[cnnsi]The Fundamentals: Lin facing new challenges during his second act

Most of Jeremy's problems are problems of refinement, which will be honed with experience. I see no problem with Jeremy's driving to the lane, except he has to become less predictable and craftier. Jared Jeffries was able to read his ex-teammate and draw a charge in the last Portland game because he could see that Jeremy was going to the rim no matter what. And Jeremy's passing has definitely improved from last season.

All well be well if Jeremy Lin's shooting improves. And if his shooting improves to the point where he warrants a double team again, then Houston will be force to be reckoned with.

 

Seriously? JVG can't hold RA's jock strap

 

Where is that DMorey picture.

 

This is a sadly informed pseudo "analysis" from a writer who has watched very few, if any rockets games this year. It doesn't even appear as if he watched many knicks games last season, either.

Lesson: stories 'published' on mainstream news outlets can be just as poorly informed as crap posts on clutchfans.

 

And I remember those 70 something points games. Under RA the defense was beyond solid and the offense was silky smooth. JVG ain't got no nothing on RA when it comes to coaching.

 

I can't believe Lin's second act has so far has consisted of him playing the role of Rafer Alston. #anxiety

 

Patience. I do not believe that the Rocket organization believes that the current squad has a chance of making the playoffs. Nor do they look it to my "eye test". Fan reaction is, as always, predispositioned towards the last game played. And optimism and hope. The reality of how good a team actually is seldom if ever comes to their attention.

 

Not a terrible article with a few points worth some merit BUT I walked away with a sense that Mahoney either: 1) never actually watched a Rockets game this season 2) never played the game or fully understands all aspects of professional basketball 3) is lazy and conducted his research via CF knee-jerk threads. Maybe all of the above. I had to check when this was written cause he could've fooled me and written this during preseason.

A whole paragraph dedicated to his jump-passes? That's how I know he hasn't watched a game...

 

interesting you say that.. care to guess lowry's 3 point shooting percentage his first year with the rockets? 27 percent (after coming over from the trade).. 1st full year? 27 percent.

i personally would have liked dragic over all 3 but come on .. last year lowry avg. 14.3 points and 6.6 assist.
lin is not playing well and is averaging 10 points and 7 assists. That is not that far off.

 

You seem to have an issue with almost every article and the way it is written...

 

I thought the analysis was pretty good as far as pointing out some issues with Lin's game--things that he can work on. But I think the bigger issue is that the Rockets don't have a well-crafted offensive scheme that is set up to take advantage of everyone's skills. There isn't enough off-the-ball motion and instead you have three perimeter players sitting on the 3point line swinging the ball from side to side, which doesn't exactly breakdown the defense. Swinging the ball around the 3 point line works after you've got some penetration--not as a way to initiate the offense. This is messing with Harden's effectiveness too as he's told to create off the dribble after a couple useless swing passes to/from Lin & Chandler after which he throws up a contested 3, which is why Harden's 3pt% is so low too I think.

I'd like to see Lin initiate the half-court offense very quickly to get the initial penetration they need to distort the defense and with enough time on the clock for Harden then to do a second dribble-penetration attack or to have a few passes once the defense starts to scramble. This'll also let Lin get some easier buckets to get his confidence back up so he can become a threat from 3 again.

 

Forgot to add that I think part of Lin's lower turnovers has to do with a less aggressive style of play. I didn't think Lin's turnovers last year at the Knicks were that much of a problem since they also meant he was being aggressive in his drives. This year it's as if he's either too focused on limiting turnovers that he's lost aggressiveness or the coaches are not letting him be aggressive. I'd rather see Lin be allowed to be aggressive instead of low turnovers.

 

Good article. I agree with many of his points. Lin is a productive player not the horrible player that many here make him to be, but he is still far from polished. Hopefully the fine tuning of his weaknesses will happen over time. As the article mentions, he has a penchant of starting his jump a little earlier than he should--usually a little too far away from the basket which gets him trapped amongst the trees.

 

Adding onto this point, the vast majority of his TO's last year were in transition. This year he rarely turns it over in transition so that will explain a drop in his TO's despite him being less than aggressive. Also, he turned the ball over due to poor ball handling. Going on from the last two games we saw a lot more of Lin attacking in the half court & he was pretty protective of the ball. His handles have improved more from last year as well although it could still be a lot better. It will be interesting to see whether his TOs increase as he continues to handle the ball more like he has been over the last two games.

I do agree with you that he does need to be more aggressive. Hopefully what we saw in the PDX game & the LAL game continues. I also agree with your previous post as to how unimaginative the offense is. I think a big part of that is that none of the bigs know how to set a proper screen. That would make things so much easier on the guards if effective screens were happening.

 

Why would any LOGICAL writer uses '25-game is too small of a sample size,' yet went on and wrote long article based on 10 games???