It's obvious that you didn't watch the games. Don't comment if you don't know basketball, please. It's an eyesore.
I'm not concerned about Lin on offense, but speedy guards burn him, nonstop. Eye test confirms this. Lin got better, but wasn't consistent, u say he was for the last half season right? He wasn't in the playoffs. Ok, so u say small sample size, it's still up and down. He's a fine defender, but I want lockdown, because Harden's D sucks. I wanted Lin to be on the team 2 years ago, and was kinda pissed when he got cut, many posts about it. Bev doesn't get burned like Lin, he gets burned for sure, everyone does, but the speedy guards get Lin all the time. It's more than frustrating. I just miss Dragon, but it was the right call (at the time) to not give that 4y deal, no more. Now, I just want Athletic, Lock down D type players who can spot up.
If lin playing the 6th man is such an obvious answer then they would have done it a long time ago. But i guess people will never be really happy with the current rotation and like to tweak it. But the problem is not even in the PG position. people like to think just because Dwight was added in the rotation that the prob with the four is no longer such a big issue. We don't even have a solid four yet and people want to relegate Lin as the 6th man?
end of the season? and in the playoffs? wtf..check his stats please..you dont know what your are talking about. Bev is not skillful than JLin..Nobody in the right mind will choose Bev over JLin..Morey stated they planned to keep JLin and Asik from the start..All the rumors are false..When they sign Dwight this wed nothing will change you got my word.
because we've seen what the harden/lin duo could become when they're clicking and the ball is moving. remember the headline "best backcourt in the nba" early in the season? it wasn't just one game. there were a handful games where the "best backcourt" was actually fitting. a little premature, yeah, but it gave us a glimpse of what they could become. i remember watching harden's first game ever as a rocket, where he dropped over 40 and lin messed around and almost had a triple double. i remember thinking - my god if they can do this without any coaching and practice, imagine what they could do with decent coaching and schemes! and then coaching happened and we saw the dreadful november and early december. i have no idea why the coaches went away from what worked "naturally" between two of them. the chemistry was awesome. lin playing point moving the ball around, harden attacking as soon as he receives the ball and playing a more traditional shooting guard role. anyway, i'm sure that's been debated numerous times on here... my point is, they showed great promise as an unstoppable tandem. i'd like to give them another year (with training camp this time) to see if they can mesh well together.
Actually, with Dwight and Asik, we actually can mask the defensive deficiencies at the 4 very, very well. Think Scola and Yao years (if u r a rockets fan, u would know this {general public announcement}). Scola is probably the worst defensive Power Forward in the NBA, but with Yao behind him, u couldn't tell that. With a pure defensive beast at the 5, D Mo will shine. U forget, this is the stride year for big men, I think the 4 is more than fine, I think it's set (of course, I'd still want LMA or Love for sure).
you guys only see what you want and don't remember the games where if he doesn't go off, we would be out of the playoffs. I'll take calvin's word on this but putting the burden of pg on harden is going to wear out harden. The ball would get sticky, unintentionally sticky, but sticky is sticky. beverely can't find the open man like lin can. You can't teach vision and the feel Lin has for the position. When lin is having a bad game, then bev should relieve. that's how it works. If you really want defense, how about asking harden, lin and beverely to pay attention to their freaking man, who drain open threes all day long on them.
Big guards will just post up on Bev, or just shoot over him like he wasn't even there. Smart veteran guards will bait him into reaching in or jump in the air, and they'll get free throws.
Lin coming off the bench may not be a bad ideal. The whole linsanity started when he was playing with the back-ups in NY, when those starters returned to the line up, Lin became less effective. Digging into his stats, I believe I found a few answers. Lin made almost half of his shots at the rim, a stat that makes us falsely assume that he is a good shooter. From 3 to 16 feet, he shot a poor 29% & beyond the arc he shoots around 33%. As we can see, the strength of his game is getting to the rim, a style of play that doesn't go so well when he doesn't have the ball in his hands. Pairing him with Harden, a player who needs to have the ball in his hands, just doesn't work.
It was precisely harden scoring 42 pts in that game against Atl that changed the duo's dynamic from that point forward... Sampson proclaimed "not democratic ball!" and Mchale thought why bother just give harden the ball at half court and go to work. Mchale also asked for James' autograph afterwards.
The coaches forgot that it was Lin initiating the offense that Harden scored 42 points in the first place.
2 problems: 1) We've seen what the Harden-Lin backcourt can do when it's clicking. It is devastating, and prompted many sportswriters to legitimately wonder if it was, or could be, the best backcourt in the league. I want the team to continue exploring this path. 2) It could just end up phasing Lin out of the team, giving him backup (not 6th man) minutes and eventually relegating him to obsoleteness.
Lin has shown he has trouble playing with star players. His best play came when he was playing with back ups & he is the primary offensive option. I think it's quite obvious that his game doesn't coincide with Harden. Either you bring him off the bench or possibly trade him for a guard that will be more of a compliment to Harden. I'm hoping we may have already drafted that player, Isaiah Canaan.
I think it is a solid idea. It would make both the starting lineup and the bench more balanced, and if Harden can play 6th man, then Lin is definitely not too good for it.
The problem with this thread is not the ridicules premise, it is it solicited 6 pages in reply in half day. Troll won!!
