I dont know if anyone could tell you accurately if that's true or not. If they are saying that one is better off than the other, its safe to say that its just going off of straight up opinion and not fact. If you compare their advanced defensive stats you see that - -their steal percentage is similar -Beverley is more effective at getting blocks -Lin's overall defensive rating is 2 points higher -Lin has a higher overall defensive win share numbers. However, the stats don't show intangibles (what Morey might refer to as the artful part of the game) that Beverley brings to the defensive end which is the agitation he causes his man, his aggression, and how he slows down the opposing teams offense by a few seconds more because of his front court pressure when they are bringing the ball up the court. Not saying that Lin does not give full effort and isn't affective as well in these areas, but the eye test would tell any basketball person that this is where Beverley really seem to be winning over the coaches, and affecting the man he is guarding. And most important to note - His defensive stats are affected by team play, which coming off the bench meant that ... NO ASIK. We all know that when Asik wasn't on the court last year, the defense was probably the worst in the league. You can't tell me that didn't have any impact on Beverley's defensive win shares and defensive rating. So do we know which PG (Lin or Beverley) is better at defense???.... probably not. We will probably need a full season & a larger sample size to accurately judge which one is more productive on that end of the court. Right now, its pretty much a judge of the eye test that would probably be the more reliable basis to state your claim. I wouldn't be comfortable telling you which one is better than the other just based on a half season of stats.
I typically don't bother involving myself in any Lin discussions, but c'mon, be real. I can appreciate looking at all the data to come to a conclusion when comparing players, but anyone who needs to look at ("advanced") stats when comparing Lin to Beverley on defense is either blind or doing it wrong. Beverley is clearly the better defender. It's not close and I don't care if win shares and RAPM say otherwise. It's not debatable.
This. Beverley pisses off opponents with his peskiness. That is worth a lot and is not measurable on the stat sheet.
I think the more important measurable here though is playing with the second team vs. playing a larger amount of his minutes with Asik & the starters. The team with Asik on the floor was a fairly decent defensive team.... Asik goes off the floor, and they completely fall apart from a team defensive standpoint. This season(assuming Asik is with the team coming off the bench) the stats should have much more validity in comparing the two players .... statistically that is. The eye test (as HMMHMM explained) is an easy claim to stake in the ground. Defensively he's a coaches dream player. People looking at his stats only will see a completely different player than a coach, analyst, or smart basketball fan would.
Just because it doesn't show up in a box score, doesn't mean it doesn't show up in Morey's stat sheet.
That's exactly the kind of indirect effect that advanced stats are supposed to be trying to account for. I would agree that there aren't any that really do it effectively at this time. Except that Lin seems to be better at team defense, and Beverly better at man to man. The question then become context dependent as to which is more important at a given time.
Morey has said many times that its a balance of "Art and Science".... I would assuming something like peskiness, aggressiveness, or leadership/motivational skills are something among the "art" category that they take into account along with the stats. However, if there is a stat for it... these guys have it covered.
The art part was referring to was translating college and international stats to NBA production. In regards to NBA scouting, Morey has a stat for everything.
There is a reason why this belief is popular, and it's well earned. What reasons do you have to back up your statement, since you like to state it as a fact?
Lol at people feeding this troll with his ludicrous statement. Bev makes lin look like a junior high schooler on D.
here is a thread from CF's which show the breakdown of Lin vs Beverly http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=242380
Since he wasn't on this team or coached by this coach- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011–12_New_York_Knicks_season It safe to say that he probably doesn't.
