His shooting is way down the list in terms of concerns. Defense remains his biggest issue. His decision making is also questionable (very questionable at times) He is not a good playmaker and he cannot pace the offense. Brooks is simply a scoring spark. The ideal 6th man, but not a player you want running your offense.
Last night - Shooting - poor Defense - poor court vision - good passing - good court generalship - good Of the things you think are his biggest weaknesses, Brooks did well on 3 out of the 4.
He's averaging more assists and isn't asked to do all of the playmaking. He isn't the best playmaker ever, I agree, but he's not that bad. His defense wasn't as bad yesterday. The other team hit some tough shots like the Billups 3. Give the team around 10 games before you jump to conclusions about the team.
This goes way back, not just from these 3 games. Brooks has never been good at pacing the offense. His defense was horrible yesterday truthfully speaking, just look at how many PFs he had. He could not stay with Billups nor Lawson. I like Brooks, but unless he addresses these concerns we are going to have a lot of backcourt issues.
He had a lot of fouls but Billups and Lawson shot 1-8 and 2-7. I agree Brooks' defense wasn't amazing but it wasn't that bad either. He did cost us that game in LA when he didn't close out on Steve Blake and watched Kobe instead though. His pacing of the offense has not been that bad. He will never be a good halfcourt point guard but he isn't asked to be a good halfcourt PG. I just think everyone is looking for a scapegoat as we are 0-3 despite being 3-0 in the first half. I also think that the problem is still interior defense more than anything else.
His defense wasn't horrible yesterday. It was poor but not horrible. He made the right rotations most of the time, had a great effort and nearly stole the ball from Billups near the end of the 4th quarter, and often got a hand up in the shooter's face. That didn't make up for his lapses, but it does slide him up the scale from horrible.
Guys, yes Aaron Brooks is shooting horrible from the field...however one improvement is that hes averaging 7 assist per game through 3 games, isn't that the direction most of us wanted him to go towards?? Being a scoring point guard but not at the expense of being a semi-true pg aswell??
I do have confidence that AB will pick up some of his slacks in the coming few games. The absence of Lowry gave Brooks a free pass on his mistakes, but Brooks will not get away with his slacks once Lowry is fully healthy. However, I still think Brooks is our ideal trade piece when it comes to acquiring a superstar. Brooks is a better player than Lowry, but Lowry is a better fit if we're stacked with scorers.
9 to 7 to 5...decline numbers are a no-no. If he can average 6-7 dimes per game, long term, i'd be a happy guy.
Averages are not necessarily the numbers to go by when you are dealing with a small sample size. While it is also interesting to note that those numbers are now declining, again it is too small of a sample size. I will say this though, all these flaws that a lot of you are complaining about has been going on for a long time now. It is simply because our D sucks even more now so the flaws are way more obvious. Back then, we had a mostly healthy Yao patrolling the paint most of the game and Artest and a more effective Battier locking down the perimeter. AB could get away with his r****ded defense, because the D was good enough to close in when his man gets by him. If Lowry continues to play poorly from injuries, I have a feeling more and more people will become sick of AB's lack of defense. That being said, his poor D is not completely his fault. Sure he has mental lapses due to his low BB IQ, but his small and slight frame is mostly to blame. AB is too short, too light, and too dumb to play good D. As far as his assists, he did initially surprise me with his improved passing, but again, most of these passes are lateral or forward passes after penetrations (with the exception of that one jump set he did to Battier in the preseason) and shows us that his court vision has not improved any (not a surprise at all since you can't exactly create something you weren't born with) and that he is trying to compensate with experience. Hell, he's since Lowry penetrate and dish enough times, he should be able to become better at it. For as fast as he is though, I really wanted to see more of that. Either way though, when compared to Ish, you immediately see the difference between good passer and crappy passer. As far as his shooting, honestly I am not worried. Everyone has good games and bad games and good streaks and bad streaks. What I am worried about is when he starts missing, he continues to pour it on. When you are having a bad game, going ahead with volume attempts just is not smart. With his speed, I expect more penetration where he either dishes it or finishes it. I have a pretty good feeling though, that he will pick up his shooting. AB is not a bad player by any means, just doesn't fit in that PG role. Ideally I would like to see him play the 2 spot, since we lose nothing on D anyways, but Martin is a much better 2 guard. I anticipate we will trade him before or at the deadline as he just simply doesn't help the Rockets in any way other than scoring and with all our new weapons, we don't need another one trick scorer, but a superstar instead to help with Yao's closing window.
According to some idiot who thinks himself the smartest person in the world and posts more than 70k times on this forum.
What will AB's role be in the long-term? Scola and Martin are both getting over 16 shots per game and we're working Yao back in. Last year, AB had free reign and now he's being asked to cut back. In all honesty, Brooks is the fourth option right now and that's a waste of his talents. I think this was an obvious issue in the preseason and even before. We're asking several big time scorers to be role players. Last year we started Chuck and benched Landry to create a balanced starting roster. This year, either Brooks or Martin need to be a sixth man.
I missed the Nuggets game so I only have the Warrior/Laker game to go off of, but from what I have seen the problem with the team is defense and identity, and I mean all around defense. People forget how Shannon Brown lit Kevin Martin up for 4 threes in the fourth quarter, but only remember AB blowing that one defensive assignment at the end (the corner three by Blake was contested, just a good shot). Stephen Curry played well against him, but that is understandable because he is a excellent player. Sometimes they light you up. Once Yao becomes a consistent part of the rotation, and Jordan Hill gets the playing time he saw last year, the team will take off.
