Excellent post. repped. One of the points made by the Wins Produced geeks that I like is that a player's athleticism is irrelevant -- or to use your description of handle, a merely 'cosmetic assessment' -- if it is not reflected in superior stats, and does not translate into wins. Lin will never have the stunning handle of someone like Irving, but how we assess how good the handle looks is not as important as how it impacts the game. How it impacts the game should not be subjected to the eye test, because beauty -- and the beard -- is in the eye of the beholder. The flipside of this idea is that players with elite impact should be thought of as athletic even if they do not 'look' athletic in the conventional sense. For example, it is often said that Nash does not have elite athleticism. While he does not have mad hops, his eye-hand coordination, balance, and body control are absolutely stellar -- even though these are not conventionally part of how athleticism is talked about. When people talk about 'athleticism,' a lot of it is a cosmetic assessment based on conventional ideas of how an athlete should look, regardless of how it actually translates into wins. I'm kind of going off topic here, but I'm just adding on to your idea that evaluations of 'dribble' can be quite subjective and dictated by conventional ideas.
Lin doesn't take pressure well and when guards push up on him he's not quick enough to blow by them and make them pay. He also struggles with going right and finishing around the basket. He needs to learn the Cassell and Calvin Murphy mid range jumper game. This is just the plain truth and no hate on JLin. I love his mental capacity, hustle, and reboudning. However, teams have enough information on him to now know his weaknesses, which are glaring when you pressure his handle (dribble)
He also passes up too many semi-open threes (where if he shot the three it would be slightly contested but still very makeable if he just focused on the rim).
He's shooting almost 4 3-pointers a game this season, the problem definitely isn't Lin passing up more 3-point attempts. The problem is the offense turning Lin into a spot-up shooter, which he isn't at all.
I think you mean going left. Also his FG% at the rim right now is better than it was last year thus far. And one of his strengths is his quickness. I have noticed that guys aren't setting proper picks & screens one of the reasons him & Harden are so effective is because of there ability to blow past guys once those are properly set. That isn't happening right now.
Lin is getting crucified over his turnovers compared to the other players because a point guard's job is to take care of the basketball.
Lin is getting crucified over his turnovers because of the overblown Linsanity leading to overblown backlash and the easiest part of his game to criticize is his turnovers. It became the focus of his every hater/critique, so much that after Linsanity calmed down, in people's mind Lin = turnovers. That's what people subconciously pay attention to when they (we) watch his game.
It's clear. This coaching staff has no respect of Jeremy. I can't believe he said he played TD over Jeremy because he thought that was a better match up? Why don't you be honest and tell'em how you really felt. That you don't think much of Jeremy as a player. This is a team built for the future. We need to develop our players especially the one that we paid the "poison pill" to get here. Would he have done the same thing if we didn't have harden? When Jeremy was supposed to be the man? He would actually sit him because he wasn't a good enough match up with a back up point guard on the worst team in the league? This clearly shows that the coaching doesn't have any respect for Jeremy and they are not using him the way he should be used. I don't see any other reason why he wasn't used in this game. I am surprised none of the media members picked up on this. Just for once, I just want to see a full season when Lin run the offense the way he did in NY. IF he still sucks, then I will be first to admit he is not good. However, i don't want him to fail because of a stubborn, perhaps bigoted, coaching staff who still believe Linsanity was a fluke and completely uses him like a moron would. Different Team. Same old story. Jeremy again fighting to get respect. When people ever learn.
Bad news: Lin still passive, not attacking enough. Good news: Lin was a floor general tonight and looked like a 10 year vet running point. Great news: Lin didn't crumble against ball pressure.
Does this make any sense? The Turnover leader of the team is Harden. He had 6 the other night and been regularly dropping 5 Turnovers a game. Why is this even an discussion????
Yup, Harden is 5.0 turnovers per game and Lin is 2.3. Harden is handling the ball too much, he needs to stop trying to play PG and be more aggressive on offense.
confirmation bias. i cant even count how many times I've seen harden get stripped driving 1v5 in the lane, and people don't seem to make that big an issue of it, at least relative to when lin turns the ball over. it is what it is, and people can say whatever they want, but Lin is doing just fine. I'd like him to dominate the ball more but that seems to be moreso an issue with the system rather then any individual dropoff. his speed looks okay, but agility doesnt seem quite there yet.
Harden is still locked into a distributer role, because that is a role he had to play for his years in OKC, he often had to defer to Durant and Westbrook and other players. But on the Rockets, we need Harden to be more aggressive on offense and less of a ball handler, we have Lin to do that. Harden needs to learn how to play off of Lin and let Lin make his job easier. It will take time, old habits are hard to break and Harden isn't use to playing a prototypical SG role.
Jure Holiday is turning the ball like crazy... 5.3 per game but it seems no one cares except for 76ers' fans.
He said TD was a better matchup for the Rockets than Lin? If that's the case then Lin is going to be benched a lot more. Brandon Knight it not a bad player but there are a lot of better PGs than him. If Sampson thinks TD was a better matchup against Brandon Knight than Lin then how much will Lin play against the Clippers, OKC, Spurs, Celtics, Phoenix, Brooklyn, Lakers, Portland, Toronto, etc.
I think this just might be what Lin needs to be more competitive. Be it now or 30 games from now. Lin needs to know that he has to do more than contribute with assists and steals. If he can't score at will then TD obviously will see more and more time. 10 rebounds a few games before, 6 steals on the other night,none of that matters. Its the NBA its a show ~ if he can't score he's going to see his time cut down.
No, NO, this is good for Lin, let Lin think his job is on the line, because that's the main motivation of Linsanity, you guys want to see Linsanity don't you?
