Only thing I disagree with is Lin doesn't have an elite skill. I'd say his pick and roll game is elite.
While he has shown great potential, one criticism is that he has a relatively high TO% on PNRs. That should go down next year with Howard.
Lin ranked at #106 Jeremy Lin just turned up in the ESPN rankings at #106, just ahead of : #107: Goran Dragic #108: Raymond Felton #109: Jose Calderon #115: Jarrett Jack So, he dropped a bit from last year (#78) but that wasn't unexpected. Given the spotlight that still shines (somewhat) on him and the fact that the ESPN panel doing the selecting is composed of 200 people, I think it's a fair judgment of his abilities.
FWIW: <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>P Beverly is going to end up starting for Houston. Just too good of a defender next to Harden. Free's up Lin to be a scorer off bench.</p>— david b. thorpe (@coachthorpe) <a href="https://twitter.com/coachthorpe/statuses/386676270659928064">October 6, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Starting Beverly will get him into foul trouble sooner. His energy on D can't keep up over 20 minutes, not to say B2B games. Then, Lin will re-gain his starting position so the debate will end forever. Otherwise, some people must bring up this tropic when the team loses.
I bet someone knows where harden is at regarding p&r efficiency. harden likes to wave off screener to do ISO. it is an impression i got after watching every game last season except games vs spurs.
Patrick Beverly + James Harden w/o Jeremy Lin = 1.065 PPP against @ 876 poss. Jeremy Lin + James Harden w/o Patrick Beverly = 1.073 PPP against @ 4400 poss. Patrick Beverly w/o Jeremy Lin & James Harden = 0.992 PPP against @ 590 poss. When only Beverly is on the court, the team did really well on offense, but an assumption can be made that those playing time are mostly against bench players or merely played in garbage time. His top five teammates on the court during that time consist of: Carlos Delfino 431 poss, Chandler Parsons 285 poss, James Anderson 262 poss, Francisco Garcia 249 poss, Greg Smith 249 poss) Not that big of a difference. I always see Beverly as the superior man defender compared to Lin but he's also an inferior help defender as he, at times, overplays his man lead to some defensive breakdown or just gets caught ball watching more than Lin (0.96 PPP @ 260 poss. vs 1.1 PPP @ 84 poss. defending spot up). The only problem with the Harden-Lin synergy is on the offensive end when Lin's PPP/TS% tanked (52.1 TS% @ 4572 poss vs 56.8 TS% @ 885 poss.) when he plays with Harden and so did the team as a whole. Patrick Beverly + James Harden w/o Jeremy Lin = 1.158 PPP for @ 876 poss. Beverly: 1.16 PPP, 59.2 TS% @ 879 poss Harden: 1.07 PPP, 54.8 TS% @ 879 poss Delfino: 1.07 PPP, 45.5 TS% @ 523 poss Parsons: 1.18 PPP, 60.5 TS% @ 499 poss Asik: 1.04 PPP, 60.8 TS % @ 497 poss Garcia: 1.13 PPP, 51.2 TS% @ 252 poss Smith: 1.01 PPP, 54.5 TS% @ 248 poss Jeremy Lin + James Harden w/o Patrick Beverly = 1.091 PPP for @ 4400 poss. Lin: 0.96 PPP, 52.1 TS% @ 4401 poss Harden: 1.12 PPP, 59.3 TS% @ 4401 poss Parsons: 1.17 PPP, 59.2 TS% @ 3679 poss Asik: 0.97 PPP, 54.7 TS% @ 3543 poss Patterson: 1.15 PPP, 55.4 TS% @ 1643 poss Delfino: 1.23 PPP, 59.7 TS% @ 1120 poss Morris: 1.11 PPP, 53.6 TS% @ 1045 poss Smith: 1.19 PPP, 62.3 TS% @ 780 poss Garcia: 1.21 PPP, 58.8 TS% @ 245 poss Just for fun, assuming when Lin played with Asik and/or Parsons, he's playing against opponents' starters, or at the very least, not all their bench players on the floor. Take it with a grain of salt and feel free to disagree with this premise. Jeremy Lin + Omer Asik w/o James Harden = 1.154 for @ 481 poss. Lin: 1.06 PPP, 63.4 TS% Jeremy + Chandler Parsons w/o James Harden = 1.017 for @ 507 poss. Lin: 0.89 PPP, 52.1 TS% Jeremy Lin + Omer Asik + Chandler Parsons w/o James Harden = 1.120 for @ 317 poss. Lin: 0.99 PPP, 57.9 TS%
Also Beverley wasn't with the Rockets when they went through that terrible losing streak in January. If that didn't skewed the numbers towards Beverley's favor then Harden doesn't have a beard.
