Houston Rockets Are Mishandling Aaron Brooks Situation

Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey has done just about everything right during his three-and-a-half seasons at the helm.

The deals he has struck speak for themselves. 

Trading Vassilis Spanoulis for Luis Scola. Rafer Alston for Kyle Lowry. A washed up Tracy McGrady and Carl Landry for Kevin Martin, Jordan Hill and two first round picks. And he bought the rights to Chase Budinger for pennies. 

As you can see, Morey has made a living off of fleecing incompetent front office members of other NBA organizations.

The first move on Morey's watch came in the 2007 NBA Draft, when he used the 26th pick to select Oregon point guard Aaron Brooks. Like the above acquisitions, drafting Brooks paid off for the Rockets as he became a primary option in Houston's offense immediately after taking over as its starting point guard following the Alston trade in February 2009.

He averaged 16.8 points and 3.4 assists, shot 45 percent from the floor and 42 percent from three-point range in the 2009 playoffs. Brooks followed that up earning the 2009-10 NBA's Most Improved Player Award with averages of 19.6 points and 5.3 assists, while becoming just the sixth player in league history to hit 200 three-pointers and dish out 400 assists in the same season.

During the press conference where Brooks was presented with the MIP Award, Morey happily stated that his lightning-quick point guard is capable of leading a franchise to an NBA Championship. Brooks smiled and spoke of bigger things to come. Great fun was had by all. 

And that's when the fun stopped. It was about the time when Morey and the Rockets began to mishandle the relationship with their best player.

His numbers have dropped dramatically (12.4 ppg, 4.2 apg, 37.5 fg%, 31 3p%) from last year, but yes, Brooks is still Houston's best player. Not Yao Ming, because he's never on the floor. Scola is great and Kevin Martin is up there, but Brooks is the cream of the crop.

You wouldn't know that because the Rockets have slowly destroyed his confidence, and once that's gone, so is the player. 

It all started in September when Brooks and his representatives approached Morey about a well-deserved contract extension. After all, he was slated to make just over $2 million this season, which ranked 10th among Rockets players, and almost $4 million less than his backup at the time, Lowry, who signed a new deal over the summer.

The Rockets have a team policy (a really stupid one) where they don't give out contract extensions to players in the final year of their current deal, so therefore, the answer was a quick and decisive "no."

"It's kind of stressful," Brooks said shortly thereafter. "I was hoping we maybe could get something done this summer, but we couldn't, so I'm stuck in the position I'm in. I understand, but it's bothering me."

Brooks had little ground to stand on because that ridiculous team policy didn't seem to affect Scola and Lowry, who had career years in '09-'10, and the Rockets rewarded each with a lucrative contract.

But everyone is different. What might not affect one person could greatly affect another and clearly, based on what he was saying about it, a lack of future financial security was eventually going to have a negative impact on Brooks. 

How could it not? Not only did Houston just give starter's money to his backup, but he is being paid like a scrub when he is one of his team's top producers. And Lowry and Scola's contract years didn't fall in the final season of the league's current collective bargaining agreement, which adds even more stress to the situation. 

Here's an idea for Morey and his group of Moneyballers: make an exception! Owner Les Alexander gives you the green light on everything else, so why not ask him if it would be all right to overlook his strange policy to pay a valuable employee who deserves a raise?

All Alexander is said to care about is winning championships and his right hand man is on record saying Brooks is a championship-caliber point guard. Those are hard to come by, so if the organization believes that to be true, then why on Earth hasn't a new deal been inked? 

The other issue that has become an obvious confidence killer is the strange decision to bring Brooks off the bench, a role that he has never thrived in. 

He began the season as the starter, but suffered a severe ankle injury in the fifth game which caused him to miss 25 games. When Brooks returned in mid-December the Rockets were still struggling at 11-15, so it isn't a case where the team had a magical run while he was out.

Nevertheless, head coach Rick Adelman decided to stick with Lowry as the starter, a move that is about as dumb as the team policy regarding impending free agents. 

The Rockets shocked the NBA by winning 42 games last season without the help of Yao Ming or any other player classified as an NBA superstar in part because of Brooks' fantastic season and Lowry's ability to push the tempo with a high-flying second unit.

Lowry embraced the role of backup point guard and signed his new contract with the understanding that he would continue to play behind Brooks. Brooks, on the other hand, doesn't embrace a secondary role and his numbers show that he is much less affective when he comes off the bench.

He started all 82 games last year, logging almost 36 minutes a night. This season he has started seven of 21 games and averaged 24 minutes of playing time. As a starter, Brooks averages 17.6 points and 5.3 assists on 44.8 percent shooting, 39.5 percent from behind the arc. In 14 games as a reserve, he averages 9.9 points and 3.6 assists on 32 percent shooting, and just 26 percent from deep.

Lowry has started all but four games this season and averages 11.2 points, 6.5 assists and 4 rebounds. Compare that to last year when he came off the bench in all 68 games played and averaged 9.1 points, 4.5 assists and 3.6 rebounds. He's playing about nine more minutes per night this year and look how close his numbers are despite differing roles.

Brooks should be the Rockets' starting point guard because he's the better player and he obviously plays much better in that role, whereas Lowry has virtually the same impact regardless. 

The mishandling of this position explains exactly why Houston is a 20-25 mess this year after last season's respectable 42-40 campaign. Martin is in his first full season in Houston and his numbers are up. Scola's numbers are up. Shane Battier continues to be steady in his role, and the Rockets are bigger and deeper then they were a year ago. 

The difference is the team's best player is being phased out for no apparent reason. When Brooks signs his next contract it very well could be with another organization's pen.

Morey and the Rockets will then be stuck with a career back-up starting at point guard while they search for another that is championship-caliber.

And they'll have no one to blame but themselves.

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