[Various Sports Websites] Grading the Rocket's Draft

In the Morey post-draft audio, he made a comment that the Rox had intelligence that either Phoenix or San Antonio were keen on Brooks with the 28th (?) and 30th (?) picks. Has there been any confirmation of that rumor?

Brooks was, to me, a guy completely off our radar but I kind of like the waterbug now. He is fearless and quick and a pretty effective shooter and scorer. He'll put good pressure on the ball on D too.

 

You don't draft for need in the 20's. Everyone sucks at that point so you take the best player available hoping you came away with a diamond in the rough. I can understand the sentiment that perhaps we reached on Brooks, but it makes no sense that some of you are screaming that we should have picked up a stiff like Fazekas or McRoberts just so you won't have to look at an empty '4' slot when you type up those cute little depth charts.

 

Let's review a little history:

A three-time All-America, scored 2,548 points in 77 games (three seasons) and averaged 33.1 points per game over his college career. No doubt a prolific scorer, he tallied 30 or more points in 42 of 77 games, 30-39 points 23 times, 40-49 points 13 times and 50 or more points six times.

Yet, XXXXXX still had skeptics among NBA scouts. “My feelings were hurt,” XXXXXX recalled in the Post. “I had been a three-time All-American and nobody took me in the first round simply because of my size. I remember thinking, ‘How dare they treat me that way?’”

Guess who this is?

 

Calvin Murphy, 5'9" guard from Niagara

 

Exactly, our very own hall of famer, Calvin Murphy the Pocket Rocket.

 

You might notice that Brooks doesn't come close to those numbers. In fact, Brooks and Landry only COMBINE for 3 more ppg than Calvin Murphy. Outside of being short shooting guards, that is not a very good comparison. Would you regret passing on McRoberts because I posted a profile of former Duke PF Elton Brand? Is it a big mistake to skip over Davis because short and stocky PF Charles Barkley was a hall of famer?

 

I'm not expecting Brooks to be as successful as Calvin Muphy either. Brooks averaged about half of Murphy's production in college. Murphy' averaged 20 points in the NBA, Brooks averaging half of it at 10 ppg is good enough for a 26th pick. Besides, at 6'0" Brooks is much bigger than Murphy.

Your point is somewhat agreed, just because smaller player has the similar size doesn't mean they are the same type of player, it's inappropriate to equate Murphy to Brooks, and Brooks to JLIII. Brooks can turn out to be JLIII, or a much bigger Earl Boykins, or Chris Paul lite. Just wait and see.

The point of bringing up Murphy is to counter dimissing Brooks as a legit 26th pick for the sake of his size. A player either can play or can't play, lacking 1 or 2 inches won't make or break a player. Murphy was shafted due to his size despite his monstrous performance in college, Brooks too, at a smaller scale.

 

Brooks is very much on the Suns radar. But of course, according to some people, there's no way anyone was thinking of him for a 1st round pick because draftexpress.com and Chad Ford didn't say so. See below:

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if we are gonna use the traditional system of grading, i think morey gets an I

 

Wow...He said he's like Tony parker with a jumpshot Nice!!

 

If Brooks could be a Sam Casell impact player off the bench we'll all be calling Morey a genius. Plus he should help us run with the Suns, Warriors, etc. Only time time will tell. Either it was a great move or a horrible one. I can't see much gray area in between.

 

nbadraft.net gave us an A-...i guess they realized the available PF's were overrated

 

... and Calvin Murphy played for Niagra while Brooks played in the PAC 10/12 (whatever it is). Where is it easier and expected that one would dominate?

He kind of reminds me of Kevin Johnson. Brooks looks stronger than you expected from what we've read.

 

That kind of reminded me of the PR stuff the Rockets did during predraft workouts several years back. They had a guy in who was hyped as the next T-Mac, I forget his name, but he got kicked out the league for dog fighting.

 

I think AB is here to stay along with MJ, VSpan, and Head. Rafer and JL3 are almost sure to be gone....Rafer likely leaving via trade and JL3 via trade/cut/NBDL.

BTW those videos show that AB is a very intelligent guy, his response to questions were right on and didn't show much ego...except when he said he's like Tony Parker with a jump shot.

 

Where is it written that you don't go for "need" just because your drafting in the 20's?

That's horse-hockey as is all of the other crap being thrown around to defend Morey.

I'm pretty sure there's a reason that CD's departure was followed by an exit frrom the guy who SHOULD HAVE BEEN OUR GM!!!!

Les and Morey are alienating other front office Personnel, and other teams are having a field day with tossing rumors out about people they "might' take in order to influence those picking ahead of you...

Welcome to the NBA Morey. You got d*cked by older, wiser men than you.

If Landry gives us Boards, (especially if he out rebounds Milsap when we play the Jazz) then I'll upgrade my score from F to C-.

 

As true as this statement is, it made me lawl

 

You can't even really compare Barkley and Davis. Davis is about 3 inches taller and not even half the athlete that Barkley was.

 

That is the point. Using superficial similarities to compare players is dumb. The Pocket Rocket is not a good comparison to Brooks, whose college career was as similar to John Lucas's (III) as to Calvin Murphy's.