Lin and Irving have played almost same amount minutes. First Kyrie Irving is 20 and already put up all-star #. Any GM would take him over Lin. I think it's best to look at per 36 minutes comparison and you can see that Irving is better offensive player across the board. Rebounding is the same, but Lin has edge in assists and steals. http://www.basketball-reference.com...sum=1&p1=linje01&y1=2013&p2=irvinky01&y2=2013
over the last 6 games or so lin has put up serious numbers. It will be interesting to see if this continues. If it does hes a top 5 PG....19 points, 60% and 9 assists....those are serious numbers. PLUS Lin is the starting PG on the top scoring team in the NBA......theres more to this game than stats. But if you rely on stats look at the last 5 games.....serious numbers. Thats what he did in NY and what hes now doing in Houston
Nash? If you had to win now, Sure. If not, I'll take Lin for the long haul. Dude is closing on 40... amazing but limited in time frame. Damian Lillard? *cough* Sample size **. 18.8/6.6 apg over 28 starts. Over 25 starts, those are actually about the same a Lin's stats (18.2 ppg, 7.6 apg, 2.00 steals, seven double doubles). http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/rockets-sign-jeremy-lin Lillard has had a decent share of stinkers over his 25 starts (9 points, 2/14, 5/5 FT's, 6 assists vs Toronto... 8 points, 2/8, 3/4 FT's, 3 assists vs Boston). Yes, he's scoring alot of points (18.3), he's also taking 15 shots per game (similar to Lin last year). Right now, all you can say is that Lillard is performing similarly to Lin last year... except without having to deal with a coaching change and being slid to the #3 scoring option behind two Stars (Melo/Amare). Deron Williams? *Maybe* ... seriously, Deron has been riding on his reputation from Utah for over 2 years now. He's sucked this year, his stats last year AND the year before were similarly awful. He recently stated that he was a "system" point guard. Who is the real Deron? Utah Deron? Brooklyn Deron? If Utah Deron is the real Deron, sure. Is that ever coming back? Who knows. On the other hand, he's making $100M and shooting worse than Lin, with a .500 record team in the EASTERN conference. Yah, not so sure I'd rush for Deron at this point. I don't believe in riding forever on past performance, especially when it's 3 YEARS in the past. The rest of the list, I'm fine with. However, let's not forget that Lin makes $8.3M per year... those other PG's make far more, and have far more experience in the NBA. What will Lin look like in 3 years? Who knows... but in terms of future value, it isn't looking so horrible.
If I put $20 in the tip jar can we go ahead and ban this obvious troll? I like Lin but trolls like this make me want to dislike him.
I can't remember was there a poll of GM's that asked about top players by position? Irving has elite talent, but does he make the other players around him better? To me he is more of a SG than PG. Could he be on the same floor with Harden? I think Irving likes the ball in his hand too, but he's a shoot first pass second type of player. I'd rather have a John Stockton type of PG.
Being the top scoring team also helps players to put up better numbers... The ultra fast pace gives the team more shots - and that equals to more points and thus more assists. Not taking away anything from Lin, he played spectacular the last weeks. But I wouldn't go as far as top 5...
In NY, Lin had the ball 80-95% of the time. In HOU, he gets about 40-50% sharing the ball with harden. Lin is a type d PG where his stats reflect on the amount of touches he gets a game. My point is.. Consistency isn't his biggest concern. It's the amount of touches for him to make plays. The gameplan of harden also takes affect on how he played.
