[ClutchFans] Patrick Beverley, James Harden, Jeremy Lin after Rockets' 96-95 win over Spurs

He is playing 29 minutes per game for the month of March. For comparison, Beverley is playing a little under 19 minutes.

The Rockets have had 3 blowout wins, meaning Lin hasn't had to play many minutes in 3 of those games (he played 26, 25 and 20 minutes in those blow outs). If those 3 games were closer, Lin would easily have had to played roughly 20 minutes more in total. If he does play roughly 20 minutes more in total, his minutes jump straight to 31 mins per game for the month of March.

 

http://www.nba.com/rockets/video/2013/03/24/Asik032413mp4-2423597

If I didn't know it was an interview after a Houston victory, I would've thought Asik lost someone really close coz it sounded like he's about to breakdown crying.

 

i'm alright with beverley finishing the games, especially the games where harden is initiating the offense and lin is asked to play off the ball a lot more, but that has nothing to do with what i'm saying.

how about the 3rd quarter? he finally gets it going a little a bit, had that nice spin move and went to the line - only to get subbed out immediately after, with 5 minutes left to play.

why do that if your player is struggling offensively? you really think things like that don't affect lin's rhythm?

 

Thanks for the vids!

 

You are saying that it's hard for Jeremy Lin to get in rhythm because he gets "benched too easily".

So unless Jeremy Lin is getting benched once every few minutes, and coming back on after a minute. I don't see how a guy playing 32 minutes a game gets "benched too easily".

You don't need to make excuses for Lin. He will be fine as he improves and meshes with Harden.

 

I think this is the times Lin can step up his game and show us something, when Harden is off the court and he slides to the 2.

 

I understand that. I don't know if it's stamina issues or whatever but there's no doubt that he isn't as trusted as much as Harden, Delfino, and Parsons on the team as evidenced by his inconsistent rotation minutes as compared to the others no matter how they play in the game. If Lin stinks it up in the first half, he's gonna have to be pretty much perfect in the 3rd quarter (or his backups need to have layed a stinker) to even finish the game. I'm just stating facts from these past couple months games that I've watched. I just think his inconsistency can be partly attributed to his inconsistent minutes.

 

Well what you are describing is the same for any other Rocket player.

Delfino is a veteran, Parsons earned McHale's trust when he took over the starting SF job as a rookie, and Harden for obvious reasons. Even then, only Harden gets the most freedom, Delfino and Parsons have been benched before for their poor performances.

As McHale already said, Lin is still a rookie in his eyes. If Lin does suck terribly in the first half, but Beverley plays a lot better, of course Lin needs to pick up his game in the third. If Lin sucks, but Beverley sucked equally as much, then McHale would stick with Lin.

The game against Spurs was evidence of it, so were previous games. Lin will get minutes if he plays better than Beverley. More times than not Lin will finish the game.

 

It's not stamina nor is it trust. Our bench is shallow. Very, very shallow. The only position where the backup can even come close to giving what the starters give is the PG position. Lin is without question a better player, but he is a young inconsistent player whose backup is capable of doing things like he did last night every once in a while. If Asik could physically handle more minutes he would get them. Delfino gets minutes because he is the best floor spacer we have that can play the 4 position.

 

We have potentially good backups that don't see minutes because McHale has more trust in his starter replacements. This results in Parsons getting overworked and not playing much defense this season, and the same could be said for Harden. This is a trust issue IMO.

 

this coaching staff is not perfect, you know... they make mistakes too.

 

Same for Lin, so what's your point?

 

Well this is where we disagree. The only trust issue is with the bench. He doesn't trust them all that much outside of bev and Delfino. Which is why they see minutes and the rest is on a game by game basis.

We just don't have the kind of quality backups we need to be able to rest our starters and still win. And while I agree harden is mildly over worked, I don't think it is that bad. He is an elite player, there are plenty of other elite players getting the same type of workload, this isn't out of the ordinary for players of his caliber.

People forget that not only are we an extremely young team, we are also one of the lowest payroll teams in the league. We have a chunk of cap space not being used, this hurts the quality of our depth, which is why you see the heavy minutes for some of our guys.

I get it, you want Lin to succeed and to have every opportunity to do so, but the way the team is currently constructed we just so happen to have a backup that can give us something we need. That can't be said about all the other positions, so when Lin is struggling there are gonna be times bev is going to get extended run.

 

Amare stoudemire of Knicks is a max contract player. They bench him because Melo scores better，you take care of your own business, if a player can't grow in the environment given, they are rejected by the league. Why should you care about your player more than winning? JLin can always be traded, for his contract, kings, suns and raptors might pick up their phone. This is nba not your YMCA basketball court.

 

what?