Hmm I would say Sampson probably felt that TD's defense is worth a shot to try to slow down Lillard which in the end wasn't the right move imo. Regardless Sampson often made more right moves than wrong in his short tenure as head coach.
Sorry, you responded to my post which was talking about the LIN didn't play in OT, so I thought we are talking about the same game.
See, that's the "bias" I'm talking about right there. TD is not a better defender than Lin, he may appear that way due his aggressive style, but as a coach of a pro teams, you should know better. Plus, the game is played on both end, and TD was a liability on offensive end back then.
I think Lin's defense has improved but earlier in the season it wasn't that good. He would often over help on defense leaving his man open for uncontested shots (Which was what happened in the first Portland game). TD brings a different style of defense that might be better in certain situations. He plays closer to the opponent and uses his hands to harass them but the drawback is that he gets beat by his man easier. Lillard seems to be a clutch shot maker and maybe Sampson felt TD can contest shots better.
Someone else said that there was no other explanation for Sampson's decision other than his bias, so I was merely listing another possibility/explanation (which was backed up by stats). It is possible that Sampson's biased - you could be right, but you could also be wrong. The fact is, no one knows for sure except for Sampson. FWIW, I'm a huge fan of Lin but I honestly think Sampson likes and respects Lin.
It's not bias. It's an in game coaching decision. Lin had been shooting like crap and his confidence in his shot was not there. Two games earlier he airballed the 3 that could have won the game. Yes Lin had a good all around game that night in Portland, but he wasn't taking the open shots down the stretch when we still had the lead. Then Lillard got hot and scored 6pts in 1+ minute when Lin was on the floor. For OT the coach decided. 1) We need to stop Lillard. 2) We need to have players on the floor who are going to take open shots. I agree that by default most starters earn the right to be on the floor in OT, but not in this case. I like Lin, but he fouled Lillard and I believe he was on Lillard on the 2 other scores in the last minute+ of the 4th quarter. In the end TD didn't didn't help us win
This is a team thing. Lin Harden Parsons all do this. McHale wants to protect the paint. PS. I called in on Avery Johnson didn't I when I said that he was largely at fault for Deron's struggles this season.
I don't doubt there could have been a subconscious bias involved. Tim Legler once said that such biases definitely do exist. He said that some coaches definitely gave him a very short leash. Larry Bird could never fathom why some coaches would put the slow white guy like Marc Ivaroni on him. Sampson made a bad move by keeping Lin on the bench that game and some bias definitely could have been involved. We're talking about Toney Douglas here. It's not like he had Sam Cassell or Vernon Maxwell on the bench itching to go. I agree with you that we should just move on from that though. I doubt he makes the same mistake again.
Yeah probably but the way Lin does it compared to his teammates is mind boggling at times. Like during the Celtics game, he went to double the post player on the opposite side of the paint and left Jason Terry wide open for the 3pter. P.S Yeah but we won't know if it's Avery's fault till we see how the new and "better" coach does.
The coaches pull Asik just as much Lin. Sure, Smith is better than Douglas, but Asik is also vastly superior to Lin so far too. Also, wasn't last year the entire GARM was pissed because McHale pulled Camby/Dalembert in favor of Patterson? McHale also pulled KMart tons of times in favor of Courtney Lee. And Lee is basically the SG version of Douglas, a defender and 3pt shooter. In fact, he pulled KMart for doing the same thing as Lin many times, being tentative and not making shots. McHale/Sampson may or may not be biased. But there's no proof of different treatment of Lin compared to other players past or present. I can understand that newer fans who started watching the Rockets this year would not understand the methodologies of this coaching staff. But older posters should be quite familiar with McHale's propensity to bench players that are not doing well... regardless of their draft status or race.
Meh that was one possession in one game can't remember the specific details & to lazy to go through play by play on my League Pass, for the most part it is a team thing that has been occurring since pre-season. And you were speaking about earlier in the season, the Celtics game wouldn't really classify as "earlier" in the season.
Also D-Will takes most of the criticism for Avery's firing whether it's fair or not so there's a lot of pressure for him to perform up to expectations. My opinion on the situation is that the Nets were really never that good in the first place. They have a bunch of overrated players that don't complement each other well. It might take some time for them to gel but overall they won't be title contenders or anything special.
ugh... all these typos.. I would like to add that this Portland game on the road was right after Sampson made the comment about not running as many pnr plays for Lin because he has trouble going left. I talked about that and linked the video earlier in this thread.
I don't think you followed the argument we had here. We are talking about the particular game where Lin kept us in the game, did all the good things on both end of the floor. Yes, the other PG scored a few points in a row, but he made some shots with a hand in his face. There is nothing you can do when a guy was on like that in NBA. The funny thing was Lin kept the Rockets in the game by running a smooth offense until that point, then the Rockets didn't have any offense at all in OT while he was on the bench watching.
what kind of defensive coach does not want your guys to help double the hot hands? LaMarcus was killing us in that game so i'm sure the coach told the guys to double him. Lin did just that. if you're gonna blame someone, blame the guy that didn't rotate over to cover Lin's guy (Lillard). if Sampson sees this as Lin's fault then he needs to get his head checked. and this is what's bugs me about Sampson. i don't think he really knows how to coach defense yet he's known as a "defensive coach" (same with a lot of other assistant coaches). Lin probably got in the doghouse with Sampson because he actually knows what he's doing out there and expresses it to the coaches when all they want to do is run really simple plays that they can understand. kinda agree with TD's defense. he does get close to his man and sometimes he's even successful at denying his man the ball. that's especially good when a player is hot. but for more experienced players and elite scorers, once they get the ball, TD often gets torched since he doesn't really contest shots and he gets beat off the dribble quite easily.
he said he's part to blame when everybody knows he's THE one to blame. so basically, he's dodging half of it and placing it on the coach or other players.
No doubt Asik has been a surprise to many here, but you can't really compare the two players. It's as they say comparing apples to oranges. It would be fair to say that Harden has been vastly superior to Lin, but Asik and Lin play very different roles in the success of the team. If Lin and Harden didn't keep getting the ball into Asik he would just be a great rebounder/defender instead of a double/double threat each night. Asik still needs to dunk more passes and is #3 on the team in turnovers(our starting 5 avg 12tov pg). Asik also tends to be a non factors on some nights in particular against elite centers. He's also had games of (0,4,2,4,0, and 4) pts. I've listed Lin's #'s elsewhere so I wont rehash them here. Both Asik and Lin along with Parsons are the legs of a tripod with Harden on top. Now we just need a more dependable leg @ PF. The PER stat isn't perfect in any way but it gives us a simple way to compare apples to oranges. Lin is #145 @14.71, Asik is #149 @ 14.67. Not so far apart. FWI: Harden is #9 @23.51, but Brook Lopez is #8 @24.54. LOL Tim Duncan is #6 @25.07, Tyson Chandler is #16 @ 22.08. Another example of why PER isn't perfect is #22 Kyle Lowry @ 21.57 and #23 Jimmer Fredette @21.47.
