Not sure about this. Lowry maybe but Goran stinks at shooting this year, Lin beats him in every shooting category, FG, 3-PT and FT.
I wanted to point out a couple of things: 1. Lin has less experience than the other 2 pgs. Lin is in his 3rd year, Dragic is in his 6th year and Lowry is in his 8th year. Dragic and Lowry have improved alot after their third year(both averaged less than 8 points and 4 assists) and so will Lin. 2. When looking at PER you have to look at the situation they are in. Lin is in a unique situation in which he plays with a ball-dominating sg. Only other pgs in the same situation are Nash and Chalmers. Chalmers is at 13.2. Nash dropped over 4 pts on his PER from last year, now that he is playing with Kobe, even though he has similar stats except for 4 less assist and 1 less TO because he handles the ball less often. Lin has dropped almost 5 points from last year now that he plays with Harden and isn't the main facilitator. Playing with a ball dominating sg lowers your PER. Let's look at the games that Lin has played without Harden this year (Yes, 4 games is a small sample but it's all we have.). He has averaged 22 pts and 7 assists per game which would put him well above 20 PER. This is also playing 3/4 games against top 10 defenses. 2 against Clippers ( Chris Paul is one of the best defensive pgs in the league), 1 against Spurs and 1 against Magic. The team went 2-2, losing to Spurs in OT and losing by 10 to the Clippers on the second night of a back to back road trip. When given a chance to lead he has brought the best out of his teammates.
Lin only played Feb and March Last year, left at half of Det game. One of Novak's 20 pt game is against Por which happens when Woodson first become coach. Lin was still the starting pg. Chandler is avg over 12 pg in Feb. a little bit over 10 pt in Mar with Lin still played. You need to go back to his NO day to get number close to that. Chandler does become very effi last year. This year, the number drop a little. Novak is 11.7 in Feb and 9.9 in March when Lin played starting pg. Even with 9.9, it still is his career number.
I wanted to point out a couple of things: 1. Lin has less experience than the other 2 pgs. Lin is in his 3rd year, Dragic is in his 6th year and Lowry is in his 8th year. Dragic and Lowry have improved alot after their third year(both averaged less than 8 points and 4 assists) and so will Lin. 2. When looking at PER you have to look at the situation they are in. Lin is in a unique situation in which he plays with a ball-dominating sg. Only other pgs in the same situation are Nash and Chalmers. Chalmers is at 13.2. Nash dropped over 4 pts on his PER from last year, now that he is playing with Kobe, even though he has similar stats except for 4 less assist and 1 less TO because he handles the ball less often. Lin has dropped almost 5 points from last year now that he plays with Harden and isn't the main facilitator. Playing with a ball dominating sg lowers your PER. Let's look at the games that Lin has played without Harden this year (Yes, 4 games is a small sample but it's all we have.). He has averaged 22 pts and 7 assists per game which would put him well above 20 PER. This is also playing 3 of 4 games against top 10 defenses. 2 against Clippers ( Chris Paul is one of the best defensive pgs in the league), 1 against Spurs and 1 against Magic. The team went 2-2, losing to Spurs in OT and losing by 10 to the Clippers on the second night of a back to back road trip. When given a chance to lead he has been pretty good.
Response I am not about to argue with anyone how bad or good Lin is, but Lin came a long way from an unknown, to a perceived scrub to a perceived back-up, to a "good back-up" to "an average" to "above average NBA starter PG" -- in three years. That's not too shabby. I think a lot of how fans will perceive him depends on what he does in the playoff and in future. Having said this, I do see some areas he has to improve to reach an All- star level, i.e., Parker.
Response Heck, I don't even care if some people disagrees that Lin is an "above average NBA starter PG" and thinks Lin is a "decent" player. This is so subjective and depends on what aspects of the BB game you value more. All I am saying is the guy came a very long way. All the respect to Lin. Also to Bev. I liked TD also.
This has to be the gayest thread. Really comparing PG that play with completely different teamates and using all this statically bull**** to prove one is better than another. There's no way you can prove an orange is better than an apple.
Only slightly better and Lin is getting better looks. Dragic also has a slightly higher ts%. I think Dragic's percentages would be higher if he was on the Rockets.
Dragić played well the other night. It's a joy watching him play on the fast break. Those wrap-around passes to Scola bring back memories.
I don't know if any of you follow haralabos on twitter. But he is a good follow. bets on the NBA really knows his stuff. NBA teams have been trying to hire him as a consultant for some time now & or to purchase his database. He tweeted out that Lin was the better player than Goran. Here are the tweets Gareth_giggs: @haralabob would you take dragic or linsanity? Discounting off-court impact haralabob: @Gareth_giggs no. I think Lin is the better player.
The thing that is funny about this thread is that we are comparing 3 guys who are clearly of starter quality but not all-stars. You can like one player more than the others, that's personal preference and perfectly ok, but to try to argue that objectively one of these guys is way better than the others is a stretch, and to me practically trolling. Lowry played well last year for the Rockets, Dragic also played well for the Rockets and was clearly ready to be a starter PG in the league. This year, after a bad first month, Lin has also played well for the Rockets and we are headed to the playoffs. I think we can leave it at that until one of them accomplishes something in the playoffs or becomes a legit all-star. Personally, I'm going to cheer for the guy who is currently playing for the Rockets.
It's still hard to ascertain that one player is better than the other. For sure Dragic, Lin and Lowry are very comparable impact wise. I'm confident however, that Lin is much better as an overall teammate. As D-Mo and Jones have said, Lin has always been the closest in contact with them when they were constantly shuffled around the D-League and has been an astute leader. All of the Rockets players seem to credit both Harden & Lin as being the leaders of the team. Dragic and Lowry are in different situations but they've never demonstrated the same capacity for leadership, especially Lowry who almost got himself traded from Toronto simply because of his locker room issues.
Tremendous player Goran Dragic. Not looking good for Morey... And I defend a determined contract policy, still.... maybe too good to pass up.
