With the players on our roster currently and seeing how our bench has played this season, I don't see how anyone still can argue that brooks should be the starter. Its not about who is the best singular player its about what the team needs. This team desperately needs someone like brooks coming off the bench to keep the offense moving. I'm not trying to say that our situation is ideal by any means, but its obvious lowry starting and brooks coming off the bench is the best we can do with what we have. Lowry = starter brooks = jamal crawford, ben gordon, jr smith, nate robinson, jason terry, oj mayo, james harden, lou williams all of these guys do TWO thing very well... 1 - come off bench 2 - score no shame in coming off the bench...especially when our starting roster when fully healthy already has 3 very capable scorers.... this seems like such simple stuff, but I guess that's just my 2 cents
Dada is right. At this point, we need them both because we have no other superstar scorer and no other true playmaker. Either one of them being down hurts us. And I fully suspect when Brooks gets healthy and if one of them is not traded, that we will see Lowry and Brooks closing a lot of games in the backcourt because of the extreme mismatch Brooks gives us offensively, especially against another team's SG/SF. However, in half court games, the closing sequence is likely to be this barring trade: Defense: Lowry, Lee, Battier Offense: Lowry, Brooks, Martin Lowry will be the mainstay closing out almost every game that is close. The only situational substitute for Lowry is if we need one shot at the buzzer and we go with a lineup of Brooks, Lee, Martin, Budinger, Battier.....and even then I say Lowry should be in that lineup and Chase out.
DD, I don't know why you're even bother acknowledging him. Don't feed the trolls and they'll go away. We need Brooks back. I've never wavered from that. And to the poster citing Brooks record as 0-5, please stop. That is a terrible argument in favor of Lowry starting, and I want Lowry to start. Brooks is the only guy on our team who can get off his own shot at an acceptable FG% when it matters. Kevin Martin is useless.
Thank you.......and the closer for that particular game is whomever is playing the best. The team is organized for AB to start, Kyle to come in running and whomever is playing best to close....and sometimes that is both of them. Whenever AB or Kyle struggle, we stink......our PGs are what make the entire team go.... DD
Nah, because Kyle was hurt some, which probably skewed the stats...I just want to see AB and KL healthy and playing..... Because having 2 options is better than having 1. DD
That should help answer your question: http://www.82games.com/0910/CSORT11.HTM http://www.82games.com/0910/09HOU2.HTM#clutch http://www.82games.com/0910/09HOU1.HTM#clutch Brooks had 180 minutes in "clutch time", Lowry had 72 minutes. Lowry played less games, but Brooks for the most part was our primary finisher last year.
So was Terry and Ginobli and that didn't stop them from being willing to take a back seat for the good of the team. Sensible Lowry supporters aren't saying to not play Brooks, but that a Brooks and Martin back court is not defensively viable. One of them needs to come off the bench, because neither has the word defense in their lexicon. AB WILL benefit the team more by playing in the secondary, because: - Typically 2nd stringers are crappier and he will burn them easily - Our 2nd unit often lacks offensive effectiveness, so having a scorer will keep our offense going - By coming off the bench, he should have more than enough energy to close the 4th every game I know that certain posters will just blindly dismiss all this as "impossible" and continue to bleat that "AB should start" because he is the better player. Who cares that AB being our lead last year took us to the lottery right? Who cares that as the supposed top option of our team cannot play D or pass for dimes right? It is all about the scoring! Though it is most likely pointless, but a team led by AB will NOT get us into the playoffs.
So is Trevor Ariza. Do you always rate players by one series? Hell, if that's the case, Bonzi Wells might a top 10 SG all time seeing how he put up 23/12 for an entire series vs. an amazing defensive team. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/wellsbo01.html
This is even more interesting. Check AB's 1st playoff stats. Attacking Lowry's playoff performance 3 years ago is like attacking AB's playoff performance against Jazz 4 years ago. They don't mean much. Both Lowry/AB are better players than 3 years ago and the team is totally different. That team need more scorers, this team need more defenders. Lowry has no proven regular season starting performance either until this year. He couldn't perform well enough with starters a couple seasons ago doesn't mean he can't perform well with starters now. It also comes down to match ups. The match up of Fisher/Blake is in favor of AB. They both are not scorers and they both are slow. Change to a bigger scoring guard it could very well be in favor of Lowry. Not to mention the first playoff series are all about Yao/Scola. That "proven in playoffs" thing is way overblown.
That's interesting. Didn't know it was that skewed. And I do feel that skew comes into play more prominently because of Lowry's injury and early we were not playing Brooks and Lowry together. When we were making our primary playoff push and winning the most, it was with Lowry running the point to close out games and Brooks playing off guard.
I don't know why you make such an assumption. So far there is no proof that Lowry fits Yao better than AB. Sura couldn't or wouldn't get the ball to Yao as I liked, but I consider him a better PG than Rafer when healthy. Why? Because he has other attributes to make the team win more. Same as Lowry, I like Lowry more because of the way he plays. He is like a poor man's Kidd in his prime, a Bob Sura without knee problem. On the other hand AB reminds me of a poor man's Marbury in his prime. A very nice offensive player with no defense at all. You saw what happened with that Marbury/Kidd trade.
Has there ever been a player that fits well with Yao? Or maybe I should ask it the other way. Has there ever been a player that Yao fits well with?
To a certain degree, Tmac. When Tmac wants to pass to Yao, he does that well. There is no need to fit Yao that much on offense. They just need to be tall enough to pass him in low post and be able to hit 3s reasonably well. Yao can create for himself and others in low post. Defensively, anybody who can fight screen well fits Yao. Yao's biggest weakness is pnr defense.
Rafer and Sura were also a complement to Yao as well. What all these guys have in common is height. Yao is not good at catching bounce passes, and if I recall correctly all these players make lob passes over their defenders to Yao.
Sura and Rafer both utilized the bounce pass to get the ball to Yao. That and angles set up by having the floor spaced properly. Rafer was only a couple inches taller than Lowry/Brooks. Sura was an inch or two taller than Rafer. Both 4-5 inches shorter than the T-Mac/Battier/Artest combo.
And we heard tons of whining about "Why doesn't Sura pass Yao the ball"? Then it was "Why doesn't Rafer pass Yao the ball?", now it is..... It is Yao's fault that he is such a crappy receiver of the ball...for a big man he has a tiny window..... DD
If I recall correctly they both utilize the bounce pass, but they primarily focus on the over the head pass. Rafer and Sura both have decent size for a PG (they also have good court vision), so they are able to utilize the over the head pass. Our PG combo are shorter than most other PGs, so they have to utilize the bounce pass more. It's much easier for the defender to steal a bounce pass than a lob pass for a guy like Yao because of his size and length. I think we've seen time and time again Yao losing the ball (or having it stolen) when it's a bounce pass but when it's a lob pass the defenders have little to no chance of intercepting it (Yao is too tall and too long for the defenders to steal a lob pass). The only player on our team now who complements Yao the most is Shane Battier. He makes great entry passes to Yao. I swear if we might actually be able to fully utilize Yao if our whole line up consisted of nothing but 6 ft 5 or taller players.
