I was thinking the same thing. Last year he got criticized for not playing defense... in his zeal to rectify that this year, he may well be spending too much energy to compensate for a lack of innate defensive talent (he's a good defender now because of concerted effort/energy). More reason why his shot is then always short in games.
Will this do? Overall PPP allowed rankings - current as of 1:30pm, Dec 1/2012 Jeremy Lin - 80 Mike Conley - 19 Kyrie Irving - 34 Russell Westbrook - 46 Kemba Walker - 46 Monta Ellis - 64 Jrue Holiday - 80 Deron Williams - 80 Darren Collison - 80 Rajon Rondo - 89 Brandon Knight - 101 Kyle Lowry - 107 AJ Price - 109 Darius Morris - 110 Raymond Felton - 115 Maurice Williams - 149 Ty Lawson - 157 Goran Dragic - 174 Mario Chalmers - 183 Greivis Vasquez - 183 Brandon Jennings - 194 Jason Kidd - 194 Tony Parker - 206 Damian Lillard - 206 Andre Miller - 206 Chris Paul - 232 Jeff Teague - 237 Luke Ridnour - 237 George Hill - 257 Tyreke Evans - 265 Rodney Stuckey - 290 If you wish to extract a more comprehensive list across guards or individual PG's, feel free to tap Synergy Sports... Keep in mind, the sample size is still small as we're only 15 games into the season. And Team Defense does influence these numbers (being on a better defensive team helps). Still, Jeremy Lin's defense isn't looking half bad at all... :grin:
Defensive effort won't make it to the box score or the ESPN highlight reel (unless you're Ibaka with 7 blocks a night). So in a sense, if Lin is devoting too much energy on defense at the expense of his offensive game, that right there explains a great deal of his "struggles" in the eyes of the public this year, particularly those who don't watch all (or any) of the games. The only bad game I've seen him have defensively was against Nate Robinson/Chicago. If he wasn't so conscientious/diligent in wanting to become a better all-around player, (that includes defending/rebounding/facilitating) and just focused on offense only, maybe just maybe he wouldn't be getting the hate that he's had to so far this year.
Quote from BR http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-down-linsanitys-performance-through-15-games So be patient people. and a comment from E. Reiss...
It means in terms of actual defensive results (points scored against the Rockets per opponent offensive possession) off any play involving Lin (help, isolation defense, defense of spot up shooters) Lin is currently ranked #80 in the entire NBA, and is borderline just outside of the top 5 among that list of Point Guards (starters). Part of this is team defense (funneling a defender works better if there's a competent defense to funnel to like Asik), part of this is his own personal defensive play in terms of contesting shots, steals, blocks, bodying up his man, making the other player uncomfortable, threatening passing lanes and cutting off drives and driving lanes. Overall, it jives with other defensive data (like steals and blocks per game) that points to the conclusion that Lin is an above average to very good defender for his position (point guards) and above average to good defender relative to the entire NBA as a whole. Keep in mind that the PG position is different than other positions in terms of the difficulty of match ups (he won't be defending Dwight Howard or Dirk Nowitzki very often), just as starters deal with more difficult defensive match ups than 2nd unit defenders.
Yes, 15 games is still a small sample size. Enough to point to the trend being indicative, but not a very high level of certainty. As we approach 40 or more games, it becomes more reliable barring no significant changes. And once you pass a full season without significant change (injury, roster or coaching changes), the sample size becomes fairly reliable in terms of determining a trend of play within that particular system as the difficulty of opponents flattens out (mix of difficult and easy opponents), with that particular line up. As for Lin, his #128 ranking last year over 35 games (25 as a starter) in spite of going through 3 coaches, combined with this season's #80 over 15 games tends to point towards Lin being an above average to good defender, with a theoretical potential upside to become a very good with possible elite defensive play for his position. It will of course take a lot more time to truly determine Lin's upside potential in terms of defense, just as it will with his offense and facilitation as he is still very young in his development in terms of actual game time minutes and chronological age. As the coaches and Morey continue to point out, Lin is an unfinished product. And the odds are we won't see the final results until somewhere between 2 to 3 seasons from now assuming he continues to play starter minutes.
A lot of context needs to be applied though with these numbers is my point though. Kyrie Irving is ranked 34th for example when his defense is on Dame Lillards level or worse. I am pretty sure the coach of the Cavs has Kyrie guard the opponents worst wing Kyrie is just lackadaisical on defense & the way he goes about it is bad. Context is key when observing these numbers is all.
Lin is a high steals guy, he rebounds well for his position, and he has good size. So that in itself is a good indication that he's helping on defense. I think the issues people have brought up about his man defense is a little overstated. But I'll defer to his coach's opinion ultimately on that, and Sampson apparently feels that Lin struggles with the quicker PGs (at least compared to Douglas).
*face meets palm* But seriously our defense has gotten worse under Sampson. Our Drtg right now is really bad kind of frustrating to see.
Thanks for your always insightful response, but I was talking about Irving's head scratching rank of 34 (must have missed my bolding).
