I give Jeremy a strong edge in ball handling but I think they are about even as far as seeing the court and passing. That between the legs pass to Smith last night was golden.
"I think quality of assists stats show as much." <— if you're looking for this, I posted the #'s back in the "Rockets don't like in-between shots" thread. Asik's been trying more full-court passes though, as well as other teammates, which I like, because it makes the break faster... however they tend to be not as accurate or fast as Lin's full-court passes, so the slight moment of 'juggling' the ball takes up most of the time saved by simply passing to Lin for Lin to throw the full-court. But that might also be part of the thing where Morey's mentioning that they want to take advantage of Lin's speed more; possible to run the break, instead of throw the pass. If nothing else, even the raw numbers show that Lin has been passing a lot, facilitating a lot, even when Harden gets far more touches earlier in the season. That Lin frequently had equal or higher assist #'s even when on the floor less and spending much of that time camping out in the corner.
More like 25 games Lin... I like how this team looks. We need one more piece. We are so freaking close...
He doesn't turn it over very true. But at the same time he is just pushing the pace hasn't really made a decision in his mind yet. I would feel more comfortable with the ball in the hands of Harden Lin or Parsons guys who more often than not make smart quick decision. But that is just me.
Nothing Toney Douglas does surprises me. I've been following him since his college days at Florida State. To be surprised by Toney is to not know Toney. He led the ACC (best conference in the nation) in scoring (21.5 PPG). He led the ACC in scoring in conference games (23.1 PPG). He was the ACC leading scorer in the NCAA Tournament (26.7 PPG). He was the ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2009 (best conference in the nation includes North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Maryland, Georgia Tech, etc). His first two seasons with the Knicks he showed that he could be a capable scorer shooting over 50% in games when he scored 20+ points (17 times) including a career high of 30 points against Derrick Rose and the Bulls and a game of 9 three-pointers against Memphis. Basically, he needs minutes and a system that's right for him. During his second season with the Knicks he played with a severely torn labrum in his right (shooting) shoulder... and during his third season he still had not recovered from the injury which required major shoulder surgery in the summer of 2011. Now a year and a half later, he finally looks somewhat closer to being the Toney Douglas that came out of Florida State.
That could be bad. We have enough disparate clans on this site already. Maybe they will behave.:grin:
Toney Douglas apparently played injured last year, which might've accounted for a lot of his troubles. This year he looks like his rookie year, which is scoring point with good man-to-man defense. He's not scoring as much of course due to existence of Harden. But his skills seemed to have returned. And since this team has exceeded expectations, dare we say, kudos to McHale and the entire Rockets coaching staff?
Harden, Lin and Tony lineup i actually like a lot. Especially for closing out games....if tony has a hot hand like hes shown in the past games on top of Harden and Lin drawing attention, it could be a decent lineup. Imagine the plays the coaching staff could draw up for closing out games.
Hear hear. I think there's been far too much criticism of the coaching staff. By the only metric that really matters - wins and losses, we're ahead of schedule, and not by barely squeaking by in games we should have lost, we've won the last two games in convincing fashion. Lin has underperfomed during the beginning of the season, but I think since the first NY game he has at least met expectations. People complaining that he should have had a bigger role at the beginning of the season are off base - his knee was bothering him, his shot was off, and he was no where capable of that 38 point game against the Spurs at the beginning of the season. Now that he's "back" the fun should start and the coaches are adjusting their plays accordingly. The other complaint I heard was that our plays are too simplistic and too reliant on ISO - and they blame the coaches. I feel that that is a combination of Harden being thrown in our laps right before the season (causing a playbook rewrite) and our young players still learning how to execute some basic plays. Just these last few games I'm seeing more cuts and back screens, more off ball motion, and more creative plays like 1-2 picks. I don't think we'll know what the coaches want with this team until the All-Star break. And we may be pleasantly surprised.
I keep hearing this, but he has still had way too many stinkers for my expectations. I think the Rockets have a potential all star in Lin. He just needs to learn how to be the secondary option. An important key to being the secondary option is being able to knock down open shots when primary option gets you open.
