uhh----Allen Iverson In seriousness, I do wish Lin would protect himself more. He is so incredibly focused on the win and being a team player that he sacrifices it all. Even Duncan helped him up on one play (classy move).
Falling isn't the issue it's what you do before the falls. What you said about avoiding falls might actually be one of the more contributing factors to injuries..
I agree injury definitely did play a factor. Even though you are completely healthy there is a mental aspect as well to recovery. Where did I ever bring up the Harden vs Lin debate? You are putting words in my mouth. And nobody is being defensive I am just making observations based off of what I have seen thus far. Bringing up Parsons is irrelevant, both play different positions & are two totally different types of players. There is absolutely nothing wrong with catching & driving but the spacing that the Spurs have is very different than what we have. Yes Parsons drives but there are time where Parson makes some dumb decisions on his drives as well. (not hating on Chandler I love him he is young & will only get better) Also teams aren't defending Parsons the same way they defend Lin. Teams are more worried about the back courts driving ability than they are our front court, the OKC game is a brilliant example of this. And Lin's struggles with his shooting teams would rather he shoot than drive because he more of a threat on the drive than he is from the perimeter. Also if Lin is positioned by the baseline where he was for most of the season it is very hard for him to drive. Why because he is essentially being defended by his man & the baseline (can't step out of bounds). If you look at how he was used in NY he was always at the top of the key for the high PNR or at the left wing driving to his right hand. I have said in previous posts that this entire situation is incredibly complicated & the key is patience. I don't disagree with you at all, things like recovery from injury, acclimating to new teammates, not training camp, McHale's family issues etc. The Rockets essentially get James Harden when season starts, & they have to toss out the entire playbook to try & get him familiar with his teammates. So they focus on him first & put the ball in his hands more so that he can play make & learn his teammates tendencies. After Harden is comfortable then the coaches say that they will start implementing PNR stuff for Lin. But then McHale leaves Sampson becomes the coach & starts doing things his way. Then McHale comes back & starts doing things his way. As this is all happening, Lin is struggling with his shooting, can't figure out his niche in the offense, Harden is learning how to be the number one option. Lin is also dealing with all the attention he is getting by the media & also the mental aspect of being the face of the franchise (we saw this a lot during pre-season & prior to the Harden trade). Another aspect is that Lin in his 80+ games has had 3 different coaches, 3 different teammates, 3 different rosters, 45 starts split between two different teams. This definitely plays a big role in everything as well. And look at Harden, never expected to be a starter this year. Patt new starter, Parsons new starter, Morris also having less experience than Lin, Asik new starter. The list goes on. Expecting consistent play from a roster as inexperienced as the Rockets with that much roster turnover is excessive.. Also, the team doesn't have sufficient practice time during season to implement new stuff at all. Basketball is a very complex sport I don't pretend to know everything about it. There are a multiplicity of things going on with this team right now but they have far exceeded everybody's expectations. Patience is key, it took LBJ & Wade how many months to figure there **** out expecting Lin & harden to be on the same page in 20 starts is madness. And there is a lot more I could elaborate on with video's and numbers etc, would take to long though. Obviously I can't post with this much detail all the time. Once again you are putting words in my mouth. (this seems to be a new trend on this board unfortunately). I never once said you were critiquing Lin or hating on him or whatever. Nor was I talking about him being overly critiqued on this board in comparison to any other rockets player. In fact notice in my original post I never disagreed with you, he does need to be more aggressive. I just chuckled because I never thought I would be sitting here saying to myself Lin needs to be more aggressive. In fact last year he was TOO aggressive & guys said he needed to slow down & play with more control otherwise he wouldn't stay healthy. And I totally agree with your last statement I am not worried about this team or anybody on this team for that matter, I never have been & never will be. Lin & Harden are way to unseflsh & way to smart on the court & have way to much talent to not get it together. And this doesn't even include the stellar contributions of Parsons & Asik. Patience is key right now, all this team needs is time. Just a few thoughts, sorry for the extensive post.
As Torocan said, about 12-6 is a solid and realistic expectation from Lin. 15-10 would be MVP worthy. Remember that this is what Steve Nash averaged in 2004-2005 when he won his first MVP (I think he was closer to 12 assists, though).
we've only had 2 MVPs on the Rockets EVER. Can you name them? We have a candidate in Harden, but he's not going to win as long as Lebron or Durant are still in the league.
As much a Lin supporter as I am, Harden or the coach are not the problem(at least not yet). Very few people mention this, but Lin is slowing getting back from his injury. This is the main reason he didn't shoot or finish well enough to let him initiate the offense most of the time. Now that he's getting back his athleticism, everything will fall into places. Coach and Harden will notice his improvement and adjust to that. The biggest concern I'm having now is injury, or the lack of awareness of that. If I'm the owner, I'd be furious seeing Harden kept playing with rolled ankle against Mavs, or Lin possibly play tonight. Yes, they may be fine doing that, but the long term implication is complicated. And the risk of more injuries is ridiculous with us being the youngest team and aiming to contend years away from now. I still remember yao's last game in playoff, when he went from limping a little bit to can't barely walk off the court. He's determined to stay in action, but it may reaggravated his injury from something minor to the tiny fracture. Had the coach or staff substituted him right away, we maybe still talking about championships.
Derrick Rose deserve it over LBJ? 23 of last 30 MVP winner's team where #1 seed in their conference. Bulls happen to have best record in league when Rose won. This reward has huge bias toward the best player on the winnest team. Harden can win,but very dependent on how Rocket team does.
Hakeem Olajuwon and Moses Malone. Also, this kind of test is useless when it's not in real-time due to a thing called Google.
Most of us probably don't care that much, as it was long ago. But as a 2012er I will answer: Moses Malone was twice MVP as a Rocket and a third time as a Sixer. Hakeem was MVP once as a Rocket. I'm not sure what this has to do with the topic of the thread.
If you had to google Hakeem Olajuwon, then you need to do some serious homework on what Clutch City is and why it is forever and why Knicks fans hate it.
People were talking about MVPs. Saying if Lin averaged 15/10, those were MVP numbers. Olajuwon averaged 27 points 4 blocks 12 rebounds 4 assists 2 stealsshot 53% Those are MVP numbers.
These are the high standards some of the Rockets fans have. It's not a former scoring champion or some dude who had a great streak with another team, it's MVPs with the ability to take teams to the NBA Finals. It's players that you can't force left to stop them. It's players who are warriors who play whole seasons. It's about players that you have no doubt are hall of famers. We have seen MVP. We know MVP.
Daryl Morey @dmorey Lots of ways 2look @start of @jlin7 career. Another1: only 7 plyrs since 90 have 8+ all-around gms of 20pts/5ast/2reb/2stl in 1st 45 starts 10:26 PM - 11 Dec 12 Daryl Morey @dmorey 20pts/5ast/2reb/2stl in 1st 45 starts: @alleniverson, @SteveFranchise3, @CP3, @Iam1Cent, @KingJames, DStoudamire, @JLin7 10:30 PM - 11 Dec 12
Do you know how many PGs have that stats line so far this year? FOUR. Chris Paul LAC 9.0 16.2 Jrue Holiday 8.9 18.0 Deron Williams 8.8 16.9 Russell Westbrook 8.5 21.5
Because the Rockets is a very proud club, and the fans here have seen some of the best players of all time on their team. The standard is very high here!
