Whats the sentiment on his stock for the season? Can he throw up 15ppg-4rpg-5apg?

His stats will only increase as the starting PG especially without Ron Artest. In the playoffs he averaged very decent numbers for a pg. I'm looking at 15 pts, 6 asts, 2 rbs and 1 steal. He's definitely a steal in the draft where he's ranked.

I'd put him at 16 pts, 5 ast, 2 reb, 1.5 3pm, 1 stl. His FT% should be nice too, though on low volume.

I think his TO take a hit as defenses will key on him - he's easily HOU's most dangerous perimeter player with Tmac out. I can see FG% getting ugly too, possibly even dipping into the 30s.

I'd put his value around the same as Ray Felton.

"brooks was here" great movie..
as for brooks i can optimistically see averaging 17 and 5.

This guy has a real ability to score some points.Even tho he is about 5'4,he can shoot a nice 3 point shot and on the fast break he can go coast to coast faster than most anyboby in the NBA. I think that without such ball stallers as TMAC and Ron-Ron, he could see his assists go up this year. Nice value guy

You guys do realize he is basically splitting time with Lowry, who is probably worse for his fantasy value than Artest would have been.

I don't expect him to do more than 14 and 4, with a very low FG% and low steals.

wasn't he supposed to share mins with Lowry in the 2nd half last year too? didn't happen.

He came over in a mid-season trade and didn't know the offense. That won't be the case this year. He also recently started a pre-season game over Brooks, which wouldn't happen if Brooks was the unquestioned starter.

If I were you, I would be rooting for Lowry to take over: he's been the better per-minute player in his career (and especially has shown the capability to put up absurd steal numbers), and would be available off waivers rather than wasting a pick on him like you have to do for Brooks.

I wouldnt read too much into 1 spot start here or there during the preseason. I believe Brooks is the starter for sure, and will get the majority of the minutes.
Brooks is a FAR superior offensive player. The only thing Lowry brings to the table fantasy wise, better than Brooks, is an extra steal a game.
Brooks is around the same in assists and rebounds. But Brooks dominates Lowry in FT%, 3 pts, scoring... Just a much better fantasy player than Lowry and he should get the majority of the minutes.
Lowry is the defensive stopper when Adelman wants to put some defense in there, but it wont be much different than last year after Alston got traded

I'm looking for 18 and 5 with about two 3s a game.

15/7
Their only offense is drive and kick at this point

My goodnes, I do not understand the love for this guy.

At best he will average 12 and 4, and thats only if he gets 30 mpg.

Very average player.

Is that why Brooks took over as the starting point guard in the playoffs..? And he had to burden about 35-40 minutes. I think he will get the same minutes in the regular season and will be a top 5 pg in the west.

"Very average player"? A starting PG going at around round 9 and later in most drafts where the only remaining PGs are guys like Hinrich, Curry, Jennings Sessions, and Flynn. Sorry, I'd rather take my chances on him because you won't have to stress about him come the regular season. Unlike with those other guys who are either backups or stuck in a timeshare. Steady reliable PGs are at a premium this year.

Average he may be to you, but in round 9 and onwards he is extremely valuable. Nobody's saying he should be taken as a 1st or 2nd choice fantasy PG. People like myself like him because of his value in the late rounds and the fact that he's playing for an injury-depleted team where he used to be non-existent, and is now a key player. You can't say the same thing about the PGs I mentioned above.

If you can't see value in a late round PG like that...fair enough

A very average player doesnt drop 34 points on the lakers in the playoffs.

wow you guys are so defensive about brooks I think he'll do fine as a starting PG for the Rockets. Def will out perform his ADP. But I dont see him being an absolute steal in the lower rounds.

Okay - so which PG in your opinion is more valuable than Brooks going into the regular season in rounds 9 and beyond then?

none.

Seriously it is crazy how defensive people are over Brooks. We're not trying to rain on the parade for no reason. There a lot of reasons to be concerned. In the playoffs, with 35 mins a game, he averaged 16.8 points, 3.4 assists, and 0.4 steals. That is pretty bad, and you cant expect him to play more than 35 mins a game this year. Yes, he'll get you 3's, but thats about it, 3s and decent points, and he will be BELOW average everywhere else. Not a good fantasy player. Lowry would be much more fantasy friendly as he consistently has high rebound and assist numbers and is a ballhawk on defense. If Brooks gets hurt, you could expect something like 16/5/6 from Lowry with high steals and half a block, which would be golden.

Guys I would rather have than Brooks:

TJ Ford
Lou Williams (exactly like Brooks, only he will steal the ball and comes at a lower price)
Mike Conley
DJ Augustin
Tyreke Evans

Borderline - Flynn and Jennings

Ford and Conley are in a different, better tier of pgs. They should not be available in round 10 in solid leagues.

Williams-fg% could be sub 40% with massive tos
Augustin- May have more value due to injury to bell
Evans- May have more value, but is unproven. fg% and tos and lack of threes could be a concern

Fair enough on Ford and Conley. You can add Stuckey to the list as well.

As for your arguments on Lou and Evans: Brooks will also have poor FG%, and T.O.s may well become a problem as well (although he seems to keep them low because he despises actually passing the ball).

You guys act like he's totally new to the starting PG role and so there should be all kinds of optimism and upside, but he started 30 games last year! And really, he wasn't very good at all. Some more stats (although apparently I'm the only person who cares about backing an argument with statistics):

As starting guard: 30 mins a game, 40% shooting, 1.7 3's, 13 points, 3.7 assists, 0.7 steals... enjoy!

I agree with you there about Lowry. I've been waiting for him to be a starter since he was in Memphis. But he's not going to get the majority of mins in Houston. That's the reality.

I'll be surprised if Conley and Ford are still around at round 9. If they are, then yes I'd take them over Brooks too. That wasn't the case in my drafts though.
Lou Williams - I'll tell you why I wont take him - TOs and FG%. Also remains to be seen how many assists he'll average as a starter.
If I was to draft now, I'd take Augustin over Brooks. But when I drafted Bell was still healthy. Augustin got picked up at round 13.
Evans - unproven and a rookie - possible timeshare. Same goes for Flynn and Jennings.

All I'm saying is - out of those PGs, Brooks is the one with the least question marks about his playing situation i.e. less headaches for owners. That's what I mean by "late round value".

The problem with Brooks isn't his situation, it's his lack of skill as a basketball player. He's just not a good player, and to wishcast him into a 17 and 7 player is insanity. Like you pointed out about the guys listed above, Brooks also can't shoot the basketball, although you like to ignore that. He shot 42% over his career at Oregon and 40.6% in his NBA career.

Playing time is one thing, but Brooks does not have close to the upside as you think he does and isn't a good basketball player. He's short, he's small, he can't shoot, he can't pass, and he doesn't get steals. Tell me why that should lead to NBA success?

There are better ways to use your 10th round pick, honestly. You might say that no one can be a bust that late in the draft, which is semi-true, but there are guys out there with so much more upside. All the guys I listed, plus Anthony Morrow, plus non-guards like Hibbert, Bogut, Beasley, Thompson, CLee, Rush, etc. These player all have much higher upside, in my opinion. And I would much rather use a 12th round pick on Evans/Flynn/Jennings than a 10th round pick on Brooks.

Wait you got me all wrong. I'm not one of the guys who are predicting 17-7 from him. No way! Im just speaking from personal experience in my recent draft. 14 team H2H and my PGs are Paul and Ford. Round 10 and I still only had 2 PGs. I can copy and paste the draft results here, but that's too long, so just trust me when I say the PGs left were Hinrich, Jennings, Curry, Flynn and Brooks. I needed a 3rd PG who was proven, steady, not injury-prone and has guaranteed starters minutes night in and night out. That's Brooks. I know he might not give me a ton of assists and this and that all the time, but I'll tell you other things he's also not going to give me that those other PGs will - questions, headaches and problems.

Upside is one thing, but reliability and peace of mind are valuable commodities too - often times overlooked if you ask me.

All good points. I think I'm gonna leave this thread alone for a while, I've said my piece enough : )

Wait, your first post was down on him cause you said he was in a full time share and that he wasnt even going to get the minutes. Now he is a bad player?
He is actually a very good player.He carried his team in college and I remember he nearly led them to an upset of a #1 or @ seed his last year at Oregon. He spent his first year getting spot playing time behind reefer alston. Then his 2nd yaer,when he got his shot, he performed very well for a guy that young.Without the 2 stars on the time,he started at PG for a time that took the champs to game 7.And he had a huge part in that.
He is going to nail you alot of 3 pointers. Drives to the hoop and goes to the line plenty. And shoots very well from the line(86-87%).. And he is a starting PG, so he will contribute assists also. He is very good value for where he is being drafted.

I like Brooks this year as a punt-AST PG option late in the draft. If you can't snag guys like Jason Terry, Leandro Barbosa, and Nate Robinson I think Brooks is the next logical choice.

He should be good for 12+ points, 1.5+ 3ptm, and 1+ spg.

Brooks will probably hurt your FG% a lot more than those guys, though. I seem him hoisting a bunch of FGA.

Yesterday's pre-season game:

Brooks: 15 minutes, 2/1/1

Lowry: 34 minutes, 16/7/9 with 4 steals

Brooks DOES NOT have the starting job on lockdown, and Lowry is a MUCH better player.

This was Brooks first and only bad game this pre-season. Stop hating. You've got 2nd round rookies putting up better stats than what Lowry did. It's pre-season!

It's not hating, it's thinking clearly... Denying all of the warning signs around Brooks is delusional!

Have you even looked at Brook's pre-season stats? That was certainly not his first and only bad game. It's crazy how blindly in love with Brooks some people are!

In case you actually care about facts, here are his pre-season game logs: http://www.nba.com/playerfile/aaron_brooks...game_stats.html

I count one good game out of eight, and even that game wasn't all that good.

His stats look fine to me in limited 20 minutes. Of course, he will be playing way more then that as a starting pg..

Nobody is saying Aaron Brooks will put up Chris Paul like numbers..all we are saying is he is a steal where he is ranked in the draft. And perhaps someone drafted Brooks before you could, so that's why you have to waste your time warning us of "Brook's failures." He's a 14 pt, 4 ast guy.. no more or no less.

No one drafted him above me. I did own him last year when he became the starting PG, and I was quite disappointed, but I can separate my feelings from my analysis.

All I'm saying is there are much better ways to use your 10th or 11th pick than on Aaron Brooks, but most people don't want to hear this. You make light of my comments as being "scorned" or what not, but then you say he's a 14/4 guy, no more, no less... well, guess what, I agree! Is that really what you want out of your 10th round pick? 14 and 4 with little upside and a better player backing him up?

My only intention is to try and help someone has learned something from what I've posted. If you're on the fence about Brooks or someone else, my argument is you should almost certainly go with the "someone else".

I honestly don't think Brooks passes well enough to hold down the starting PG gig. He is probably better suited to be a 3-pt shooting scoring guard off the bench, but I guess we'll see during the season.

I was actually high on Brooks last season as a sleeper. While he was a decent scorer once he finally took over PG duties later in the year, I was disappointed by his assists and FG%. I think he will probably be drafted at value in the 11th round, but I have a hard time seeing him substantially surpassing his ADP in terms of value. As over have mentioned, there are several other guys who are better bets to outproduce ADP who can be taken in the 10th and 11th.

Time will tell.

"Brooks was here"

..imagine this guy's stat line if he found his rhythm from 3. Near 50% FG while dropping an 0-6 from 3 is ridiculous

19 pt -5 ast -3 reb -2 st - 1 blk and only 2 TO. 41 minutes played...Sweet opening night. I hope those haters were paying attention. For a 9th round pick that is great production

Enjoy it haters. Everyone was so down on this guy, but did anyone consider the possibility that maybe he learned a great deal and earned a lot of confidence from last seasons playoff run? And maybe, just maybe, he put in extra effort knowing hes going to be an even greater focus of the offense?

Come on they played portland who is no joke, and imagine if battier was actually knocking down the treys? He would of had 2 more dimes. Brooks is going to be a 16-2-5.5/6 guy with a three and steal a game. Is that what I want with a 10th round pick? of course I do. How many guys in the league give you over 5 dimes, 1 steal, and 1 three a game? Very few and they are very valuable.

This was the only person I grabbed on all 3 of my teams this year as I felt he was in for a BIG year. I got mocked for it, but considering I picked him off at the end of every draft, I'm the one laughing now. hahah!

first off, howard stern is awesome and sal is the definition of nuts.

Secondly I have him on both teams and I expect him to be a huge part of the offense and as long as guys are hitting shots, his assists will be above 5 a game. Even if lowry plays with him all it means is that when theyre on the court together it will serve for easier buckets for brooks so his fg percentage will be better.

Damn right

Got him in the 13th round....so sweet!

Eh, it's one game. Check out his game logs from last year and see how nice his 1st game as a starter was, then see how it went from there. Also, Lowry was better in less minutes and will still eat away at his playing time.

LOOOOOL

Brooks played 41 minutes bro.. Lowry played a good 22 or 25 that's where it stands..

.... Thank you for stating the obvious. Yes, "thats where it stands". I think it will change in the future. Lowry had twice the assist in half the time, and Brooks sure as s--- isn't hitting 50% of his shots on most nights.

Brooks is in his 3rd year. He sat the majority of his rookie year. Didnt get serious playing time until Reefer was traded out of town halfway thru his second year. That means that he has been starting and playing significantly for 1/2 season. In that 1/2 season he had some clunkers. But he also had some truly great games. He also put up 27 pts and 23 pts to start the Port playoff series last year. Then he avged 18 ppg(including a fat 34 point game) against the world champ LAL...
Has it ever occurred to you that he may just actually GET BETTER. He's already done some pretty nice things in limited time.There are a whole lot of high draft picks that roll thru the league that dont come near what Brooks has done so far in his short amount of PT.
He is a very good offensive player and he may actually be stepping it up a notch with natural progression here.

Yes, it has occurred to me that he may get better. However, I don't think that assists or steals are categories that you see a lot of progression in. In any likelihood, his shot should improve and he may drive with more regularity, but he's not a passer and he's not a steals guy, and I don't see that changing. He's also not going to grow anymore, which is a problem given how incredibly scrawny he is.

You bring up a good point with his 18ppg average against the Lakers, including his 34 point outing - the guy is crazy inconsistent. What kind of games did he have to throw up in addition to the 34 point effort to bring his scoring average down to 18?

I don't hate the guy (although it seems like I do), I just think he's overrated as a sleeper, and I strongly believe Lowry is a better player, as of right now. I have to argue strongly against him on here because people only want to see roses and rainbows and don't want to hear anything negative. People act like they "discovered" Brooks and get so excited over him that they can't look at him objectively.

Anyway, let's give it a month and see where he's at before you guys start sucking each other's popsicles.

First off - Brooks isn't a sleeper. Therefore he doesnt even qualify to be overrated as one. He's more an "underrated starter"

Secondly - i'm pretty sure, like myself, others in here can bear to hear negative opinions about the subject of a thread, unlike what you said. What I find funny though is how you're constantly trying to convince everyone in here that we're all deluded and "we can do better". I'm sure people appreciated your input the first time you stated your points. But you're just constantly repeating yourself - and it just makes it sound like you're very bitter about something. It's becoming a little tedious and it seriously sounds like you're getting stressed out about this.

So everytime Brooks has a bad game, you're gonna be back on this thread to tell everyone "I told you so", and for every good game you'll try to convince people that it wasn't so special? Seriously. That can get old real quick. From what I've read, it doesnt seem to me like you've made a dent on anyone anyway. So if people want to expect 17 and 7 from Brooks, don't worry about it. What, you got a problem with people getting excited about a player? Get used to it - happens all the time in sports! It's nothing personal LoL

Completely disagree that Kyle Lowry is a better player. I'm gonna wait more than one game to go apes%#t over Brooks, but he brings a lot more to the table as a point guard, particularly for this Rockets team. Brooks' dribble penetration is the only thing that was generating any offense last night. He had absolutely everyone on skates, and they had to honor Brooks because he can knock down an outside jumper. Lowry, on the other hand, is a quick guard but doesn't usually create much for his teammates because the defense doesn't honor his non-existent shooting ability. As far as finishing at the rim, neither guy does because they're both under six feet. Lowry brings more to the table defensively because he's bulkier and has very quick hands, but, like Brooks, is often exposed because of his lack of size. Brooks' dribble penetration and ability to space the floor is something that offensively-challenged Rockets team desperately needs. Both Lowry and Brooks will get solid minutes, but Brooks needs to get 30+ minutes every night for this team to have a chance.

When you're right, you're right. I'm done on this one, for real this time. I won't post again in this thread until December at the earliest.