VIDEO: Detroit Pistons vs Houston Rockets Post Game 11/10/12

That's not entirely true. There was a point where the Rocket's lead was cut to just 4 points when Lin and Harden came back in. Then they game got blown open after that and the kept a comfortable lead thereafter.

 

Chill out people, it's a statement the coaching staff is sending out [don't ever argue with your head coach in public]:grin:
my 2cents

 

What does this refer to? I'm missing something...

 

The same Toney Douglas who failed in D'Antoni's fast-paced offense all last year? Okay, Sampson.

 

Your awesome for mentioning this, I love this guy. Yeah I saw his tweet also he is a great follow for intelligent basketball talk. Anyway yeah Lin is a really good half court player (last year & this year) & thus far his transition play has been much improved simply because he turns it over less in transition. Transition TO's killed him last year.

The weird thing is that Lin says he wants to get out & run (said it before the season started) but I do agree with Haralabos on this, there are times when Lin appears to not embrace running. Then there are times when he is quick & makes fast decisions in transition.

Something that a lot of people don't know is that coaches send messages out to players in subtle ways. Not so subtle with Patterson. Maybe the coaching staff have been urging Lin to push the pace more & this was there way to send a message. We saw this last season with Rondo when he was involved in trade rumours. They had no intention of trading hi but they wanted Rondo to really focus in & he responded.

We will see how things develop over the season.

 

Did you watch him in his rookie year? He bricked every post move he took. EVERY one. Think before you speak.

 

There are a number of distinctions here that people aren't clear on.

Lin is excellent in the open court in terms of passing. He's not great at running up the court with the ball and taking quick shots or generating quick plays... this is because his first instinct is to "read" the offense and then react.

Once the team is in the half court, he is far superior to TD in his decision making.

So, if we're to break it down...

Open court - Superior
Transition - Mediocre to below average
Half court - Above average
PnR - Superior

Depending upon what the coach wishes to do, there are pro's and cons to using Lin. Unfortunately, once the ball ceases being in transition, TD is a significant downgrade... which is often.

The Rockets aren't exactly going to score tons of points in transition... our team just isn't made that way.

Despite what people believe about D'Antoni's "run and gun 7 seconds or less" offense, D'Antoni actually made several adjustments to Lin's playstyle during his tenure.

He didn't push Lin to run the ball up the court super fast. He recognized that Lin's strengths were the ability to read and exploit gaps in the defense and utilize the PnR.

What he did keep was the "shoot if you're open" philosophy. What he discarded was the "get the ball up and shoot in 7 seconds or less". This is why his pace of possessions with Lin was actually slightly SLOWER than Woodson's tenure.

Basically, as soon as Lin got the ball he would assess the court... if there was an open court opportunity, you'd see a pinpoint pass cross court. If not, Lin would then either pass the ball forward or walk it up. You rarely if ever saw him running the ball up into a transition play ala Lebron/Wade (very strong transition players) unless he had a 2 or 3 on 1 situation.

Percentage wise this makes sense. If someone is slow to run the floor defensively, Lin takes the high percentage pass downcourt. Otherwise, Lin gets into the half court and looks for the high percentage play. Those are Lin's strengths so he maximizes them.

The main difference is that D'Antoni put most of the playmaking decisions in the hands of Lin. Whereas Woodson drew alot more specific plays for Melo.

McHale has been putting those decisions in the hands of Harden, which in my view is a mistake. Not because he's a poor passer or playmaker, but it's far more difficult to be the #1 scoring option AND the play creator when your first instinct is to shoot on those borderline decisions.

If a decision is borderline, Lin will nearly always look for a better shot. This nearly always results in a better look. However, since Harden is a shooter first and foremost, his first instinct is to shoot low to mediocre percentage shots, especially since he's under the added pressure of being the #1 option.

We'll see how they balance it out between Harden and Lin, but it seems like the direction they are going is they want Harden to pass more and focus on higher percentage, more efficient shots rather than trying to take the scoring load solely on himself (more touches for Asik, Parsons, etc).

It's going to be an interesting season.

 

Very good post