Aaron Brooks signs with Chinese team

[Mainstreet]

I'm not sure if it is good or bad but Aaron Brooks has apparently agreed to sign with a Chinese team and will not be able to return to the NBA until mid-February. Who knows what will happen with the new CBA. See article by Paul Coro at azcentral dated 11-17-11.

Suns guard Aaron Brooks has agreed to a one-year deal with a Chinese team that would not allow him to return to the NBA until the Chinese Basketball Association season ends in mid-February, according to a Yahoo! report.

This removes one of the Suns' difficult decisions for the coming season, should there be one. It was not clear whether the Suns would match an offer to retain Brooks, who was a disappointment in his 25 games with the Suns this year but was only a year removed from averaging 19.6 points and 5.6 assists to win the 2009-10 Most Improved Player award in Houston. Should the season start, the Suns do have Zabian Dowdell under contract for a team option and could go with him as Steve Nash's backup point guard.

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/sun...17phoenix-suns-aaron-brooks-chinese-team.html

 

[Divide Et Impera]

I prefer Dowdell by a long shot anyway. He is so centered and fundamentally sound. I want to see the Suns develop him to his potential....

 

[boisesuns]

Wow, he's going to miss a lot of games.....

 

[Mainstreet]

If there is a season and if Nash is traded, the Suns will definitely need help at PG. I'm not sure if the Suns intended to match any offer for Brooks anyway. It is just another first round draft pick the Suns threw away.

 

[slinslin]

Good thing we gave up a first round pick!

 

[Griffin]

It's quite likely the Suns would not have matched an offer anyway. As for Dowdell, he hasn't really shown much ability, imo. He didn't get much playing time, but he didn't play well enough in limited minutes last season to warrant more time. The Suns will definitely need help at PG, but then again, that was already the case.

 

[SunsTzu]

It's quite likely the Suns would not have matched an offer anyway. As for Dowdell, he hasn't really shown much ability, imo. He didn't get much playing time, but he didn't play well enough in limited minutes last season to warrant more time. The Suns will definitely need help at PG, but then again, that was already the case.

I don't get the Dowdell praise either. Scottie Reynolds looked like a much better prospect in summer league last year and I don't think Dowdell did much to distinguish himself in his stint on the team.

 

[BC867]

I don't get the Dowdell praise either. Scottie Reynolds looked like a much better prospect in summer league last year and I don't think Dowdell did much to distinguish himself in his stint on the team.

Dowdell is a blue collar pro. Didn't he step in, when called upon, and do the unenviable task of running Steve Nash's offense better than anyone since Steve returned, even with limited exposure?

A consummate role player is sometimes more important than a better prospect.

 

[Mainstreet]

I like Dowdell as a third PG which is not to diminish his value. However, to consider him otherwise is leave a weakness at this important position. I've always been a proponent of carrying three PGs but sadly Nash has never had a solid backup PG when he was in his prime.

 

[SunsTzu]

Dowdell is a blue collar pro. Didn't he step in, when called upon, and do the unenviable task of running Steve Nash's offense better than anyone since Steve returned, even with limited exposure?

Your version of how well Dowdell played completely differs from mine. The only player that had a worse ORtg than Dowdell was Earl Barron.

 

[SunsTzu]

I've always been a proponent of carrying three PGs but sadly Nash has never had a solid backup PG when he was in his prime.

Dragic in his 2nd year was an excellent backup, not sure why the wheels fell off last year but he put them back on once he was traded.

 

[Mainstreet]

Dragic in his 2nd year was an excellent backup, not sure why the wheels fell off last year but he put them back on once he was traded.

I don't know why the wheels fell off with Dragic in Phoenix but what really irks me is the Suns threw in a first round draft pick for Brooks. I can understand why the Suns gambled on Brooks but not the extent in which they gambled. I know Houston was using Flynn as leverage in a rumored trade with Minnesota.

 

[Griffin]

Part of the reason why all our backup point guards struggled last year was because the Suns no longer had any players other than Nash himself capable of creating their own shot. So when Dragic, Brooks or Dowdell were out there, they were often surrounded by four guys who needed to be spoon-fed in order to score. Very few point guards in this league are capable of generating offense with such an offensively-challenged supporting cast.

 

[slinslin]

Dowdell is a scrub like Lawal, both might develop into role players at some point but that is it.

Lots of Suns fans are drinking kool-aid saying Childress is a solid core player, Gorat an allstar in the making and Dowdell and Lawal good prospects.

 

[Covert Rain]

Part of the reason why all our backup point guards struggled last year was because the Suns no longer had any players other than Nash himself capable of creating their own shot. So when Dragic, Brooks or Dowdell were out there, they were often surrounded by four guys who needed to be spoon-fed in order to score. Very few point guards in this league are capable of generating offense with such an offensively-challenged supporting cast.

Teams figured out Dragic and closed down the lane whenever he tried to drive to the rim. They dared him to shoot from the outside and Dragic was always streaky with his shooting. Unlike Nash who make people pay when they lay off him, they dared Dragic to shoot.

The other thing I noticed in his last year here was he liked to force passes to people not open. I remember Nash saying in an interview that he was trying to teach Dragic to keep his dribble going even after penetration to find the open guy because he had a habit of dribble penetration then giving up the ball right away if the lane closed down.

 

[SunsTzu]

Teams figured out Dragic and closed down the lane whenever he tried to drive to the rim. They dared him to shoot from the outside and Dragic was always streaky with his shooting. Unlike Nash who make people pay when they lay off him, they dared Dragic to shoot.

Did teams suddenly forget how to defend him when he was traded to Houston? It also doesn't explain why his FT% plummeted. I think there was something else going on, but have only heard unsubstantiated rumors.

 

[elindholm]

I'm not sure what this rumored Dragic revival is all about. For the Suns last season, he averaged 7.4 points and 3.1 assists in 17.8 minutes. For the Rockets, he averaged 7.7 points and 2.5 assists in 17.2 minutes. His three-point accuracy skyrocketed during his short time with the Rockets, but it was a small sample size and he has always been streaky anyway. He's still the same player.

 

[SirStefan32]

I'm not sure what this rumored Dragic revival is all about. For the Suns last season, he averaged 7.4 points and 3.1 assists in 17.8 minutes. For the Rockets, he averaged 7.7 points and 2.5 assists in 17.2 minutes. His three-point accuracy skyrocketed during his short time with the Rockets, but it was a small sample size and he has always been streaky anyway. He's still the same player.

I am not necessarily disagreeing with you, but that is not an entirely fair comparison. For a while, he wasn't getting much playing time in Huston.
He really did well once he started getting some serious playing time.
To be fair, that is also a very small sample, and he has always been streaky.

He very well may be the same player, but there is no doubt he did a really good job in Huston at the end of the season.

 

[elindholm]

He really did well once he started getting some serious playing time.
To be fair, that is also a very small sample

Yes, I would say that three games is a very small sample.

He made a bunch of threes against the Hornets in the fourth-to-last game of the season, so that was a big scoring output (16), but the rest of his line is almost empty. Then they started him for the last three, in which he averaged 45 minutes(!). (Maybe someone was injured?) He did well in all three games, including double-figure rebounds each time and very few turnovers (4 total between the three games), and posted an 11/11/11 triple-double in the last game of the season.

I agree that, as a three-game sample, it is tantalizing, but the overwhelming likelihood is that it's either noise or was brought on by the unique circumstances of playing games that didn't really matter, with no one behind him challenging him for playing time.

http://www.nba.com/home/playerfile/goran_dragic/game_by_game_stats.html

 

[SunsTzu]

I'm not sure what this rumored Dragic revival is all about. For the Suns last season, he averaged 7.4 points and 3.1 assists in 17.8 minutes. For the Rockets, he averaged 7.7 points and 2.5 assists in 17.2 minutes. His three-point accuracy skyrocketed during his short time with the Rockets, but it was a small sample size and he has always been streaky anyway. He's still the same player.

If you look at the basic stats then you might not see a difference. Maybe I'm biased because I only saw a handful of his games after he was traded. However his advanced stats were much better, posting career highs in many instances.

I can understand if you feel it's a small sample size, or if you're not into advanced stats. But if you just go off point and assist totals with minutes played then Dragic was basically the same player last year for the Suns as he was the year previously, and I don't agree with that.

 

[elindholm]

However his advanced stats were much better, posting career highs in many instances.

Since I don't know which "advanced stats" you're talking about, can you provide some specific examples of career highs that he posted, that don't include the last three games of the season?

But if you just go off point and assist totals with minutes played then Dragic was basically the same player last year for the Suns as he was the year previously, and I don't agree with that.

Our perception changed. 2009-10 was Dragic's second year. We were eager to look for signs of improvement, and of course he did improve over his rookie year, so that was encouraging. Then he had the breakout game against the Spurs in the playoffs, so expectations were high for 2010-11. He was more or less the same player in his third year as he was in his second -- except for much worse three-point and free-throw shooting -- but because our standards were so much higher, it seemed like he had taken a big step backward. Seeing him torch the Spurs made us think that he was much better than he is. Shades of Tony Delk's 53-point game.

 

[SunsTzu]

Since I don't know which "advanced stats" you're talking about, can you provide some specific examples of career highs that he posted, that don't include the last three games of the season?

I don't know of a site that I can view the advanced stats without the last 3 games added, but the main ones that stick out are his going from ORtg went from 93 to 120(was 110 his previous season) his TS% went from 49.2% to 60.4%(previous year was 56.6%) and if you discount his last 3 games his TS% would actually be higher since he didn't shoot as well in those games. There are others that showed smaller jumps.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/d/dragigo01.html

Not trying to say he was great or that he will be a great player, just that I feel he played much worse with the Suns last year than he did with the Rockets or the previous years team. Maybe he couldn't handle the increased usage with a crappier supporting cast.

 

[Griffin]

It looks like this is a done deal as Brooks is already in China preparing for his first game. I've skimmed through some of the Chinese articles relating to him and he seems prepared and willing to miss the whole NBA season. He joined the top Chinese team and is looking to win a title there.

The Suns will obviously retain Brooks' restricted rights for next summer, but for now getting a backup point guard should be one of the team's top priorities, assuming of course we have a season. I would go after JJ Barea since Dallas should have a hard time keeping both him and Chandler under the new tax restrictions and penalties. I would not want to start the season with Dowdell as our second point guard.

 

[SirStefan32]

I'd be fine starting the season with Dowdell as out starting point guard. This is going to be a wasted season anyway, might as well tank in style.

 

[Divide Et Impera]

I don't get the negativity on Dowdell. I see a very centered, fundamentally sound, traditional-style PG. He always seems to manage the game well when he's in there. What am I missing?