[ClutchFans] Jeremy Lin, James Harden after Rockets' 99-93 win over Wizards

Lin did his Linsanity because he was forced to be the primary scorer...

when Melo came back the very first game they played together he put up 10 and 18

so you can see he went into deferral mode

 

Wouldn't hurt to step up his defense a little bit, but I suppose his offensive efficiency more than make up for it.

 

Definitely not a bad game (Sloppy yes. Bad, no.). It was just a tad puzzling. The weird part for me is his missing quite a few open looks on the perimeter. If his ankle's hurting, wouldn't it make more sense to shoot jumpers than attacking the rim and taking contact?

Speaking of taking contact, someone needs to show him how to take contact without falling down as much, or how to break his falls. I get that Lin's fearless, but that's a lot of wear & tear on his body.

 

Hmm... after D'Antoni resigned and Woodson took over, Lin played alongside Melo and A'mare for quite a few games (8 or 9?) till he was sidelined.

Having said that, he was still the sole PG/playmaker on the court. Perhaps that was the difference between then and now.

 

If you can't jump the same it throws off your outside shot.

 

I know this because I used to take a lot of them.

The "Pistol"

 

Seven games and Knicks where 6-1. Lin post I believe 14pg and 7apg with 59% TS which was very good.

 

why do you think that? he definitely seemed more upbeat than usual.

 

Players love to play with pass-first PG. Lin should try and continue to be that kind of PG. A PG should not have the strange notion he need to shoot at least 12 shot a game. A good PG need understand flow offense and when best call his own number. If Harden playing well and he was last night, Lin should defer to him.

What I like to see change is when Harden struggles, as the PG you must see that and change the flow of the offense. Harden has struggled with his offense and it's been extreme. If you look at Harden game log, you can see had 11 awesome to good offensive game, 2 average and 7 below average to terrible shooting games. Just like his offense no in-between games/shots.

When Harden is off, this is signal for him to take over the offense.

 

What seems to work about this analogy is that our daily experience with driving usually takes set routes. You can sip your coffee because you know what the usual route is and what the detours are. If the primary route is bottled up, then you know a secondary one to take. The decision making can become instinctual because the options are fairly narrowly defined.

For Lin to play by instinct is not something that will simply come with time; the coaches need to put in some structure that allows for narrowly-defined decision making.

I think Lin feels the most comfortable with, if you pardon the paradox, structured freedom. That's what PnR is -- a very structured interaction whose options are bounded; decision making is involved in reading what the defense is giving up, but the primary, secondary, and tertiary options are narrowly defined. Lin could play by instinct in the D'Antoni system because it was open-ended and structured at the same time. Structure allows instinct (i.e., instant decision making) to take over.

When Lin's not running PnR and not running any sets, it's just too unstructured there. That's okay, like in the Spurs game, if he's the only playmaker out there; he just reverts to YMCA basketball so to speak. But when Harden is also out there -- I agree with what meh said here -- Lin seems to be overthinking, because there is no structured way for Lin to decide how to be the playmaker out there. His role is so ill-defined when Harden is there.

Other PGs can probably deal with this better than Lin, who in this situation can be too cerebral, which is always too belated for good basketball. Lin is a cerebral player (by which I simply mean he spends a lot of effort studying game film) so he is particularly susceptible to overthinking instead of playing by instinct. Lin passing up open shots last night is bad no matter how you analyze it, but I think the unstructured nature of the offense combined with deferring/dealing with Harden has a particularly negative effect on the kind of player Lin is.

If it is a problem with 'confidence' or feeling 'comfortable', I don't think this is primarily a psychological thing or a state of mind -- it's a direct consequence of the unstructured offense and his ill-defined role.

 

When asked about him and Harden co-existing, Lin made a comment along the line of "it's not just me & Harden but all 5 of us." (Can't remember the exact quote and too lazy to re-watch the interview, but that's the gist of it.)

Lin is usually very gracious - praising teammates for wins and yet shouldering responsibilities for losses/area of improvement. (Even in the Dallas loss that really wasn't his fault since he only played 18min, he said he'd shoulder the responsibility for the loss.) Last night's interview just had a slightly different tone to my ears.

Perhaps I'm just over-analyzing it (and I really hope I am), but...

 

Thanks, it was late when I wrote my last post so I was too lazy/sleepy to look it up.

My original post was in response to someone who said Lin started deferring to Melo upon his return, and I was merely trying to point out that wasn't the case.

Thanks for providing the stats. :grin:

 

OK, that's in a way comforting to know. I was a tad puzzled/worried about him passing on open looks, but hopefully this was the reason.

 

I dunno... I think Lin should stop thinking about passing or scoring, and just take what the game gives you and adjusts according.

I mean, if everyone is as hot as Parsons was during the Knicks game, by all means make as many passes as possible. But if others are bricking like Delfino as of late, then perhaps Lin should adjust according and perhaps attack the rim more.

 

OK, this is a newbie question, but what do I need to do to be able to edit my own posts? Sometimes my late night posts have so many typos or grammar errors that they are just jarring, and I'd love to be able to edit it.

 

I think Parker probably put it best. He's trying to find the right balance on this team.

He's got multiple players who can create a shot (Harden, Parsons), he's got multiple scoring options, and he's dealing with a team that's still trying to put that entire balance together.

They've introduced new plays, and it's clear that not everyone is comfortable with them yet. I saw multiple times during the game after a play Lin would pull aside one of the other players and talk about that play. I suspect the play wasn't executed correctly.

We see this also with a lot of the other players when they pass to the wrong spots or to open space, when a player cuts when the passer expects them to be spotting up, etc.

I think we forget that this team has never played together. 13 new players, new coach, new plays means there's a lot of groundwork to do both offensively and defensively.

I wouldn't be surprised if Lin's top priority is to get the team running smoothly. IE, make sure that all the players know when and where they are supposed to be on the floor at any given time.

Finally, we also need to remember that Lin is still learning all the plays himself. Every coach has a full roster of plays, and there's a steep learning curve going from the board, to executing on the floor, to instinctively knowing what plays to call/ask for in the flow of the game.

Part of this may simply be that when Harden is off the floor, Lin has the advantage of calling on plays that the team developed PRIOR to Harden's arrival IN Training Camp.

Remember, prior to Harden, Lin was the Focus of the Offense. They spent weeks working on plays and drilling those plays in training camp and during the pre-season. Whereas with Harden on the floor, they're still working on spacing, screens, cuts, etc.

While 8 shots may not be ideal, I think it comes down to everyone figuring out the balance of play. Or as Parker said in regards to Lin, he's still figuring out when and where to pick his spots on the team.

I think we may just have to accept that Lin will be focusing on getting team mates involved until he reaches a point where he's fully comfortable with the plays and has integrated them fully into his decision making.

 

Give money to the site - Tip Jar.

 

The voice of reason as usual.

I think Lin does what it takes to win. Like going crazy on San Antonio and doing more passing against the wizards.

He was definitely happier after the Wizards game than the Spurs.

 

My mistake I was replying to Torocan.

 

That's it? Thanks!! :grin::grin::grin: