Yes. Definitely agree. He needs to improve his: - ball handling against defensive pressure, especially with his off hand - needs to solidify his jumper as well as his 3 ball - needs to work on his lateral movement on man-to-man defense - work on bounce passes in the P&R - needs to be more controlled during penetration, while maintaining his ultra- aggressiveness With the above improvements, I hope he does NOT WORRY ABOUT TOs and just try to always make the right play so as to maintain his aggressiveness and creativity. Hopefully, it will come down naturally, but I don't want him to think about it, tightening him up.
The play is on this video (1:51 in the clip)....... The Raptors' DeMar DeRozan blew by a late-rotating Carmelo Anthony off the dribble, drove along the baseline, ducked under Lin's block attempt, and finished with a dunk, not a layup. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUtzKqaIZxQ
This. His defense is bizarrely underrated. It's like people believe the ramblings of idiots like SAS over what their eyes are showing them!! I'm not gonna go into the racial thing, but it's definitely bizarre. His defense was one of the keys to Linsanity. He's tenacious, fast, hard-working. Has great hands, quick hands, good natural defensive instincts in how to stop a shot from going up. Great team defense awareness..
Agree somewhat about Lin's defense. He is at least an average defender. He really racks up the steals and plays the passing lanes well. I agree that a lot of people who think he is such a horrible defender is because of his race. A lot of people thought Yao was a really bad defender as well, IIRC
Lin's number one problem is picking up the dribble whenever the man he intended to pass to was well-covered or he is denied dribble penetration. This is where most of his turnovers originate from. The problem with his off hand is finishing plays to the left, rather than dribbling to the left. But he should be able to fix this. His jumper will be OK. He should be high 80s percentage from the FT line. And he does get to the line often. I agree he should not worry about the TOs. If it weren't for his tendency to pick up the dribble, I wouldn't worry about the TOs at all. In the games Lin was least effective offensively, I think he was too focused on not losing the ball, and lost his edge in beating his man off the dribble or snapping passes to the open man. (The Rockets players better get used to the velocity Lin can put on a pass. The only player I can think of who can pass it with more juice is LeBron.)
One bad thing about Lin coming to Houston from New York is that we have to go from listening to Walt "Clyde" Frazier calling Lin plays to Clyde "clubbin baby seals" Drexler's signature goofy cliches.
Honestly, I'm Asian and I think Lin's off the ball defense is terrible. He loses focus of his man when he's not on the ball, so he's always susceptible to simple backdoor cuts amongst other things.
Jeremy Lin will be on the Jim Rome show today at 11:30am. I know the show is not on air in Houston, but I'll post the audio soon after.
It isn't racial at all. Lin's defense was terrible when he first started for the Knicks. Towards the end of his run before he went down with injury though, it improved a lot. Early on - The game where he hit the winning 3 vs Toronto, Calderon was smoking Lin all game. They had to put Shumpert on Calderon to get a stop. Later - Lin was able to play respectable defense against K Irving, Wall and other respectable pgs. How his defense will be coming back from injury remains to be seen.
I've been following Lin since his summer league days and I can tell you the general opinion of Lin was that he was a rookie who gave 100% on defense and was a good defender. Once Linsanity kicked in he became known for his poor defense, probably because his offense was just so much better. But it's strange hearing about Lin's poor defense, because he was constantly praised for his defense (or at least his effort on defense) in GS.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Jeremy Lin, right now in The Jungle.</p>— Jim Rome (@jimrome) <a href="https://twitter.com/jimrome/status/228891055318249472" data-datetime="2012-07-27T16:34:14+00:00">July 27, 2012</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> PHEE NOMENAL
Yes you are right he wasn't very good against jose in that game. But the odd thing is that when he played Jose the next two times he was much improved like you said. I remember watching some summer league games and he was always known for his defensive effort. I think some of his struggles on defense when he first started may have had a lot to do with his conditioning. He was doing way to much work on the offensive end it probably exhausted him on the other end. Who knows really. But what matters is that he got better. And his injury should be fine it is just meniscus surgery.
Three Lin/Knicks games in top games of the year 2012, to be replayed on NBA TV next week: 10. Lakers 96, Nuggets 87 - 5/12/2012 Watch on NBA TV: Tues, July 31 at 4 p.m. ET 9. Heat 101, Pacers 93 - 5/20/2012 Watch on NBA TV: Tues, July 31 at 5 p.m. ET 8. Lakers 113, Clippers 108 - 4/4/2012 Watch on NBA TV: Tues, July 31 at 6 p.m. ET 7. Heat 115, Celtics 111 (OT) - 5/30/2012 Watch on NBA TV: Wed, Aug. 1 at 4 p.m. ET 6. Clippers 99, Grizzlies 98 - 4/29/2012 Watch on NBA TV: Wed, Aug. 1 at 5 p.m. ET 5. Heat 104, Thunder 98 - 6/19/2012 Watch on NBA TV: Wed, Aug. 1 at 6 p.m. ET 4. Knicks 100, Bulls 99 (OT) - 4/8/2012 Watch on NBA TV: Thur, Aug. 2 at 4 p.m. ET 3. Thunder 149, Wolves 140 (2OT) - 3/23/2012 Watch on NBA TV: Thur, Aug. 2 at 5 p.m. ET 2. Celtics 115, Knicks 111 (OT) - 3/4/2012 Watch on NBA TV: Thur, Aug. 2 at 6 p.m. ET 1. Knicks 92, Lakers 85 - 2/10/2012 Watch on NBA TV: Thur, Aug. 2 at 7 p.m. ET
Not a recap of Lin's Rome interview but my impressions and thoughts are: - He's definitely not a media w**** and still gets uncomfortable when he gets recognized in public places. - He enjoys the game of basketball and just wants to play basketball without all the drama that goes around it. While a lot of players view offseason as the time to not think about basketball, he thinks of offseason as the time to improve and work on one's weaknesses. - He is geniunely looking forward to playing with the young Rockets team and playing an uptempo type of offense. I think he sees similarities between McHale's and D'Antoni's coaching philosophies and believes he'll thrive under McHale. - It didn't seem to me like he truly believes Melo wanted him back in NY. He was given the chance to say "yes, I believe Melo wanted me back". Instead he said he doesn't know but his experience with him LAST YEAR was very good and there were no problems.
I was listening to Jim Rome driving into work this morning. From what I remembered, here is a quick summary: He stayed in his apartment in New York most of the time during the height of Linsanity. When he did finally go out to Time Square, he was amazed by all of the Lin jerseys and pictures everywhere. When asked how he felt about Carmello statement that his contract was "ridiculous", he said that Melo was always helpful to him during his time as a Knicks. They had a good relationship while playing together. Rome asked if Lin was suprised that New York did not match the contract. He kind of skirted the question and went on about how there are good things in New York and Houston. He just doesn't know what all those good things are yet until he starts playing and living in Houston. For now, he's back home in the bay area enjoying time with his friends and family. He said that he would be glad once the NBA season starts so that he can just focus on basketball. During this summer, he mentioned that he is working with a trainer to get better lower body strength to avoid injury and be able to play at a high level throughout the season. The other part of his game he is working hard on is to do catch and shoot and be able to go to his left as much as he does going right. My impression is that he sounds like a very private person trying his best not to get caught up in Linsanity. Kid seems to enjoy the simple things in life and striving to be the best basketball player he can be. I am excited for this upcoming NBA season and definitely need to get NBA League Pass to watch all the Rockets games since I am out here in San Diego.
