[ClutchFans] Jeremy Lin after playing just 18 minutes vs. Mavericks

What you're saying makes sense and is probably what happened. It's not the best team ball strategy but it's a quick fix when you're down a lot. Just give Harden the ball and stay out of his way. It works when Harden is hot. In the long run it's not good for player's development.

It's a balance between trying to win games and trying to rebuild.

 

I'm with you 100%. I've read that Lin is a perfectionist. There ain't no perfection in basketball, even in coaching. Ok, that was sarcastic, sorry. The problem is that there have been indications that Lin gets yanked at the slightest misstep. I remember once played on instinct and drove, created the double team, then fed Harden for a clean 3-pointer at a key juncture in the game, and he immediately got yanked and hard Sampson yelling at him, ostensibly for failing to follow the play.

 

Good for you! Too often someone gets branded as LOF if they say anything remotely praising him.

 

THIS. And when he's not hot, you get creamed, like in the 4th quarter. Dallas wasn't even playing particularly well in the 4th quarter.

 

But nobody saw Linsanity coming, that was the problem. I don't think anybody knew Lin had that in him, even his fans (not the crazy ones).

Let's be honest here, Lin was going to be cut from the Knicks but a few "blessing in disguise" injuries forced D'Antoni to play Lin.

Linsanity would never have happened if he was in Houston, because we had Lowry and Dragic who are both far better than Lin (at least at the moment they clearly are).

We also had another problem, we didn't have any available big men. In fact, Jordan Hill and Scola were the only available big men. Patterson was injured, and Hayes was gone.

Should a responsible GM sign a 4th PG, playing in a position where we were probably strongest in amongst the league? Or should a GM address our thin frontcourt with only one reliable big man in Scola?

You could chalk this up as a Morey failure, but this is with some serious hindsight.

 

Yeah and you tend to cool off when you've played 45 minutes on a sprained ankle. Parsons also played 42 minutes with a bad shoulder. Coaches should know better. With coaching decisions like this ALL their decisions become suspect. I don't care what anyone says but pulling a player who is playing well and not tired or hurt is a bad decision.

 

But we are NOT San Antonio. They've got Duncan who has both an excellent low-post game AND is an even better PnR big. That's not to mention he has a decent mid-range jumper too and has even hit a couple 3-pointers this season. As much as I adore Asik, Duncan is leaps-and-bounds better than Asik on the offensive end.

Every team's personnel is different and you play to your players' strength. When a team's trying to dig itself out of an early 11-point hole, you go to your most proven scorer.

While bball is a team sport, many teams are built around 1 or 2 offensive weapon. Mav's Dirk, Heat's LBJ/Wade, Knicks' Melo, Laker's Kobe, etc. etc. Until Lin has a respectable offensive game, that person right now is Harden for the Rockets.

 

Again, I agree with you. But then I was someone who told everyone when Lin got cut that we had just cut the next Gary Payton/Maurice Cheeks/Joe Dumars, a great defender who had potential on offense. Of course I got laughed at. I watched Lin in person and immediately told people he reminded me of Kidd in terms of raw ability, but that I did not know if he would get the opportunities and reps at PG to develop. I'm sure Morey told Les when Les was screaming at him the exact same thing you just said, which is why Morey still has his job.

 

So they couldn't have told Lin to penetrate (which he can do at will) and kick out to Harden? Or run some plays for Harden? You have to pull out the only person who's playing well at the time? Besides Lin had already hit a 3, drove to the basket, penetrated at leat 3 times to get open shots for Asik and others. So he couldn't do that for Harden?

 

Rockets offense should be about ball movement and screens. Harden can't force people to move without the ball. He can't force people to hit open shots. Harden can't force people to be better players.

San Antonio has three guys that can stress a defense. The Rockets have Harden and Lin, however they stress a defense in the same exact way and only Harden is a decent off the ball threat of the two. However, Harden is the better threat with ball making it undesirable to have Lin start offense. When the Rockets have better talent and have time for offense to flow, I expect it will be more than the Harden show.

SA has a decade of their three best guys together. The Rockets don't even have a three best guys and don't even have three guys that have played 20 games together.

Right now, the Rockets are trying to use Harden to stress the defense to create 4 on 3 matchups. The Rockets are surprising doing well at getting these matchups, but the 4 players are not beating the 3 players at a high enough rate. The Rockets are getting plenty of uncontested or very weakly contested 3's, but are only middle of the pack in percentage. The Rockets just are not making a high enough percentage of 3's to open up the rim area for penetration. The Rockets don't have players skilled enough at moving without ball and finishing at rim to be able to survive without good spacing.

Also, the Rockets just aren't strong enough at offensive rebounding to be a team that doesn't destroy people form three point line. Basically for what the Rockets want to do as a team, they only have 3 players doing what they want...Harden, Asik, and Parsons. Harden and Asik pose a PnR threat on the strong side. Parsons has been cutting and hitting threes. Lin and Patterson just aren't scoring at rim and are inconsistent from three point range.

Before Harden, I was expecting the Rockets to try to turn D-Mo into a low post player. Right now, I am hoping Jones and D-Mo are working hard at gaining NBA range. Both of them fit the Rockets desire to run an up tempo pace to get early offense before defense is set.

 

We're not San Antonio for sure but we can try to emulate their style of play. After all their bench almost beat Miami without 4 starters including Parker and Duncan. It's the style of play and it can be worked on.

 

Nice perspective. I think you know your bball. It's frustrating to see Lin run and make the right plays and have Harden hit the shots he is supposed to hit, but just not get the support (other than Asik's rebounding and Parsons when he was hot and healthy). I really think the only other good potential contributor right now at a playoff level is Greg Smith, who can catch, finish, rebound, and play D. Arguably Delfino's shooting when he is open as well. I do have hope for Parsons. My starting five is Lin, Harden, Parsons, Smith, and Asik, each with areas of their game to improve. Just let them all play 35 minutes a game together, make their mistakes, grow, don't overplay and injure them (or make them develop bad habits, like Harden being lazy and resting on D due to necessity because of the heavy minutes and offensive burden of having to ballhandle).

 

Maybe...just maybe folks who don't consider all possibilities are just naive? Like it or not, the Rockets front office don't tell us fans everything they're thinking of. Heck, they don't even tell the players.

 

Again, you play to your players' strength. If it wasn't Harden on the floor but say Steven Novak, I'm 100% sure they'd have kept Lin in the game - drive & kick out to Novak for his infamous discount-triple-check trey's.

I think you're hung up on the fact that Lin gets "punished" for playing well. No that's not the case. They were merely trying to create an optimal offense scenario for Harden (which unfortunately came at the price of sacrificing Lin's PT since Harden is most effective with the ball in his hand).

Call me crazy but I don't want to see Lin attacking the rim much till he gets his shots back. Right now opposing teams are packing the paint because they don't respect his shots (hence the many open looks he got at the 3-pt line). If he attacks a packed paint, he takes unnecessary contact. And no, he can't attack the rim at will if it's packed, esp. without a reliable roll man. Notice how he wasn't able to finish at the rim as well as he did last season?

Patience, my fellow fan. Lin will get better and he+Harden will continue to work on their offensive game.

 

Great take. We also need to keep in mind that the Rockets aren't really having problems scoring as much as they are having problems defending. This is something McHale has repeatedly stated. The team defense is too weak.

 

No offense, I think Lin can be a very good player, but those guys you mentioned are on a completely different level. Those guys are HOFs.

 

You do realize that this theory that they are pulling Lin so Harden can score more is not what the coaches have said in the post game interviews. They have been consistenty said that it is because of defense. Besides if they want Harden to have the ball more they just have him play point and put Lin in the corner. They've done that plenty.

 

I agree it's not good for Lin's development but it was good for other players who did get an opportunity to play like Harden. Sorry to say but Houston is going to prioritize Harden's development over Lin if they had to pick one.

 

They are definitely on a completely different level as it now stands. What I said was that I saw the potential. It was based on someone who has played less than a full season in the NBA and only a fraction of even that as a starting PG. What I saw was the physical tools, the work ethic, the intelligence/awareness, and the unselfish team play to put teammates above himself. What I was hoping to follow would be the opportunity and the freedom from injury.

 

Come on, they are not going to leave Harden open out of all the players on the floor.