Rockets offense with Lin 'playmaking' out of PG position

You couldn't be more wrong. Lin scored a lot last year in NY because both Melo and Stat were out when he became the starting PG. He had to shoot because there were not a lot of other scoring options. His mentality if you have been watching this year is to pass first which is what a PG's mentality should be.

 

Hmm in regards to this. An interesting statistic to use would be %AST which tells us only what percentage of made baskets were assisted. Or even checking synergy to see is offensive stats. Tells what % of his possessions are spot ups, hand off, pnr ball handler, isolation etc.

 

This a typo. I meant to say "turnover" instead of "layup."

 

You do know SG was his position before the NBA right? Combo guards his height adapt to the PG position as a necessity to make it, get a foot in in the NBA.

 

So was he a SG or a combo guard? You are contradicting yourself. At any rate he's a PG now which because of his court vision and passing is obviously more
suited to his abilities than shooting guard. He would be out of the league if that was his position.

 

At Harvard Lin played a combo guard, with significant time as the SG.

This however wasn't due to SG being his natural position so much as his talent and skill level being so much higher than everyone around him. Lin ended up scoring because he was the best scorer and best used as a scorer vs PG role.

That doesn't mean SG was his natural role, just that in D1 ivy league ball, it made the most tactical sense.

He has been learning the PG role "on the fly" since he entered the NBA. That's another thing that makes his passing skills so remarkable. To go from combo guard with alot of shooting to a talented passing PG with so little development time in college is really very impressive.

 

Thank for the clarification. My point is that he has the unique talent of great floor vision which is rare and can't be taught. Therefore he is more of a "natural" PG than SG.

 

Unfortunately the "natural" positon for TD AND JH is shooting guard which is why the Rockets need to get a backup PG.

 

“Jeremy’s pretty smart,” acting coach Kelvin Sampson said. “He plays to his strength. He’s a better scorer/slasher than he is a shooter. He’s not a spot-up shooter. Jeremy is a creator. We always encourage him to attack close-outs. If the ball is swung to him and the guy is closing out on him, we want him to attack the closeout, and usually something good happens on the weak side.”

http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterockets/2012/11/rockets-still-working-out-offensive-kinks/

This is quite confused to me. If he is true to his words, it means that my camping to the 3pt line is Lin's own action?

 

fixed..

 

This is killing me. So why the hell were they playing him as such? So face palm worthy.

 

You can't blame coaching for Lin's lack of aggressiveness. You see TD out there playing like a chicken with his head cut off. Also teams are leaving Lin open because they know he can't shoot so it makes it harder to drive to the basket.

 

This is absolutely the truth.

When Harden gets double teamed as soon as he crosses half-court and zips a pass to Lin, he needs to let it fly with confidence. He is so hesitant with his jumper that the basket would need to big twice as big for the ball to go in.

 

I believe that Lin is asked to camp out behind the 3 to spread the floor. Now when the ball is swung to him, the coaches would like Lin to attack the defender closing out but it's hard to do that when the defender rather give Lin the shot than let him get to the paint.

 

Sampson's public comments don't correspond to anything I've seen. I'm just going to tune out what he says, or my brain will just short circuit.

 

I suggest to replace LIN with OUR PG in our posts because it sound so much better and more objective.

eg. the only person who hates Jeremy Lin is the Rim.
-> the only person who hates OUR PG is the Rim.

the coach would like OUR SG to perform the PG role and our PG being a spot up shooter.

another jeremy lin thread --> another OUR PG thread

 

they're certainly using him like Rafer. so is Harden T-Mac? i actually wouldn't mind if Harden played like a healthy T-Mac. because all Rafer did was bring the ball up and hand if off to T-Mac and then spot up at the three line to make 1 out of 3, but he was so streaky/unclutch, it seemed like he missed a lot more.

no, but Lin's not Rafer. he has worse handles but better vision. slightly better tangibles (rebounding, blocks, steals), better passing and arguably better, maybe much better intangibles (an Asian, smaller Battier with worse defense). Lin is a better finisher (doesn't have Alston's ugly teardrop) and free throw shooter. they're actually similar defensively, with emphasis on stealing, although Lin seems to be able to handle the bigger PGs better. Lin also has better BB IQ in general, although he turns the ball over a lot more.

 

Sampson is clearly not as savy as McHale when it comes to interviews. I think he's just trying too hard to say nice things about his players. He's been contradicting himself a few times already - in a matter of just a few days since taking over. He first talked about Lin being a hard nosed, tough defender, then turned around and benched him in OT for defensive reasons. Now this.

He needs to say less... or be less specific. He wouldn't survive in a town with more/bigger media outlets.

 

The way Lin has been shooting so far, yeah it is Rafer-like. But the comparison stops there.

Rafer did not run the offense particularly well. Most of the plays called for dumping the ball inside to Yao, and he had trouble with it. The dude botched simple entry passes into the post. He had no speed for any type of penetration game, low Bball IQ, not even an average defender.

Lin's 3-pt shooting percentage in 35 games last season is similar to Gogi's. You can't look at a 10-game slump and compare him to the career shooting failure called Skip-to-my-Lou. By your logic, Houston is lucky to be rid of another failure called Dragic.

 

I have two questions. Since I think many thoughtful ideas are open ended. I have two:

1. Can pass first, facilitator type of true Point Guard exist in McHale's star oriented offense?

2. Can two primary perimeter ball dominate players or stars exist or coexist with each other?

These are all based on my assumptions. I haven't followed the team long so I presume coach McHale runs a star oriented, pick and roll heavy offense. (James Harden is pretty much the perimeter ball handler who attacks using pick and roll or iso, same goes to Jeff Van Gundy's offense, T-Mac and Yao Ming star oriented pick and roll style). They have many similarities between McHale and JVG. Both stress defense very much.

My two questions pretty much answers two type of role Jeremy Lin is going to play in this offense. If you solve the problem by answering question 1. Jeremy Lin is a pure PG.

If you solve the problem answering question 2, Jeremy Lin is "Linsanity" mode(not exact, but similar). If coach McHale hasn't figured out the questions above itself, I'd be surprised. I really like coach's system, easy, effective and simple. This question is not that easy and that's why it is open-ended. All thoughts help but not solve the problem completely, at least not yet. That requires lots of experience and time. This is a all season going question and at least yet no one has figured it out. Every thought is welcomed!