If you take a 13 game sample from any player's career you will find similar or worse. 13 games is too small a sample size
Good find. He's shooting worse only in the mid-range and in the paint areas. I think the in the paint shots are probably related to his loss of explosiveness (at least to my eye) from his knee injury. He hasn't been able to burst by his man as well as he did last year and can't get the separation he needs to get as good of a shot in the paint this year. But the last couple games he looked more explosive to me, so hopefully he'll get better at that. The mid-range game is about mechanics and confidence. I don't know if his mechanics are different from last year, but certainly his confidence is down. Once you start missing some after coming back from surgery, it's easy to lose confidence, but I suspect he'll recover some of his confidence soon. Maybe he won't get back to his percentages from last year, but certainly better than the current rate.
His shooting form isn't that terrible and his release isn't that bad. Lin really needs to come to games extra early and practice his shot. I really think Lin should really work hard on his game as the season continues. The only way for Lin to get his jump shots going is to practice shooting. The more time he spend practicing his shots, the more confidence he will get. Honestly, I really feel that Lin didn't work hard on his game over the summer as some may think. See how Parsons jump shot improved over the summer while Lin's shot has regress dramatically. Maybe he did do some training over the summer but it doesn't really seem like it. Either way, in order for Lin to be a threat offensively and not a liability, he needs to work hard on off days and built up his confidence. If he practice hard enough, his confidence in his jump shot will find a way back.
Generally when you are short on your jump shots it means you don't have the necessary strength in your legs to give the ball enough lift. Your shooting percentage will drop as you compensate with your arms and that screws up your mechanics. You see this a lot with guys who have played too much basketball and have tired legs. In Lin's case - he had worked the whole summer before joining the knicks and did a lot of strength training and plyos which gave him a lot of lift on his jump shots. After the injury he probably went into the summer resting to recuperate and his explosiveness as others point out have sufferred but he probably also has changes in his leg muscles - they are simply weaker. Now he comes back, his shot is short, and he is messing up his mechanics. So it will take a while - especially with a younger player - to adjust. His shot might be bad this entire season in fact until he has a chance to have a summer to really work up his legs again.
Well, you don't improve your turnovers, defense and courtvision by eating donuts during the offseason either.
he's being used as a spot up shooter, not his forte. also coaching maybe asked him to look for an open man before thinking of taking one himself. it's a matter of overthinking that's why he loses focus and subsequently the shot. the solution is to let him be himself which will not happen when Harden came on board. Hard to swallow but either Harden or Lin must take the 6th man role this time to get this fixed. my dos centavos.
You've got some good points in there ... but if you type on a fan forum the way Eminem raps, using 500 words to get across a message that takes 50 words (I do that sometimes too, I admit), it's going to get wasted because it really will be tl dr Sentence structure, bullet points, paragraph breaks, all helps
I do not worry about Lin's jumper, it can improve, but what I'm worry about is his lack of FT attempts. Besides that Blazers game where he was going to the line around 7-8 times, he has been getting 0 to 2. With Knicks, he was at least getting 6 FTs a game.
Seriously we talking wide open jump shots. With 69 games to play within 4 1/2 month, if Lin can't show reasonable amount improvement, he should relegated to backup PG starting next season. Sure he win starting job back, but this offseason Rocket do need get PG that at least can be average starter, but be at least a good backup.
I was wrong, but given all the travel it would seem he would not have time to practice. Whatever the the case he needs to fix it. His PER is 11.72 which means he is worse than the average NBA player. The average player has a PER of 15.
Well ceding as much of the offense to Harden as they have will affect that. Also spacing makes it hard for him to attack the rim as well. Poor screens don't let him get that step on his defender to attack & draw contact. Also his poor shooting really limits his role in the offense. To be frank with you it often takes players a lot time to adapt to a new offense. For example it has take Joe Johsnon some time to acclimate towards being a Net in there offense. He himself admitted that he hasn't fully adjusted yet. And with young players it is likely harder. Not only do you have to adjust to a new offense but you have to adjust to how teams are adjusting to you. People just need to be patient but in our instant gratification society that is very hard.
He actually booked private gyms and basketball courts at schools and kept it from the media, for 5 hour sessions almost daily. Both Taiwan and China. Until it finally got leaked and masses waited for him at the school, so he had to re-arrange. Successfully or not, we don't know, because it wasn't leaked again. He did travels to Taiwan, HK and China, holding basketball camps and doing very very little media, and one evangelical session. If it wasn't Lin, he would be applauded for giving back to the community. Many NBA players hold camp or do promotional trips overseas during the offseason also. Making assumptions out of ignorance doesn't help anyone here. Getting the facts, which are actually available if you wanted to search the internet before you criticize, would very much help. You obviously could've seen his work at Sparta sports the past two off-seasons, and how he improved his game from his 1st year in GS to 2nd yr in NY. And how he has improved his left hand, TOs, court-awareness and fast-break decision-making over the off-season. He has a low PER because PER depends to a large extent on offensive output, and he's in a shooting slump being used with a usage level of a back-up point guard. Without the explosiveness he had last year coming back from surgery, where he is now healthy, but lacking a bit in his legs, which impacts explosiveness and his shooting. He is currently worse than the average player in terms of PER, and in terms of scoring output for a PG. No arguments there. But the discussion of Lin as a player doesn't need to end there, if it is being objective.
Objective basketball analysis at its best. Oh ... must be the fans of Lin that impelled you to write this.
I still think he should be more aggressive going to the hoop. He does seem to be less explosive and hesitant. You can tell by how high he goes when he does get to the hoop. He is hardly reaching the rim level. I am guessing the injury is still having an effect on him.
I agree. When Harden made that touchdown pass to him against the Knicks fora second I was like Lin can barely jump. Looked like he wasn't going to get the shot in. I think he is healthy but he is still at that point where the mental doesn't match with the physical health. It will come. In the NYK game he was a lot more aggressive attacking the basket so hopefully he builds on that. Like I said before I think a combination of poor spacing, ineffective screens, his poor shooting, defenses adjusting to him & him struggling to adjust back, and him trying to find his fit in the offense is the problem. A lot of people don't realize that there is a big mental aspect to the game. For example, Omer loves this balarina lay up ****. The coaches are trying to get him to dunk it but it just hasn't entered his mentality yet. Similarly Lin doesn't have a shooters mentality either. His first instinct is to attack & get to the line not to shoot. It takes sometime before your instincts change.
I still believe that Jeremy will bust out of his shooting slump soon, and in a big way. He just needs to get his confidence back.
problem with folks like you... is you make claims like this without proof... LOFs have stated Lin is not being used properly... I dont see anything homerish in that... its is a simple fact he cant shoot the 3 ball with regular consistency...thats because he is not known as a shooter... him standing at the 3 point line is painful enough to watch... everyone knows the sale pitch Mchale gave Lin on his role if he were to come to Houston... but then that all changed when Harden came... so Lin is taking one for the team... instead of being a prima donna about it like you are
