Finally, we have a player besides Rafer that can get the ball across the court and into the offense immediately. As long as the other PGs struggle with getting the ball upcourt, Brooks will continue to dig into their minutes.
I don't know ... Rafer might keep his starter job through next year if he maintains this level of play. All of a sudden he is now a legitimate threat to penetrate to the basket and score.
Not just get the ball across; Brooks is RUNNING the ball up. That was key to our fast break and easy shots. When you get up the court faster, it's easier to catch the defense off guard. One thing I've noticed from Rafer, James, and Francis is that they'll normally walk the ball up the court and that gives the defense time to set up.
In fairness to Rafer, he tries to push it up, but he's usually with the starters and 2 of them are slowpokes; Yao because he is actually slow and TMac because he likes to jog up these days and sometimes demands the ball to walk it up himself. Rafer gets alot of crap but he's trying. If only he can keep up his good shooting he's having lately.
to add, steve jogs it up the court and just about getting to the halfcourt line, he turns his butt to the defender... steve takes forever to set up the offense, clock is usually about down to 12 seconds when he gets to the 3 point line... i don't remember his pg skills being this bad back in the day!
Aaron Brooks seems to recognize what's coming much earlier than the other guards. When Denver started full-court pressing him, he saw it coming, and knew exactly where to go with the ball. Most of our other guards don't seem to realize as quickly. He also goes into the lane with a purpose, he doesn't just drive and throw up a floater or get up into the air without knowing where his outlets are. He looks to drive in order to suck in the defense and finds the open man. The few problems I've seen with him are his defense, and sometimes he picks up his dribble, which an NBA point guard shouldn't be doing. I'm sure he'll improve though.
Definitely should be #1 backup to Rafer. Skip is still doing a pretty good job running this team. James really needs to be traded, maybe for a draft pick.
I clearly remember Steve running the shotclock down. And then him driving in to take a desperation layup with 2-3 second left.
I do. I remember JVG frantically waiving his arms to get Steve to push it, but he would just keep walking it up. Steve would throw in a dribble "hop" every now and then but that didn't help.
The only draft pick in a mike james trade is for us to give one for another team to take him. He has negative trade value.
Trade bait? He's got the worst contract of anyone on the team (not counting McGrady), with 3 years remaining at a relatively high salary. I just don't see any team taking on Mike's contract without the Rockets having to take on another bad contract (see Howard, Juwan). That being said, I'd rather hang onto Mike than trade him for an equally bad contract. He's still a fiery competitor and could always come around later in the season.
