Jeremy Lin on the Rockets Part II: Turnovers in Transition and Defensive Issues

Numbers don't lie, if his ast/to ratio on breaks makes him one of the worst transition players then it's a fact.

 

Steve Francis II

 

Then his PER is greater than lowry and dragic. Gotta respect number.

 

Numbers don't lie. But it can be misleading.

If you watch Lin's TO/Procession, TO is not a big problem.

It is about the team chemistry, more than Lin's skill.
The Knicks starting lineups was not stable.

Not to say he can play big and reduce TOs in the 4th quarter.

 

The article didn't say that he wasn't effective in transition, just that he was very turnover prone.

 

No training camp, weak chemistry, unstable lineups and high procession are the reason Lin had high TO.

He was getting better in the last several games.

When Lin played for the Warriors, he played 9.8 avg.minutes and had 0.6 TO only.

 

This. The Knicks constantly changed their roster lineups with players getting injured and new players suddenly joining. Not to mention the fact Lin did not have experience with playing heavy minutes. He will do better next season.

 

Don't let the article fool you. You, me, and every other person who's seen Lin play knows he was good in transition. Or specifically the fastbreak. How often did you see him turn it over on the fastbreak! and how many times did you watch his games?? C'mon Roxxy. Pruiti says that he is high on Lin and yet says that "he looks uncomfortable with the ball" on the break?! Really? Is that what you saw? To my recollection, he tried to run a break every chance and every rebound he got. He seemed to love the run and gun style of offense. And he did exceptional in it. Do you disagree? Either they're defining "transition" wrong, or it is just a consequence of Lin having high turnover numbers which once again I think means less than everyone makes it out to be considering Lin's aggressive playmaking style

As for his defense, the numbers are misleading once again.

 

Not true. I've reached many of those games already and it's just not true. Numbers can be misinterpreted quite easily. Perhaps it's just a matter of Lin having a high ast/to ratio in general with his aggressive style but he played beautifully in transition most of the time. I'll get a pen and paper and rematch the videos when I get a chance and upload the video clips, both good and bad, so we can judge for ourselves.

 

He also said that Lon seemed "uncomfortable" with the ball in transition!!! Anyone who's seen him play in all his games know that this is not true. That we flat out loves and thrives in the fast break, ever since Hugh school!! Met of his college vids will show the same thing.

 

The problem should be Lin's backup.
Toney Douglas cant play point.

 

At some point along the line, it may be useful for Morey to get a 6th man defensive stopper, like a Tony Allen or Iman Shumpert. We're not exactly in "win now" mode so this isn't urgent, but it'll be reassuring to know that we can eventually lean on such a stopper to slow or disrupt uber-fast Western Conference guards like Westbrook or Parker, when it's really needed.

 

No, it did say that "he looked very uncomfortable with the ball on transistion" which is a complete falsity if you have seen his games.

 

Nice post formido.
I'm going to keep it short. I just thought it was ridiculous that compiling 4 examples of getting beaten on the dribble is sufficient to prove someone is a bad defender. For every single player in the NBA, you could compile a video of them getting burned off the dribble by a starting PG. Especially in this era, with so many exceptional PGs.

The article in general just looks lazy and just drumbeats Stephen Smith talking points. More confirmation bias. I've never heard anyone say, for example, that D-Will is a poor defender because he got smoked by Lin in a game. Because those are dismissed as exceptions. Yet, each time Lin is smoked, those are taken as representative. Everything bad is taken as "representative"; everything positive is dismissed as "too small a sampling size."

I paid special attention to watching Lin's on-the-ball defense because this was such a common meme, repeated by Stephen Smith and others. It's not notably good, but I don't think it's nearly as bad as the critics put it. In my mind, there were more issues with Lin's handling of screens set on him than isolation plays, but defending PnR is a matter of team defense, and a much more complicated thing to analyze.

 

Going by numbers, Rondo's one of the least efficient PGs in nba. Going by numbers, Lin's better than Rondo. Numbers don't lie.

 

Summary of the article:

1) Lin makes poor decisions during transition which results in TOs
2) Lin is a bad defender during isolation situations

#1 is a bit of a surprise. I thought most of his TOs were from deflected passes whether in transition or not. I think he forces the issue A LOT and plays lazy sometimes.

#2 is pretty obvious. Calderon, Williams, Jennings, Irving, Rose, Rondo, Parker, Wall, etc. they all had some good scoring games against him.

 

Looking at the clips that Pruti assembled, I am reminded that Lin appeared unable to force his man into the teeth of the defense. Guards who do not have the quickness to stay in front of their man (like Kidd circa 2010) can still be effective on defense if they can ensure that the only path they give leads to help defense. Lin did not appear to have that ability last year. This is an area he must improve in order to make up for his lack of quickness. Yes, Lin needs to funnel guys to the help more effectively, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. Just like opposing PGs wants to funnel Lin to the left, but he doesn’t always cooperate.

Lin’s defensive strengths were (1) strength, (2) trapping hard on the PnR, (3) quick hands going for steals, (4) getting into the passing lanes and (5) defensive rebounding. Also to be fair, very few guards can stay in front of the blow-by guards like Rose and Wesbrook, or the future HOF guys like Nash, Rondo, Paul, Parker and Williams. A better measure is how stays in front of the quick but less “elite” guys like Chalmers, Bayless, Augustin, Lowry, Collison, Jennings. Or stays up on perimeter dead-eye guys like Calderon, Dragic, Ridnour. Or bangs with the big, physical PGs like Stuckey and Holiday.

 

In some of those games he scored a lot as well, namely Jose, Deron, Brandon, Kyrie and Wall. If the pg is going to score against you, you have to score against them as well to neutralize one another. He was terrible against Rondo. And Parker scored against Amare not Lin. Matter fact, the entire Spurs team, Gary Neale, Parker and Blair scored against Amare. It was like bullying that game. I couldn't stop laughing.

 

#1 is cImpletely misleading as points per possession is j

 

#1 is completely misleading as points per possession is not how a pg should be judged on his transition capabilities. I also can't fathom how the transition stats were compiled as to conclude it wasn't good, when just ain't true. Jut in case, I'll compile a tally of transition opportunities good and bad by researching all of his games once again when I get around to it and post the vids and results.
#2 is more agreeable. JLin does need to work on paying better attention to his man while playing team defense and he does have to get quicker laterally in man to man defense. That said, his propensity toward an aggressive help defense leads to a more swarming, turnover creating defense, which ultimately is a net positive IMO.
Conclusion, as expected, JLin needs to cut down on TOs while maintaining his aggressiveness and needs to play better man on d while maintaining his knack for help d. In context, his transition ability is FAR greater than the article states, and his defensive ability points out the hole in his abilities but does not take into account his overall effect on d. If you guys arent able to or inclined to watch all of his games from last year, I hope youll be more inclined to listen to the pundits with a grain of salt as they cant possibly watch all the games of every player and instead listen to those of is who have watched all of his games. This coming year will help put all these numbers in perspective as he will probably show similar tendencies though hopefully more refined in every facet o his game. I'm willing to bet that his play will win everyone over next year.