Low grade because those "analysts" apparently did not take into account the probability of the rise of home-grown superstars, as well as underestimated the power of team basketball.
I understand KL is much younger which indicates more potential and financial relief. But I think currently that RA is much better than him overall. See how many TOs did Rockets have against no-defense Dallas. Coach JVG's right. If a pg's a TO machine, he will not be on court. And Rafer was actually in the center of the picture at ESPN trade place. All other players behind him are paid much more than him. His trade actually is considered having more impacts than those big names.
I don't mind if sports writers have a low opinion of the trade, if they can make a solid case. But this trade analysis is rather superficial.
It's all a matter of how u look at it. Yahoo gives the houston trade an "A" read below: Houston acquires Kyle Lowry, Brian Cook; loses Rafer Alston Grade: A Both in a long and short term context, this is a win for the Rockets. Lowry isn't a game changer, and the Rockets will run the risk of losing him if they don't give him the starting spot he earned in Memphis (check Lowry and Mike Conley's stats as a starter, Lowry out-played his more famous ex-teammate), but he was contributing more at age 22 than Rafer Alston was at age 32 this year, with an ability to defend and take charges that the Rockets can't help but admire. He's never going to be an All-Star, and a championship contender would only hope to have Lowry as the first guard off the bench even in his prime as opposed to having to start him, but the Rockets weren't doing anything with Alston. No slam on Rafer, but he was only going to get worse year by year as he's done for the last four seasons, and Lowry is a cheaper upgrade that comes 10 years younger. Brian Cook can shoot. Or, he used to be able to shoot. And Yao has really never had a Matt Bullard-type to play spot minutes with in the front court at the power forward spot. Still, there appears to be a lot of rust on Cook's game at this point. This could be the change he needs.
i really dont care about what our grades are. we got a low grade for drafting AB and Landry, but a B+ for drafting Head. These so-called analysts don't know anymore than you or I. I personally think this is a great pick-up and improves our team for this year, as well as the future. I am a bit partial though, since i have been crushing over Lowry for that couple years. Go rockets.
I don't think this was some bad ass trade that is really going to improve our team. But at the same time, you can't say we lost with this trade. You already have a back up that people were clamoring to start in Aaron Brooks. If you just flat out bench Alston that could create some animosity between the players and coaches, so in a way this could be seen as a subtle way to give Brooks the starting job. However, how much worse is Lowry than Alston? I wouldn't say he is THAT much worse. I mean, every team with a bad PG situation has been trying to deal for Lowry. So he's at least borderline starting PG quality to some teams, which is what Rafer was. If for some reason Lowry is a bust, we can fall back on Brooks to start and we don't really get THAT much worse at the PG position. On the other hand, this guy could turn into the next Rondo or Nelson. Essentially we are giving up a little bit of talent in the short run for potentially the better player in a year or two. And finally, I think until Morey completely blows a trade/draft, I think we gotta give him the benefit of the doubt. He's yet to mess up completely. Howard for James turned into BJax, which turned into Artest. And lets not forget the draft pick swaps that led to us getting Green and an early 2nd rounder, which again led to Artest being a Rocket. He buys an early 2nd rounder and it turns into Landry. A late first pick in the draft becomes our current starting PG. And we havn't even talked about him nabbing Scola for nothing (remember when PF was a weak spot on this team?). The only time you might be able to say he messed up a deal was with the Gay-Battier trade. Although as bad as we messed that trade up, we cleared some dead salary and got a solid role player out of the deal.
