And as a side; he gets to the line a lot and has a better ft% than rafer (could getting to the line be in basketball what taking a walk is in baseball to stat geeks?) and although his 3 pt. % is awful I at least am confident that this kid won't be chucking up 3's with 2 minutes left and the Rocket's trailing in a close game. I can't say I had that confidence with Rafer. Alston= un-crunchtime. Lowry = differ to the vets.
I was not happy with the trade last night but I'm a bit more positive after seeing his highlights. He sure can get to the rim because he's a feistly little strong dude. That's a real positive over Rafer who almost never went for the easy shot inside the paint, always those streetball floaters. The guy also can block shots and is a bit like Nate Robinson in an earlier stage. Hopefully he can play and show what he's got because he blocked Josh Howard this year so would be great to see him do it again. It's also good he's money inside the arc because we have enough 3pt shooters in Artest, Shane, Wafer, Brooks, Head and Barry. All this guy needs to is play good D, lead the fast break and get the ball to the right people and occassionally take the open shot / drive to the basket. I'm still confused about Cook, they do waive him / benchwarm him / play him because Landry did sprain his ankle so it wouldn't be a bad thing to see what he's got. He can at least shoot the 3 so that's a positive. P.S. Does anybody else see the resemblance between Lowry and the rapper Saigon ?
I didn't saw this trade coming, but after reviewing everything I think it is a good trade. Brooks/Lowry running the point and a PF that can hit the 3 ... we just had to give Rafer instead. So, I like the deal! Nice work Morey!
You people are driving me crazy, I for one believe in aaron. I think he'll shine in a starters role. Everyone thinking that the seasons over gime a break, rafer and his ill advised shots. No more floaters thank god, and a 3 point shooter who can knock it down. Honestly hes an upgrade fellas and we're gona see this against the mavs. Go rockets!
as a rocket fan and new to the board i am excited its changing of the guard von wafer, Aaron brooks, kyle lowry, finally we have some quick up tempo guards well they all be great and only get better dont know that yet but maybe the rockets can push basketball little more now especially when yao isnt in the game and get a few more easy baskets each game, i never had a problem with rafer for most part but i am excited about rest of season and hopefully playoffs watching young guys play and hopefully only getting better and more fun too watch .
Fun to watch wont win in the playoffs. Pheonix is "fun to watch". Our team was built for the playoffs and half court basketball. AB is fast, but he is a liability on defense and he can't manage the offense like Raefer. He isn't as vocal as Raefer was. His 3pt persentage is only like.014% higher than Raefer's. They will run but who's gonna run with them? Artest? Battier? Yao? "Have Fun" watching AB and wafer run up and down the court. Maybe they can single-handedly run the Spurs right out of the playoffs........
I like this trade - after watching some Kyle Lowry clips. He's very physical - every shot in the paint you see him bounce off of guys and finish. He also looked my athletic than Rafer - blocking shots and finishing in a variety of ways. In my mind, the only disadvantage is his higher TO rate - but Rafer on offense had many effective turnovers by shooting a large number of 3s at a bad rate. If Lowry doesn't do that, it will equal out. So he's younger and maybe a better fit for the Rockets and has a much lower salary. If he shows anything, look for the Rockets to extend his contract and lock him up for a few years at a very reasonable rate as soon as possible. As usual in a Morey trade, it was multi-faceted. Brian Cook WILL take his player option, and then the Rockets have even more expiring contracts for 2010. Morey is going to have his pick of trades next year and this summer with teams shopping for that cap space. I'm looking forward to watching the Dallas game to see the new Rockets.
I don't know how to express my feeling.Oh lord.I hope it will do something good for Rox.By the way ,a little sad for Alston's leaving cause he has been in Rox for a long time.
Rocket no need waste time on Mac. Rafer is really good in recent games! Better and Better, more assistants, and three-points. What happend?
Don't forget that Brooks and Lowry have almost 0 experience playing in the playoffs. Lowry didn't get the chance to even sniff them until now, and I don't remember Brooks playing very much last year versus Utah. So what do you think the outcome will be this year? (Unless you think either of them can do a really good Chris Paul impersonation.) So this is clearly not a move for this year. It's a white flag - get younger - build for the future - 1st round exit (if they make it) - better luck next year type of move. That saying, i like what i've seen of Lowry when he played the Rockets so far. We'll see how well he fits. But i liked Rafer too( -his poor shooting nights). And i hoped that McGrady will get healthy and back to superstar form. And that the Rockets would make some noise in the playoffs this year. <sigh..> Things sure have changed since Van Gundy left...
Do the Rockets still have the Trade Exception(s) at their disposal this off-season or is it too late to use them ? If it's too late, why didn't they use them ?
If this trade was indeed designed to improve our financial position/player position for 2010 or whatever, someone official needs to come out and say that. As of now, the entire organization look like bumbling idiots. If the deal was made for another reason (which none of us have access to), they need to state that reason as well. Let's have some transparency here. The fans deserve it. I don't see how this trade improves the team. The best possible analysis of this deal places the team "a little worse" than where we were before the deal. That's a fact.
I can see the Rockets management has gradually migrated from finding players that "fits with Yao" (aka JVG era) to finding players that "fits with Coach Adelman's system". A couple seasons earlier, the Rockets GM was talking about finding the right players to play around Yao, and their criteria for the right players? (a) able to pass the ball to Yao, (b) able to hit long range shots when Yao kicked out the ball. That's why they took Rafer over James, and you may consider part of the reasons they chose Battier over Gay too (Battier 3pts and ability to pass Yao the ball). Morey cannot make it clearer what they like about Lowry: [rquoter]someone who is really going to do what coach (Rick) Adelman will ask him to do. [/rquoter] And the strength of Lowry? [rquoter]one of the top 10 guys in the league getting to the line[/rquoter] Do you think a dribble-to-the-hoop-then-kick-out-the-ball type of PG fits Yao's offense? I don't think so. Yao is notorious of his butter fingers and you want your big men stay out of the paint to give room for the slasher to drive into the hoop. Need I remind you how well Yao performed when he played high post? Brooks is promoted to the starting PG now but did he really do well in passing the ball to Yao? IMO, the proven best passer to Yao in our team has to be TMac, Battier, then Rafer. Rafer was playing his best basketball this season in terms of hitting the long range shots and dishing to Yao yet the Management chose to move in the exact opposite direction (eliminating the scarced passer in the team that fits Yao by adding a player whom shoot worse behind the arc)? Obviously the management has changed their concept on how this team is going to be built. If we have a decent records at the end of the season, i.e. we got deep in the playoff, it is all fine and I believe Yao won't mind the change of his role in the team and regression of his personal stats and move on. But if the worse came out, i.e. we could not make the playoff or exit in the first round again, Yao should seriously consider his days in Rockets as the concept is different now and his play has proven not suitable for the new concept.
Bosh is reported to have more interest in joining dereck rose in chicago according to espn.com two days ago...
