Whether its been implicit or explicit, the Rockets coaching staff must be espousing the message "get the ball to Harden whenever he's on the floor." I don't think Lin plays "passive" simply because hes a mental midget; as his time at NYC and multiple huge games in Houston have shown, he is not exactly afraid of being the #1 option. He's being given marching orders and he's just falling in line - he's not the type to go freelancing against the coaching staff. Lin needs to have his role defined for him in a way that will actually let him play his style of basketball. As I had mentioned, you can't play players against their strengths and hope they "fit in" simply because you're paying them money. I just don't know how Lin can find a role when his role is already defined as you mentioned. If he needs to find a role within his role of being a "3rd option ballhandler/mediocre spotup shooter/benchwarmer," what could he possibly do to make the best of it? Learn how to shoot like Ray Allen in 1 season? It is unreasonable to ask a player to change his whole game and blame him when he can't. The optimal solution is to reduce Harden and Parsons ballhandling duties. Both players are better at moving without the ball and scoring off spot-ups, and it is not as if Lin is a worse playmaker than either one when given the opportunity. I'm not talking about letting Lin do a Chris paul impression, but at least let him dominate the ball 50% of the time when he is on the court with Harden/Parsons. This way, we can reduce Harden and Parsons workload and have them fresh for late game situations (which of course would still be handled by the true Superstars).
I've been disappointed in Lin's play recently but he did carry us in those 2 back-to-back wins over Spurs and Mavs with Harden out so I can't really be too upset at him. Those wins jump started the win streak in a big way.
During Brooks' premier season as a Rocket in '09 - '10, he was playing 35 minutes as the primary ballhandler along with the catch and shoot Kevin Martin. Brooks chucked it up 16 times per game at a 43% FG clip, had only 5 assists and turned it over almost 3 times a game. Was he better than Lin?
True. Also, as gifted of an offensive player Brooks was, he was atrocious at D. Lin is average to below average defender, Brooks is probably close to the bottom.
I don't know why people think Lin is a scrub; he is not. That much should be obvious. What he is however, is inconsistent and painfully so.
He led the league in 3 pt makes that season and shot at a 40% clip. Considering he shot so many 3s, that naturally dragged down his overall FG%.
It's because moderate arguments are not welcomed on Clutchfans. You either have to be a LOF or LOH. haha To your point - you know what makes an inconsistent player even more inconsistent? Lack of trust from the coaches and a sporadic playing time. Sometimes you just gotta be okay with Lin throwing a bad pass if it will make him a better player in the long run. Lin is not a scrub. He may never be Tony Parker, but he can run an offense and light it up when given the opportunity.
Disagree here. The Rockets are trying to win games. At what point do you stop "making him a better player in the long run"? If Lin is playing like this in a playoff game, are you going to keep him out there for the sake of his long-term confidence? It's on Lin to get his mind right, because obviously when his mind is right he's a very capable player. In the meantime, the Rockets are going to keep trying to win games.
My counter is that the end game of the Rockets is to win the championship, not just games. In my opinion, and the Rockets staff may disagree, the Rockets cannot beat IND/MIA/OKC without Lin playing well. They need to incorporate Lin in a way that makes sense to give them the best long term (i.e. this season and next) probability of winning, assuming they don't end up trading Lin.
If long run means playoff, by all means. Coaching staff needs to help out Lin, to prepare for him in the playoff. Since we can't trade him, may as well try to use him right? With the way Bev plays, the main concern will be his foul trouble in playoffs. We need Lin to come off the bench and fit right in if Bev is forced on the bench.
Fair enough. I am typically of the opinion that players who can finish at the rim are better than guys who shoot from the outside all else equal since 3 pointers are so very volatile. I can see the opposing argument as well. The overall point I was trying to make is that Brooks did not have the same circumstances surrounding him as Lin does now. It is unfair to compare the two as apples to apples since Harden dominates the ball and Lin plays ~30 minutes (sporadically, I might add)
Correct. In addition, for all the good Beverley brings, he is still an offensive liability (barring some kind of revelation) against the top teams. You cannot have one-way players when going up against the true contenders.
Exactly, I don't get how people are comparing what AB did for 2 seasons while starting with what Lin did for a couple of games in NY. He was given the green light but the rockets overacheived with the roster they had. He also led the rockets to their first playoff victory in over a decade and was the biggest mismatch that allowed the rockets to take the lakers to 7 games.
Exactly. Don't tell that to the folks here though , who will pull out Dragic's stats or Lowry's to show that Lin is performing on the same level.
Lin's sole position is the backup 1 now. Hamilton and or Granger are the back up Wings coming in to replace Harden and Parsons. Garcia and Cassipi will not be on the PlayOff Roster.
So you're saying that, given Lin's track record when green lit in Houston along with what he did with that scrubtastic roster in NYC, it is outside of the realm of possibility that Lin could replicate Brooks' success to some degree?
Lin is going to have to toughen up. I think his blown layup and airball were absolute sabotages now that the trade deadline has passed. Two plays done in consecutive games that were intentional. I dunno why either.
Props for someone looking deeper into your typical stat numbers. Beverley attempts over 52% of his shots from behind the arc, naturally that will drag his total shooting numbers down. Lin only attempts about 34% of his total shots from the 3 point line, thus he takes more shots closer to the basket. Comparing their shooting percentages is not a fair comparison with Beverley shooting more three's.
