You're absolutely right..I never implied it could be done with ease. Same goes with his long range jumpshot; it'll probably take a season or two.
i dont believe handles are something that can be worked on at this point in his career, by now it should be second nature. you can work on a jumper, but handles are almost something that has to be natural.. its like singing, you can teach someone to stay in key but you cant teach someone to hit notes like adele. you have guys like cp3 and skip who have supreme handles, i imagine these guys have had basketballs in their hands since their days at the ymca..
Disagree here. Handles can be improved over time. Will his handle ever be Chris Paul? Doubtful. However, skills tend to be worked on until they're "good enough", then players work on their obvious weak areas. Playing in the Ivy League hurt Lin's development I suspect. His handle was more than adequate for the competition he faced. Now in the NBA it had to step up, even more so now that he's on the scouting report as a primary threat and facing elite defenders. Lin's left hand handle has improved substantially, as has his general handle. I have little doubt that it will continue to improve along with his general ball handling, at least for the next couple years. To say that his handle will not improve makes as much sense to me as arguing that his jumper won't improve, or that his decision making won't improve. Just looking at his performance against Miami this season vs last season you can see he's much better at protecting the ball and avoiding getting stripped both in general and when driving into traffic. Ball handling is a skill, not a natural gift. Yes, natural talent helps, but I think there's more to pure repetition and skills development than many like to admit.
Agreed with everything you wrote except for the "Playing in the Ivy League hurt Lin's development" part. If Lin hadn't played for an Ivy League school, he likely wouldn't see as much PT as he did at Harvard. While PT (i.e. experience) is vital to every player, it is even more crucial for a PG in terms of developing/honing his play making and decision-making. IMO the benefit of that outweighs the lack of higher-level competition.
Why would you assume other coaches simply underrate him for whatever reason and leave him on the bench? If he can play, he can get his pt. Do you assume that because you believe Lin to be a borderline talent, or do you believe every other coaches are persistently biased?
Torocan, there was a thread on RealGM challenging posters to list a player whose handles have drastically increased from bad to good and no one could list any players. Can you?
this. Also want to chime in the the observation that when Lin's gassed, one of the first things to go seems to be his handle, and then his jump shot. (this is unrelated to his turnovers when he's unfocused, however, those tend to come either in the beginning of a game or when the opponent switches defensive intensity on him after half-time)
No, I neither believe Lin to be a borderline talent nor the notion that coaches are persistently biased against him. I'm a huge fan of Lin (check my join date ). Lin's original college choices were UCLA and Stanford, both are NCAA powerhouses that offer athletic scholarship. I'd argue that they draw more athletes/talents, which in turn creates greater competition. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Harvard's stringent academic requirement and lack of academic scholarship likely turn many talents away. (After all, not everyone has a 4.2 GPA in high school like Lin.) My previous statement was solely based on the competitiveness of the colleges' bball programs and could be applied to anyone. It has nothing to do with Lin, his race, or coach bias.
Really? Folks can't actually look this up? Fine... TOR (Turnover Rates) Darren Collison 2010 18.92 2011 16.64 2012 16.19 2013 13.90 Jarret Jack 2007 18.43 2008 19.60 2009 15.96 2010 17.34 2011 12.64 2012 14.06 2013 10.86 Russell Westbrook 2009 17.58 2010 16.56 2011 15.93 2012 14.18 2013 9.89 Mo Williams 2007 15.16 2008 15.34 2009 12.74 2010 15.51 2011 17.46 2012 11.75 2013 11.62 Took about 10 minutes to find those. I suspect that if you look at players entering their rookie years with high turnovers, you'd see a LOT of them improve their turnovers (ball handling) over time. While we're at it... Jeremy Lin 2011 17.82 (2.5 TO/40) 2012 21.37 (5.3 TO/40) 2013 13.60 (3.4 TO/40) Just some stuff to keep in mind....
Lin's 3 point jump shots looks terrible. He likes to bring the ball all the way down before the jump. Also it seems he has less control at the release. Other than the shootings, he relied on his speed too much when driving to the hoop. Learn Europe step Jeremy.
A passive low percentage lin is averaging 12 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals. I cant wait till next year when he gets a better shot,, 100% healthy from the start and more confidence. Lin could be top 5-10 pg.
Some else can maybe look it up. But when lin scores his season average we usuaully win. I think one of the few times is the spurs game when we didnt. Dude's a winner.
Harden's a lock for 25+, so if Lin chips in with about 15, our backcourt has already contributed 40 pts. Plus, when Lin's scoring that much, he probably has a bunch of assists too.
IMO dudes a winner not coz of his scoring and assists, but how he contributes so much more on the court via help defense, rebounding, blocking big guys, steals. We don't win because he is scoring efficiently, we win because his scoring allows him to be on the court longer and as a result all the other intangibles that he brings to the table are on the court that much longer as well.
Where did you get those stats? According to B-R: His TOV% last three years have been: 2011: 17.8 2012: 21.4 2013: 20.8
