When he starts hitting wide open jumper at better click then the hate will dwindle. Otherwise, just too ammunition to hate on him
Meant to put this here.... I find it annoying that there are so many posters and, dare I say, LOF that run to his defense after all of his bad games. I think it's offensive to him. When he has a bad game and people criticize his performance, that's fair game. Just like when our other guards had bad games, we criticized it. It's no different. However, I think that there are so many fans that so desperately want Jeremy to put up Kobe numbers that they refuse to acknowledge the evidences which shows that his play up to this point has been mediocre. It's only hate if it's about his ethnicity, but to place heavy scrutiny on him is fine. He may be injured, but he is not living up to the expectations from management and the fans. (In my opinion) I like Jeremy, but do I think we would be better off as a team with Lowry or Dragic in the backcourt? Yes, I do. Dragic/Lowry would have immediately gelled with James because of their experience. Let's be honest--Jeremy is lacking games. He doesn't adjust as quickly as someone who has played longer and with more offenses. I don't think Rockets fans hate Lin at all. I think it's the opposite. We want him to succeed, but we're not going to be delusional like his individual fans and defend him every time he messed up. I think he has a great deal of potential. Is he the answer at the point? No. Is he average or above when he's 100%? Probably. ....And I still don't like how the Rockets treated Lowry. McHale got his way with that one. Kyle knew better than his simple-minded offense, and McHale didn't want any player questioning him. So, in a sense, J-Lin is perfect. He's essentially a rookie, and he'll do whatever Kevin asks. I just wish Morey could find a consistent big to put at the 4...then, Jeremy wouldn't be focused on as much.
Tell me any player who's the FACE of the franchise and the 2nd highest paid player on his team with the kind of production he's had who is not hated. Landry Fields is being skewered to pieces by the Raptors fans and last I looked he's not Asian. Bottom line is Lin does not need anybody to defend him. He needs to defend himself by his game on the court. If he plays even at 75% of Linsanity, he'll be loved by Rockets fans.
All that matters to Les is that Lin IS getting attention from both the media and the fans. The very fact that there are more threads on the first page about Lin than any other players on the team tells the whole story. Les got exactly what he wanted. Maybe Dragic would be a better signing in terms of plays on the court but he will not have the impact Lin has made globally. Didn't Lin's jersey outsell all other NBA players last year during Linsanity? I am not sure how much better Lin will get over the next three years but I know for sure that as long as he stays on the court, he will be the most talked about Rockets player outside of Houston.
This really stook out to me in your post. Quite silly. It took LBJ & Wade how long to figure out how to work well together. Amare & Melo still have yet to figure things out as well. To think that Dragic/Lowry would have immediately hit it off with Harden is foolish considering two superior players took much longer to finally get things going. The NBA is a lot more complex than this. You would be wise to appreciate that. Just a thought.
Man whatever it is , Jlin is probably the player under the most pressure now in NBA. I think it has affected his game, if he can survive this. The Knicks game was a big step. on a side note : We will see his old Knicks increase. But then again remember Linsanity is alot more complex then a one man show. It a team thing with Jlin, which keeps the opponents guessing and off balanced. You are definitely not going to see Jlin do what Carmelo does.
So maybe some exaggeration on my part, and I do understand the complexity of the NBA. I do think it's a bit unfair to compare Jeremy to the all stars you mentioned above. That's a different type of adjustment. Jeremy hasn't been asked to nor can he do what those guys do. But...you get my point. I'd bet everything that the team chemistry would be better sooner with a more seasoned guard.
Not some exaggeration a lot of exaggeration. LOL. I didn't even mention Lins name in my post at all in fact. We were talking about Lowry/Dragic in relation to fitting with Harden. And yes I do understand your point but it doesn't change the fact that it is still wrong. Just a thought.
True, there are very few "elite" point guards in the NBA,but that has nothing to do with my point. I was saying that "solid" and "mediocre" are pretty much the same category: below "great" and "good" but ahead of "poor" and "horrible". However, I did read where someone call JLin an "elite" defender. I'm still waiting to see that elite defense.
Well to be honest what creates the pressure is the media influence and his stardom. And the stardom all starts with fans. Having a huge amount of fans can create unyielding pressure.
I called Lin an elite defender. We shall see if I am proven right going forward. I have not had the benefit of watching the last couple of games but will do so when I have a chance to go back and review. To me, elite is top 10% or so of defenders at that position. Joe Dumars comes to mind for me in the 80's and 90's, so use that as my frame of reference and whether the term elite has degraded over the years. Defense has many aspects. One is getting up into someone's face and looking active (TD is very good at that). The aspects that are more important to me are make the right play at the right time for the team's defensive situation and having the athleticism to pull it off. This includes laying off at the right time, playing up at the right time, getting rebounds, boxing out, effort, hustle, getting loose balls, deflections, playing D on switches to bigger players (for the PG defender), in addition to steals and blocks. For a more recent example, look at Iman Shumpert from last year's Knicks as an example. Many would consider him at or close to the top 10% at his position, but if you break down his defensive stats, I believe Lin is pretty close, even though Lin is not as flashy. Shumpert reminds me of Gary Payton, super quick, flashy, gambling 1 on 1, but can get burned (remember when Tim Hardaway used to repeatedly burn Payton). I posed the question as to how many starting PG defenders would you prefer over Lin at this point but I don't recall getting a response. There is some debate about whether Lin is at 100%, but regardless, even at his current level, I believe he is in or near the top 10%. I think Lin has gotten scored on quite a bit in the past because his bigs have not rotated when he has gotten screened or fully bought into the entire team defense philosophy (if you watch and analyze the Knicks from last year and even some early Rockets games this year you will understand). Defense is a TEAM game, and there are many aspects, most of which do not show up fully in the boxscore. What bothers me is when Sampson took out Lin supposedly for defensive purposes. That tells me he fails to understand the team defensive contribution made by Lin or his ability to D up a variety of players on switches.
I haven't seen this game, so I honestly can't comment. What I've read is that this was Lin's worst game of the season (and preseason). Even good and great defenders have bad defensive games (I've been reading that Tyson Chandler did not play well defensively yesterday). If someone is actually having a bad game defensively, making a defensive switch makes sense, if only to give the guy a breather or the opponent a change of pace. Other options would be to switch defensive schemes, assignments, or provide different types of help. Regardless, Lin was not have a bad defensive game against Portland when he was yanked.
Nate Robbinson is so streaky. He can win or lose games for you singlehandedly. I have seen Nate totally torch the Heat in one game & look like garbage the next. The only player that can stop Nate is Nate himself.
Oh I agree Lin should of stayed in during the Portland game but I understand what Sampsons thinking was but it was still the wrong decision. I do agree with him that Toney Douglas is better against certain match ups though. I don't think Lin is an elite defender yet but he's decent. He tends to gamble way too much with help defense and sags off his man. Then again it's hard to defend as pg in the league since most of the time they are busy fighting screens and getting pick n rolled. Add that with how fast most pgs are in the league that just makes it just makes it extremely difficult.
This is actually somewhat misleading. Robinson scored 11 while Lin was in, 2 layups and 2 jumpers. Robinson scored 10 against TD, 3 layups, 1 jumper and 2 free throws on a TD foul. 1 point difference. Nate actually got to the basket easier against TD from what I saw and simply missed the same contested jumpers he made over Lin because he's a streaky shooter. Jeremy shot like crap that game sure but to say he was getting destroyed by Nate and TD was some defensive stopper on him is baloney.
