Westbrooked torched beverly in the second playoff game. Westbrook scored 29 points and blew by Beverly at will. Westbrook scored 19 last game and everyone said he torched Lin. Reality is in the eye of the beholder. Lin has played 20 games above the level Beverly played last night.
So when you got Kobe, Nash will not be a good compliment, when you got harden, Lin might not be best match. Beverly maybe a better match with Harden than Lin, but that's doesn't mean Beverley is better than Lin. Same as when Lin and Beverley in a PG oriented system, Lin will be better match, but we can't say Lin is superior than Beverley.
You are judging Berverly by the best game he has played in his career and with Lin beside him for a stretch. Don't forget Beverly was waived by all NBA teams he played for and his past record is poor. Mchale took him out very quickly on many occasions during the regular season. I question onyone's judgement if they say that Bevery is a starting quality NBA starting guard.
Agreed. Based on Beverly's contract, the Rockets don't have to choose for a couple more years. I like that he's a restricted free agent though at the end of his deal. That means if the Rockets sour on Lin over the next year or two, they can just match any deal Beverly gets and make him the starter while letting Lin walk. Or go out and get another starting PG altogether. Either way, they've got flexibility which is never a bad thing. As far as their current PG situation, obviously you keep starting Beverly in this series even if Lin's back healthy for Game 3. OKC has a tough time matching up with us when he's out there(imagine that, a #1 seed being forced to adjust to the #8!). Going into next season, Lin is the starter and Beverly the backup. It worked with Kenny and Sam in the mid-90s. Why can't it work now? And please give Lin some time, folks. Dude's 24 years old for God's sake and has only played a single full season in his very young career. He's got the potential to be a solid starting PG. His deficiencies right now are his inconsistent jump shot(which has improved over the course of the season) and his tendency to leave his feet before knowing what he wants to do with the ball. But when I look at the way he plays, I see a lot of Steve Nash in him. No, I don't think he'll ever be in that guy's league, but he's a good finisher around the hoop, he's got excellent court vision, he's an above average passer, and he knocks down his free throws. And he's a perfect fit for a team that likes to run and put up a lot of points. I just don't see the PG situation as a problem. I see it as an opportunity. Sure, it could become an issue if Beverly starts to demand more minutes or the starting spot(which I don't see happening, BTW), but for now, I'm thankful we're reasonably set at this position so we can focus this offseason on upgrading the front court.
Need to keep both but Lin is more of a SG that can become a better PG down the road. Lin still needs to work on his PG game but has it now as a SG. I still believe the team just needs a PF and backup C.
Lin is MUCH BETTER defensive player than Beverly. Stop trolling or spewing lazy inaccurate generalizations. When he was on Golden State, Lin's hallmark on that team was actually as their defensive specialist. Last year on the Knicks Lin put up a 96 defensive rating which is insanely good. He led the D-league in defensive rating and also total +/- differential. This year he has ranked top 25 in the entire league (not just guards) in DPAR, along with Asik who was also top 25. We have seen games where Lin has completely shut down Steph Curry and other elite scoring guards. Lin gets left out to dry when teams play pick and roll. Against pick and roll, it's not on Lin it's on the forward to not play lazy defense and help hedge or stop the offensive guard from an easy layup. It's impossible to stop NBA-level pick and rolls without both defensive players playing hard. Beverly LOOKS active and he hustles a ton on rebounds, but all his hand waving on defense doesn't do anything. Westbrook has torched Beverly both games now (WB only shot 3 of 9 on Lin in game1). Beverly is active but his reaction time on defense is slow, he's easily beat off the dribble. I can pull up a ton of games, blamed on Lin, where the opposing PG went off on scoring while Beverly was the one guarding him. Again, it's all about bias, the eye test, and confirmation bias. It's like a white RB who plays well but another RB who "looks" better, but actually isn't.
beverely did not guard Westbrook in the second halph because of foul trouble and it was in the second halph that Westbrook got hot! In the first halph Wb got frustrated by Beverely, you could feel the tension between them. With that said we still would've had a better chance winning the game with Lin on the court.
The sample size on Beverly is way too small right now to make any long term predictions. It isn't like this was a highly thought of player that is playing at a level that was expected of him. There was a time when people on this forum thought Von Wafer was going to be an all-star.
Beverley is playing well but no one can play as hard as he did last night for every game of an entire season... Stick with Lin.
I don't know if I consider 29 points on 26 shots with 5 rebounds and only 4 assists being "torched" by him. I'll take that every game from Westbrook if we can. And that's not mentioning the fact that Westbrook got most of his points in the second half when Beverly was not guarding him, as was mentioned just before this post.
I completely agree with this, but Beverly does bring an aspect that Lin (and the rest of the Rockets, other than occasionally Greg Smith and previous Marcus Morris) does not, the "borderline-kamikaze-dangerous" element. The Rockets need a couple of guys that have no reservation in dishing out some punishment so the stars don't have to do it themselves. Guys like Rick Mahorn, Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason, Artest (can't call him World Peace) etc.
I hope people realize that there is a possibility bev won't be nearly as effective now that the thunder will be paying attention to him...just throwing that out there
But that only benefits the Rockets. If the Thunder actually have to pay attention to Beverly, that frees up Lin, Harden, and Parsons a little more on offense. Which obviously is why McHale put him in the starting lineup in the first place.
OI VONILLA WOULD BE AN ALLSTAR IF IT WASNT FOR EVIL IDLE-MAN!!!! just playing. dude was a knucklehead cut from the twill cloth.
