A joke ? My Opinion to this thread is, any competive NBA Player, may he come from draft or D-league, wants to play with the best or against the best player the likes as Kobe, Durant, Melo(Yes Melo ) Lebron to name the crop of the best (this does not mean the starters are actually that good!!!! ). This has a lot to do with male pride, to be with the best, to start, to win, in the end only few player will be starter, but every player wants to start, saying otherwise is ridiculous. The only player who may be contend coming from the bench are players who are old and on their last leg or accept their role as second best or worst, depends however you may see it. If Coach McHale sees Lin only as second option I would count as great sportmanship from him if he would be so honesty about it and say it and put him as sixth men starting season. This wishy-washy attitude pollute this whole forum, and seeing troll wars from LOF and LOH en masse .
And if he doesn't think much of Lin's game then he will indeed be benched. Repeated calls for his head on a fan forum won't change a thing. Why not be level-headed and see how things develop? Two games into the preseason isn't exactly the time to panic.
I love Lin but its a tough call. Bev has amazing defensive tenacity (I still remember his block on Dirk last year) Lin is great at offense and creating shots for his teammates. Its possible that the bench might need someone to help facilitate the offense.
Starts him all 82 games and lets him play in the playoffs knowing he is injured. Yeah, obviously doesn't think much of him. Isn't it entirely possible to think very highly of one player and think even higher of another. You don't have to love one and despise the other as a coach. To your bolded point... I am not Morey. And you should never doubt his abilities to make moves that benefit The Rockets
Maybe the rest of the pre-season would give a better picture? Does it make more sense now why McHale doesn't waste pre-season games starting Lin for the sake of "PR"?
I think what he wants is for people to not come to definitive conclusions off 1 or 2 games like you are trying to do.
Then what's the point of McHale even alternating starts between Lin and Bev? Obviously, he thinks that both bring something to the table in order to be considered. You must be mad that McHale is wasting valuable preseason time by even letting Lin start half the games instead of letting Bev gel with the starters. But no, instead McHale is appeasing Lin fans. lol
The Rockets waived Lin and paid a high price to bring him back. Unlike Lin, Beverley hasn't played for the whole season. If they bench Lin and then start him again, the coach staff would look really bad.
You know, I'm getting used to the idea of alternating our two great PGs. Just watched 1Q of Manila game, and Bev looked really really good, and fit well with the other starters. Maybe the Rockets can have a dual starting PG tandem with Bev and Lin. Bevsanity!
It's possible that the second unit needs help and McHale tried Lin there because of Lin's good qualities, to help. Suppose the 2nd unit needed offense, and actually Lin was better than Beverley at providing offense? Why does it have to be a diss? Maybe the 2nd unit needs a point guard to facilitate. It seemed to work pretty well last game. It's like people demand that Lin get to wear the "Captain" hat or the "I'm #1" button. I can hear the responses now: "then put Harden in the 2nd unit" (even though he supposedly plays ISO ball). Lin plays a different position/role than Harden. He is a point guard.
