Tremendous improvement? Where? His scoring and shooting percentages are up a bit, but his assists are down and his assist to turnover ratio is worse than last year when he was 40th among all point guards.
Your right, about the stats, but it is the timing of when John Wall scored. He was blowing right by Lin in the 4th qtr with Lin looking for help on every drive, can he stay in front of him at least once. As I've said before Lin and Harden can't stay in front of a refrigerator. Lin is too easily taken off the dribble, if Lin is on the floor for the last 5 minutes of a game, I'm running a 1 - 4 set and telling the opposing point guard to blow right by him and score or pass for dunks or lobs. Also, nobody mentions all of the loose balls and rebounds that Pbev hustles for on both ends.
If what you said is true, why cannot the opponent do the same to Harden? How is Houston ever going to solve the problem?
I think Bev will start. Bev is a solid ball handler and defender that does not require the ball in his hand. He is solid, but not great. Although in terms of talent Lin is the better player and has shown flashes of greatness, he is not in the Rocket's long term plan and its better for Bev to gel with the starters. Seems like right now Lin is being used as an interim PG/SG until Rocket's find another upgrade.
some people think that Harden plays better with Beverley. but the fact is Harden plays much better with Lin because Lin and Harden are somehow competing to each other. Both of them are combo guard. LOL.
Long term Bev should start. He can grow a bit more on the offensive end but I like that he is low T/O.
you try not to trade your good assets to the teams in the same conference, that's make sense. but do not develop or use your young player's strength to the fullest because in future, he will play for other team against Rockets??!! what a strange logic. imagine the majority of teams think likewise , how many young talents will be wasted, and how ugly NBA games will be.
Bev takes care of the ball far better than Lin and with Harden and Howard being turnover prone, Bev seems to be the best fit. Bev AST/TO = 1.93 Lin AST/TO = 1.43 Likewise, Lin will be needed to provide the spark off the bench.
Bev.'s offense didn't make play and take risk. There will be no ball movement if Bev. is the primary ball handler.
Bev. won 3 matchups and lost 16 matchups. http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketbal...s/players/patrick-beverley/matchups/14/10/148 Lin won 13 matchups and lost 8 matchups. http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketbal...rockets/players/jeremy-lin/matchups/14/10/158
other point guards have the ball all the time and they get a lot of easy, meaningless assists, especially if they play in a system which is not anti-midrange. lin usually works hard for every assist and creates high % shots.
Lin isn't terrible. He is a very good/elite bench player on a championship calibur team. However, IMO he is not good enough to start on an elite team. The same goes for Beverly, however he does not need shots to make a positive impact on the game. That is why I prefer Beverly starting. I am not sure why Lin's game is so polarizing. He is not a top 10 point guard like his fans think, but he is not "absolutely terrible" either. Some games Lin is the 2-3rd best player on the floor, other games he is just another body on the floor. I have no problem with Lin getting 30 minutes a game on the Rockets. He plays very hard, is very quick, has good size and at times can make a real impact on the offensive side of the floor which the Rockets can always use. I for one would love to have Lin leading the bench brigade for the next 5 years. If the Rockets are going to win a title they will need excellent depth and hard working players. Lin provides both traits. On a side note, I have met Jeremy a few times (once when he had just graduated) and a few times after. He was a very nice and genuine person. I will not get into specifics, but our meetings were in the buisness arena and he did not have to be nice. He struck me as a good person. The type of guy you would hope your son would be like.
What happens when you remove the first 8 games, when Asik was a starter? Beverly/Jones starting = 13-7 = 65% Lin/Jones starting = 9-5 = 64.28% It's fairly even. I don't take too much stock in records based on the starters though. To me, it's more about which lineups are more effective during their time in the game. When you compare the +/- of the two lineups: Beverley/Harden/Parsons/Jones/Howard = +4.1 per game Lin/Harden/Parsons/Jones/Howard = -0.3 per game
I will agree that Beverley is a better fit alongside Harden. But if Lin is a good bench payer "at best," what does that make Beverley - an average bench player at best?
Yes, but the tragedy is that McHale wants Lin to play the Beverley role in that line-up. What would happen if the team returns to pushing the tempo again like last year?
So what is the logic here, having the starting lineup do well is more important than winning the game?
