Who has to go beyond expectations/ ceilings to win it a championship

McHale....he has enough pieces for a contender. Its up to him to coach the style correctly with the addition of Howard, get the rotation right and develop TJones and DMo.

 

Harden and Howard.

Without doing deeper research, it appears that the simple general explanation for contender teams failing to win a title is probably that either the top star or the #2 (or both) were not good enough to overcome all other contenders. It is hard to sustain success at these levels. One could argue that only one team in the last 13 years was won a title without a top 10 of all-time guy leading the way. And in only one case was the #2 not a hall of famer.

 

Welcome to CF, A Voice, and don't mind the threatening and irrational tones some people here like to use. Specifics matter very little to certain folks here. So don't get discouraged because where there is heavy darkness, even a little light can be piercing yet desperately needed.

 

Bench play will be a big factor in our success. Lin's confidence and consistent play will be a key factor. And the play of our PF.

 

I would argue Hakeem needs to step up. If he can improve Howard and Asik's post and footwork skills, we will do very well.

 

You have demonstrated yourself as a poor reader in the past, and you are further showing your complete lack of comprehension skills again the present.

Perhaps you should take off your Lin goggles for once and read the post. As in, try not to read it in terms of Lin but in terms of what the post actually says.

Here are some key sentences I highlighted in order to aid your reading skills, I understand having the patience of a goldfish could make things difficult.

Sentence 1:

Sentence 2 :

Disclaimer: I am a fan of Lin. In no way is this post about Patrick Beverley or a supporting of Raymond Felton.

 

Is he performing beyond expectations if he does that again? Depends on whose expectations are you talking about. Each to his own.

 

There are 50,000 people on this board. Sure, some people are going to blame Lin and some will blame your grandmother. Who cares what some people still do?

Stop generalizing a few people's opinions who are idiots as being the entire board. You know what, most people just don't bother responding to dumb posts that blame anyone in a ridiculous way. Maybe there's a lesson there.

 

Retranslation: We're so upset and offended at the idea of Lin being a roleplayer and not a star that anyone who isn't with us must be a hater and definitely hates all Asians.

Retranslation:We care more about Jeremy Lin having the ball in his hands then we do about the Houston Rockets winning basketball games

Retranslation:If 4 people say Lin should be benched and replaced by Pat Bev, it must mean half of houston agrees with them because 4 CF posters represents 1.5 million people.

Retranslation:4 posters on this board who bash Lin clearly must be racists and we take it that way, and since 4 posters on this board represent half of Houston, that means half of this board is racist and means anyone criticizing Lin must also be a racist so we will strike them down with all our fury.


Dude, I was one of the bigger defenders of Lin throughout last season. Thats what's funny. You can't handle anyone having an objective view.

 

Asik is the key to the season. If we can keep him and keep him happy in a back-up role, sky's the limit.

Going through this thread, a lot of posters are focused on the offense. But our offense was fine last year. We lost games because when Asik sat, we couldn't defend a JV team. Just as he was the unsung hero of last year's season, I could see Asik being the unsung hero again this season, just in a back-up role.

Howard is an upgrade over Asik, but Asik is a quantum leap over Greg Smith as the 2nd C (Smith is still young, I wouldn't write him off yet by the way). Our players improving next year is important, but we already have made a huge leap at the back-up 5 which is critical because there was such a dramatic drop-off at that role last season. I think that drop-off was our Achilles heel last season. How many times did our team have to come from behind in the 4th last season? Most teams don't even have one elite defender/rebounder at the 5. We will have 2!

I am fine with our perimeter players' offensive production and have no doubt they will improve. They all need to work on their D though, and again here is where Asik helps with the 48 minutes thing. Plus in general I think man and team defense, cutting down on TO's and consistency improve with time and practice. I honestly think we have all the pieces needed to make a title run as is, we just need patience.

But I think Asik will play a crucial role in any success we may enjoy, I think keeping him should be the No. 1 priority. But it will be tough.

 

Whoever plays the 4, and it's not even close. If there is any glaring hole with any one of our positions, we are not a bonafide contender.

Ideally we like to see one of DMo or T Jones steps up his game, since 4 is their natural position. I am sure both will step up BUT unlikely enough to compete against Thunder or Heat. Their minutes will be limited, just like last season.

That leaves majority of minute to:

- Dwight at 4 when Asik is in the game.
- G Smith at 4.
- Parsons at 4 going small ball.

If somehow Dwight can mesh well with Asik, this will be the best option. The reason is simple. More minutes Asik and Dwight are on the floor, more chances we will win the game. However, by playing them both, some of their skills overlap, which could possibly render them less effective on defense and clogging the paint on offense. We simply do not know until we have enough sample size for assessment.

G Smith was a natural 4 prior to last season. Stastically, he is still better than T Jone or DMo.

Finally, we all know McHales played Delfino a lot at 4. With more options this year, I just don't see Parsons at 4 often, unless we are getting outscored by opposition small ball. GSW is one of the teams we might see this happening.

Who should play the 4? I predict this will become one the most debatable topics in GARM this season.

 

Let me put it this way, if the Pacers were bringing Asik off the bench to spell Hibbert instead of Mahinmi or Hansbrough, they would be hoisting a banner when the season starts instead of the Heat.

 

40% is an unreasonable expectation. No one on the team last year shot even 39%. It's kind of a stretch to expect a below average 3pt shooter to become the best shooter on the team, unless your premise is that we are so far from contending that we need huge improvements to have a chance.

 

McHale needs to tailor a system that tailors to Dwight's strengths, because Dwight is at his best when the floor is spaced. McHale also needs to get on all of the players to play better team defense.

Dwight needs to get completely healthy and back to peak form as well as work on his offense being less predictable.

Harden needs to start to play consistent defense and focus less on getting free throws and more on finishing.

Asik need to be able to play Power Forward.

Parsons needs to be able to keep up his production from last season in some capacity, even in a different system.

Lin needs to work on his 3-point shooting and decision making when driving into the paint. He also needs to be able to rise to the occasion to take the scoring slack off of Harden and Dwight when they have off nights.

Jones or Motiejunas need to show that they can be consistent starters at Power Forward.

 

I guess I just don't agree. I think Lin hitting a solid 37 percent (and taking his foot off the damn line) and maybe cutting down a couple of ugly passes a week would be good enough for me - but that is my expectation anyways - and well within his ceiling. And I think that would be good enough.

Asik learning to hit consistent mid-range WIDE open jumpers would be beyond expectations. Dwight and Asik shooting a "solid" 65 percent from the line would be beyond what I would consider a "ceiling". A Dwight post game with some polish, Asik catching the ball like Owen Daniels, DMo or someone else stepping up and providing solid play at the 4 spot would be beyond expectations. Those are things I would consider beyond expectations - but still within the range of reality (well maybe not Asik and the wide open jumpers).

 

Lin and McHale must step up. Harden and Howard have a track record which I expect them to live upto. Howard may need to bring it more than he did last year but I expect him to. Parsons is the quintessential role player doing a bit of everything well, and I can't see him personally doing much better or worse unless his shot gets dramatically better or broken. Asik is Asik. Lin is the wild card as he can prove to be a near all-star caliber player imo and he plays such an important position especially considering that we won last year uear because of our high octane offense. If Lin can live upto expectations or play above expectations we would be more than good.
Regardless whether Lin leaves or stays, is played or benched, McHale has enough pieces that he must either make us contenders or we'll have to find someone that can bring is to the promised land. If one or the other step up, we're good to go.

 

I don't think so.

 

Thank you, professor, for trying to clarify your points to remediate a person with poor reading comprehension like me. You being a Lin fan or not is not the point here, however. If you care to read my post again, you will see that it is directed at the CF board at large which has overwhelmingly condemned Lin to the hell of mediocrity while at the same time expecting nothing less than Lisanity output as merely good enough from him.