I travel to China and Taiwan quite often for work (being in the hi tech industry). I made many friends while there and you'd be surprise the amount of people that actually follow the NBA. In many of the hotels I've stayed in they have consistently played the Rockets on their screens while I've had brunch. Being successful in Asia typically requires more of a personal relationship, in other words its common to discuss family and sports before opening up to discuss business. I found that discussing the NBA has been a common interest and because many of the people I deal with follow the Rockets closely its easy to make new friends. Even the platforms and chips we have developed with have been codenamed after NBA teams. You could say the NBA has helped with global networking. Because of tight deadlines I've had to work around the weekends and part of that requires having overseas concalls and chats. In my chats today I wasn't surprised to hear the disappointment from those fans. They also questioned why Lin was benched and if it would continue. They were upset and didn't want to watch the Rockets anymore. Now you must realize that most of those fans in Asia aren't connected to an NBA city like most of us are, they are generally fans of the game rather than of a particular team. But the Rockets have been in someways the team they've tied themselves most to because of Yao. When Yao left the NBA they quickly looked to other teams to follow. I remember when Yao's pictures and jerseys where everywhere a few years ago and then it just became a mix of stars (Lebron, Kobe, etc.) and teams they would follow. Then the hotels started to show other teams. It really split those fans apart. With Lin now with the Rockets I'm seeing them return to following the Rockets. The broadcast stations are picking up the Rocket games once more. In many ways reuniting nearly a country of fans at least to follow the same team. Now I know most of us Rocket fans could care less of those fans in Asia but I would have to believe the Rockets business management team must be thinking about this impact. Lets face it, theres alot of money to be made from bandwagon fans. If it were my money, it has made a lot of business sense to bring Lin to the team financially. At the very least it made the team relavent again in the Asian market which to me is already worth the 25mil. That partly could be called a marketing expense. If the rockets keep benching Lin I wonder if the Rockets could take the risk of loosing those fans as they have after today's game. I would have to imagine unlike the Lowry situation the coaching staff would have to be questioned at least from a financial standpoint. As a business, Lin is productive and is generating revenue while the coaches could be viewed as a cost center if the Rockets continue to loose games. Every game that the coaches bench Lin that's lost fans and revenue that they will need to try to win back. I don't know if these fans were planned into their forecast but it should definitely have an impact to their revenue. Even the lost of new fans should be taken into account as equally as the existing base. If it were your money, what would you do? Assuming you're looking to make more one of these has to be your goal: - Play Lin, possible bring in a significant amount of incremental revenue - Bench Lin, hope that you'll be able to get more wins that will translate into more revenue than playing Lin (by giving the majority of mins to Douglas) - Trade Lin, give up the Asian market by hoping to get a player with just as much of a financial impact
to anyone watching Linsanity last year... it was about his ability to split or beat the double teams... this year he is standing at the 3 point line waiting to chuck up a brick... whats fun to watch about that...
So we are suposed to leave him out there even when he is sucking because some chinese business men will get ticked off??. Tough titty. Yao was a monster, best center in basketbal, gobal icon, great human being, had pretty reasonable fans besides pyruen who was a nut job. Yao could stay on the floor if he was sucking because he had the ability to change the game in a variety of ways.
I agree, just play the best lineup. My question is whether those in Asia think Lin is better or significantly better than TD, which would be more a strategy issue.
Lin in his bst day is light years better then Douglas, but we havent seen that Lin yet. He was good in the Utah and Toronto game and he was given significant minutes.
Douglas... is better suited for the type of PG play... they want here on the ROX better shooter... until he screwed up his shoulder at least
I don't think the impact is as big as you're making it out to be. I watched the Lakers game on Chinese CCTV5(Chinese equivalent of ESPN), because the proxy server I normally use to watch English streams was having trouble. They had a poll asking who the viewers were rooting for, and 2/3 said the Lakers. The announcers commented that was because of Kobe, and that Yao's impact on the Rockets fandom in China has long faded. So on a national level, I don't think the impact is that much. But there is certainly a following. The key isn't to just play Lin and have him struggle. The key is to have team success in tandem with Lin's individual success. If both the Rockets and Lin play well, there will be a huge bandwagon of Chinese following. Bandwagoners require success. Until the Rockets find that, IMO no amount of playing Lin will change their minds.
Who cares? We're trying to win basketball games and playing Lin more than 20 minutes won't help you. Neither will playing Douglas BTW.
Most Chinese fans are casual fan that root for the best big market teams. Maybe its true that some of the former yao fans still follow the rox, but most are just casuals that support Lakers or the Heat. I don't think Lon will have that big of an impact unless he goes full on linsanity again.
Alexander: "God dammit! WTF is going on!? I ain't paying these players especially Lin to ride the pine! You know how much potential revenue I could be losing!? Morey: "Uh...it's a coaching decision. I can't really interfere with that sir. Harden is our main man now." Alexander: "Are you friggin kidding me!? You'd better do something about that ASAP! It's not like Lin is playing horribly! Play him now!!! Morey: "I'll see what I can do sir."
This is just plain ignorance. McHale & Sampson aren't the ones stopping Lin. Lin is trying to drive to the basket but he's not successful because of the other team. Opposing coaches and players know he can't hit a jumper which allows his man to cheat off him and make all these hedging ball screens easier to execute. The game plan for Lin is for him to pick up his dribble and run to the corner? Riiight. "Hedgehog" should be Jeremy Lin's new nickname. 'Cause he's hogging all the hedging balls screens from defenses on this team. Lin simply needs to hit a few shots early in games so his man has to come out to guard him. When this happens, and they try to hedge, a Rocket will be left open... That's Linsanity. It's all dependant on Jeremy hitting those outside shots to draw his single cover out. Still, that's only the offense side of his problems.
/\ Slip of the tongue there. I meant hedging. There's no need for a Rocket to set a ball screen because he's got no outside shot. As I've posted the defenses don't respect him from out there anyway.
No, he didn't make enough shots because it didn't alter how the defense played him. Most teams seem to be defending him the same way now. Having an outside shot is a must for him now.
I agree. Until the opposing teams start respecting Lin's perimeter shots, they are not gonna come out to defend him (and will thus clog the paint, making it hard for both Lin/Harden to attack the rim). Mav played zone defense during 3Q when Lin played, and the Spurs mostly ignored Lin while he was on the perimeter. Despite Lin's struggle, I still think he's is a better PG than Douglas. No disrespect to Douglas, but he's getting more PT because he complements Harden better on the offense than Lin currently does, i.e. spaces the floor and leaves the ball in Harden's hands. Douglas' subpar playmaking is also a non-issue since Harden's handling the PG duty. Until Lin becomes an offensive threat again, Douglas will see playing time alongside Harden. So yes, having an outside shot is a must for Lin.
With all due respect, there's no such thing as the "business impact" of benching Lin (unless he's putting up Linsanity-ish numbers & still gets benched unfairly). Asian fans do root for Lin, but they understand the game too and can see that Lin's struggling. If you need further proof, just look at former Mavs player Yi Jianlian. Despite being Chinese (versus Lin, who's an American-born Chinese), he got very few endorsement deals and was never voted into All-Star games by the Chinese fans. And there was never any repercussion from the Chinese fans for the benching of Yi.
He has a superb ability to penetrate, we've seen that already. Lin can't drive to the basket because he's not getting screens like he used to in NY. It's that simple. Even CP3 said that getting screens is HUGE.
There's no need to set screens for Lin because defenses are leaving him alone at the perimeter. His man stands at the free throw line or just outside the paint where they hedge to stop any attempted drives.
