see it. But without Tmac Rafer is even more of a glaring eye sore. DD
I think with Battier back we're going to start seeing better rotations. I like the idea of Alston playing with Tmac and Brooks playing with Artest and Battier. I think having Artest and Battier and perhaps Chuck Hayes on the floor when Brooks is playing will help to minimize the damage done if a bigger guard gets by Brooks. Brooks is instant offense and he needs to see more time on the floor for sure.
Brook's problem is that he's not a leader on the offensive end. He's got some sweet moves, but he can't run an offense. Thats why they always put Barry or Tmac in with him (usually both) to call out plays and run the offense and such.
having a guy who can drive into the paint was one of the biggest needs of this team for a while. tmac has stopped doing it, for the most part. rafer, head, and now ron are all disappointments in this area. for now this means brooks is more valuable to the team than people realize. big picture means that we need another guy who can do this because brooks isn't enough.
Rafer's shot selection is worse this year, he has mastered the t-mac trade move: "the heat check 3-pointer"
brooks is great but his decision making is a huge problem still. he often drives and gets stuck without a good shot or dump off and he doesn't always run the offense effectively. i think a between rafer/brooks is ideal but brooks is a better scorer and might be better in certain late game situations.
http://www.82games.com/0809/08HOU1.HTM#onoff Aaron Brooks makes the Rockets 13 ponts per 100 possession worse when he's on the court.
that can also be due to him playing with the second unit which doesn't include the teams best scorers or defenders. numbers don't tell the whole story.
I agree. If Aaron Brooks is not shooting lights out or if he is making a few mistakes, Rick Adelman yanks him out and sits him on the bench while Rafer continues to play badly for 38 minutes. We really needed Brooks to break down the defense when no one could get the ball to Yao or Artest. Instead Adelman continued to watch the team force feed the ball to them to no avail and watch Rafer throw up bricks from the 3-point line. Adelman got really frustrated but he still made no changes and kepted Rafer in the game. Did he think things were going to magically change doing the same thing over and over?
DD, How come you didn't include Rafer sux in your title like you suggested in an earlier thread? I really liked that idea. I thought I hated Rafer more than anyone, but I think I have some competition. I used to agree that Rafer ran the offense better and made better decisions (blah blah blah) but the more I watch both of these guys the more I realize that Brooks can't do any worse than Rafer. Yeah, Brooks might get into the lane without a plan but is that any worse than Rafer getting into the lane, which is very rare by the way, and throwing up a monstrosity of a tear drop. Not in my opinion. I definately think that Rafer should start since we don't have another option and we need Brook's energy off the bench, but Brooks needs to be getting most of the minutes including crunch time.
TJ Ford was in down the stretch. You won't find a better matchup for Brooks, defensively. Ultimately, we needed one bucket to win that game. It seemed like we couldn't get a clean look in the last 5 minutes. With T-Mac out, there was one perimeter player capable of creating his own shot... and he was sitting on the bench. Maybe Rafer's defense outweighed what Brooks could have done offensively but maybe not. The Pacers were scoring pretty easily.
This is exactly how I feel, penetration is so key.....I don't know if starting Brooks is the answer, but without Tmac in the game, you need Aaron's penetraton more than Alston's calm floormanship. DD
As the old saying goes, you're looking for love in all the wrong places. Rafer isn't our make it/break it player. Blaming everything on Rafer is misguided. Our #1 problem is that Yao only dominates in spurts. #2 is TMac isn't healthy ...and when he is he isn't a 'closer'. We need TMac to step up and make big plays during crunch time. I'm tired of TMac's pull-up 40ft 3-pointers with 18 seconds on the shot clock with <5 minutes in the game. It sucks the life out of the whole team when he does that. If Yao and TMac can step up their games, Rafer will be adequate. But if you are expecting Rafer (or any other point guard that we can acquire) to be the difference maker, you are missing the point. Championship teams always have an MVP caliber player. Right now, we don't have one.
Rafer or Aaron, pick your poison. Neither is an elite PG. They will do when T-Mac or Yao is dominating.
need SF3 back! brooks cant def big PGs(the game against heats, he got ownd hard), and his passing skillz still not good enough. yes rafer sux on shooting but at least he could do better def than AB at most of time.
