[ESPN Insider] Harden, Lin starting to figure it out

Roxxy, you called it like a month ago that the coaching staff needed to maximize Lin's strengths, and from the article, looks like they finally started doing that!

Remember when we started seeing Lin's production creep up, and everyone said it was bc he was just "being aggressive" and the coaching staff really hadn't made any adjustments?! Well, they were wrong. Coaching was also an issue; they were misusing Lin.

 

If these guys aren't currently the best backcourt in the NBA, they will be soon. Lin had a slow start because he wasn't used right under Kelvin Sampson and Kevin Mchale had missed a lot of games due to his daughter but Mchale and the rest of the coaching staff is slowly starting to figure it all out.

 

They need to figure it out against OKC, that's fo damn sho!!!

 

From what are you basing that the coaching staff made changes? Just this article?

 

The article is referring to statistics (minutes played with Lin/Harden on/off the court)...need there be 15 articles? That alone should show that the coaching staff made changes.

 

Here are their stats for the month of December:

Code:

[B]                GP   MPG   PPG   RPG  APG  SPG  TPG  eFG%  TS%  +/-/48[/B]
James Harden    15   37.5  27.7  4.6  5.2  2.0  3.1  52%   63%  +4.4
Jeremy Lin      16   31.1  13.8  3.2  6.3  1.6  2.9  53%   57%  +5.6
[I]
Per 36 minutes:[/I]
[B]                PTS   REB  AST  STL  TOV [/B] 
James Harden    26.6  4.4  5.0  1.9  2.9
Jeremy Lin      16.0  3.7  7.2  1.9  3.4

If Lin can control the turnovers better and become a 35+% 3-pointer shooter, he may start deserving of all those all-star votes.

Harden's New Years Resolution: keep beasting on offense, but needs to up the intensity on defense.

 

We are really lucky that spurs game happened, if not for that the rocket ship would be pointing the same direction . Down .

 

harden makes lin look good

 

Lin makes Lin look good.

 

Lin's 13 games under Sampson (7-6) W-L
47/125 fga, .376, 6/29 3pa, .207, 15/21 fta, .714, 6.2 astpg, 2.6 tovpg, 8.8 ptpg

Lin's 13 games since McHale's return (8-5) W-L
75/143 fga, .510, 13/42 3pa, .310, 35/42 fta, .833, 6.5 astpg, 3.2 tovpg, 14.9 ptpg

Lin's 18 games coached by McHale (10-8) W-L
96/203 fga, .473, 18/59 3pa, .305, 51/59 fta, .864, 6.4 astpg, 3.2 tovpg, 14.5 ptspg

Lin's 31 game season totals
143/328 fga, .436, 24/88 3pa, .273, 66/80 fta, .825, 6.4 astpg, 2.9 tovpg, 12.1 ptspg

You can compare Lin's last 13 games under McHale to the 13 previous games under Sampson. I highlighted his fg% and fta.

I think Lin's 38pt SAS game w/o Harden turned his season around. It was McHale's second game back after Lin only played 18 mins the previous game against DAL. They saw what Lin could do and decided to tweak the offense and allow Lin and Harden to play more minutes w/o each other.

 

I agree he has too many, but I will give Jeremy the benefit of the doubt in that he makes some aggressive turnovers that don't hurt the team going the other way (he's good for a long outlet pass TO a game). The ones he has to eliminate are when he picks up his dribble below the free throw line and gets in trouble, need him to dribble through the traffic and if nothing else, get it back out top for a reset.

35+% 3 point shooting would be huge for him going forward. One deceptive thing about him this year is that he has shot 9 for 9 on toe-on-the-line 3-pointers this year, which would bring him up to 30.5% on the year if he was just a bit more mindful of his foot positioning.

And yes please to Harden's defense... it's hard to watch him not even care that Deshawn Stevenson is getting a free lay up when it was his defensive rotation. Or to watch him make Alan Anderson, Lou Williams, Danny Green, Alexi Shved or every other wing look like a borderline all-star every time we play.

 

Doesn't matter. We're talking about precedent - did Lin start playing better because he didn't have to play with Harden or did he simply start to play better? This was a major point by a LOFs - that Lin wasn't being used right. But the article also suggests he also plays better with Harden now; so I don't see anything suggesting the former. It just looks like he's playing better now. True, he no longer defers to Harden most of the time but he also plays differently now. He actually finishes his drives.

 

He is playing better with Harden too.

 

Isn't this sort of chicken-and-egg? Is he getting more touches because he's playing better, or is he playing better because he's getting more touches?

 

Not sure how much more clear I need to be about the article, but before I put you on ignore, here you go:
McHale and the Houston coaching staff have tweaked the offense to put Lin in situations to maximize his talents as a creator. Because Harden is dangerous as an outside shooter and Lin is not, the Rockets may be better off as a team with Lin running pick-and-rolls and Harden spotting up. So over the last couple of weeks, Lin has often initiated possessions with a high pick-and-roll.

Here's another adjustment the coaching staff made: Using Harden as a screener has a couple of advantages...

The article clearly states changes made by the coaching staff to maximize his talents. So yes, Lin had to step up/play aggressive but the coaches finally started making adjustments too.

 

durvasa would you mind posting harden & lin's synergy numbers?

 

How did get 9-9 stat? I'm pretty sure he miss at least 1 toe on line long 2, but I've been curious how many he made.

 

Yes they are and Harden's turnovers are way down from earlier in the season because he doesn't have to try to play hero ball every time down the floor.

 

One thing they still have to figure out, that Harden to Lin alley oop. :grin: