Should Lin play PG full time or be replaced?

[Lucky Charm]

Option1: Should he be given the green light to run and orchestrate the offense like he did in NY, while Harden does mostly the spot-up shooting?
(This would be the way to go (at least for now) if we truly want both James and Jeremy to grow together.)

Option2: Or would that be sacrificing too much of James' playmaking ability since he's also great at it?
(In which case, Lin would be replaced by a "PG" whose only responsibility would be to shoot spot up 3s, while James runs the rest of his duties.)


It's tough, I think Lin has looked his best when running the team and not waiting by the corner 3 to brick his shots. Like starting from the game in NY when they seemed to let him be ~da man. We went on our little hot winning streak. We've kind of gone away from that and gone back to Lin bringing the ball up only to hand it to James every.single.time. But I can understand, James is a great combo guard. The star player whose talents should be exploited. Sadly when that happens Lin becomes completely useless and a liability really since his broken ass shot disrupts the defense.
I dont know, what do you think would be best moving forward?

I badly want the HardLin backcourt to work out

[cw3k]

If you have watching the games lately, then you know Lin is not playing PG.

[Orange]

People need to realize theres no way to get jeremy back to how he played in new york he was just hot it will never happen again. time to start Beverly.

[durvasa]

Lin needs to be more involved as a playmaker. It will not only get him going, it will reduce the strain on Harden. But relegating Harden to being a mere spot-up shooter obviously isn't making use of his talents either. Harden is good at taking advantage of defenses that aren't fully set, which is why we like to get him the ball early in the shot clock.

Whatever choice we make, we need to be able to push the ball up the floor quickly and try to get a good shot early in the shot clock. I agree with that offensive style for this team.

[SuperStar]

Wonder what teams would want Lin and allow him that much control of the offense. Hmmmm maybe Toronto? I think only a few bad teams might take that chance.

[atwood]

get a new coach first

[Steal&Deal]

The only person who needs to be replaced on the Rockets is McHale.

They will NEVER be a good team with him as a coach.

I hate to say it but I see another losing streak coming.

[roxxy]

Originally Posted by durvasa Lin needs to be more involved as a playmaker. It will not only get him going, it will reduce the strain on Harden. But relegating Harden to being a mere spot-up shooter obviously isn't making use of his talents either. Harden is good at taking advantage of defenses that aren't fully set, which is why we like to get him the ball early in the shot clock. Whatever choice we make, we need to be able to push the ball up the floor quickly and try to get a good shot early in the shot clock. I agree with that offensive style for this team.

You are saying this too? He is being involved as the play maker to the best that the coaches can make him. At first I complained about it but now I don't anymore because changes have been made Lin is a PNR PG that prefers feeding bigs than shooters. Who is the big that Lin will feed aside from Greg? Omer but he is limited. We don't run the Lin patt PNR anymore because patt clearly isn't healthy & we have him shooting 3's now.

Lin is a terrible isolation scorer this year (last year he was elite at it) why?
1) because he can't shoot so teams just set up a camp fire & watch him brick jumpers.
2) Rockets don't set enough screens like at all which was how he was effective shooting from deep in isolation last year

It is odd to me how people don't see how much his shooting is limiting every other aspect of his game. Lin woud call his own number a lot more if he was a better shooter but he isn't so this is what it is.

[Akim523]

Hmm....They havent played a full season yet. I'd wait for 82 games then make some judgements based on a solid sample size of data.

As bad as the team played recently, we are still over .500.

[roxxy]

Originally Posted by SuperStar Wonder what teams would want Lin and allow him that much control of the offense. Hmmmm maybe Toronto? I think only a few bad teams might take that chance.

Off the top of my head teams that would be looking to upgrade there PG position who can run more PNR's. Indiana I believe needs a PNR PG. NY, Lin is just better than Felton & Felton has a lot of control over the offense.

I think Dallas would take him too.

[Lucky Charm]

Originally Posted by cw3k If you have watching the games lately, then you know Lin is not playing PG.

That's what I said cw3k.
So in your opinion which option is best for the team moving forward?

Originally Posted by Orange People need to realize theres no way to get jeremy back to how he played in new york he was just hot it will never happen again. time to start Beverly.

But he just recently did it again against the Spurs when it was him running things. I dont get how he was "hot" playing PG. Linsanity was not born in NY with him shooting spot up 3's like a prime Ray Allen. It was him playing his position in a team that was lacking one.
And Orange please tell me you're in some way related to Beverly.

Originally Posted by durvasa Lin needs to be more involved as a playmaker. It will not only get him going, it will reduce the strain on Harden. But relegating Harden to being a mere spot-up shooter obviously isn't making use of his talents either. Harden is good at taking advantage of defenses that aren't fully set, which is why we like to get him the ball early in the shot clock. Whatever choice we make, we need to be able to push the ball up the floor quickly and try to get a good shot early in the shot clock. I agree with that offensive style for this team.

I know durvasa it's tough, I dont want that to happen either. I want us to go back to that hot little winning streak where it felt like Lin had 70% of the PG duties and James the rest. Jeremy was confident and useful, while James still got his. Just went to look at the stats and he still had 25+pt games with good assists. That'd be the ideal balance IMO if we want them both long-term.

[New Generation]

Why doesn't he just come off the bench? He obviously plays better when he's the primary ball handler, and Harden can honestly make due with any PG. So just Lin play 2nd string, do whatever he does, and bring Douglas in to set Harden up. We can't just start players because of their pay....do it by what makes the best synergy.

[M4-Nightvision]

why did kyle lowry wanted to leave?

[Zergling]

Have you seen Harden shoot threes lately? Relegating him to spot up shooting would not be a good idea

[SuperStar]

Originally Posted by roxxy Off the top of my head teams that would be looking to upgrade there PG position who can run more PNR's. Indiana I believe needs a PNR PG. NY, Lin is just better than Felton & Felton has a lot of control over the offense. I think Dallas would take him too.

Lin isn't much of an upgrade over Hill if it can even be considered an upgrade. They are first in their conference I don't see them changing pgs unless it's a huge improvement. NY is quite happy with Felton, Kidd, and Prigs. I don't see them wanting Lin back either. Maybe Dallas but not sure if he's better than Collison.

[Aruba77]

At this point we have no choice but to keep playing Lin. Benching him virtually assures us of not being able to trade him for anything of value, given his salary

[roxxy]

Originally Posted by Zergling Have you seen Harden shoot threes lately? Relegating him to spot up shooting would not be a good idea

If you look at Hardens career 3point shooting numbers. He is better when shooting 3's that are assisted over 3's that are unassisted. Less than half of Hardens 3's this season are assisted.

It is funny this Lin harden pairing is ideally a perfect fit. Lin drives right, harden drives left. Lin is a better unassisted shooter from deep Harden is a better assisted shooter from deep. They are opposites in so many ways.

And yet all season Lin has been shooting mainly assisted 3's & Harden has been shooting mainly unassisted 3's. Odd that.

[Lucky Charm]

Originally Posted by Akim523 Hmm....They havent played a full season yet. I'd wait for 82 games then make some judgements based on a solid sample size of data. As bad as the team played recently, we are still over .500.

I admit recently I've been very knee-jerk prone. I wasn't like this so I blame Dei for rubbing it on me.

Originally Posted by New Generation Why doesn't he just come off the bench? He obviously plays better when he's the primary ball handler, and Harden can honestly make due with any PG. So just Lin play 2nd string, do whatever he does, and bring Douglas in to set Harden up. We can't just start players because of their pay....do it by what makes the best synergy.

Would it make that much of a difference to bring him off the bench though? I mean look at all the minutes McHale is playing James, even with the brutal schedule. Jeremy would only have about 8 minutes to work with. And even then, in the small instances we've seen where it was Toney with Lin, it was mostly Toney playing PG, it's crazy lol
I do agree with whoever said the team needs a new coach first.

Originally Posted by Zergling Have you seen Harden shoot threes lately? Relegating him to spot up shooting would not be a good idea

I don't follow stats and all that, just simply go by the eyeball test, maybe someone could back me up with this but I could swear James was going through a little slump just before Lin was given the keys in that winning streak and James' shooting came back, maybe it could happen again?
And perhaps the painful shooting slump he's got going right now is due to being fatigued from having to play PG AND SG (aside from the crazy back2backs ) or maybe Im just being too optimistic.

[durvasa]

Originally Posted by roxxy You are saying this too? He is being involved as the play maker to the best that the coaches can make him. At first I complained about it but now I don't anymore because changes have been made Lin is a PNR PG that prefers feeding bigs than shooters. Who is the big that Lin will feed aside from Greg? Omer but he is limited. We don't run the Lin patt PNR anymore because patt clearly isn't healthy & we have him shooting 3's now..

I think we're basically in agreement. When I said he needs to be more involved as a playmaker, a lot of that is on him. He's not a great shooter, but a big part of shooting is just confidence. He needs to get that back, and then hopefully like you say the rest of his game will fall in place. Maybe he should take more long 2s instead of the 3s. I think he just needs to see the ball fall through the hoop more often, and it will do wonders for him.

[glacier921]

Originally Posted by roxxy If you look at Hardens career 3point shooting numbers. He is better when shooting 3's that are assisted over 3's that are unassisted. Less than half of Hardens 3's this season are assisted. It is funny this Lin harden pairing is ideally a perfect fit. Lin drives right, harden drives left. Lin is a better unassisted shooter from deep Harden is a better assisted shooter from deep. They are opposites in so many ways. And yet all season Lin has been shooting mainly assisted 3's & Harden has been shooting mainly unassisted 3's. Odd that.

This is a very good observation. I have noticed that Harden does shoot better on assisted shots and vice versa for Lin. I think that the unassisted player is supposed to be "the man" though, and the coaching staff just wants to force the issue.