Iso ball is not a sustainable formula or a real offense. I understand why the coaching staff is using it this season, but it's not winning basketball, in general. If Iso ball didn't work for Michael Jordan, it won't work for anyone. Jordan only won rings when he started dishing out to the Steve Kerrs of the world. When Kobe, for example, goes heavy Iso ball, it's easier to defend the Lakers. Golden State the other night just started to double Kobe, and then when Lakers who weren't in any kind of shooting rhythm got the ball in their hands, they weren't ready to do anything with it. Iso ball is like a band aid. Short term, it works. Long term, you need to heal the wound at its source.
It's such a myth that Harden "ISO's" us to death. He isolates at the end of shot clocks or when we desperately need the offense and everyone else is failing. Watch the games. Lin is given every opportunity out there and he keeps digging us huge holes. He almost never makes the right play. When Lin's out there the team has zero rhythm. Guys are bumping into each other. Lin's losing the ball left and right or just plain wasting clock only to throw it to someone with 2 seconds left to bail us out. He's plain garbage and I can't wait till he's gone.
Yes you dish out in iso. That is part of playing iso. They other guys also need to move off the ball in iso. Except when Francis isos you just have to wait for the dunk.
Lin needs to spend the entire off-season working on ballhandling and nothing else until his handles are respectable. Right now they're not even high school level. Until then he needs to stop playing outside his abilities because that's what he's doing right now and it's killing us. Obviously, McHale's not allowed to bench him cause we need to steal some more of that China money. Look up his on/off court. We play better when he's not on the court. It doesn't even matter who's playing. The team is better on both ends just by virtue of him not being there to screw the team. Like I've said, we're better off playing 4v5 than have Jeremy Lin be on the court.
Go to 0:23 of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nftzOKqYWM Tell me how long it takes Harden to lock-in on the basket and ignore an open Lin to his right. Was that at the end of the shot clock? Then tell me what happens after Harden misses the shot. Don't let an irrational mindset towards one player cloud what's happening on the court. I love Harden. But he still has a long ways to go. As does Lin.
That's in transition and Lin wasn't even open and we needed a bucket. He was trying to hit the rim before their defense was set. And please oh please stop comparing Lin to Harden. You might as well compare Delfino to LeBron.
Your mistake is believing that every player is created and treated equally. Harden(our superstar), parsons(our longest tenured player), Delfino(our only veteran presence and asik(our only defensive and rebounding big) whether you think so or not have the trust of the coach and a much longer leash than the rest of the team. That's just how it is. Not to mention harden, parsons and asik are our three starters with the largest disparity in talent between them and their backups. I often see Lin fans saying that this is "technically his rookie year" and to me that's how the coach is looking at it as well. Dmo, Greg, trob all get pulled when they produce like crap because they are young and need to learn. Lin has a much longer leash then any of those guys as evidenced by his minutes, granted he has more talent and upside it still doesn't change the fact that he is still very young and learning. I mean you yourself recognize the mistakes he continually makes. The difference is I think too many Lin fans see him as a potential harden type player rather than what most others see him as a potential 2nd, 3rd or 4th best player on a real contending team. Another mistake is you act as if just because mchale has gone with bev a handful of times to close out games like this is something that routinely happens. It isn't at all. For a young albeit talented player, Lin has been given plenty of court time to show what he can do and the majority of the time he shows extreme promise. This doesn't exempt him from the treatment that many young players receive. The second you realize that Lin is not going to be afforded the same margin of error as the 4 I mentioned because of other reasons other than mchale just doesn't like or trust Lin the sooner you will understand nothing wrong is being done here. I realize that a good chunk of Lin fans strongly disagree with the idea of other players being held to different standards, but that's just how the NBA works. Believe me I am no hater. I think Lin has tons of talent, I see no reason he can't eventually grow into a top 10 PG with an outside shot of top 5 if things break the right way, but as of right now he's a young exciting and some time mistake prone guard that is growing with an equally young exciting and mistake prone team.
How you could not tell the big difference between Beverley and Lin is beyond me. Beverley make less mistakes, but is limited, he could not do too much. He could not run offense like Lin does, he rely on Harden mostly. Lin is better, but make more mistakes. However, in days when the other team zero in Harden, and Harden could not get much things going, it is worth the risk to let Lin do his thing, especially he has shown in the third quarter that he is capable of split the defense and get our big going, Asik got most of his points during that beginning of the third Q. McHale focused too much on Lin's mistake, and ignored his capability, stick with Beverley who didn't/couldn't do too much to help the team without Harden functioning. No matter which way one could spin it, McHale made a wrong decision, and he basically just don't believe in Lin's capability, with Lin's mistake and his offense/defense, Lin's net contribution is always positive to the team, that was shown during Linsanity, that was shown in this season, just still is not enough to proof to McHale. When he looks at Lin, he would focus at the negative side and ignore the positive side. And yet when McHale look at other player, he would ignore their negative side and wish for the positive side, that's the difference. Lin is the only player in the team that in the winning games have higher average TO than in the losing games. It is not because Lin's TO helped the team, it is that in those winning games, his games was not affected by those TO, and he was able to play aggressive. Morey said "Lin is most dangerous when he is aggressive". However, when Lin is over coached, he could not contribute as much. The main problem of McHale is in his words. "Lin would rather have 29 points and 9 TO, I'm telling him that look, we are trying to win here". So basically that McHale could not understand that Lin is trying to win there too, and Lin's game is that way, if he thinks too much in limiting his TO, he would not be able to get that 29 points, and as a PG, that would affect his assist, and would affect the way he run the offense, that would cause a lose to the team. Bottom line, the season is almost over, McHale still could not understand Lin's game, and still don't know how to use him. And the worst thing he did last game is, McHale could not man up just move Beverley to the start, or if he believe he made the right choice, he should stick to Beverley to the end of the 4th quarter, instead he sub Lin in when there is no chance of gain the game back, just try to fool those people who only look at stat sheet without watch the game. (otherwise, I don't understand why he did not sub Lin in earlier or just run Beverley to the end of the game.) I'd respect McHale more if he really stick to what he believes in, and own the consequences of his decision.
You didn't watch any game or you're blind. Harden goes ISO and cannot make a shot until 2-3 seconds left. He swung the ball to others and the guy had no choice but shot. For sure, he blew up.
Jennings thought of himself a max player, his ego is hurt right now. Lin thought of himself a team player and just wants to play basketball, his spirit is hurt right now. you pick one.
Jennings did the right thing...from a mindset standpoint...you say it and blow off steam. Keeping things bottled inside like Lin is probably not good for your health.
ISO ball is a valid strategy when you have a mismatch. Its also a set play because the other 4 need to be in on it and pull their defenders away so the iso has room to work. Part of what makes dominant bigs like Dwight and Bynum good are 1 on 1 is almost always a mismatch. If the defense is too stupid to double them, I'd call a corner iso for them every time. Same for a lights out shooter being guarded 1 on 1 by a scrub or weak perimeter defender. This is different from hero ball where one guy just forces it but a lot of people here don't know the difference and think they're the same thing.
Good point, and you're right. I should have differentiated between Iso Ball and Hero Ball. Hakeem's teams were based around Iso Ball. Dump it into Hakeem. He's singled, score. He's doubled, pass out to ET Cassell or others for 3. Dwight's offense in ORL was pretty much what Hakeem's offenses were in the title years. Thanks for the correction!
