lol love Lin but watching the airball in that video made me chuckle. dont worry jeremy we all have our bad moments. hope this team has more of the "strengths" moments this year!
Some guys here think taking the starting spot is very easy to get. No doubt Beverley did well coming off the bench but it's another story to start. Bev won't be able to provide as much energy as before. He has to learn how to conserve his energy for the whole game.
It wasn't just the 3 point shooting that was going up late in the season, with the 34 game sample mentioned in the article Lin had a True Shooting percentage of .562 while having a 22% usage during that span, that's actually really good, the list of full time starting PG with a better TS% than that last year was essentially Paul / Deron / Parker / Nash / Calderon / Chalmers. that's it, aside from Chalmers who's getting some exceptional help and have a usage well well under any normal starting PG (as in, way less than Lin overall last year.) that's the most elite group of offensive PG. His assist percentage went up and his turn over percentage went down as well. as long as we believe that this was due to him fully recovering from knee surgery and simply finally settling into a system randomly thrown together on opening day, so that it is fairly likely to carry forward, that's a pretty clear upper half starting PG stuff right there. Another part of looking at his game is that his shots assisted was certainly on the low side even among PGs last year, which suggest that he's very much creating most of his own offense. something to keep in mind when you compare his 39% shots assisted to Chalmers 62% shots assisted. part of that is Chalmers being more comfortable off the ball certainly, but it also speaks to his questionable ability to do anything without Lebron / Wade covering him. Another general point to take in is that last year, in the 3 games Harden missed, Houston went 2-1, with a win over the Clippers and the lost being an overtime effort to the Spurs where Lin was between really good to epic in all 3 game, so there is something to that he's being held back to some extend by the Harden pairing, but is probably finding a good niche to fit in as the season progress. Certainly, it is possible that everything just falls apart for him this year, that's true for most non-elite players, but there's plenty of signs to suggest that he's finding a good balance of being an effective complimentary player with Harden, while still retaining the ability to run an above average offense on his own. which would be pretty sweet to have as it gives Houston not just an elite first unit, but a much much stronger second unit than almost any team as well, in theory, Houston could miss one of Harden or Howard for most of the season and still be top 6th seed in the West. which is pretty insane.
Definitely would get higher than 14. But at least we would actually see how Lin played while being the de facto point guard. For better or worse, at least it would settle all the arguments on Lin both ways...for a while anyways.
The flaw in everyones arguement about Lin and Harden is that you guys think that this is NBA 2k and every player needs to fit together perfectly to win a title. Lebron and Wade dont fit together and they have 2 rings. Lebron is better playing with shooters and Wade cant shoot, should they trade Wade? Should Allen start over Wade? Lin and Harden do similiar things but they do them well. So the Rockets field a dangerous backcourt because they have attacking guards on both sides of the court, which is why no one guarded Parsons and he received open shots all year long. Beverley is not as talented as Lin, which is backed up by track record, eye test, contract etc. The author of this article had a premise which is that Lin is average in everything and he used stats to try and back that up. But Lin is not average at everything, hes a good passer, good finisher at the rim, fast with the ball and without, and great in pick and roll. Lin is average with his pressure handles, and outside shot but he also has only played 100 games. Im not here to make excuses for Lin, its just weird that he gets all the articles about his inconsistent game when all the young Rockets are inconsistent. Harden was terrible in March and April. Parson was great for three games then he would shoot 1-10. Beverley was good sometimes then commit three fouls in the backcourt. Jones, DMo, Smith they are all inconsistent. Hell even the coach was inconsistent and needs to do a better job this season.
Valid points RollingWave. And not forgetting that he had high numbers for finishing at rims (63.7%). Thats higher than many elite players. But slightly lower than harden Lets give the kid a break. It was his first season starting PG for a full season. He has done well and had again shown flashes of what he could do. But, we only want him to find ways to fit into Rox system with Harden and Horward. If he can do that, he will gain respect from many fans. Cheers.
To all of the '12 and '13ers pushing back against this even-keeled article: Why should the fact that other Rockets are inconsistent have any bearing on an individual review of Jeremy Lin? Any decent review / scouting report of one player needs to highlight his flaws as well as his strengths. I'm sorry but it's a rough world out there. Lin will be a solid part of this team. If he isn't afraid of addressing his flaws (most notably: assists-to-turnovers), like Clutchfans, he'll be a GREAT part of this team. Bring on the season.
The fear is that he disappoints, is demoted to backup, his trade value plummets, and he becomes an albatross contract. And Daryl Morey hates albatross contracts.
too much expectation from everyone. he's already a solid PG for sure. many rox here said rockets doesn't need a very good PG for championship anyway.
I know what you're saying. But having more scrutiny than others just seems to be part of the Lin package, and the fact is, he was more inconsistent than others last year. Coming back from knee surgery, playing a new role, being a rookie, even the glare of Linsanity, may have been contributing factors ---, but he was inconsistent. And it was one striking (and incredibly frustrating) part of his play last year. But last season was last season. And I think we'll see an even better Lin this year.
Not a 14th seed but certainly would not make the playoffs when there were teams like Dallas and Utah on the bubble. But Harden coming here made Howard come here and prevented OKC from winning it all.
Did we read completely different articles or something? lol this article was very fair to Lin and pretty accurate imo. It didn't overharp on his inconsistency...in fact, most of the stats it posted tended to show that Lin was either an avg. PG in this league or, in some respects, even slightly above average. Of course, there are some things Lin was below average on. I just don't see your point -- do you actually believe Lin is a top 10 PG right now or something? I think Lin is a decent PG who will get better, esp. since he DID get better in the second half of the season...but for all intents are purposes, he's around average for his position overall.
Just curious: Do you think he's around average for anyone who played point in the NBA last year, for pgs in regular rotations, or for starting point guards?
No the flaw is that you consider him a top 10 pg. He is a role player while Wade and Lebron are superstars. Superstars find a way to work but the argument is that Lin is a role player that does fit well with a Superstar. All the other role players on the Heat fit with Lebron and Wade's style of play
