Your take on Lowry

yeah son lowry actually needs some work on his long-range shooting, but I would like to see him keep cold at the arc. his fg% is above 50 for the games he has played for rockets even though he doesn't do well from the arc, and i feel pretty content for his current performances. Brian Cook is an absolute filler in the trade that we made with magic and grizzlies last month, obviously the grizziles got robbed again.

I suppose the grizzlies also knew Lowry is more valuable than Rafer, but they still traded him anyway because they have already got too many good guys on their backcourt. Mike Conley still needs to prove himself, but O.J. Mayo has already grown to be the co-leader of the grizzlies. If Lowry keeps such modest stats till the expirement of his contract, then morey won't spend too much re-signing him, 3m-4m at most IMHO considering the bad economic condition. If Lowry plays as great as Mayo next season then the very chance is he will leave the rockets when his contract expires in the summer of 2010, because the rockets will have to set down Yao and Scola's contract before taking a look at Lowry.

 

Absolutely agree...

 

When Rudy said Rodrick Rhodes could be taught to shoot, I believed him.

I'm not inclined to believe this again. If you're capable of shooting well, 15 years of hoops, including a college career in it, should have proved it by now.

Everything else about Lowry, I love. I didn't think Rafer's defense was that bad. Still don't. But Lowry's awesome.

That inability to hit the long-range shot is gonna hurt us, though. A lot. Part of the reason Hakeem could do his magic was that 3 other guys on the floor, and often 4, could always hit the 3. Yao didn't have that with Rafer, and he has it even less with Lowry.

 

Lowry and Brooks are a terrific combination in my opinion.

You have Brooks as the fast player with great accuracy, and Lowry as the stronger PG with better defensive capabilities and driving abilities due to size.

What we need know is both of our PGs to actually play PG more. We need them to start creating more plays for the team. Hopefully, both players can grow into this role, and we'll have ourselves a deadly combo of Brooks and Lowry, both demand a lot from the opposing PG's physical, defensive and offensive capailities when on the court.

 

Lowry needs to start.

Brooks needs to come off the bench.

 

I still think we can expect a younger player's outside shooting to improve.

This is pretty simple, but I looked up a few numbers over at basketball-reference.com. Here are the bottom 10 players, over the past 10 seasons, in 3P% during their first 2 seasons in the league (min. 100 3-point attempts):

http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/tiny.cgi?id=7SMUi


    Player             yr1-2    G     MP     3P   3PA   FT    FTA   3P%      FT%    3P%_next2 FT%_next2  3P%_impr FT%_impr
1   Larry Hughes       99-00    132   3312   37   177   386   528   20.9%    73.1%    19.0%     75.1%     -1.9%     2.0%
2   Andre Miller       00-01    164   4941   27   113   601   742   23.9%    81.0%    23.1%     80.7%     -0.8%    -0.3%
3   Jamaal Tinsley     02-03    153   4679   88   341   211   298   25.8%    70.8%    37.2%     74.0%      11.4%    3.2%
4   Kyle Lowry         07-08    92    2264   39   148   268   376   26.4%    0.713    n/a       n/a        n/a      n/a
5   Devean George      00-01    108   938    31   115   66    96    27.0%    68.8%    37.1%     72.7%      10.1%    3.9%
6   Jose Calderon      06-07    141   3101   32   118   195   235   27.1%    83.0%    41.6%     94.5%      14.5%    11.5%
7   William Avery      00-01    114   947    34   122   52    72    27.9%    0.722    n/a       n/a        n/a      n/a
8   Russell Westbrook  09-09    72    2344   33   116   305   371   28.4%    0.822    n/a       n/a        n/a      n/a
9   Ronald Murray      03-04    96    2083   67   234   173   243   28.6%    71.2%    25.8%     71.7%     -2.8%     0.5%
10  Baron Davis        00-01    164   4715   110  385   325   490   28.6%    66.3%    35.3%     61.6%      6.7%    -4.7%


I added their 3-point shooting over their next 2 seasons, with a similar cutoff (at least 100 3-pt attempts). 3 of them dipped a bit in their percentages, 4 increased, and for the rest there isn't data. On average, there was a big improvement in this group -- +5% in 3P%, not to mention a +2% on FT%.

Calderon, in particular, was a poor 3-point shooter his first two seasons but has developed into one of the best in his second two years.

Granted, that's just looking at 10 players, but those improvements fall in line with what I'd expect more generally for players that don't shoot great their first couple years.

 

At least Lowry has an excellent mid-range game. And he's really good at cutting to the rim and finishing. Yao seems to be picking up that part of Adelman's offense, the quick pass to the player cutting to the basket (Spurs game with Scola being a great example) and the pass the open man for the mid-range J. All predicated by the movement/read and react aspect of the offense. When it's working right, we should get easy baskets, and not just from Downtown. Lowry is a very good option for that and should get better. And Yao has all the tools to play that way. They just need more time to get good at it. The practice they should be getting now will pay dividends, IMO.

 

This sums up exactly how I feel.

My take on Lowry hasn't changed even a little bit since I started this thread about it immediately after the trade. Lowry is a younger, faster, more attacking-type player. He isn't just better than Rafer for us in the future, he's better for us right now.

 

I loved the trade. He draws fouls, creates, doesn't force anything. The guy has a promising future with us. He plays within his game. Great job Daryl Morey.

 

I think that's kind of a compensation for Gay's trade.

 

raw talent waiting to explode over time. a smart player overall knows how to operate the offense

 

What do you smoke?