I don't care what he was once upon a time, that's not what he is now. Today, he's a fringe NBA player likely on his last ever contract. If he ever leaves the bench, it should be only in garbage time.
As many here know, i was a huge fan of the 2012 draft and for good reason. Many of those players went on to have good rookie seasons. All because they got to play actual NBA minutes consistently. They were allowed to go through their rookie mistakes and all. Especially in the case of Golden State. All three of their rookies contributed well on a playoff team. The same could be said for Portlands 3 rooks. If Jones, T-Rob or Motiejunas(or all three) were allowed the type of playing time the GS rookies got, we would have beat OKC.
How old do you think Brooks is????.... 45??? The guy is only 28 years old, still has plenty of quickness left in his first step, is probably smarter now, more mature, and will probably end up bringing his shooting percentage back to his career average at some point. The only reason why Brooks is finding himself at the end of an NBA bench is because he made a mistake to go to China during the lockout when he was set to become a free agent. Also, the PG position in general is much deeper now from the influx of young talent at the position. Open roster spots are getting much harder to come by. Brooks might very well end up out of the league in a year or so, but he's not a player Im willing to count out just yet. We are just going to have to see how training camp and the preseason play out. I for one, am not making bold assumptions... I've been following this team for way too long to know that things can change very, very quick around this organization.
I don't care how old he is, the reason he's found himself at the end of a bench is because his play has fallen off a cliff. He could be 23 and it wouldn't matter, he's not the player he once was. You can be washed up at 28.
Rockets might just not be your rookie friendly team. You got to live with that. They are using 2nd year player more though.
GSW and Portland weren't concerned with making the playoffs though, we were. I agree their rookies put up better stats, but IMHO it's better that the rooks realize PT is precious and have to be earned rather than them getting it handed to them immediately. It took a while for Parsons to supplant C-bud even though it was clear he was better from day 1, but when it happened he left him in the dust.
So you are trying to tell me that Basketball reference is lying about which lineups were the most productive and McHale simply played less productive lineups with Morris & Patterson because he was trying to prove a point to the rookies? http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2013/lineups/ You can argue about sample size all you want, but Motiejunas especially had plenty of minutes(538) to prove himself... Jones, for whatever reason, did not get that chance(276 minutes)... but did have moments both very good and very bad. The inconsistency on his part was very telling. And your theory about how rookies improve when they play through mistakes might not be true... Motiejunas was a perfect example... it seems like productivity wise... he actually looked WORSE on paper the more minutes he played. Obviously the work he needed was not during NBA crunch time minutes. While D-Mo & Jones might be better than Morris & Patterson in a few years, its obvious that they weren't last year... and rightfully so... they had experience in the system and multiple years of experience in professional NBA basketball... if you don't think that accounts for anything than I don't know what to tell you. The numbers don't lie. Teams like Golden State and Portland run their teams much more lien going into training camp, and that's why rookies can typically get more PT for better or worse from day 1. They have no competition. The Warriors only brought in 16 players to training camp... meaning only 1 player had to be cut... that's virtually NO competition. I personally believe that with Morey's background in economics, there is a very simple explanation as to why the Rockets bring in 20 some odd bodies into training camp every year rather than the 16 or 17 a team like Portland might bring in..... Its basic economic theory. Competition in theory yields the best results. Maybe YOU don't agree with this, and think that rookies should automatically get penciled in 30+ minutes a night, but I'm just letting you know that this isn't the way Morey & McHale work.... so your just going to have to get used to it... I dont think they are going to change the way they do business buddy.... Sorry.
The rule of thumb for any coach to play their rookies is in their defense. Barnes, Ezeli, and Green were all decent defenders. Lots of PT for them and especially for Barnes who was excellent on D and got the most PT. Jones, DMo, Royce, and Machado were all terrible on D. No D = DL. Lamb was also a terrible defender and got little PT even in OKC. Parsons was a good defender his rookie year, PT for him. If Canaan can't defend, he will be in DL for quite a awhile. Any player who isn't named Kyrie and wants his roster spot, he better know how play D.
Chase Bundinger, terrible at D, but got plenty of playing time and a near MLE contract after not playing at all last year. The main thing about getting playing time is consistency. Coaches want to know what they are going to get in terms of effort and production. It is just easier to be consistent at playing D than on offense. Even Lin lost minutes because of his inconsistency. Coaches rather have a player that gives you 15-18 pts every game at a good clip than a player that get 35 one game and 8 the next. To circle back to Canaan. If Canaan can show that he can hit the 3 at a 40 percent clip without turnovers, he will get playing time regardless of how crappy his defense is.
Ok... the Rockets have 4 PG's going into training camp which means all 4 will have to try that much harder, and work that much more on their individual & team games to make the roster & earn a spot in the rotation therefore making the team that much better with better production. Having 4 PG's going into training camp means greater competition which should lead to greater production. Since this applies to Brooks Im assuming he will either thrive or fail.... not linger around with less than ideal production just because he was handed over a guaranteed roster spot & minutes.
Alot of rookie success has to do with Role & fit though too... Its not always as much defensive fit as it is overall roll. The Rocket in the past 2 years really needed the lockdown defender from the 2/3 spot in McHales system and that is maybe why Parsons got the nod over Budinger & T-Will at the start of the season. Budinger the previous year was just too good of a fit in Adelman's system with that bench unit to deny him PT to play T-Will instead. Keep in mind that the team was much more lean at those positions at the time just like Golden State was last year... which forced them to use rookies like Ezeli & the other worthless rookie nobody cares about. Even back a couple years ago with the Heat when Mario Chalmers won minutes over veterans like Mike Bibby because his floor spacing really was an overall better fit playing alongside Lebron & Wade. Canaan's success really depends on fit which I think could ultimately work in his favor if his 3 point shot lives up to its reputation. I think its safe to say that his lack of knowledge and experience will ultimately put him at a disadvantage in training camp but I wouldn't say there is zero possibility of him showing promise in certain lineups where he could be effective in providing more space for the core players to operate. His defense will be a major factor in his PT earned, but its just going to come down to whether the positives and production of the lineups he gets an opportunity to try out for outweigh the potential negatives of potentially poor rookie defense.
Rookies are never known to be consistent on offense. Parsons' first 20 games in his rookie season. There is no offensive consistency whatsoever. Like I said, it's a rule of thumb and doesn't necessary apply to ALL cases. In general, rookies who can play D (Avery Bradley, Parsons) will get his PT over players like Lamb. <PRE> Rk Date Tm MP FG FGA FG% PTS 1 2011-12-29 HOU 16:34 2 5 .400 5 2 2011-12-30 HOU 16:49 5 9 .556 13 3 2011-12-31 HOU 0:06 0 0 0 4 2012-01-03 HOU 2:51 0 2 .000 0 5 2012-01-04 HOU 24:29 5 8 .625 11 6 2012-01-06 HOU 18:43 3 6 .500 6 7 2012-01-07 HOU 30:15 1 6 .167 2 8 2012-01-10 HOU 31:18 9 16 .563 20 9 2012-01-11 HOU 32:43 4 10 .400 8 10 2012-01-13 HOU 36:07 5 9 .556 11 11 2012-01-14 HOU 16:41 2 6 .333 4 12 2012-01-16 HOU 29:21 4 7 .571 8 13 2012-01-17 HOU 31:03 3 7 .429 7 14 2012-01-19 HOU 24:34 1 5 .200 3 15 2012-01-21 HOU 22:02 2 6 .333 5 16 2012-01-23 HOU 33:56 2 6 .333 5 17 2012-01-25 HOU 36:23 7 14 .500 16 18 2012-01-27 HOU 19:07 2 7 .286 4 19 2012-01-28 HOU 28:32 0 4 .000 0 20 2012-01-30 HOU 33:03 4 10 .400 9</PRE>
Three point percentage has a high degree of correlation from college. 3PTAs don't correlate as well as things like poor shooting form get exposed by faster rotating defenses. Canaan has good form. Canaan took a lot of pull up three pointers. In NBA, he should get better looks out of catch and shoot opportunities. There may be a little adjustment to NBA line, but he most likely will be one of the better if not the best three point shooter on the Rockets roster even if he is down on RGV halfway through the season.
Rookie survey Which rookie will have the best career? Others receiving votes: Isaiah Canaan, Houston; Which rookie is being most overlooked? T-5th: Isaiah Canaan, Houston, 5.7 percent Which rookie is the best playmaker? T-3rd: Isaiah Canaan, 5.9 percent Which rookie is the funniest? T-3rd: Isaiah Canaan, 11.4 percent Who is your favorite player in the league? 1: Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers -- 21.2 percent 2: LeBron James, Miami -- 15.2 percent T-3rd: Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City & Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas -- 12.1 percent T-5th: Kevin Garnett, Brooklyn & Chris Paul, L.A. Clippers -- 9.1 percent Others receiving votes: Carmelo Anthony, New York; Vince Carter, Dallas; Tim Duncan, San Antonio; James Harden, Houston; Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio; Steve Nash, L.A. Lakers; Dwyane Wade, Miami
