Brooks gets tricky to score around much bigger players

Game on the line, its final seconds slipping away, the Rockets have little interest in symbolism or poetry, but there is something fitting about their choice.

They give the ball and their fate to their diminutive, wisp of a point guard in yet another reminder of their season spent trying to measure up to long odds, and then let him go to work. But look closer, beyond the obvious and the assumptions.

Aaron Brooks takes off through the lane, splitting burly defenders who tower over him and lengthening his strides as he goes by.

He takes his drive from the right of the rim to the left, the ball from one hand to the other, stretched out surprisingly far from his body and the reach of those long arms around him. He spins the ball as if trying to pick up a 7-10 split, off the backboard and through the hoop. And he no longer seems limited by what he lacks but lifted by all he has.

“That's a gift I don't think many have,” Rockets director of player programs Shawn Respert said. “He has it. He knows he has it.”

Also like the Rockets as a whole, Brooks believes he is capable of much more. But as the Rockets hit the midpoint of the season, he is their leading scorer (at 18.6 points per game after averaging 11.2 last season) and most vital contributor, the difference in most games in their Yao Ming-less, post Tracy McGrady season. And typical of their season, he has had to do it with attributes unexpected.

While that might start with the speed necessary for one so small, there also is an uncanny ability to finish around the rim.

Brooks is not a great finisher on the Steve Nash or Tony Parker level but well above average for someone his size, and even more so for someone with his shooting range. Beyond that, however, he and the Rockets expect him to continue to develop as a finisher at the rim because of a variety of traits ranging from footwork to a rare feel for spinning the ball off the glass.

Long arms, big hands

“Aaron's obviously not prototypically-sized, yet he does have some attributes that give him an advantage,” Rockets vice president Sam Hinkie said. “He's light (about 165 pounds) of course, which makes him fast, but he has a great wingspan, a wingspan of 6-foot-4. That length combines with above-average size hands and very strong hands gives him the ability to play with the ball away from his body and effectively makes his playing area bigger than it would be if you said here is a 6-foot guy (actually 5-10).”

Brooks' hands are somewhat large to the finger tips but peculiarly wide from thumb to pinkie and remarkably strong, giving him the ability to reliably flip the ball off the glass.

“He always worked on putting a good spin on the ball,” former teammate Rafer Alston said. “He knows the angle on the glass pretty well. He gets to the basket so fast, he gets the shot up before a big guy can anticipate it. He has great touch around the rim and huge hands. When he goes in and they try to take it away, his hands are all over the ball. All they're smacking is hands.

“Even in practice, you think you have him covered and he'll flip it and roll it off the glass and it falls right in. He has so much touch and spin with the ball. He has probably the best touch around the rim. He spins it different ways. I've seen it all. When we scrimmaged, the shot clock would be going down and he'd spin it in. We were like, ‘How'd he do that?' ”

His secret: bowling

Brooks does work on those shots, but he said his ability to finish drives with a mix of touch and spin came not from practice squeezing shots between the long limbs of NBA big men, or hours on practice courts, but rather form his passion for bowling.

Brooks insisted bowling strengthened his hands (he bowls lefthanded, too) and gave him a feel for spinning the ball.

“I bowl a ton, all the time,” said Brooks, who averages about 195. “My mom and dad met in a bowling alley. I do spin the ball. I like to think that has something to do with it.”

The Rockets think his most valuable attribute as a finisher might be his footwork. Respert does plan to add some weight to Brooks' frame, believing he will handle and deliver contact better with another 10 pounds of core strength without losing quickness. Brooks believes repetition will help him grow as a finisher. But the key could be an ability to jump off either foot and finish with either hand.

“As much as I like his hands, I think his footwork is more impressive,” Hinkie said. “He does what very few players in the NBA do, which is play off the wrong foot. The average player chops his steps. In our league, 90 to 95 percent of the players do that. The ones that don't have a huge advantage. That is what Steve Nash does.”

Nash shoots such a high percentage without Brooks' speed or jumping ability because his footwork enables him to get those shots without needing those attributes. Brooks believes his similar footwork could eventually lead to similar results.

Unique footwork

“When you're going to the basket, if you go one-two, one-two, you have to stagger your steps, but if you can go off either leg, you don't have to slow down,” Brooks said. “You can just go to the rim and finish. If you go one-two, a guy can come in and time it. I think it messes the defense up if you can go off either leg.

“It happens so fast, I don't even realize what leg I'm going off most of the time. My emphasis is not getting blocked. If I can avoid somebody and get somewhere near the basket, I can find some way to spin the ball in.”

This comes from so many years having to overcome a lack of size. He recently has added more runners in the lane, and coach Rick Adelman has wanted more pull-up jumpers. But with Brooks' speed, there will always be opportunities to finish, chances to use his footwork to get past defenders, wingspan to get shots off cleanly, hand size and strength to flip the ball and uncanny knack to spin it.