Point Guards by definition are ball handlers. Their primary role is to facilitate for others. They do this through directing the offense, making play set decisions on the floor in real time, and by finding and exploiting weaknesses in opposing defenses. The prototypical example of a point guard is Steve Nash or Jason Kidd, players that primarily facilitate and elevate players around themselves. IF you take the ball out of a Point Guard's hands, then what you have left is a Shooting Guard. Outside of Point Guards there are two types of players, players who generate their own shot, and those who don't. Those who can generate their own shot want the ball in their hands more. See Melo, Harden, JR Smith, Lebron James, etc. Those who can NOT generate their own shot require a facilitator, IE, someone to manipulate the opposing defense into creating open shot opportunities, and then getting the ball to them so that they can take a shot. See Steve Novak as the prototypical example. Most players fall somewhere in between needing the ball and not, with some players needing the ball more than others which is directly correlated to their ability to manufacture their own shot. Players who can generate their own shots but can NOT facilitate well are often referred to as "ball stoppers". Melo in Denver and Kobe some games are prototypical examples of this, though to be fair Melo is much less of a ball stopper this year. The rarest of skill sets is those players that can not only generate their own shots, but can facilitate well for others. This is where the Point guard role and other positions start to blur. Players who play hybrid positions like Point Forwards (see Lebron James). These players tend to be highly valued as they elevate not only their own game, but the game of others. So, some players need the ball in their hands to be the most effective. Harden and Lin are examples of this. Parsons to a lesser extent. Toney Douglas to an even lesser extent (essentially a shooting guard with very limited facilitation skills). Aside from this players tend to shoot either as catch and shoot or off the dribble. MOST players shoot better from catch and shoot (assisted). Lin is unusual in that he is superior off the dribble. That may seem strange, but they're just an example of the different skill sets. There is a very different rhythm to shooting off the dribble (manufactured) than shooting from a catch and shoot (assisted). For example, last year Lin shot 47.9% off the dribble, and 33% from catch and shoot.
The job of a PG is to bring the ball up the floor and initiate the offense. Steve Nash and Jason Kidd are not prototypical point guards - they are rare exceptions. Their passing was such a weapon that you could allow them to have the ball after the half-court offense was started because they can put people in a position to score better than the offensive sets the coach would design. That doesn't explain Jeremy Lin's shooting problems. In fact it contradicts it. By the way, Lin is averaging a good amount of assits. The ball is still in his hands. there is a different rhythm, but you can't compare all shots. Because lay-ups are off the dribble and not catch-and shoot. A catch and shoot jump shot is always an easier shot than a jump shot done off the dribble. The only way it's not if you simply don't shoot enough catch and shoot and therefore it feels weird. The guys you mention above who are legit stars all shot off the dribble but they also would rather take a jump shot off of a well placed pass. Try shooting off the dribble as you run down a court. Do it 5 times and see how many you make. I am talking jump shots off the dribble not layups. Then shoot jumpers without the dribbling. Tell me which one is harder.
I guess my perspective of dominating the ball is different than yours. What I view as dominating the ball is having the ball with him at the start of every play initiating the offense and also every single play restarts when it fails. To me it's the same as Nash, he needs to start every play. Hence I call them strategists instead of facilitators. As you say, the unforeseen variables are the same, but it makes quite a difference to wait for opponent/teammates to make a move and react to it as apposed to making the first move and predicting their reactions based on your move. I believe that's when your instinct plays a huge role. When Nash initiates the PnR, you can clearly see he's mostly 1 step ahead of his oppositions. He doesn't need to look at what the D is giving him as if he already predicted the future. But if the play starts with someone elses' hand, the play that was in their mind collapses and they become hesitant. So in my view, Lin and Nash are the type where they've already pictured how everything goes in their head and they need the ball to execute them where as Kidd is the type where he observes the floor and every movement and reacts based on what he observes. I believe both kind of PGs are deadly. It's almost like playing chess, you have the type of players who executes their move very well without letting their opponents make any other moves while you have the other type of players who analyzes very well and waits for the opponent to make a mistake before making the move. That's also my theory on why Kidd and Nash can still play at such an old age. They both play a very big mental game in their perspective roles and is really effective with it. Nash makes sure he's always a step ahead of his opponent's D and Kidd always watching the opponent and capitalizing on every mistake they make.
I disagree with this a lot. Lin doesn't do at all what you say he does & Kidd does the opposite of what you say he does. Kidd in his prime & still to this day is praised because of his ability to see a play happen before it happened. Essentially before the defense was set Kidd would know what they were about to do before they did it. What Lin does is read & react. He reads the defense & takes what it gives him. He doesn't see plays before the defense sets up. That is why last year he had a lot of difficulty in transition because the defense hadn't set up yet & he wasn't able to make a decision. Kidd was amazing in transition they often praised him for having eyes on the back of his head. That is also why Lin is a better half court player also.
They're more rare NOW. Point Guards today are very different than they were in decades past. Now point guards are as likely to be combo guards (which is where Lin falls... a combo guard that is more natural in the PG position). TD is a combo guard, but more shooting guard than point guard. FORMER shooting problems. He's played 21 games in the season, and the last 10 games he's averaging 46.5% FG%, and 36% from 3 point range. The point is it's how he shoots most comfortably. Technically a bank shot in pool is harder than a straight shot, but I've known guys that were amazing bank shooters, but mediocre straight shooters. It's what you work on and what you're practiced at. Technically a bank shot *should* be harder than a straight shot, especially when you're talking games like 3 cushion billiards where very small errors in precision result in complete misses. However, it's what you've ingrained into your mind and body that makes the difference, NOT the actual technical details of the shot itself. Does it mean that Lin can't become a stronger at catch and shoot? Or course not, however shooting skills are best developed over the off season, not IN games where you can't get enough consistent repetitions from set distances and locations. It's why they have Shooting Drills.
Perhaps we are talking about the same thing here. I'm talking in terms of execution and analyzing. I do believe that Kidd (the past 2 years) have been doing really well of what I described. His ability to analyze the opposition and facilitate his teammates to capitalize is why he's still so deadly in the game. And I'm no expert at Lin, I'm just forming theories based on what I've seen him do in Houston. So perhaps you may be right about him. From what I've seen so far, all his great plays comes from execution on plays set in his mind. Like all those no look passes and sharp cut passes.
In response to someone above, my iphone's being unruly.. Lin should definitely be utilized as more of an offensive weapon than he has been. He should not be relegated to a bring-it-up-and-pass-it type PG who sits in the corner, as anyone, even Dougie can fulfill that role, and we did pay him a decent amount of money. You can't give Lin a role player role and complain when he doesn't put up all-star numbers. That is why we are seeing what we're seeing now. The coach is asking Lin to bring it up and "initiate" the offense by passing it Harden, and sit himself in the corner with Parsons as the second option, and himself as a third option or as a spot-up shooter. But that is not his strength, thus far. IMO, a high pick n roll for Lin should be called much more often than is being called now. He has proven to be very effective at it last year, and also as evidenced by his recent SA game. This year, almost all pnr plays the coaching staff has called has been for Harden, and nearly NONE has been called for Lin. This offensive set is too obvious, and should be more diverse including both Harden pnr/isos, Lin pnr/isos, as well as plays called for CBang, Omer, PPat, and Delfino as secondary outlets after our playmakers have made the first move. As for Lin's shooting, some people do shoot better with the ball in their hands rather than as a catch-and-shoot type of shooter and whether or not it's technically easier to catch and shoot is irrelevant. It does seem like he's shooting better, but it's still shaky in my opinion. The way to get him to shoot better is by involving him more in the offense to put him in rhythm as clearly he is a rhythm shooter who feeds off of emotion. Either way, he is most definitely not a spot-up shooter, at least, he won't excel at it. Finally, although the coaching is lacking imo, Lin's failing to live up to his part of the bargain as well. He should know that there are expectations after receiving his contract, unfair or not, that are higher than what he seems to comfortable with. He needs to be more aggressive, look for his shot more, and put up better numbers. I hope that coaching staff will help him get there.
To me, the SA game simply means that Linsanity was not a fluke, that Lin can perform very well as a ball-dominating PG. This in of itself is excellent, because it's a skill that is fairly rare in the NBA, especially from a 24 yr old player. Now, trying to make Lin more productive in the offensive system, that's up to the coaches and players. I don't think the chemistry will happen quickly, but we're not in a hurry. If it takes an entire season to figure out how best to utilize Harden and Lin together, so be it. The team isn't contending this year anyway.
I am going to respond to everyone here as I don't have the time to write to each of you individually. I agree about the PnR needing to be done more for Lin. You have two effective PnR guys in your backcourt - and the PnR is an NBA staple - it should be run near 50% of offensive sets. We are underutilizing it. Further more, there needs to be more play between Harden and Lin. These two should be playing off each other. One guys does a PnR to the other who immediately does a PnR with the other big man. That's going to open up the paint a lot for everyone. Right now our offense seems primitive and that might be because McHale is no Adelman and doesn't know how to use two back court talents simultaneously. These kids are young, getting them to play together takes good coaching and the right offensive sets. That isn't being done. Anyone who says Lin & Harden can't co-exist obviously haven't been Rockets fans for a long time. One only has to go back to the Steve Francis - Cutino Mobley era to see that two guys who love to penetrate and score in the back court...and who passed a lot less than these two - were able to co-exist and thrive at one point being called the best backcourt in the NBA. Rudy T made it work with less of team players. It can be done, and with these two, done well. That said, Lin has to improve his off the ball game. He needs to learn to catch-and-shoot better as it's good for his career if nothing else. When you are a player like Lin, you have to have to be strong in every category since he's not an explosive type player.
With Lin's work ethic, I think all his percieved weaknesses will become strengths. I don't know why people are so quick to judge his ceiling like they are experts or fortune tellers. I'll give this kid this season and next to make my decision about his ceiling. As for the coaches...they need to GTFO. Nice guys...but they have a very limited and stuborn mindset about the direction of the team. If they can't figure how to maximize the skill sets of the players they have, they deserve to be fired. Also, I think the players need to realize this, and just set their own plays up. They need to figure out how to do this because it's obvious the coaches have no clue how to do this.
The Russell Westbrooks of the world. T-mac in his prime. guys who can just jump so high that give them an inch and they are hanging from the basket. That's not Jeremy Lin's game.
Lin is a special player and he proved that in NY and he proved that the first tije Harden was out 2 games ago. However finding that role on this team and getting that out of him night after night is the challenge. I beleive they will find that and when they do, if you can get a quality big this team will be very tough to beat. Its going to take some time.
[As for the coaches...they need to GTFO. Nice guys...but they have a very limited and stuborn mindset about the direction of the team. If they can't figure how to maximize the skill sets of the players they have, they deserve to be fired. Lmao at your quote. I hope they find a way to utilise these 2 guys correctly.
I am pretty convinced the coaches have no clue... They probably spend 2 hours a day in mchale's office strategizing... Only to throw their hands up in the air in the end and say, "alright never mind lets just hand the ball off to Harden".
Yeah. I stopped worrying after the Toronto and Utah games, but now after San Antonio, I'm certain that Lin has it in him to be at least an above-average PG (top 15) in the league. If Lin became a consensus top 15 PG in a PG's league, he'd have himself a remarkable career.
I agree with this but I think Harden himself needs to diversify there offensive moves. Lin too. Harden should learn how to cut & could probably add a post game. Lin should learn how to cut as well, improve his catch & shoot game & could probably learn how to post up smaller guards like Andre Miller. Lin also needs to be more consistent. Lin isn't perfect in any aspect of the game whatsoever, obviously so because he is really young. Right now they are both the same player as in there bread & butter is the PNR & isolation. If they both expanded there offensive game they would likely be able to play off of each other more. But this is something that will take at least a year to accomplish. Would definitely need an off season to learn these skills then another full season to implement them in games.
