I've been reading CF for some time without making an account or posting but I've finally decided to add my 2 cents. I will preface my comments by admitting that I am an LOF. I only watch the Rockets religiously because of JLin, but I want to say something to all of the annoying LOFs and LOHs out there. To the some of the ridiculously biased and unreasonable LOFs out there (we all know who you are): I understand that you want to see Lin do well. I understand that you are sad that Linsanity is over, that you are frustrated with McHale, that Harden gets all of the shots, but please for the love of God show some restraint before you starting posting ridiculous comments. It makes all of us look bad and it only serves to create more LOHs. Understand that the Rockets are a basketball organization and they do not exist to make Lin look as good as humanly possible. It is McHale's job to win each and every game and it is Morey's job to build a championship team. First of all, James Harden is obviously a better offensive player than Jeremy Lin. Harden is a better shooter, driver, and he is a good distributor. On offense, the only thing I think that Lin may have an edge over Harden is on vision and ball distribution, but that is a slight edge. On defense, I would say Lin is lights out better than Harden, mainly because Harden does not give a crap about defense. I also don’t think it’s fair to call him selfish considering the fact that he is actually quite a good passer of the ball and often racks up assists. Sadly for Lin, both players needs the ball in their hands to be at their most effective, and when it comes down to it, you want the ball in Harden's hands over Lin's, all things equal. I think Lin has the potential to be a great player, but as of now, Harden and Lin are not even on the same level. You cannot hold Harden to the same standards as Lin, and Lin is not unbenchable. I think McHale was correct in benching Lin vs. the Spurs, but COMPLETELY misguided in benching him against the Mavs and the Pacers. (More on this in a different post.) To the LOHs: Yes, I get it. LOFs can be annoying. You love the Rockets and you hate seeing these "fake" fans that think JLin is the second coming of Chris Paul simply because he is Asian. Yes, I admit to being Asian and I pretty much only follow Lin because he is Asian. But understand that there is only one Asian American in the NBA and only has been one since like 1946 or whatever. I root for Lin for the same reason I root for the teams from my hometown, the same reason I root for USA at the Olympics and the World Cup. These athletes represent something that I identify with, and as others have mentioned before, Lin, as a professional athlete, stands in contrast to many of the negative stereotypes about Asian. I don't care what you say, there is no doubt in my mind that Lin was overlooked his entire career because he is Asian. I'm not saying that scouts were consciously thinking, "Oh he's Asian he must suck". Generalization is how we organize the world and is incredibly effective at allowing us to draw conclusions about things that we don't have a lot of information about. Stereotypes can unconsciously come into play on our intuition, and when it comes to something as uncertain as scouting, you better believe that intuition influences decisions. Rant done.
god that was just ugly looking bball. that transition D was horrible as well... why was parsons leaving the dude right in FRONT of him and going cross court to cover someone else, giving the dude a huge hope lane to the basket? they're just not very aware of where their teammates are, in offense and especially in defense. harden had 4 guys on him, with lin AND parsons open for three. instead he took a well defended shot. the only guy he trusts shooting the three is delfino and beverley. other times he'd rather go 1 on 4.
I know alot of fans are upset about Lin's TOs and I agree it would be awesome if Lin can play aggressively and still have low TOs, but I thought it would be interesting to share with the fans Lin's stats this season so far in terms of his TO's and game wins/losses. It's really very very counter intuitive: TO/ W/ L/ %win 0/ 2/ 1/ 67% 1/ 2/ 5/ 29% 2/ 13/ 10/ 57% 3/ 8/ 9/ 47% 4/ 8/ 5/ 62% 5/ 2/ 3/ 40% 6/ 3/ 0/ 100% 7/ 2/ 0/ 100% tot/ 40/ 33/ 55% Some may say well maybe we won when Lin had those high TO games because Lin got benched. Well in those five 6 and 7 TO games above, Lin played between 27 to 35 minutes, and all those games except one lead to double digit wins for the Rockets. If I were to be forced to explain this, I would speculate that perhaps when Lin is playing aggressively, his overall game is better, but he also tends to make more risky passes and thus has higher TOs. And when your PG is aggressive and playing "well", generally the whole team does well. Past stats also support the notion that when Lin has a high TO game, its not necessarily the end of the world.
Risky is different than dumb passes. Lin makes a lot of dumb mistakes, over and over. For example, getting into the paint and jumping with nowhere to go, Or bounce passing to a big man with subpar hands in traffic, Or... A good and smart pg would learn from his mistakes. Lin just repeats them every third game or so.
One piece dosent make the garbage youy said true. Harden if you took off you're lin only fan glasses off will see Harden makes the pass to Lin and Parsons a lot.
People complain that Lin is being mistrated/handled by the coach but in reality, Lin's leash is much longer than he deserves. If any other player not named Harden plays as half as crappy as Lin does, they would be subbed immediately and eventually lose their spot in their rotation. You saw this with DMo, Morris, Robinson etc. As far as consistency goes, no one can argue that Beverly brings you a more stable product, but that is a problem because Patrick is backup pg material and not starter quality either.
You're kidding right? Out of all the starters except maybe the PF position, Lin has the shortest leash. Harden Parsons and even Asik mostly always get 35+ minutes even if theyre sucking. Theres been numerous times Lin has gotten less than 24 because of his poor play. Sometimes even when he's not even playing that bad. The only reason everyone else gets a short leash is because everyone else is basically a rookie or does not have enough talent. At least Lin does. Bev is the most consistent bench player but he cant sustain for heavy minutes
http://bkref.com/tiny/EOP4I Only 22 players (including Lin), Age 24 or younger, have had 2 or more seasons of 13+pts, 6+asts, with a TS% over 53%. Most of them are either HOFs, future HOFs, or former multiple All-Stars. Even the guys that have only done it once usually turn out to be all-star level players.
Huh? Asik has been a beast all year. Parsons has been our best perimeter and picked up Lin's slack when he couldn't hit the side of a barn earlier this year. If it appeared Lin had a short leash its because he played terrible. You can't have your starting point guard throwin the ball away and shooting air balls late in games. When Lin improved his game he earned the coach's trust. But he's obviously regressed back to the stupid mistakes that got him benched earlier
