[ClutchFans] Rockets to begin season with Beverley, Asik as starters; Jeremy Lin off bench

I do too. Ironically, Lin and Bev are two guys I could see fitting into their system. And Casspi.

 

Interesting, my friends (who are mostly Spurs fans, hence why I also watch a lot of their games) love Jeremy Lin. Think he'd be a good pickup once his contract ends, which also coincides with the end of Manu's contract. Lin is coachable and low-key like Spurs players, would love to see how Pop chewing him out improves his game.

 

I agree! Trade Lin to the Spurs!

 

I wouldn't sell Harden short yet. Guy is still young.

And there are differences between overconfidence, lack of trust, and plain chucker-ego.

If our stars fit 100 percent in the latter category, then it would be best to just unload them now because you are not going to win with guys like that leading your team.

However, we are not the NY Knicks and Harden is not Melo.

 

This Spurs talk is disheartening. It's like their organizational culture is so superior to ours...

 

At the moment it is. Sorry.

Look at how Presti and Pops runs the team and the team culture, then how they execute on the floor from 1-15, their record for finding, retaining and maintaining talent, and their performance year in and year out.

They are the model franchise. And this isn't just the view of many fans, but the view of most NBA execs, GM's and coaches.

 

Bleh, that was supposed to say Buford.

Presti was with the Spurs previously though lol.

 

If there is anything I like about the Spurs, it is this:

1) Finding talent at the lower end of the draft.

2) Patiently developing the talent they find. Key word: patiently.

3) Limited trading of their key players - they are really loyal to their players and vice versa.

Rockets is almost as good as the Spurs, but they still have too much of a revolving door policy. Hurts to see good players with good characters go because they are an "asset".

 

I have to admit I worry a little about Harden. Up and coming players of his caliber will ultimately fall on the Lebron/KD side of things, or on the Melo side. Right now, he is teetering in the middle for me and could go either way, depending on how badly he wants it. I do think he could really benefit from the veteran presence of a more seasoned player he genuinely respects -- but I also think a lot of the criticism he's been getting lately will probably kick him into high gear once he's back to 100%, because he does strike me as someone who cares a lot about how he's regarded.

All of that said, saying I can't see him fitting the Spurs' system isn't a huge knock on him. I can't see most of the guys in this largely ego-driven league fitting their system. A lot of these star players are accustomed to coaches and front office types kowtowing to them and feeding their egos, and it just doesn't seem like it goes down like that in SA. I obviously don't know what really goes on behind the scenes, but from the outside it looks like a team where you go in, accept and embrace your role, keep your head down, work hard, keep outside distractions and controversy to a minimum, and focus on disciplined winning -- and it looks like that applies to every guy on the roster, from the Duncans on down to the Cory Josephs.

I think Pop is the type who would simply tell Harden to give Jeremy the ball and get over it, threaten to kick Josh Smith's ass if he dared pull up for another 3, and banish Brandon Jennings to the DLeague until he gets his ish together. It is clear who runs the Spurs, and it's for sure not the players. I can't say that for many other teams in the league.

 

not even worth the trouble for you guys to engage him in discussion…..over the past year he's been one of the most consistent lin bashers in this forum, not to mention probably royce white's biggest supporter lol

 

I think Lin's style is similar to Tony Parker's but why do you think Spurs is a likely landing place for Lin? Do you have some inside information?

 

Yes, they are a model franchise, and have been for many years. They have also been very fortunate. They took a chance on David Robinson, a Hall of Fame talent that they had to wait on until he got out of the service, and drew a royal flush. Then they lucked out again and drafted Tim Duncan, who will easily be a first ballot Hall of Famer himself, a fantastic talent who played with Robinson for about 6 seasons, and hired Pop, another first ballot Hall of Famer, during Duncan's rookie year. Their organization, with Presti, developed into arguably the best in the league, considering the record produced, the championships, and SA's small market, and have done a fantastic job drafting impact players. In other words, they have an enormous head start on the Rocks and continue to contend, even with an aging roster. The Rockets? We've made enormous strides in a rather short time in aftermath of the Yao and McGrady injury riddled years. We are getting there, in comparison. We just have a ways to go yet with the rediculous turnover of our roster, with a long way to go to approach the chemistry the Spurs have. In my opinion, we'll get there.

It pains me to say that stuff, but it's hard to ignore the truth. I honestly believe that we will surpass them in 2 or 3 seasons (including this one), given actual luck with the "i" word. Perhaps we'll have amazing luck before this season's end, it'll all come together, Morey will find that missing piece, and SA fans will have reason to envy us for a change. I hope so, but that's probably a season away. We need that chemistry, and the anchors on their roster will finally reach the end of their superb level of play, sooner, rather than later. We'll see. I tend to be optimistic, but winning our division this season, a true marker for our progress, would be a stretch that's probably beyond our reach right now. The last year has changed everything for the Rockets. Everything. Pray for the team to gell by the break.

 

Jeremy to Spurs? Where do I vote "yes"?

 

It doesn't matter to the Rockets but from Lin's point of view, it is a knock to his basketball status and career prospects/earning potential (salary and endorsements) in future. To be a starter and then lose it, looks bad in the eyes of fans in general, the general media and other NBA organizations. The reasons for him losing don't matter in their eyes as they don't know the Rockets enough or don't care to know that Lin was put to the bench to accommodate Harden. It will just seem that Lin was deemed not worthy as a starter, so to say whether he starts or not is irrelevant is disingenuous. The only thing Lin can do is keep playing well and keep himself prominent as possible to get his trade value up. I believe Rockets are risking losing a good player in Lin for very suspect reasons because with Lin and Harden playing most their time together anyway, the giving away of his starter position serves no real tactical purpose, yet it is incredibly damaging towards Lin's credentials and in turn his outlook on how he seeshis future as a Rockets player. Potentially alienating one of your best players for marginal team reasons is not smart thinking in my opinion.

 

micheal

in my opinion,this isn't about 6th man.jeremy wants to play pg.now team wants him play like a sg .he won't happy in this situation.surely he will leave this team in two years.

 

Glad somebody else sees it the way I do. Lin's sacrificing his game for the good of the team resulted in his benching as the reward.

 

micheal

most important.the team said he is better to come off the bench,but in th fact,lin also play good when he starts.I like bev.but I really don't think bev is better than lin.so why lin still come off bench?so bench lin is good for who?definetly not lin.so lin and harden one has to go.

 

You need more than Harden and Parsons to be unpredictable. With Beverly and Harden on the court it always seems that everybody is relying on Harden too much. If Harden is not efficient the whole offense seems to be not existing.

So with Lin on the court with Harden the team is just much more dangerous and more unpredictable.

I still don't understand why we abandon our great offense from the last season. The offense was never a problem but the defense. And obviously you can't expect a great defense because Beverly is a better one-vs-one defender than Lin.

It's all about team defense and about defensive rotation.

I would rather hire a better defensive coach than put Lin on the bench because of the disillusion that Beverly alone can impact the defense so great that we can abandon our offensive power.

Just my opinion.

 

This is not really an issue, as someone mentioned - Harden and Lin will share the court for many minutes. Lin usually comes in 6 min in the first QTR, and Lin of the late has been finishing with Harden. I'm a Lin fan and I don't really have a problem with him coming off the bench as long as he gets enough time to play to go for his 6MOY award and finishes games. I guess this year is a really big year for him to break out of the perception that Linsanity is a flash in the pan and Lin has already reached his perceived ceiling. Hoping he will continue this injury-free and make some noise.

 

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