I don't see people compliant Lin's minutes when he played around 30 minutes. What is your logic here? You think it's normal for a player to play 49 minutes on one game and the next game play for 17 minutes? Notice that this team does not win on both game. And you trying to claim it's good rotation?
Because obviously the team's success and failure (and the prospect for world peace) hinges on one player's minutes.
Ok just watched the game and some points: Houston's PnR strategy seems to be to never hedge and instead stay at home or switch. The few times they do hedge, I think it's random cause they always miscommunicate and the guard ends up getting an open drive. Wonky stuff. This is important though as I'll talk about why you should use Lin instead of Beverly against Dallas. Case on defense Beverly was not playing good D. In fact, he is a very poor matchup against Dallas. Why? Because against Larkin, they match up equally due to speed and size. Against Calderon, his pressure is useless because he is historically a VERY low TO guard who doesn't drive. Against Monta (who only handles when doing a PnR and is offball the rest of the time), he ends up being switched onto Dirk or gets burned on the drive because of how Houston plays the PnR. In fact, in the second half they put Beverly on Monta and he got regularly torched in exactly this manner. Actually, torched is too nice. He was obliterated by the Monta + Dirk PnR. Also, Beverly presents much less of a challenge on closeouts because of his height making him less useful because Monta is the primary PnR guard while Calderon and Larkin mainly spot up when paired with Monta. Basically, no matter who you put Beverly on, he will be an overal minus defensively. Which is why despite Howard's hot hand, Beverly ended the game a -1. Lin on the other hand would be a much better defender against Dallas. Especially since they never put him on Monta. Why? He has the height to closeout well on Calderon and Larkin (both shorter than him). In the PnR, he did fine staying with his man considering Houston's bigs never hedge and always stay at home on PnRs. I have no doubt Lin would also get torched by Monta if he had to defend him, but he would be a better challenge on shots and if switched, would hold his own better against Dirk. On temporary switches on the PnR, Lin can deny the pass long enough to recover due to height. Something Beverly can't do. Sure it's ****ty defense and gives the PG a mismatch for driving but can't blame Lin (or Beverly) because that's on the coaching staff. By using his size, he was able to stop 1v1 penetration by Larkin in the half court. He only ****ed up on D once in the fourth during Dallas's run and I think that is why everyone thinks he did poorly on defense during the game. One other thing I doubt people noticed but for transition D, Lin gets back early while Beverly tends to be a bit slower because he immediately picks up his man and puts pressure on the ball handler. Against Dallas, this is less useful because, as I said above, he doesn't have enough of an advantage on Larkin or Calderon to force TOs. (Quiz: How many times did Beverly pick someones pocket this game? Answer: 0 - all of his steals came off of bad passes/passing lanes) Overall, Lin was actually a plus going into the fourth despite not having the advantage of playing with Howard's hot hand. Case on offense Beverly was fine as a spot up shooter but he did very poorly anytime he tried to create. Mainly because the Dallas guards can stay further away from him due to everyone being matched up on size. Something you can't do on Lin cause of his height. This also makes it harder for Harden to drive because the lanes are clogged. In the first half, Lin had huge mismatches against either Larkin or Crowder. On almost every play where they ran through Lin, he generated a good look for his teammates (as seen by his assists in the first half). This is because Dallas's strategy was to double Lin on all drives. Lin didn't shoot (aka: people claiming he wasn't being aggressive which isn't the case) because he was making the right play: passing. But oddly, the bulk of the time Lin was on the floor, Beverly or Casspi initiated the offense and relegated Lin to a spot up shooter. Which makes no sense because neither of them have a mismatch (nor are they great playmakers). So Houston squandered quite a few possessions in the first half as they came up empty on those plays. As an aside, this seemed a lot like freezing Lin out of the game. It was very weird to watch and prevented Lin from getting into any shooting rhythm. In the third, Lin was clearly ice cold but really, he only got to take 1 shot in rhythm, everything else was forced. He was also paired with Harden instead of Beverly which is again, very weird. He got to create half the time despite having clear mismatches. This means he was very underutilized in the third and again, prevented him from getting into rhythm (esp considering how he gets brought in late into the quarters). The fourth is the only time Lin ended up as a minus because that's when Dallas made their first run. And if you watch those 3 minutes before Lin gets yanked, he did fine defensively on all but one play where Larkin pushed the tempo (his one defensive lapse the entire game). On offense, Lin got his teammates open 3s but none of them fell (again because Dallas helps down). Then the final play wasn't even Lin's fault because Asik did a really ****ty handoff which let Larkin steal the ball. I think that one defensive lapse and one non-fault TO was what gave McHale an excuse to yank Lin. This is also the last you see of Lin and what I think everyone remembers. In general, the offense ran best with Lin creating OR Parsons creating. And this is where I say McHale sucks balls as a coach. Carlisle make a great adjustment of putting Marion on Parsons (instead of Crowder) in the second half. His iced Parsons out of the game long enough that Houston themselves iced Parsons out by not letting him handle the ball when Marion eventually switched off him in the fourth to guard Harden. Due to Beverly's lack of size, his man can clog the lane so Harden couldn't drive even with the mismatch (Crowder). This is where Lin should be used in place of Harden. With Lin as the primary ball handler, there would be mismatches abound and Dallas would be forced to either give up open 3s on Lin's drive and kicks or let Parsons start being involved again - something that definitely would have happened as Lin always involves the guy with a mismatch in plays when he is on the court. Yes, he can think too much but this is actually one of the pluses of Lin overthinking. So yeah... Lin would have been better in the long run in the fourth (or at least should have been subbed back in near the 6:30 mark once it became clear what Dallas was doing defensively) and McHale really is a bad coach.
You're right, it's time to get over it. I try to give Mchale some leeway since he is a new coach, and I keep telling myself that he needs time to improve just like a player does. I was just pissed on his decision to only play Lin only 6 minutes in the second half. It seems like Mchale tried to tweak things to much this year. The Rockets offense was very good last year and it should be even better with Howard, there was no need to change things so much, just add Howard. If the Rockets could run like they did last year and incorporate some of the great play that they had with Howard against the Mavs, then the Rockets will be really hard to stop. That is with some defensive effort by everybody, I don't think everybody has to be a lock down defender but everybody does need to try. Anyway, again your right, it was one game and time to move on. I'm ready for the Rockets to kick the Timberwolves ass tonight.
Brett Brown is a rookie coach with a new rookie team NOT MCHALE. He gets no leeway. The excuse that this team has gone through changes and needs time to gel is getting very lame.
Any predictions on what kind of lame LOF threads are going to pop up after the T'wolves game? I predict: "Lin Was On Fire But McGenocide Hosed Him"
This is what comes to your mind before and after the Rockets play? What do you think of when you watch the Rockets play?
