Changes in Lin / James stats are revealing

This team cannot win with such a self-centered star as Harden trying to play both SG and PG at the same time. The idiot.

 

I don't think I've seen you say one positive thing about any of the players.

 

I don't think he's selfish (other than perhaps those questionable attempts to keep the 25pt streak alive during garbage time or when the game was over). He's been a willing passer in the past and able to put up points with admirable efficiency, meaning he didn't need all that many shots.

If he's passing less and being more selfish, it's either coaching or he's turning self-centered because he doesn't trust his teammates anymore (cause of the purported locker room breakdown?) to get it done and thinks he needs to play hero ball. Or maybe a bit of both.

 

Basically the Rockets are playing their offense like the Texans did at the end of the season, instead of adjusting they keep trying the same stuff or trying inefficient stuff like living and dying by the 3.

The team needs a different type of scoring option and should work to develop one of their many bigs into having a post game.

 

Its pretty clear that when lin (harden as well) struggles the team aint winning. Hes pretty much the xfactor. Stats dont lie iso dont work on this team. The coach dont know how to use lin and harden as 2.

 

Lin's TO is down because he is NOT allow to have the ball if Harden is in the half court with him. If Harden is in the half court, Lin MUST pass. Not kidding. If you have league pass, go see the last few games. The only time Lin attack the rim is when Harden is not in the half court or on a fast break.

 

I disagree. I think he assist attemps are same, its just the person getting the ball can't finish. Just think Asik...

 

It is now becoming obvious to me that Lin reads Clutchfans. Thats why he is playing really conservatively and with less confidence. He comes here and sees a thread where he is a joke and takes it to heart. He looks in the mirror and now sees a clown face. His only consolation is his burgeoning bank account and bromance with Chandler Bang. Such is life.

 

Repped the guy Clutch compared Jeremy Lin to.

Now if LOFs learned to back up what they say with statistics, and don't go overboard with the Lin vs everybody else arguments ... we may have a good serious discussion about what's best for the Rockets, where everybody could be discussed (including Lin, Harden and McHale).

 

You got it the other way around. If Lin reads Clutchfans he'll be playing more aggressively, as his passiveness is what people don't like (other than his spot up 3s)

 

Denver doesn't have a post-up game either, in fact their bigs are generally pretty incompetent. George Karl often runs a 'twin tower' line-up with Koufos/ McGee paired with Faried and when he 'goes small' he pushes 6'10 Gallinari to PF.

The Denver Nuggets have the best offensive rebounding team in the league but they take most of their shots at the rim. They feast on fastbreak opportunities like our team. The difference is they don't try to force the tempo as much.

When the Nuggets miss their shots, their 'twin tower' set-up allows their bigs to contest for offensive rebounds and 2nd chance point opportunities. They're currently number 1 in the league for offensive rebounding.

Most of their guards are slashers, they don't have good three-point shooters, Gallinari excepted (who is exceptionally streaky) so they struggle in half-court sets. Because of this they choose to take more mid-range jumpers and contested shots at the basket instead of spot-up 3s and because McGee and Koufos are quite uncoordinated they'll often take the contested shot at the rim instead of dumping it to their bigs. If they miss their bigs are there to contest for 2nd chance opportunities.

The Denver Nuggets play a numbers game as well, they just play it better than us. Their system has been designed to fit their personnel, whereas we've got slashers spotting up for threes while three-point specialists try to initiate the offense and drive.

 

very true! the main point is Mcfail never know how to use Lin and he never get his back on Lin.. which makes Lin playing w/o confident.. Lin is too afraid to make any TO bcuz Mcfail gonna bench him if he did TO.

 

And we've got a low post center setting screens but unable to be the roll or pop guy, and two PFs with good mid-range games taking 3pt shots. Also a veteran SG/SF handling the ball on fast-breaks, and a previous back-up SG (trapped in a PG's body) playing PG when he comes into the game.

It seems the only guys that are getting minutes and aren't misused are our starting SF because he is just so versatile (and his shooting has improved), and our back-up C because there is no other way to play him.

And we're using our two best upside PFs interchangeable in DLeague and garbage minutes.

And every 8 games or so, we'll put in our 3rd center (who is an expiring contract we won't extend beyond this year) to play 15 minutes.

We've also got our 5th PF playing twitter and celebrity #protocol #activist games at home ... but this one isn't the fault of our coaching staff.

 

Cole Aldrich makes me cry, there's something wrong with McHale. He explicitly stated that he did not have confidence in any of our players post-games and whenever Aldrich plays he draws up post-ups for him.

He's running the team into the ground.

I would say Parsons is misused as well, because his defense has suffered dramatically ever since trying to take on more of the offensive load this season. If anybody thinks he's been anything but a defensive liability this season, they haven't been watching him play. And he gets too many touches as well, he should be learning to play off-ball not handling it. I know he's good at it, but he shouldn't be our playmaker moving forward unless you have confidence he's a better point than Lin & Beverley and that they'd be better playing off the ball than him.

 

OP, this is all good and nice, but Lin just can't create shots on his own contrary to what most people think. He needs pick and roll to do it. Based on how Asik and PPat sets screen, you can tell the coaching staff never put any time and effort into this area.

 

That's incorrect. The stats from last year say he's very good at creating his own shots in isolation plays according to ESPN's breakdown of the numbers.

This is from an ESPN article over the summer at http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/47791/felton-over-lin-are-the-knicks-lin-sane :

The thing about Lin is that all his numbers were counter-intuitive last year.

1) He's a master of the pick and roll decision-making according to Magic Johnson and others who've watched him over the years. So you would expect him to score most off pick and rolls. But last year, he scored more off isolations. I would guess that means his pick and roll plays turn into assists or hockey assists rather than him scoring as much, compared to when he iso'd and created his own shots.

2) He had high TO's during Linsanity. So you would expect the team's TO's to increase as a result. But paradoxically, the team's TO's decreased as a result of his TO's increasing. While the team's TO's increased when he wasn't there to carry the ball-handling burden and accumulate the personal TO's.

3) D'Antoni plays a fast pace game, not quite SSOL anymore, but a variant of it. So you would expect lots of transition scoring and that a D'Antoni PG who is able to master that system effectively would do a lot of damage in fast breaks. Yet, Lin's half-court control and playmaking was stronger than his transition/fastbreak game last year.

4) According to Lin's shooting coach, some of Lin's best numbers in practice are catch-and-shoots, and yet catch-and-shoot was his worse numbers in actual gameplay last season.

Of course, when you really dig down into it, there are reasonable explanations for these findings. But I'm just pointing out that gut-feelings and the eye-tests like your assumption that he can't create his own shot and is limited to only pick and rolls are incorrect when you look at the actual numbers.

Here are what I believe to be some of the explanations for the counter-intuitive findings from last year, where the actual numbers and stats go against commonly held beliefs.

1) As the go-to guy during Linsanity, when plays break down, he's forced to iso to create something out of nothing, much like Harden is doing on this team. This bail-out role coupled with his quick first step allowed him to create his own shots with lots of and-1's. Also, the ball movement and spacing in the D'Antoni system with all those shooters and cutters and layered screens meant there was lots of space to iso and use his quick first step to beat his man one-on-one and drive for all those and-1's on layups or punish the defense by using his midrange game if they clogged the paint.

2) Controlling the ball more meant more opportunities for his personal TO's to go up, just like you see happening with Harden. But his ability to run a more efficient team-ball offense and get everyone involved meant the team's overall TO's went down. The team offense was incoherent whenever he was off the floor during Linsanity.

3) The key to running the D'Antoni offense is ability to read the defense and quick decision making. Those skills lend themselves to being very good at running a half-court offense, despite the fast pace of D'Antoni teams that would lead you to assume everything is invested in fastbreaks and transitions a la SSOL.

4) Lin's thinking too much. Even his shooting coach has commented that there's split between his mindset as an attacking PG playmaker, where the moment he gets the ball, he tries to attack or create for his teammates, and, on the other hand, the opposite mindset, the shooter's mindset is to shoot the moment he gets the ball. Get the ball, shoot the ball, get the ball, shoot the ball, and not worry about playmaking or creating for others or assessing for driving lanes. So by the time he's done his playmaking/teamball/attacking mindset assessment, the shot opportunity has closed with the defender moving into position. His shooting coach is trying to foster the shooter's mindset instead of the attacking PG's mindset. I believe he says that with more experience, Jeremy would be able to meld the two different mindsets. But that hesitation and inexperience at transitioning between mindsets is the reason that his shooting percentage in practice may not translate into game performance.

Anyway, that's all a long-winded way of saying the numbers don't show what many believe. Such as your mistaken belief that he can't create for himself. Heck, even now you still have people (not you) who assume he must be slow and too small to defend NBA PGs, going by their eye-test and unconscious Asian stereotypes, even though he's very big for a PG compared to the norm and has a killer first step. The numbers often seem counter-intuitive to "eye-tests."