Nothing’s happening…nothing’s happening…something about a map. Nothing’s happening…it’s over. A lot of people in the audience look pissed. – Brian Griffin, Family Guy
Not a whole lot going on regarding the Rockets other than Luis Scola dominating all but one game in the FIBA tournament. In nine games, Scola scored below 20 once and above 30 five times. He lead the tournament in scoring (ahead of the NBA’s new alpha dog) while shooting at the 5th highest percentage from the field. Who is going to be the more impactful Rocket – Luis Scola or Kevin Martin? Does this liberate Yao from a heavy burden on the offensive end so he can concentrate primarily on defense? This is not what I wanted to discuss.
I did, rather, receive an email defending Aaron Brooks from a high school buddy whom I had not seen since freshman year of college. You should know a thing or two about this guy. First, we can call him Ben. Second, in high school Ben was much smarter than me in terms of sheer I.Q. Subsequently, I placed a good amount of value on his side of things during lunch-time arguments. Because I know of no variable that has changed since then, I am going to continue to give merit to Ben’s opinions. I am also going to hope to high heaven Ben has not had any traumatic head injuries the past seven years that would influence his recent email.
So Aaron Brooks has Ben in his corner? Perhaps, my stance on Brooks requires a certain amount of reevaluation. I suppose it might be relevant to mention that my brother really likes Aaron Brooks. Relevant, I conclude, because this means that people who actually watch Rockets’ games enjoy having Brooks on the team.
Let me say first, I did not have the opportunity to watch many Rockets’ games last season. I lived well outside the range of Fox Sports SW, and the club was never shown on national television. I was relegated to the “box score,” and I use that term to encapsulate any modern statistic of my choosing.
I now know I have been prejudiced in my view of Brooks. Living by the box score, I have fit Brooks into a mold and have not allowed him to show me otherwise. For this I look forward to the season upcoming. It will provide an opportunity to evaluate my blind evaluation of a player.
Last season this is what I saw: Brooks was only 43.2% from the field, 36th amongst guards (qualified). Of the entire league, which averaged 46.1%, Brooks was 101st. His True Shooting Percentage (which I value) was 54.9%, according to hoopsdata.com. The 20th ranked TSP was Al Horford’s 59.4%.
For more perspective, let us compare a notoriously horrid shooter with Brooks. Step on down, Rajon Rondo!!!
If you do not follow the NBA (insert joke here…i.e. “you’re leading a more fulfilling life because you follow politics”), Rondo’s aim is bad. Last season he made 31.7% of his shots outside 10 feet. He was able to compile an overall FG% of 50.8% (excellent for a guard) because over half of his 11.4 field goal attempts per game came within 10 feet (with 5.4 at the rim).
Stir in Rondo’s 62.1 free throw percentage, and you get a TSP of 54.0. We can see that Aaron Brooks has scoring efficiency percentages that are comparable to someone who is known as a bad shooter. Am I comparing cat poop to dog poop? Maybe, but either way, something stinks.
Brooks shot 45.4% on 2-point field goals last season. That is good for 108th out of 119 qualified players. He did shoot 39.8% from beyond the arc, ranking 19th last season. Combined with his 82.2% clip at the stripe (40th in the league), we can account for the buoyant force in his true shooting percentage, which is hardly seaworthy.
I am not disparaging Aaron Brooks. He appears to be a great guy, and perhaps, the Rockets value him as such. What he does on the court, he does well. Knowingly operating as an outside threat, Brooks took 6.5 three pointers last year and made 2.4 of them. Brooks’ scoring efficiency is, thusly, predicated on the 3-ball. With the arrival and emergence of shooters Kevin Martin and Chase Buddinger, respectively, do the Rockets need place such high premium on outside shooting from the point guard spot? If that skill is found elsewhere in the rotation, is there a skill the Rockets lack that can be filled at the 1-spot? Does this make Brooks expendable?
Maybe not.
Ben was eager to point out: “by the second half of the season, his assists were climbing and his scoring was fantastic, especially the 3. If he hadn’t been passing to Trevor (Ariza) and Chuck (Hayes) all season, his assists may have been around 7.5 or so, no?”
It is true that for the 31 games after the All-Star break, Brooks did average one assist more than he had in the 51 games prior (4.9 v 5.9). And Ariza (39.4% shooter) and Hayes (its bad, just trust me, the dude can’t shoot) are not good at putting the ball through the hoop. Maybe Brooks could have averaged more assists.
But are assists really an important measure of an individual player’s value? Much like RBIs (not “errors”) in baseball, assists are completely dependent on another player’s performance in a given play. I would rather see a statistic that quantifies the amount of “Demonstrably Easy and Not Nasty Instances for Shooting ” (or D.E.N.N.I.S. System) Brooks was able to create.
How often was he able to pass the ball into the shooter’s pocket? By pocket I refer to the area where a shooter can catch the ball and shoot in stride/rhythm. If Brooks drives and kicks out to Shane Battier for a corner three, but the pass is at Battier’s feet: that cannot be considered a D.E.N.N.I.S.
In that scenario, Battier has had to do most of the work by gathering himself for a shot. Besides allowing time for a defensive rotation, the act of having to catch an errant pass and initiate a shot is antithetical to the meaning of assist. In fact, such passes should be viewed as passing the conch, or burden of responsibility. But if the pass hits Battier just above his hip on his shooting-hand side and a good shot results from the pass itself, I credit such a pass as a D.E.N.N.I.S. and as more valuable than an “assist”.
Alas, I do not have such detailed information for Aaron Brooks, nor any other player for that matter, and so you might consider the prior couple paragraphs tangential. My point is that a simple assist is too broad a concept to be weighed comparatively. I do not enjoy using it as means for differentiating value, at least not on its own merit.
Brooks’ value is as a scorer. He would be ideally suited coming off the bench as a more versatile Eddie House-type. When he catches on fire, he can score off iso’s, hand-offs, screens, etc. like he did on March 17th, 2009. His 19.6 ppg last year will probably command more than his type of role player is worth…I will get into that next time.
