Nice article on Jeremy Lin by Feigen. http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterockets/2012/11/jeremy-lin-learning-from-lumps/ I've highlighted some quotes from his coaches. They want him to say aggressive and confident, but are also preaching patience. [rquoter] ... New team, approach In many ways, the Rockets have been happy with Lin’s play and development. He has been active defensively and on the boards. He has pushed the pace and run the Rockets offense well. Though sharing playmaking duties with James Harden, he has kept his assists up and his turnovers are down. But his shooting has fallen off dramatically, and twice in the past four games, he has been benched for the final five minutes, including Wednesday when he was 2-for-9 with five turnovers. Some of the change in his play can be attributed to the change in his role and adapting to his new team’s style of play. With the Knicks, then badly shorthanded with Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire unavailable, Lin handled the ball in the middle of the floor with shooters, particularly 3-point specialist Steve Novak, around him. With the Rockets, he plays with two post players and is often on the wing while Harden handles the ball in the pick-and-rolls. Lin said he has struggled to get in a “rhythm,” citing the issue many young players have when they go from featured star to a more limited role, though for most, that transition comes with the jump from college to the NBA. <font style="background:#ffff66;color:black">“In New York, the ball was in his hands all the time,” Finch said. “He’s a big-game hunter. He makes a big play and wants the next big play right away. In our offense, the ball moves a little bit more between players. He doesn’t always play in the same rhythm as he played in New York. I think that’s affected some of his confidence and shot-making ability.”</font> Lin’s strengths might be his devotion to the game and ability to reason his way through it, but they can become weaknesses, too, leading him to pile pressure on himself and think too much when he should relax and play. “I’m still getting to the point I can relax more,” Lin said. “I want to make the right decision every single time. I want to have a great game every single game. That’s how I’ve always been. I’ve been given an ability to think the game and reason the game. Sometimes I over-think. I’ve been given this passion, this desire for the sport and sometimes I care too much to the point it backfires. It’s learning to find that balance to every day to get closer to where I want to go.” Some of that will not change, no matter how often he is told to relax. After he apologized to Rockets acting head coach Kelvin Sampson for air-balling the potential game-winning 3-pointer against the Heat, teammate Chandler Parsons said, “He wants to win so bad. He wants to play well so bad. It’s just who he is.” <font style="background:#ffff66;color:black">Sampson, however, believes that Lin’s struggles in recent weeks are part of the usual process. Though in his third season, Lin became a sudden star not too long ago. That’s part of what made his story so compelling. It also means he became the face of the Rockets franchise over the summer after just 64 career games, just 25 starts. “Jeremy is a rookie,” Sampson said. “I don’t care how old he is. He played 20-some games last year. Most rookies will have ups and downs. He has his good moments and he has moments when he struggles. We’re going to stay with him. We’re going to keep giving him confidence. “He’s not struggling any more than James (Harden) has struggled at times. There’s so much more focus on when Jeremy has struggled. All our guys have struggled. We don’t look at Jeremy any different than anybody else. “For us, he’s another one of our players we have to help and find ways to get better. The thing I love about Jeremy, he continues to work. He continues to look for ways to be better. The one thing he must do is he has to stay aggressive. He has to keep shooting and he has to keep attacking.”</font> ... [/rquoter]
A lot of those highlighted quotes have been said on this board by fans...they were labeled LOFs for making excuses.
While you may be right about that, I think the backlash (with which I disagree, for the record) stems from many of those same "LOF posters" (just to use for convenience, not to unfairly label) also got very defensive about the Lowry and Dragic comparisons and also didn't take well to the more general criticisms of Lin that those criticizing posters would say towards any Rockets player. Bottom line: I agree with Sampson's view on Lin. Still, Lin himself would agree that fans are right to criticize him for his shooting woes. That's part of why I can't help but like the guy.
Agreed. Some Lin fans are just way too sensitive, but I think they will get used to it and eventually grow to like the team, not just 1 player.
Let the LOFs develop. They have their up and downs, just give them time. They are rookies, no matter how long they are on other forums. Help them out like we help all other members on this board and find other ways to get them better.
Good article! Insightful piece helping us understand the reasons behind Lin's recent struggle. Thanks for posting. To OP durvasa: next time if you want to highlight, using bold letters instead of coloring them would make it much easier to read.
But many also said Lin wasn't going to regress, teams wouldn't adjust to him even more, he's played enough games to be consistent, and he's going to come in playing where he left off.
Maybe "lumps" is referring to all the face shots Lin keeps taking. I swear he comes away bloodied every other game?
Meh.... Adelman's "system" obviously wouldn't be perfect for Lin, but Adelman put in some pick&roll wrinkles for Rubio, too, so.... I do think that the difference would be negligible, though.
It's hard to predict how Lin would fit in Adelman's offense. His meteroic rise to fame was the direct result of MDA's PG-oriented offense. I am starting to think that Lin needs the ball in hand to be effective and that's a bad thing for our team because of his penchant for going too deep into the paint all the time. One thing for sure, the current system and Lin don't get along, at least not to this point.
Lin is playing bad. People are just talking too much about it. Boring. Let's just wish he can play better and better.
No question mark is needed here. When he was in NY, ever since Linsanity, he was a big target and was fouled hard almost every game. A bloody nose, a bloody chin was almost daily occurrence. We got so used to it. Back then, we call it 'daily spillage'. Expect more to come this season.
I too don't think Lin would regress, possible but not probable. Btw, that's their opinion, who cares.
Maybe what Lin needs is some karate lessons from Jackie Chan or whoever the greatest martial arts master there is now. You can't just let opposing players get away with cheap shots. This is not the time to be polite.
