Put yourself in the guy's shoes. Go ahead and call me a Lin fan, but nobody can deny these factors that only make Lin's job harder: 1. Lin has been demanded to change roles with the highest degree of change and frequency of anyone in the roster. Be the 1st option in NY! Be the first option in HOU! No wait, be a spot up SG next to Harden! Be a defensive specialist! No wait, be 6MOY! No wait, be starter for a sec! No wait, go back to being 6MOY! Has anyone else in the league been given so many identity assignments after only barely staying in the league? He has to worry about his role definition. *ramirezdoeverything.jpg* 2. His contract. Lin isn't stupid. He knows about the luxury cap and he knows that he's being paid 8M this year and 15M the next. Don't you think that he worries every night that he isn't playing like an 8/15M player? Don't you think that he realizes that Asik's piss poor team politics (and identically high cost) are playing towards Lin being traded to his 3rd team in 4 years? He wants to just stay with his teammate friends and play basketball. I bet that if he could lessen his contract to lessen the pressure and stay with this crew, he would. He has to worry about his job security. 3. His coach. Some of you are telling me to STFU/GTFO right now. For those other kind folks who actually watch the games or have seen the team interact IRL, you know what I am referring to. You're in one helluva situation if you are expected to perform as a 6th man point guard on a championship team with a poison pill contract to live up to and a coach that isn't even enthusiastic about you when you play on fire. If you're Lin, your mission is to get buckets despite playing on thin ice. 4. Expectations. He says he doesn't worry too much about being Linsanity, but he's not dumb enough to realize that his contract and his critics require the second coming of Linsanity in Houston. Not enough scoring? Bad 3 pt shooter? Lousy defensive stopper? Too many TOs? Not enough assists? Fix all the above (while playing bench/2nd unit minutes) and you've got yourself an absolutely upper echelon NBA player, period. Is it realistic to expect a 3rd-year player to develop this quickly? Yes, maybe if he is handled properly by his coach... we have a great coach, right? If you're Jeremy Lin, you're under stress to live up to THIS, and the nerves are visible on the court. Is there anyone else in the entire game of basketball today who has this much to worry about on the court? (Not saying that there are ways to remedy ALL of these problems, but I am saying that these are indeed Lin's problems and that they is not necessarily anything that he is in control of for changing the status quo.) inb4 lots of hate because NBA players are not allowed to have flaws
As Lin himself would tell you two years ago today (well two years and like a few months) he didn't even know whether he was going to have a job. So yeah, I'd say there are probably several players who have more to worry about.
In terms of scrutiny though? The guys you're talking about basically evaporate from the D-League without any fanfare. The Lin kid gets picked apart play by play.
He has to fight a gross over-valuation that ultimately was created by Morey for the sake of getting Lin in the first place. Are you saying that that is fair just because the contract simply stands at a high price?
Most players in the NBA do not get the optimal amount of playtime and balltime to max personal stats or potential. I think right now we see that with Asik, Lin, and DMo (although changing). You could make a case Aaron Brooks does not deserve to be a 3rd string PG, were you a BOF. Parsons, too, could probably do 20ppg in a bigger role. Although it is true that Lin could have a much bigger role as starting PG with more control of the offense on another team.
What did you expect? Lin has a massive fan base, but his talent level is not what you would expect from someone with such a huge fan base. Of course he gets a high level of scrutiny. Someone else could equally turn this around and say how much it sucks for player X because they don't get media attention despite playing well. It goes both ways.
Lin gets over scrutinized because of his lousy r****ded fans. If his fans didn't try to over hype Lin constantly to be this much better player than he actually is, he wouldn't be scrutinized as much as he is. Before Linsanity, Lin was a nobody.
I don't think anyone is surprised by any of this, I just don't think that people consider these factors as statistically significant inputs in a player's life that affects on-the-court psyche and thereby affects performance significantly.
Someone lock this dumb thread please. There is no reason this post should not be in one of the other many, many, many worthless and garbage Lin threads.
I agree with this. Can you imagine the amount of adjustment Lin needs to go through after ZERO games as the top player on the team to playing second fiddle to Harden? I mean, you just can't expect a Harvard graduate to do that. Imagine getting hired at a job and your manager telling you that you are probably the top guy in your department. But then 2 days before you start work, you find out the company hired someone even better than you. How can any of cope with such a twist? I'm sure all of us would be broken and go fetal if such a thing happened. The fact that Lin did not breakdown to start last season was one of the greatest NBA stories on par with Linsanity. Who'd have expected it?
Yea I like to be Lin and collect that pay check. That would suck and I rather have all that stress with playing basketball then my lousy 9-5 job
good point. but, i disagree that it "sucks to be lin". he's doing A-OK.. and he could careless about his fanboy fanatics. he's a team first guy, who has accepted the fact that 1) PB is a better player, and 2) he's not a starting pg caliber nba player.