I agree that if Ish Smith proves himself to be this good Lowry could be expendable - but one game, as beautiful as it was, hardly proves that. However, I disagree that Rondo was unheard of or unheralded coming into the league. I knew who he was when he was 16 years old. He was a very highly touted high school player.
He doesn't, at all. They have completely different styles of play. Brooks amazing shooter plus so-so passer. Ish (hopefully, if he can consistently play like tonight, and against good opponents) amazing passer plus so-so shooter. Having both makes this team amazing. Having one of the two makes us okay.
We saw tonight how the game is played when you have a pg who knows how to play his role. It was a beautiful game to watch, just the way basketball is supposed to be played.
Guys, come on, now! You ought to know better. Kyle Lowry CANNOT be traded to Cleveland until late July 2011. Not even if Kyle consents, which he'd have to do to be traded anywhere else.
Daryl Morey's really got himself a dilemma now. We've got three quality points but each one of them has an all-world strength coupled with a glaring weakness. For Brooks that weakness is defense (with passing/court vision/ATO ratios a distant second). For Lowry and Smith it's outside shooting. The shooting concerns were bad enough for Smith (30.1% career 3PT, 48.4% career FT%) not to get drafted. How do the minutes get divied up? Is there any precedence in history for a great team to start a PG absolutely horrible at shooting 3's? The rest of our perimeter players besides Lowry and Smith are perhaps the best collection of shooters the Rockets have ever assembled--Brooks, Martin, Battier, Lee, Budinger, any of whom could feasibly break 40% this year although the odds favor only a couple of them doing so. Can a team get by with a crappy PG shooter if the other guys are great at outside shooting? The outlet pass to the point guard would thus resemble much of what Lowry has done for us when he's been wide open in past years: pump fakes and drives to dish, finish, or simply draw the foul. A lot of what Morey's done with his team has been unprecedented. But this one will be fascinating to observe in terms of how we resolve the issue. We NEED to get better on defense. They know it, we know it, they've said it, we've said it, there is no alternative than to do so. The easiest way in my mind to augment that process of regaining our defensive prowess would be to cut Brooks' minutes, or even trade him. Evidently Smith looks like a good defender also, although he's more in the vein of Chris Paul with his ability to hit lanes in a split second with his quickness. But Brooks provides the team with so much good; things like 3pt shooting and polished finishes at the rim, things we've not seen before in a Rockets PG since probably Cassell and the Jet, things that, when missing in our past point guards, made watching the Rockets feel like passing kidney stones, things that have drawn intense devotion from some Clutchfans who would want us to pay him 10M a year to continue to showcase as a lifelong Rocket. It's gonna be really fun to see what Morey does with this situation.
The roster AS-IS with no looming future trades: Ish Smith has the definite lead for the last roster spot, if not already sewn up. In limited action, he seems as least as good as the Tierre Brown/Moochie Norris type backups of years past. Except he'd be the 3rd point guard.
Why worry about trading anyone??? Just enjoy our 3 PGs. It's a long season; someone's bound to be injured or need some rest sooner or later. It is Jermaine Taylor who is out of the rotation who we need to make a decision on, especially if we still want to add Dampier.
Yes sir, i am very serious. Like i've been saying(and taking crap for) since summer league, it doesn't matter who scores the most. It's all about moneyball. If a team called right now and was willing to give us a player that we have wanted and all they needed was a PG, who do you think they would choose. Lowry, Brooks or Ish?? Bingo!!! Brooks's value is higher than any of our 3 PG's now. Also, next season Brooks will be looking(and deserves to) get paid. This is why i say this.
brooks played 82 games last season and 80 games the year before. he's going to be the rockets starting PG till he drops dead :grin: one thing is certain and that's we all need to see more of ishmael smith. i think it's possible to play 3 PG's a night. iirc we had Rafer, Mike James and Francis who all played at some point, but i think Francis got the last minutes. it'd be a shame if we had a real diamond in ishmael but he couldn't get minutes behind brooks and lowry.
i reckon the pg that can work with yao the best gets the most minutes. brooks in theory is the best pg for yao...but all along brooks has struggled to get the ball to yao... so if ishmael smith can fire up yao.....then he could even be starter.
Why is it that, according to some people here, the Rockets need to trade a player any time one of the back-ups looks to be NBA quality. And if the team does trade the guy and the team suffers an injury, I'd bet the same folks will be screaming "WHY Rockets NO HAVE DEPTH TO DEAL WITH INJURIES!! OMG WE CURSED!" Lets just enjoy the fact that the team has good depth at PG (and other opositions, frankly) and let the season play out.
Just to be clear, i don't want Brooks to be traded. I want Brooks to be a Rocket until he retires. Now, after saying all that, Brooks does not lead the way that Lowry and Ish(he was a leader at Wake Forest too) does. Ish proves everytime he is on the court, whether it was in college, summer league or in tonights game, that you don't have to be a svorer to help your team win. Seeing him waving his hands around pointing teammates to their spots was a thing of beauty. This guy is a rook, really seeing his first real minutes and he is already facilitating at a pro level and being vocal. He sorta has a smooth style of play. He doesn't take alot of shots so him not being a shooter will not hurt the team so much. Like i said at the beggining of the post, i do not want Brooks to be traded. I have always said that he should play with the second unit because our starting 5 need one more defender other than Battier. I have to admit though, i really like the second unit we have now.
Ish played well. But Kelvin Cato's "breakout" pre-season game also remains nightmare in my memory. I'll keep my powder dry for now.
Its going to be interesting to see what developes. Players in the 2nd unit can start on other teams. They have assets to cosolidate into a player no worst then Iggy. They have Llull in Europe people forget about. IMO the only way Brooks would be traded is if Jeffries is moved wth him. If you're Morey he's looking for more length and defense, because the scoring is there. He's looking for rebounding and shot blocking. He's looking for guys that can play up and down and get to the line. Notice his recent aquisitions Lowry/Lee. Finding guys that fit the description. He was after Chandler and might sign Dampier. He was after Cousins in the draft. It's evident he's looking for another bigman. Marc Gasol and Anthony Randolph type bigmen.
