That's his role on the team, he was not called on to be a stopper, that fell to Bruce Bowen. His role is to be a great team D player, which he was.
107 and 111 during the ring years, compared to 98 for manu. So basically Kenny Smith was horrible defender compared to manu. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/smithke01.html
It has always been about team defense and funneling players toward yao. The problem is now yao is so immobile that he is getting pinned and slow to react moreso than ever. The rockets aren't contending for jack this season, so lets just get this out the way. Here is a bigger issue about the brooks/martin backcourt, scola is a bad defender also and battier is very average. So the starters have 3 below average defenders and 2 average defenders. Lowry is a better defender, but he will have major issues playing with yao. To me, this team is going to be bad defensively because none of the offensive and defensive players fit unless they get a guy like Iggy or prince.
Did you ever watch the spurs or are you stat watching? It was all about duncan and bowen. Thats why they smothered teams on defense. Also, if you beleive in the stats your dropping, I'm pretty sure the rockets played at a higher pace than the spurs did.
We are wasting our team Leeb.....this is the backup QB syndrome. Morey and Rick get it, doesn't mean everyone has to agree....people are free to be wrong. DD
my point with all of this is that it is a false argument to say that because the spurs won with ginobli and parker that we have a potential championship backcourt in martin and Brooks. Manu + Parker >>>>> Brooks & Martin on defense, and even then they were probably the worst defensive backcourt to win a championship in the last 30 years, and they still needed all the defensive help from an ALL-NBA defense Center, and an ALL-NBA defense SF. So unless our other 3 players are Bill Russell, Hakeem Olajuan and Scottie Pippen in their primes, I don't think a Martin Brooks backcourt is gonna cut it for a championship team.
This is just silly.....it always depends upon whom you are playing with, as to whether they can CUT IT, or not. You can say the same thing about Kyle, that he is such a bad shooter that he can never CUT IT, as a championship starting PG. But what is the point of saying that? Why not try to get the best combination on a nightly basis that helps the team win? Right now, the only way THIS TEAM COULD BE A CONTENDER...is if Yao is healthy and beasting. DD
Considering they were 1-5, starting 0-6 would be an amazing feat. The funny thing is that most of you Lowry folks are ignoring, the elelphant in the room, is the re-integration of Yao Ming into the game. He, single handidly has destroyed the team's identity and chemistry....... But of course, it is more simple to blame the team's PG, that is clearly the issue at hand..... DD
Stop Yourself......NOW! I would consider bringing him off the bench to add a consisitent spark to the second unit but never would I think we are better without him. If we are talking about trading him for another player equal or greater then thats another story. but lets not be foolish here...it is written.
Trugoy, your witch hunt is getting old. Brooks may not be good enough defensively to get it done, which I don't agree with, but Lowry is not a capable replacement starter. If you want to upgrade PG via trade, fine, but the answer is not Lowry. Brooks has one hole in his game, Lowry has four. Lowry is getting exposed as a starter, just as most of us predicted.
Not true. Under Van Gundy it was about each man challenging their individual man and challenging every shot, and everybody helping and switching to help everybody else. As a last result Yao/Deke were at the rim as rim protectors. Under Adelman, the defense was allegedly supposed to continue that scheme. Now, I'm not sure what discernable scheme they are running when Lowry and Battier aren't out there. But what I see is whether we are being passive or agressive. Defense is mostly about aggressively pursuing and challenging. When Lowry is not out there, there is no scheme and we are passive. There is no perimeter challenge and there is no rim challenge. When Lowry is out there, our defense takes on an identity and all of a sudden everybody's defensive efforts are magnified because Lowry is so disruptive.
Fair enough, and that is what is happening for sure. I don't think he is our best player, he is ONE of our best players, but our best player can change on any given night. Brooks however is our ONLY player late in the shot clock in a close game that we can trust with the ball. DD
Rondo Avery Johnson Ron Harper Plenty of PGs who couldn't shoot to save their lives have been part of championship teams, the constant is always defense and ability to run an offense. Also I dun mind if Brooks plays here but only as a sparkplug off the bench, but realistically he is not going to accept that.
There's not enough talent on this team for it to matter much, one way or the other. There's a bit of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, here. I'm with DaDa...Brooks is our best option as a closer. Which brings me back to point one: there's not enough talent on this team for it to matter much, one way or the other. As an aside...this is killing me. I'm getting emails and crappy Facebook trash talk from Dallas fans mocking Houston sports teams right now, the Rockets included. Please win, Rockets. Please...at least look respectable.
That's why the Rockets suck. Relying on an undersized SG who in the 1st 5 games, dribbled the ball off his feet and took ill-advised quick 3 point shots. Those ill-advised 3 point shots, is exactly what T-mac did. Top of the key long jumpers, when the team needs 1 point to take the lead. I rather we run a set play, like a pick and roll in a close game. Too bad AB, sucks at running the pick and roll play (at least comparing to other really good PG), than an AB ISO.
Thats your problem. Equating that players can only play well in wins and play bad in losses. Lowry was flat out bad last night.
