Remember, Lin's PNR partner in NYK is Tyson and Amare. They are both elite and have experiences to play PNR with CP3 and Nash. Last year, Lin run PNR with ASIK and G.Smith. That was Asik's first year to play offense. G.Smith is too young and always a defensive liability.
in order for howard to " gel" with lin, howard is going to have to get the ball right where he likes it, something lin excels at and something bev isn't good enough at. This offense will require the team to move the ball to get the best shot not a shoot only and play defense style of pg.
Exactly, it's not even disrespect if Lin plays the 6th man. A good 6th man changes A LOT, just look at how vital Harden was for OKC. Lin will finish games, he just won't start games, but he'll be getting starter minutes.
also, just forget about lin and go back to the couple of seasons before lin. We had one the leagues strongest offenses and both were ran by point guards that shared similar attributes. I said it when I was sad gogi left, those 3 guys, lowry/gogi/lin will generate the same results. As to getting a deficiency in pts, it's always going to happen when 8 of the top pgs in the league shoot 16+shots a game. I expect lin's assist number to go up this season though to 8.1.
Great article. The most balanced assessment of Lin as a Rocket I've ever seen. It is difficult to compare Lin and Bev just based on the numbers. For one, Lin was against starting PGs and Bev was against backups most of the night. Bev also played fewer minutes per game. We all know with minutes increasing, efficiency will drop for all players. So we really don't know how good Bev will be as a starter playing 30+ mpg and guarding elite PGs. Don't get me wrong, I like Bev and believe he will have a solid NBA career. Just that there is no evidence he should start over Lin at this point.
All summer (and now into the fall/autumn) people are talking about Bev taking over the starting position if Jeremy doesn't perform well in the new season. If Jeremy doesn't perform, wouldn't it make more sense to trade him away (remember, Houston got him for NOTHING) and acquire a better PG, rather than giving the job to Bev, who as of the end of last season has not proven that he is a clear upgrade (if at all) from Jeremy? If Jeremy = Bev, you will still start Jeremy but will considering giving Bev more minutes. Of course, if Bev has improved to CP3-ish or DWill-ish during the off-season, than Jeremy's improvement doesn't matter. The starting job will be handed to Bev on a silver platter. Not only Jeremy has to improve, so does Bev. The better man gets the job. All summer we've heard how hard our players (and players from every other team) have been training. I'm excited to see results in the new season. I still expect crazy things to happen during the first dozen of games as McHale tries different things out. Looking forward to changing my signature in a few days .
Bottom line, if the Rockets roll off to a 15-5 record to start the season, Lin isn't likely to lose his spot even if he is putting up numbers similar to last year. But if the Rockets are 10-10, yeah, you better believe Lin is in trouble unless he's playing like a maniac.
"...the Rockets as a team posted a 98.8 Defensive Rating when he was on the floor (compared to 104.0 with Lin)..." No mention of James Harden's impact on this? You know, the shooting guard that regularly allows opposing shooting guards to get career/season highs in points? I don't see that article ever being written by CF. That would be bad politics for those wanting inside access to the Rockets. Just trade him already to a coach that actually wants him while he's still young.
no doubt a big test for lin but if he starts off playing as well as he did after all-star break, i'd say there shouldn't be any doubt as to who the starter should be. a few thoughts: pointing out lin's decreased usage rate while saying we have a PER deficit at the PG spot of 2 less points/gm and 1 less assist/gm is a bit strange, when PER is directly related to usage rate. unless his usage rate is on par with those that have better numbers than he does, in that case there's a point to be made. as for beverly, people kept saying he needs to prove that last year wasn't a fluke. what fluke? he played aggressive D for short minutes at a time and was very effective in disrupting opposing offensive flow at the point of attack. that's it. offensively he is no more a better fit as a spot up shooter than lin. he turned in several 0 pt games. it wasn't like he shot 40% from the 3 for the year. as for comparing team offensive and defensive numbers with him on the court - shouldn't it take into account that when he's in, he's mainly playing against the other team's backups and in short minutes at a time? we saw him in a starting role against the other team's backup in the playoffs, and his style of defensive wasn't as effective as a starter, and on the offensive side, contributed 10pt and 2 assist per game. lin would've been murdered if he turned in those numbers playing against okc backup pg.
That's a double standard though. What you are saying is if the Rockets are 15-5 then it doesn't really matter what Lin is doing. But if the Rockets are 10-10 then it's going to be on Lin. Or am I misunderstanding your point? Did you mean to say that Lin is probably going to be traded away for an upgrade if even with Harden and Howard the Rockets can't break an even record?
these are very high numbers and with only one ball and three players that would want touches ahead of him (harden, howard, parsons), i highly doubt this would happen. however, if given the opportunity to actually run the offense more, i see 8-9 assists/gm. i'm projecting 13pt, 9 assists, 3 rbs, and 3 steals (he can gamble more now with howard covering for him), on 50% FG and 39% from the three. yeah i'm being very optimistic with his shooting percentage but this is what i see if he stays healthy for the year.
Yes! Yes! Yes! It's all mental The sooner he realizes his primary responsibility is to be complimentary to Howard and Harden, the sooner we can attain true contender status. Every big three has a player that functions as a buttress for the other two while still retaining the ability to step up when the moment calls for it. Lin doesn't compare to Bosh, but it was mighty impressive watching Bosh throughout the playoffs. He served his role very well and was still able to leave his fingerprints all over the decisive moments of game 6: Spoiler 1. Last 20s of regulation, set a pick to free LeBron for a three from the left wing and sprints to the paint to steal the offensive board from Manu and has the presence of mind to find a wide open Ray Allen in the corner. 2. Last 30s of OT, Bosh gets stuck on Parker and is able to hold him to a jumper, which he blocks. 3. Final seconds of OT, recognizes that Danny Green has sprung free and recovers from the FT line to the corner and erases the shot. But the most impressive part is that he demonstrated the mental fortitude to do this in an elimination game, on the biggest stage and after getting embarrassed by Duncan for 12pts on 100% shooting in the 1st quarter! Everything that Lin has said this offseason tells me that the biggest difference between this season and the last is that he has recognized what his role is and he has worked hard to become that complimentary piece. It's all mental Of course he didn't initially sign up with us to be in the back seat or even (gasp) come off the bench. The truth is that everything changed after Harden came over and there was no time for the team to gel. Everything changed again with Dwight but now the team is closer than any since 08-09. Lin is too smart to give up this golden opportunity to win big just so he can "live up to his contract" on a bad team. And the team still believes in him and what he is capable of. "Wait...didn't Morey try to ship him away?" Probably But he also has been Lin's staunchest defender on Twitter and Reddit. "He's just pumping up Lin's trade value...." Possibly If he is leaving, then why commit him to an incredible experience with Dwight to train with Dream and Mchale + staff in Colorado? The bottom line is that NOBODY knows what our PG rotation will look like at the end of the year, but EVERYONE should understand that the front office, personnel, the team and Lin are committed to elevating him into the best player he can be for the team. Clutchfans needs to embrace this concept or risk the GARM turning into the D&D.
i don't think he's saying this at all. i think what he's saying is - if the rockets are off to 15-5 start then the UNIT is working and no need to tweak it even IF lin is averaging 10 and 4 or something like that. but if the team is 10-10, then they'll want to make a change and that change will most likely fall on the pg, since that's the deepest position on the team. you can't take out howard or harden, or parson, since their backups clearly aren't as good as they are. the makeup of this team is not dependent on the pg to carry the team, so it's a position that you can gamble with without taking on too much risk.
Yes, in addition to this, I'm surprised that people are so emphasis on the fit with Harden, and dismiss the same concern of our PG's fit with Dwight. Last season, 51.4% of Jeremy's assist were at rim shots, 33.9% were 3pt. On the other hand, 27.6% of Beverley's assist were at rim shots, and 53.4% were for 3pt shots. That's a big drop off for set up their teammates in the paint. Harden is pretty good in set people up, too. He has 39.9% of his assists goes to at rim shots, and 46.3% of his assists goes to 3pt shots. If Beverley is to take Jeremy's starting position, that pretty much means Harden will need to pick up the drop off of set up people at the rim. As good as attacking the rim himself, I'm not sure how much room there is for James Harden to further increase his already pretty high assists, and also assists to the rim. And, Beverley is not equivalent to Jeremy yet, even in D-league, when Beverley is playing with significant minutes, out of 3 games he is averaging 13.7 ppg with 37 min, and Jeremy during his Warrior years, which is two years ago, his got 18 ppg in 31 min. And that was way before Linsanity, as a real rookie, not much pro experience.
Toxic contract? How is it a toxic contract? 3 years @ $25mil...but an average cap hit of around $8mil per. Morey is a genius. Y'all have to look at Lin's first full season with the Rockets as if he were a rookie point guard. If Caanan came in & averaged what Lin did, we'd be beside ourselves talking about his upside & potential. I admit there is a few things that Jeremey needs to work on, but he is a humble, hard working kid that, by all accounts lives a pretty clean & proper life...why y'all hate on him so much? Seriously. He is OUR starting PG, give the guy some love man.
I agree that Beverley needs to prove that last season was not a fluke. But IMO, the "fluke" is not about his plays but about the statistics. That numbers says that the team played much better defense with him on the floor than Lin and not much difference on offense. We need a larger sample size to prove that those numbers are indeed not a fluke. But in terms of style of play, I think we all see what Beverley brings to the table. He is a hustle guy, playing with a lot of energy and is fearless. That's his strength. He is an okay shooter, can hit the spot up 3 but is not what you call a dead-eye shooter. In fact, his shot was as inconsistent as Lin's. His weakness is in setting up the teammates. He doesn't have Lin's court vision. He is not as good at penetrating and finishing at the rim. So if he's on the floor, we need either Harden or Lin playing alongside, or else the offense will get bogged down. In short, Beverley has not shown that he can be the floor general. The good thing is that Beverley and Lin are two very different players and they bring very different things. It gives us a lot of flexibility. I am glad we have both. Neither is expendable, until one of them can show that he can do equally well what the other guy does.