(without reading too much of this thread to avoid influence) I like Brooks in his current role. The Kyle Lowry mention actually relates a little, in that I've mentioned before Brooks would be nice doing Lowry's kind of role - an off-the-bench aggressive attack minded guard who changes pace, and has freedom to create in an offensive system. (I REALLY wished Kyle Lowry woulda been included in the Battier deal but Brooks will do in place) Its always "possible" that Brooks CAN start, but that'd probably happen after unwanted circumstances like injuries and continued poor play from the other guards. Also if we're going off Brook's current performance then we'd have to consider the current performance of Rafer as well. And Rafer (uncharacteristically) is showing he's an adequate starting point guard for this team. So no need to rush Brooks into the starter role just yet. Buuut, it seems Rafer is the last guy standing in front of Brook's path.
Re: The defensive argument --- FWIW, Brooks is currently third on the team in +/- on defensive rating at -5.67, behind Rafer (-5.89) and Chuck (-6.13), although the sample size is still somewhat limited as he only recently started to get significant playing time. His overall +/- is 10.29 which is by far the highest on the team (followed Rafer at 8.45, and Chuck at 4.59). At this stage, it certainly doesn't appear that he's hurting the team defensively at all. The tip-ins on Friday night by Lowry were concerning, but you have to also realize that Lowry is a *great* rebounding point guard who recorded a triple double in preseason against the Rockets. That said, I fully expect him to get abused by Baron Davis on Monday evening, just like most other point guards in the league do. That won't change my assessment him so far, and it shouldn't.
Wow, you found 1 of Nash's 2 blocks on the season on YouTube! And, yes, I think he could pull something like that, too. He has way more leaping ability than Nash. That was an outstanding play by Nash but he is still not a good defender. You just picked an anomaly to support your case. Brooks already has 1 block on the season in far less time than it took Nash to get 2. So why don't I find a clip of that and make the claim that Brooks is a better shotblocker than Mutombo. That would be your type of argument. I don't remember who it was but Brooks stuffed a 7-footer during Summer League on his way to a couple of blocks in one game. On occasional blocked shot by a PG rarely says a lot about their overall defensive ability. Dwayne Wade is probably the best shotblocking PG in the league but is widely recognized as a relatively poor defender. He can get to passing lanes and pick up steals with the best of them, too, but he is still known to be a poor one-on-one defender. That is not BS, either. Wade is not a good overall defensive player.
http://www.slate.com/id/2143226/ In the summer of 2004, Steve Nash signed a widely ridiculed five-year, $65 million contract with the Phoenix Suns. His former team, the Dallas Mavericks, would have liked to re-sign him but couldn't see making a long-term, expensive commitment to a 30-year-old point guard with back problems and a reputation for playing terrible defense. http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/Blazinhot54/Steve_Nash/30755 My argument for this is simple. His defense is atrocious. Smush Parker is scoring at will on Steve Nash and making him look worse than a Kobe dunk ever could. Getting dunked on by Kobe is one thing, but getting man-handled by Parker is a whole different ball game. This time last year Nash was MVP, and no one outside of inner city New York had even heard of Smush, now he is causing big time problems for the NBA's "Most Valuable Player." http://www.stopmikelupica.com/2007/10/shawn_marion_tired_of_being_wi.php And nobody talked about Marion. The guy whose defense and rebounding allowed those fact breaks to occur. The guy who cleaned up Nash's horrible defensive lapses. The guy who ability to sky made the other half of those beautiful alley-oops from Nash work, and the guy who set the picks, did what he was suppose to do in the system, and hit those open threes. A Maverics fan said this: Look at it this way. Nash is great on offense and horrible on defense. Without Nash have we lost a step on offense? If any barely. The key though is without Nash our defense has improved by leaps and bounds. THATS the key.
Can Nash do this? Brooks block #1 (against Brandon Bass, Mavs 6'8" PF): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqMoU4qxjLk&feature=related How about this? Brooks block #2 (against Ivan Radenovic, Arizona 6'10" PF): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSS7jmuPO-g&feature=related Nash blocked a PG in your clip. Let's see him get up to block a big man.
Here is Block #3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVjz2ngZGtw&feature=related \ Get your Nash mini-block the heck up outta here!
I ain't tryin to say too much here but notice the physical resemblance during college between this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzsl5Yd6hqs and this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4lFZVC5Utg
I watched a Villanova vs UConn game and Kyle Lowry impacted the game the most. More than Randy Foye and Rudy Gay and several other All Americans & drafted players on the same court. Lowry is TOUGH as nails, almost to the extent of worry that his body can't handle it. Oooh really? Yeah BrooksBall needs to say even MORE about Brooks. Not enough supporting evidence coming from him here.... (thanks for using one my youtube clips ) Lets go ahead and embed it <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xqMoU4qxjLk&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xqMoU4qxjLk&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object> The play itself was nice, but I like more how they keep gushing and raving about Brooks like they just witnessed King James in high school.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Brooks has been playing well and has pretty much made sure Steve and Mike will get DNPs the rest of the season. But, come on, even the most ardant Rafer hater has to admit now that he is the best point guard on this team! Rafer is our starter, Brooks is our back up...maybe it'll change in seasons to come, but those expecting him to start by playoff time...come on even Cassell didn't start.
The offense runs much better when he is in the game. Brooks actually pushes the ball and this gives the Rockets easy lay up opportunities. Even when we don't get a lay up at least there's a lot more time on the shot clock to run the offense.
I agree. The offense looks much better when Brooks is playing. He's a natural passer and on top of that he can pull the trigger. Concerns about his defense are exaggerated.
brooks is defintely nowhere close to an NBA starter. he was getting dominated by jameer nelson last night. u dont get dominated by fringe pg's like nelson if u want to be a starter in the league.
Err.. Nelson is definitely not a fringe PG. He's a bonafide starter and even though he has struggled a little recently, there are plenty of teams in the league that would have him as their starting PG in an instant. Brooks seemed to have some trouble defending him in the first half, but I think that's more related to rookie inexperience than anything else. You'll notice that he was much more effective in the second half on both ends of the court, which is another indicator that he is a quick learner and knows how to make adjustments to his game on the fly.
