Haha, you guys certainly do your research lol. Have to say I'm shocked because I've yet to see him actually doing this in-game. Must explain why he's a solid rebounder. Wasn't an insult by the way considering even the Franchise couldn't palm a basketball.
Are you saying that Lin's ability to palm the ball is a major reason why he is a good rebounder? Um, what you do actually need large hands for is to properly facepalm yourself right now. Lowry does not have large hands even relative to his size, and he is a good rebounder, especially for a short guard.
I'm starting to wonder if Lin is exerting too much energy on defense and that is affecting his shot. Maybe he is too fatigued and doesn't have any legs to get off a good shot?
that's probably very true...speaking from personal experience though, when going up against faster and smaller PGs especially, it tended to exert a lot of energy and wore me out. my legs felt like lead towards the end of the game and it took a lot for me to even jump.
But I also think it's his bad shooting form. He's going back to his old shooting style when pressured and tired, instead of sticking to what he's been taught. His shots tend to be short a lot because of his shooting form and tiredness.
Who's comparing? If someone makes a statement as factual, I want to know if it's factual or not. And if it's not, then it's a disservice to the basketball community to leave it out there. If he'd said Nash's hands were larger than normal and that's why he has great handles, I'd want to know if it was true and if it correlates to other PG's with great handles. If it isn't and it doesn't, then I can not only discount it as primary contributing factor to his handles (when compared to other PG's), but I can also vet the quality of information coming from that person. Consider me a proponent of discussions that can be substantiated through more than hunches and subjective observation. :grin:
That data is currently out of date. As of today Lin is actually the 5th best isolation defender (0.59 PPP allowed), and 80th overall defender (0.77 PPP allowed). As for the meaning of that statistic, it's highly limited in value as the sample size is still quite small (15 games). It does however point to some potentially favorable trends in Lin's defensive play this year vs last year. Though still early in terms of data, I feel somewhat confident at this point that Lin is a better defender This year than Last year, with his greatest strides being in terms of his footwork and body positioning. I wouldn't be too shocked if he stayed in the top 100 (was #128 last year), but it would be remarkable in terms of player development if he ended up in the top 80. There are alot of very good defenders out there with significant defensive advantages over Lin in terms of height and length, so defensively we should be quite happy with any improvement over last year.
And it keeps happening over and over. Same old story. They always take him for granted. Even if the stats are already in their faces, somehow, there's a tendency for people not to believe. Of course, Lin's fans have to defend him and remind people of what Jeremy is capable of.....then, LOH or non believers get mad and call us names....only because they have a hard time accepting what's in front of them. As long as he stays healthy, the stats will keep coming. And, as long as Sampson will give his full confidence in Lin.... it will be a different story.
Well Lin was playing with the DPOY last year. I think it would be just swell if Asik somehow ended up getting DPOY this year. Defense is a team game but I think we've seen enough so far to at the very least shatter the myth that Lin is a liability on defense. You're hardly seeing anyone make that claim anymore. (Except coach Sampson not so long ago, when he said TD was a better defender. I wonder if he still feels the same way?)
Even those who go by the "eyeball test" in terms of player evaluation would have a hard time denying the fact that JLIn did a great job defensively on Westbrook and Lowry the past 2 games.
