How Lin has changed since Linsanity. Comparison of now vs. his Knicks days

Interesting post. I've said it numerous times, but Jeremy looks like a much more complete player than he did during Linsanity. His handles have improved, his jumper is much smoother and just looks more comfortable. He's clearly worked hard to improve. He still occasionally picks up his dribble/jumps without a clear decision of where he's going with the ball, but even that seems to happen less.

I'll be honest. I thought Linsanity was most likely a result of offensive style, media attention and a nice hot streak. Similar to when Case Keenum's NCAA records were dismissed as being the result of a system, not the player. I was on the fence when we signed Lin because I thought Les might just be buying into the hype (see Ed Reed). And the way the season started with Lin I was concerned that it might have been a mistake. However his post all star break play really changed my mind. And he's gotten better in the off season. I think he's a legit starter in this league. A future all star? Maybe. He shows flashes of high level play but I don't put him on that level yet. He's young though, time will always tell.

So if he's a more efficient player and scorer, and he's on a better team getting wins, how is this a bad thing? I understand some people want him to be the alpha dog, but by now it should be very clear that it's not going to happen on this roster. Are the other rewards not enough? Do I even need to ask that?

 

When you say Linsanity, do you mean that stretch of legendary play, or the whole season w the Knicks.

Your analysis is really good and thanks for that. It tends to support when my mind thinks when I see Lin play.

(Don't want to derail this good thread but what continues to frustrate me about Lin is that he flashes so brightly sometimes, and then turns in a dud. I suppose it speaks to my hopes or expectations of him. Lin is a lot like my golf game - sometimes, I will be just awesome and the drive is true, wedges are sharp, and puts fall in. And the next hole, I play like a one-eyed 75 year old and put up an 8.)

 

The eye test suggests that he is an improved player so it's interested to see a proper statistical evaluation.

- Can finish with left hand
- Better ball handling
- Better shooting and finishing both at the rim and with jumpers.

He's certainly developed well with the Rockets. It's interesting that the one area where he hasn't progressed is in his passing and the turnovers there. But then if he is being asked to play off the ball more then that's to be expected isn't it?

If he was playing as a true point guard and distributing/facilitating more then he would likely improve that part of his game as well because I don't think that's something that you can gain in off season training, it's only something that comes with experience on the court of making those plays and making those mistakes.

I still think we should trade him in a package with Asik. He seems good value right now, but the 15 million balloon payment will make him more difficult to trade next year.

Also I doubt he will be willing to re-sign to stay in a 6th man role here, he's going to want to be a starter and play with more freedom than he has here. He does seem to be on a very short leash compared to the rest of the starters.

Give him lots of minutes till Dec 15th to push up his value as much as possible.

We have a strong enough guard rotation with Harden/Bev/Brooks. Might as well get best value for Lin while we can.

 

I anticipate coming off the bench as 6th man is going to inflate those TO numbers a bit.

 

I think he meant a few random games where Lin did not get many minutes, most notably the 17 min game vs Dallas.

 

This is the best analogy I've heard. Probably because I play golf the same way :grin:

 

For someone like me who watched every minute of his NY days and every minute of rockets basketball for over a decade, IMO he's regressed from the linsanity days(30 PER), but comparable to NY days overall. He's similar to the second half of last season, and my natural conclusion is he's always very good except for early last year recovering from injury.

 

He basically has to start hot. He's played well so he has been allowed to stay in for most games. But the few games he hasn't, it's pretty apparent that he's not going to see too much action.

 

I don't think he's regressed, it's more that he doesn't get to handle the ball which affects his play.

 

I think it's because he seems to get pulled after one or two mistakes, as opposed to other players that are allowed to play through them. I think some of that is overblown, but I've seen it happen, especially last year. McHale might be holding him to a different standard for whatever reason.

Back in school I had a coach who would come down hard on one player more than any other of the guys on our team. The guy was a good friend of mine and a great natural athlete. At our ten year reunion I saw the coach, and in conversation mentioned it. Without missing a beat the coach said, "He needed that. He needed a push every now and again". I'm not saying that's the case with McHale/Lin, but coaches often do things that an outside observer cannot understand.

 

Totally disagree with you about trading Lin. Totally. Lin is great on and off the court and is well liked by his team mates and that's gold in any organization and Brooks/Bev/Harden is not better than Bev/Harden/Lin as your primary guards. Plus he has the bonus of being popular in the international market. I think Lin's facilitation game should be more refined because he has excellent court vision. One of his main assets is lifting the play of others on his team and he just isn't able to do it as much on this team for some reason as he did on the Knicks. That's the next level any good organization would stress. If he's going to be coming off the bench, let him facilitate, and I think that's what he's trying to do and why he at first doesn't look to shoot.

 

I think there maybe some merit to this claim. More often than not I see Harden & parsons & Dh12 get opportunities to play through there mistakes despite having poor games. With Harden & DH12 it is justifiable with parsons one can debate it isn't or it is. With Lin & bev on the other hand McHale is a lot quicker to yank them if they aren't playing or shooting well. Someone before told me that McHale is committed to Lin as 6th man or committed to Lin as a starter. But I remember from the Dallas game and games last year where as soon as Lin made a mistake he would get pulled from the game and sit entire quarters. You can use MPG and say Lin plays a lot of minutes but in reality Carlisle and Vogel have a lot more confidence in Calderon and Hill than mcHale has in Lin. Just my opinion.

 

Pretty much this. If I am ever at work and miss the game I go check NBA.com to see if we won and the box score. And if Lin or Bev play poorly more often than not that correlates on minutes & i see that they barely tocuhed the court. That is an indication that the caoch doesn't have 100% confidence or trust in that player. With Bev I can sort of understand it because he is just a first time starter.But I still scratch my head because McHale was hte one who made the decision to start him so he must have some confidence in him. With Lin it makes little sense becasue McHale has been coaching him for over 2 years so he should know what to expect from Jeremy. So that leads me to think that Mchale doesn't want to take the chance of leaving him in and us losing the game. Coaches keep in guys they ahve utmost confidence in despite poor play. We see that with JR Smith in NY, Manu in San Antonio etc.

Now obviously there could be other factors such as some guys when they make mistakes they put way to much pressure on themselves which makes them more likely to make another mistake. So it could be a personality thing causing McHale to make his decision to yank them as opposed to a perception that guy is just way to inconsistent and could potentially lose us the game.

 

It really was just that one game that DHO was pulled and it was really the whole starting unit that was pulled.