what's wrong with D'Antoni? it seems the popular thing to do nowadays is to put him down. but in fact, his system is a thing of beauty IF everybody buys into it. but just one player can drag the whole system down into a complete halt.
Here's evidence: When Lin was allowed to play point guard, he kicked ass. When he was told to play a shooting guard's role he sucked. As Mchale and Sampson made that decision, I blame them for Lin's poor start in part. In fact if Lin learned to hit the open 3 better, We might have seen a completely different Lin than the aggressive Lin we see today. Basically the coaches tried to put a square peg into a round hole. And it didn't work. It took the San Antonio game To make them realize that Lin was actually a square peg not a round one.
I think minutes isn't the strongest argument to use. If Lin is playing 30 minutes but standing there doing only the one thing he is terrible at, is that smart? By saying a player needs to be put in a position to be successful I mean actual offensive things for example. Lin ran the PNR 50% of the time in NY. In Houston he ran it 30% exactly the same as Harden. Increasing Lin's numbers % time on the PNR would be one example of putting him in a position to be successful. The Rockets have been doing that a lot more over the last several games I have been monitoring the numbers. Second, Lin isn't a spot up shooter, asking him to play off the ball is a bad idea. So maybe letting Lin dominate the ball more & facilitate would be a way of putting him in a position to be successful. Third, Lin is better off the dribble than in catch & shoot situations. Giving him more options to shoot like that is another way to make him more comfortable. Setting screens for him so that he can get past his man is another way. Also yes the system is free flowing but at the same time you can still cater to a persons skill set by letting him run the PNR more right. After all the Rockets found ways to cater to Hardens skill sets within the free flowing offense. McHale specifically instituted some OKC plays for Harden immediately when he got here. It would be awesome if McHale could put in a few things from Mike Dantoni's playbook as well. The fact of the matter is that it wasn't only LOF saying this, other people outside of the Rocket fan bases said the same that he hasn't been used as ideally as he could have. For example, I had the MSG feed for the Knicks game & the commentators specifically said that they were running more plays for him than he had seen in prior games & this was after Lin's poor Toronto game. Calvin Murphy also said that Lin has now been playing his natural position PG with the ball in his hands & is comfortable & harden is at the SG spot. Do I think that the coaches have it out for Lin no that is absurd. But Sampsons democratic ball comment did turn me off on him. Sampsons comments about Lins lack of defense & then his totally lack of accountability on Harden's poor defense as well was silly. Do I think McHale is probably a lot more higher on Lin than Sampson is, yes. What I do think is that it was a combination of factors. Coaches still figuring it out, integrating Harden, Lin learning how to pick his spots, Lin getting healthy, Lin playing well against the Spurs in a statement game & coaches specifically running sets for him & Lin delivering. The fact of the matter is that the situation appears to have changed & I think we can all agree for the better. Lin has been playing well & has been delivering when given extra responsibility. This is a chicken vs egg argument we will never agree nothing wrong with that. Now the question is, if Lin starts to struggle for a few games do the coaches let him play through it. I personally think so.
Maybe Lin was the one deferring the ball to Harden, now that he tells Harden to go away when he asks for it at half court, he's doing well. Lin fans likes to put the blame everyone else.
Once again the gross generalization is really annoying. A few "Lin Fans" said that it was likely a multiplicity of factors. And Calvin Murphy also said that letting Lin him be the PG & run the offense with the ball in his hands has made him more comfortable & calling plays for him has helped. So yes then Murphy is a Lin fan. Even some long time posters on this board (prior to Lin showing up) said the same thing & yet people don't attack them with the Lin fan nonsense. Honestly, this argument is tedious. Things have changed & that is all that matters. Whether it was Lin or the coaches who cares. I don't think it is one or the other I think the truth is somewhere in between. Fans deal with extremes way to much it is laughable. It is funny, when the Rockets won but Lin played poorly people were screaming at Lin fans for not appreciating the win over there favourite player. Now the Rockets are winning & Lin plays well & the other side is doing the opposite & focusing on why Lin never did it before. It doesn't seem to end on this board.
Without being involved in their team game plans, we will never know who was to blame... However, if it was the coaches, then I am kind of worried about their response time. Hopefully with more experience under the belt and more understanding of their players, they will be able to react a lot faster when it comes playoffs.
The facts are that Lin didn't look great in preseason, we don't know what the coaches saw in preseason or practice. Early in the season Jeremy simply couldn't blow by anybody his speed wasn't there. The spurs game was a statement game from Jeremy. Credit McHale for calling Jeremy's number in the Knicks game and you could see from the smile from Jeremy's face what it meant. The Rockets have a tough schedule ahead, with a confident Jeremy in his Linsanity mindset...... this will be interesting to watch.
Its not ending because you aren't letting it end. If Lin were any other player in the league, lets say Goran Dragic for example, who had a similar hot streak last year but doesn't come to Clutchfans with a flock of groupies, this thread would be about 10% of the size. Everything is not about Jeremy Lin, how the coaches are holding him back, how Rocket fans are racist, how he should be primary ball handler, and so on and so forth.
Sure, his offense is a thing of beauty if everyone buys into it...but everyone has to buy into it. I don't know, but watching Pau Gasol spot up at the 3pt line is him buying into it and it still hurts everytime I see it.
It's not even a generalization, literally every Lin fan on this site has said something bad about the coaching staff because supposedly they don't let Lin play PG even though nobody actually knows what the coach's instructions are to the players. I just have hard time believing the coaches would tell Lin to play passive and always let Harden handle the ball 24/7. It's way more likely that Lin just didn't have the confidence in the beginning of the season and was deferring to Harden out of his own will.
Oh and my evidence is all the stats imaginable since they started to set picks for him though it should have been evident from last year. They just thought since Harden was a better pnr player in their mind, they'd just give it to him all the time and have Lin spot up for 3 like Novak. And when he didnt do that well, They thought he sucked. That he lacked confidence. If they made Howard shoot only free throws all day, and not allow to post up and judge him solely for his ability to shoot free throws (or spot up 3s in Lins case) and dont praise him for his defense blocked shots steals hustle and what not, his confidence would have been destroyed as well. Let the pnr pg play pnr baskrtball
It's the sam crap that happened to Gasol. He is not a spot up shooter...he is a post player. Now, that they have him more or less doing what he does best, the Lakers are starting to win again. Lin will no doubt be an efficient three point shooter one day given his work ethic, but it's not something you can develop so quickly.
What did Sampson sat about Lin's and Harden's defense? I saw just last game that Sampson was raising his hands in disgust at Lin's missed cover on Conley. In fact, I see Sampdon getting upset at Lin all the time
I didn't even start this conversation I just responded to durvasa's initial post because I really liked the premise. And you are 100% right if it wasn't Lin this thread would be smaller. Some of his groupies are annoying I am sure I am very annoying. But at the same time let us not pretend that there aren't people who specifically joined this thread just to troll everyone & that there aren't veteran rocket fans who were overly critical of Lin from the get go. Everything is the LOF's but the other side is just as bad. Who cares who you are a fan of, as long as you post constructively. Did I say that I didn't like the way he was used, yes I did, did I also say that I thought he should be the primary ball handler yes I did & i still stand by that & I used facts to back my points never spouted nonsense that the staff was racist. Just a few thoughts. This is contradictory. You just siad that people blaming the coaches don't know what is going on amongst the staff. Then you said that it was on Lin to be aggressive, do you know Lin personally? The reason I brought this statement up is because that is the entire point of a forum. To talk like you know what is going on. None of us know anything but we still post like we do. Just because you personally disagree with the blame the coaches stance doesn't mean you should pull out the "we don't know the coaches plans cards". If we play that card then your entire last paragraph is useless because you don't know Lin. And while we are at it we might as well shut down this entire forum because none of us are directly affiliated with the ROckets. Just a few thoughts.
When they misuse Lin. The team goes into Harden isolation. I would even go far to say that it's a misuse of Harden's talent. He can go isolation sure! But Harden is a team sort of player, like Jlin and the result is everyone becomes a threat. I love to see our star players going into the 4th all fresh and not gassed out. Then again - has a peace flag to all the defender's of sampson's headcoaching run. Lets blame it on Jlin's healing knee, and the coaches were limiting Lin's miniutes for him to heal Everyone comes out of clean of this. This I can accept.
it's not as simple as that. Pau at the 3pt line was used primarily to spread the floor. if he's free and he feels he can make it, that would be great but no one is saying he has to shoot it all the time. with Dwight in the center, you have to find ways to spread the floor or someone like Pau would have to come off the bench. and as a star studded team, the shots are going to go to guys on the top of the list first.. kobe, nash, dwight, then pau. you have to accommodate to those guys first and give them the ball where they are most effective. but since Pau complained about his role, D'Antoni has to accommodate him now. but soon, the other stars will complain, mainly Dwight.
Not true. You just see what you choose to see. Plenty of people including me were screaming at Lin to have some balls and take it to the hole. He definitely shares blame. BUT, the point is, you can't expect him to go against the set plays call for screens that don't come and decide to take it to the hole one-on-one. Do you want him to be a chucker? Greedy? The fact is when plays were called for him, he delivered. Thus, it doesn't take Einstein to figure out that maybe pnrs and screens should have been called for him more often.
