Forget if Lin starts, the real question should be whether his minutes drastically reduces

not only minutes matter. is the ball in his hand to perform also questionable.

 

Which will fuel all the haters out there and there are legions of them. He'll be talked about as the most overpaid player in the league and will be the laughingstock of the league. That should toughen him up. Lol. Al

 

You do know that neither Manu nor Harden averaged more than 31mpg in any season besides Harden this past season, correct? In fact Lin's 32mpg last season was higher than every single Ginobili and OKC-Harden seasons ever.


The reason why LOFs get a bad rap is because you make up stuff to make it seem there's bias when none exist.

 

Harden will be ball dominant for 40 mpg. When lin is in the game, harden will be the playmaker or, beverley will be the ball dominant pg with lin as the off guard.

Lin is a reserve guard, nothing more.

 

Do you watch games ???? Lin is basically the backup PG & SG, Garcia usually comes in for parsons late in 1st Q, so yes he will get a good amount of mins

 

I think both Bev and Lin are going to get 26-30 mins

 

Are we expecting boring game, with much less ball movement? the viewers/supporters will drop faster than Jlin's minutes.

 

Bev will get 32 min and Lin I'll get 20 minutes. You can guarantee that.

 

5m for 30 mins of action is actually quite average...

 

how much you wanna put in that guarantee?

 

I'd rather state it from the perspective that if the 8minutes or so difference that we are discussing here from Lin will matter so much to the Rockets' chances, then it just means that the Howard-Harden-Parsons trio are not enough to carry the team to a championship.

If the big 3 can perform as expected of them, Mchale will have the freedom to "go with the hot hand" or "go with the best matchups" from game to game, meaning Lin might get 34 mins one game, but get 21 mins in another. He might close out the games sometimes, or remain on the bench in others. That would be the best situation from a team standpoint.

If we have to discuss guys like Asik, Bev, Lin, Casspi playing a set number of minutes, then it just means we are in big trouble because it means the stars are unable to effectively perform as expected.

 

Because he can play alongside Bev he'll get his 30 minutes per game. Bev will very likely get in foul trouble guarding the really good power forwards: it's inevitable if he continues to play the aggressive style defense which he's know for. Bev might even foul out some games. Lin should get 30 minutes. Also there's nothing says you can't play Lin and Harden together. Lin works great off the bench but he also works great inside the PnR with Howard.

 

Some stat geek needs to figure out lins stats without harden per 36 i'm curious. I know he usually blew up when harden was hurt. (spurs game last year)

 

This would mean that, at max, Beverley and Lin will play only 4 minutes on the floor together if we are playing our typical 8-10 man rotation. Given how often we went to that combination last year and in the preseason this year, its clear that we'll be using those two together much more than 4 minute a game. There's basically no reason to think this will happen.

 

See nbawowy.com.

 

Harden ok. But Beverley isn't running the offense if either Lin or Harden is in the game. He is a 3 and D player. He's not great on the P&R like Lin or Harden, and he can't create like either of them. He can wait at the 3 point line for the kickout to sink the open J.

 

Bev will be in foul trouble often. Remember last game those two early fouls, and he had to sit? Assuming Bev plays at the level defensively which he has played, and, against star point guards, not bench guys, expect his minutes to be limited for this very reason. Lin will have to play extended minutes out of necessity.

 

Simple, if Lin plays well he'll get more minutes and close games. If he plays out of control then he'll be relegated to cheerleader in the 4th quarter.

I think Lin's minutes will obviously go down since Bev has a bigger role and we have a true 2nd option now, but I think he'll still log about 26-30 mins a game. This might actually be good for Lin since his game is piss poor when his legs are dead. Now if Lin went from 32 mins a game to, say, 15-20 then people can cry and scream over it.

 

I see both Lin and Beverley getting about 25-28 minutes per game. Harden's minutes will go down to the 32-34 range and Lin will play at the 2 sometimes.