The problem with Lin being a starter is that there are nights usually 2 of every 5 or so when he is just a terrible minus on the court and can single handedly lose games for us. As a bench player, is would be easier to accept getting subbed out when you dont have it that night. For example, his play in the first quarter pretty much dictated the game against the pacers. Too bad that we dont have anyone that is clearly better right now. On a sidenote, i recall morey saying that llull was a great complement to harden in the backcourt. Lull is a coear upgrade over lin imo in almost every aspect.
So you think a guy who played 19 minutes last night cost us the game? It doesn't matter who else was with him when on the court at the time?
Based on the flow of the game, yes. His early turnovers and mental mistakes was just as impactful as Hibbert in that first quarter in helping Indiana get that lead. Once the pacers dictated the pace (see what i did there?), and had an early cushion, it made it really difficult to open the game up for our offense. For sure, others did not play well, including Parsons' and Delfino's missing threes, james' ineffectiveness on offense and mistakes on defense, our pfs getting man handled... But my intent is not to point fingers in general. I am just trying to say that Lin is almost like a pg version of Mcgee. When he is good, hes really good. When he is bad, u just need to take him iff the court and accept that he cant help your team that night. Basically, he is not championship quality starter material.
Your intent is not to point fingers but then you say one player who played 19 minutes cost them the game. As if the blame lies on one player and one player alone. The whole starting unit stunk in the first quarter, a couple of turnovers by a single player in first 6 minutes of a game doesn't decide the game.
the McGee comparison is actually pretty damn on point. I wonder how many years it would take for Lin to be consistent. He's really not that young.
Didn't you know, Lin single-handily allowed Hansborough and Hibbert to bully around our big men. It was also all Lin's fault that George Hill went off on us... OH WAIT George Hill went 1-11. Yeah, Lin had some 3 turnovers in the 1st quarter that hurt, but he had 1 for the rest of the game. If you're going to say his 3 turnovers in the 1st cost us the game, then you might as well say Harden's 3 TOs or his 18 bricked shots or Chandler's 3 bricked 3s cost us. Teams have bad games, especially some as young and inexperienced as us. Why can't people just accept we had a bad game as a team. The only guys who played somewhat well were Smith, Robinson, and Beverly.
So you're saying Lin caused Harden to go 1 for 10 in the first two quarters and Lin caused Parson to go 5 for 14 and 0 for 3 in last nights game against the Pacers? I didn't know Lin had telekinetic powers.
I don't know of a single game this season whereby Lin singlehandedly lost the game for us, let alone 2 out of every 5 nights. He has had such a short leash that if he is not producing he immediately gets benched. It's not like he ever goes 3 for 15 or 4 for 20.
Actually, I've been critical of all starters against the Pacers. It's just that most of the threads are about Lin, so I talk about Lin's failures the most.
Yes I agree all the starters played poorly last night against the Pacers. Hope we do better tomorrow.
I understand being tough on him to motivate him to get better, and I actually like that Mchale was doing that a little early in the year because it helped jeremy improve, but there gets to be a point where it is just going overboard. A young player who many recognize as one with much potential cannot be given this short of a leash. I mean this is basically his second year and his first year as a starter. Continually benching him and limiting his minutes is really stunting his development. Most players learn from their mistakes on the court and play better throughout the game. Benching them only diminishes any trust or confidence they have and that kind of stuff carries on to the games afterward. The rockets invested in him because they knew he was a young player with great upside. Every time Mchale benches him, especially when he's actually doing pretty well, it just inhibits his growth.
Last nights poor start by Lin specifically was inexcusable. Having said that it pains me as a fan that McHale treats Lin so horribly. McGake is trying to instill confidence in TD, Bev, pretty much all the starters save Lin. It's a stupid move imo. A stubborn at that and a biased one. You get what you expect and if you pull players out without giving them the trust to earn it back, they literally won't be able to make up for it. When Lin pulled himself together and played hard doing all the right things and McHale still pulled him for pretty much the rest of the game, it must've stung Lin bad. All I know us when he did come back, he literally stated in the corner the rest of the game as if defying McGake and telling him "is this what you want? Really?" What a shame. Contrary to all the haters, I always thought that our backcourt had do much promise and that even this year we could've made done noise but I'm doubting it now. McHale keeps reverting back to Harden-iso ball which you guys like so much and it's gonna kill our offense thereby our only main advantage in a game. I don't get the bias against Lin. I do see what they see, I really do, the r****ded turnovers, the passing up of perfectly good shots, the relatively weak individual skillset, etc. but I can't believe they don't see the promise if they just trust him to play his game. He can affect the game positively in so many ways and plays ball like you're supposed to. I hate our coaching staff for destroying Lins confidence and thereby the teams chemistry and joy of the game.
They will blame you for blaming Mchale while ignore how the v*** guy was s**** on Lin. Just face it. If you like Lin and want to defend him from undue blame, you are deemed irrational here.
I don't even know where to begin. Some, not all, but some Lin fans really just have no idea what's going on and see what they want to see and believe what they want to believe, reality be damned. Lin is 3rd in minutes on the team and despite what some seriously crazy or troll posters may think he is the unquestioned starting PG. He gets plenty of floor time. You claim that mchale is holding him back and doesn't want him to succeed, but what about all the games Lin played so well? Including a beautiful 3 game stretch that happened recently. Mchale just decides on a whim every once in a while "you know I think we will let Jeremy play his game today"? You really believe this garbage? And seriously enough with this isoball ruining our offense garbage. We have the 6th most efficient offense in the league headed by the 3rd most efficient wing scorer in the game. Who by the way is 2nd to only Lebron in assists per game by non PGs. Does harden take some questionable shots from time to time? Absolutely, but when you fail to see all the good that comes from his iso game then you just aren't seeing the whole game. Drawing double teams is something our offense heavily relies on to get open 3 point shots and nothing we do achieves that better than harden. Some of you guys have to get it through your head that these guys are young, talented players that need more than just one year together to figure it all out. The coach is not out to get your boy, sometimes a player makes mistakes and it's nobody's fault but their own. Get excited for the playoffs and quit making every game we struggle into some soap opera drama.
