The whole lowry starting argument is completely theoretical with no hard evidence backing it up. Lowry would score a lot if ___. Lowry would get more assists if ____. You got to go with the guy giving you better production. Both are phenomenal players, but the guy with the numbers is going to get the nod..
I don't remember the starting PG job really being up for grabs in training camp. Lowry wanted to start, he said so, and by all accounts he was terrific in camp. But the starting job was Brooks's to lose. Adelman probably wasn't going to change that up unless Brooks sleepwalked through it.
So you don't think they competed for the job? Even if it were Brooks to lose if Lowry played that much better, Adelman would have started him. He wants to win, right? DD
That's roughly what I recall and I think had Yao been healthy and had we had a legitimate scorer on the perimeter like Martin, Lowry's chances to get the nod would have been greater (and, accordingly, Brooks' ability to lose the job would have been greater). I also think that Morey was likely thinking about both increasing Brooks' trade value while keeping Lowry's market value down in a season where contending was highly unlikely. Aside from all that, the need for scoring in a highly depleted starting lineup also favored Brooks' skill set, at least in theory. The Rockets will likely never again have so many offensively challenged players in their starting lineup as they did to start this season. In other words, only one of Ariza and Battier and Hayes goes back to a reserve role.
Again dude, 1 perimeter scoring option is worthless, did you not see that during tmac's entire tenure as a Rocket.
I don't have a problem with Adelman's decision, but no he isn't necessarily going to start the player who had the better training camp. So I don't think its accurate to say that Lowry had his chance and "failed".
I guess what was blatantly the biggest mismatch in the rocket's favor, and their early success in the playoffs vs the lakers last year was apparantly lowry dominating fisher despite the best player on the planet and one of the most versatile big men in the NBA playing against us.
Lowry shot .333% in the playoffs last year, why? Because Referees stop calling his jumping into people stuff, and the playoffs slow down and become a half court game. I do NOT want to watch another PG that can not shoot try to play a half court game..... DD
I don't really see the Tony Parker comparison. Parker's best quality as a scorer is his ability to score around the basket, and his worst quality is his perimeter shot. Brooks is just the opposite.
First, it's a myth that Alston was a horrible outside shooter. He was a pretty good 3pt shooter. It was everything inside the arc that made him so incredibly inefficient. I would guess that McGrady is/was a worse 3pt shooter than Alston despite taking more contested shots. Moving forward, Lowry is not a worthless scoring option. He's possibly even a very good scoring option when you factor in his ability to the get to the line at an elite level. His outside shot will also likely improve over time. Martin is a very good outside shooter and maybe Battier will still be here next season. Who knows? Maybe Morey figures Ariza will be much more efficient as he gets older and gets more set shots with Yao back in the mix. And what if Morey swings some deal out of left field that upgrades the team at the SF position and that SF is a very good 3pt shooter? Should Lowry start in that case? Or what if Morey nabs a PF in a deal that can space the floor? There are a lot of possibilities and I truly believe that in most of them Morey sees Lowry as the better fit as a starter.
What? Parker has the floater, Brooks is developing it to...he has tons of flips up and over defenders. Brooks is a better outside shooter, but he is getting better around the basket too... Brooks has hardly started a full season and people are ready to send him to the pine. It is staggering that they want to put the 2nd highest scoring PG in the entire league on the bench for a career backup PG. Just mind numbing. DD
Alston was always streaky. You never knew which version was going to show up. The guy who hits 40% of his treys for 3 or 4 games in a row, or the guy who was mediocre the rest of the time and would not stop shooting. While I'm glad he's gone, I'd certainly take McGrady's work at the arc over Rafer's.
This is getting old lemme just say this before I leave the thread EVERYONE in the NBA knows who the better player is and every GM knows who has a higher value. There is a reason that Lowry has never been a starter on a regular basis, not even in Memphis. Brooks has done plenty to prove himself this season and carrying the team during the playoffs to what was close to being arguably the biggest upset in NBA history. Lowry is a ****ing bench player, a great guy for energy and to run with younger guys. He is not a starter.
It's too early to define Lowry's career. He's still only 23 (turning 24 soon to be fair). Do you think Brooks would have become a starter for any other team than the Rockets? And his chance to start began when our supposedlly "superstar" wing player decided to get microfracture surgery. To my knowledge, Brooks has not shown any improvement when it comes to finishing around the basket. I'm not saying he won't but I don't think he has to this point. Plus, Parker is insanely efficient in traffic and at the rim. He also gets to the line a lot more. I think durvasa was completely right in that Parker and Brooks are closer to opposites when it comes to how they score. They are both quick but that's about it. I still think Brooks is more similar to a young Terry if you want to compare Brooks to a good, established player.
Every shooter in the league is streaky. When it comes to Alston's 3pt shooting, I prefer to look at his career numbers or how he shot over time during his Rockets tenure. He is not a bad 3pt shooter by any means. Personally, believe it or not, I'd prefer Alston taking an open 3 than McGrady. At worst, I'd be right in the middle if I'm underestimating the impact of McGrady taking more contested shots. The reason for Alston's miserable FG% is largely his shooting inside the arc. He is the worst of the worst in that respect. I believe he was right there with Josh Smith as the worst 2pt shooters in the league over a stretch of multiple seasons. If not for his decent 3pt shooting, Alston probably would be out of the league at this point.
Parker has lead the league in points in the paint in his career. Parker shoots 39% of his shots at the basket and shoots 64% on them. Brooks shoots 26% of his shots at the basket and shoots 48% on them. Parker draws a foul on 15% of his possessions. Brooks draws a foul on 6% o his possessions. They are completely different players
The last time Yao and Brooks played together Brooks had a difficult time passing into the post. Some say Yao is not able to hold his position. True, but with several caveats, e.g. the officials allow the opponents to push Yao as hard as they can and to beat him up at the post, but when Yao asserts his position he is often called for offensive fouls; the post passer, supposed to be the PG-Brooks- is often not looking to pass into the post, and on the rare times that he did, his bounce pass was often intercepted or batted away or short and slow causing Yao to bend low to get the ball and often creating a disruption in his timing. Post entry passes should always be on time and on target. Absent that, it becomes easier to front the post player and most of Yao's problems with fronting start with bad entry passes. Having said all of the above, the pro Brooks argument would logically seem to place Brooks as a first offensive option rather than Yao. Next year the Rockets would have so much more firepower compared to this season. They have Yao, Martin, Scola, CBud, and hopefully, a much more efficient shooter in Ariza. Remember, Battier did well offensively too when he played with Yao as he was often open for threes in the corners. With so much firepower and scorers in the line up the PG position is more compelled to have higher proficiency in setting up the shooters and, especially, organizing the offense, rather than producing a significant number of points as is the current case. On the defensive side the PG position is also very much compelled to protect Yao and the other bigs from committing fouls by preventing penetrations from opposing guards. Lowry's strengths would complement the Rockets line up next year much better than brooks'. Better yet, Morey may want to trade for an elite PG, which I have been advocating for quite sometime now.
Give me one realistic trade that another team's GM would do for Aaron brooks that would give value. Go down the list of starting PGs in the NBA and you will find that Brooks is in the bottom half.
Part of a bigger trade would be my guess. You see a lot of lesser players tossed into package deals. If Brooks was the main piece of the deal, I agree with you. I don't think that will be the case though.
As long as Brooks and Yao is on this team, Brooks will start. Having Lowry on the floor with Yao doesn't make sense when you have Brooks (currently 1st in the league for most made 3's) and K Martin (a good 3 pt shooter) to stretch the floor. Yao is going to get double teamed or fronted and will need ABs and K Martin's shooting to get the pressure off Yao. Period.
