Which players style of play does Lin remind you of?

He is replaceable in terms of talent level yes. He isn't replaceable in terms of what this teams biggest need is (improved front court), how much cap space a more talented PG would command (and the effect that this would have on addressing actual needs), whether the new PG fits what the Rockets are trying to accomplish (young, pushes pace, efficient, sets teammates up for high % shots, solid D & adept at those 50/50 plays) & PG's that are realistically available (most are locked up). So in fact he really isn't as replaceable as you think he is.


On a side note can you imagine a back court of Kyrie & harden defensively? My god it would be atrocious. Lowry is a better talent but Lowry is going to command a big pay raise & he isn't coming back. Dragic isn't available & frankly there isn't much talent level difference. I would stick with Lin, younger, more upside, better contract, little to no talent difference.

Kyrie isn't available at all & defensively him & harden would be vile not interested. Bledsoe can't run an offense also unavailable, Jennings also can't run an offense, inefficient chucker & John Wall not interested in at all for so very many reasons all of which should be obvious.

 

Dude, why are you doing this? Why are you being divisive? Cut it out, please.

 

Lin may be a smarter than Dragic, but in term of basketball IQ, i do think Dragic is better. Lin always has couple of plays per game showing how smart he is. Yet he also has couple of plays a game showing how inexperience he is.
Im not sure how do you know he is a good leader, and more importantly how do you know Lin is the leader at thevfirst place.

 

Hahahhahahahahah

 

The sky is blue, so what else is new?

 

I think his comparison was spot on

 

I was responding to the poster who said Lin is potentially MVP

 

I don't necessarily agree with Clutch's comparison but it's much less far fetched than your Battier/Swift comparison. Lin is an atheletic penetrator and is often of little use without the ball in his hands. He's no all around glue guy like Battier. So, most, if not all, of what Lin does shows up in the box score. That's why when he's hot his numbers look like Lebron-lite.

I think it's safe to compare him with others using stats. I wouldn't do that with a guy like Asik who has a significant defensive impact and does all the small things that don't show up in the box score. But, for scorer/playmakers like Lin and Harden the stat comparisons are more useful. And, I think the stats show what Lin's impact has been on THIS team in THIS role. He could probably put up bigger numbers on other teams where the ball was in his hands 24/7 but that's just not gonna happen here so his impact is and will be smaller.

 

He plays like Dikembe but with better rebounding and shot blocking.

 

Much of what Lin contributes does not show up in the box score. He plays excellent help and position defense (sometimes allowing his man to score to help out a teammate who is in a worse position) and is willing to space the floor in offense (sometimes not even getting a touch on the offensive end--separate issue as to whether you think he should). Everywhere he has gone, he has also gotten his teammates to play harder due to his team-first attitude. That is why when Lin has a good statistical game, his team generally does very well, because his intangibles are already there. Contrast that with someone like Kobe (even though I think Kobe is a great player, one of the best of all time), who does not always get his points in the flow of the offense and hence does not have the best record when he scores alot.

 

I'll have to disagree. I think Lin does a lot of the small things that Battier/Asik are being credited for, if not more. The number of key charges that he takes, the deflections that he gets so often, the jump balls he creates, the TOs he forces opponent into, the hard box outs, the pesky help defense when our bigs are underpowered.. He's a definite glue guy. A clear jack of all trades. I don't know why you are saying that.

 

Rafer's "style of play" was standing outside the 3pt line jacking 3s from kickouts by Yao. He rarely penetrated, and when he did the broken teardrops he threw up were cringe worthy. Come to think of it, I cannot quite remember him ever actually laying the ball up like normal NBA players. It was always that teardrop that never went in. This is also why he rarely got to the line. From the field he shot 38% for his career, with a pathetic 49%TS. On the plus side he was a solid defender, and did a good job of managing the game as a PG, IE staying out of Tmac/Yao's way.

Jeremy's style of play, that is what this thread is about right, is the polar opposite of Rafer. His biggest strength, penetration and getting to the line, is Rafer's biggest weakness. His biggest weakness, outside shooting, is Rafer's biggest "strength", if you want to call it that. While Lin's individual defense is suspect, he excels in team defense, again polar opposites with Rafer. Jeremy's court vision and creativity also far exceeds Rafer. I am talking about functional creativity like no look passes that actually fool the defense, and full court passes that actually gets the team free points. For all of Skip to my Lou's flash, it was more reputation than reality. He was actually a very safe PG, running the offense and making safe plays.

All in all these are two completely different players with hardly any similarities, besides playing the same position. And I never compared Lin to Battier. I compared Battier to Stromile, which is a ridiculous comparison. Besides the fact that they are both 9pts 5rbs players.

 

Great post and analysis, except that I would say that Lin's individual defense is excellent. It is only "suspect" because of media types that want to bash him (and people who have bought into it). All the metrics say that he plays excellent individual defense. He has stopped many players 1 on 1 without gambling. He stuffed Teague in the latest game when Teague try to take him hard into the lane.

 

Rafer and Lin are very different. Rafer has advantage over Lin in ball handling, taking care of the ball and making wide open 3s only.

Lin is a better individual defender,better athletic, better rebounder, better finisher around rim, better passer and finisher in transaction, has better court vision, also drives past his man much easier.

 

I think you underestimate harden too much. Since they have stopped using iso-harden ball, he has been playing at a very high level.

No doubt he is the rockets most important player.

 

At the start of the season, I would strongly disagree with you. Lin got caught over-helping plenty of times, often getting burned by shooters or forcing teammates to rotate due to losing his man. This happened particularly often when his man was on the strong side 3 point line.

Now, I'm happy to say that he's become a much better team defender. He's choosing when to double the post much more intelligently, and his positioning's gotten better too. He used to be terrible at guarding pick and rolls; he's improved noticeably by being more aware of screens and how to play them the right way. One-on-one in the post after a switch, few bigger players have scored on Lin successfully (I can only remember LeBron and Dorell Wright doing so, and they both took fadeaway jumpers).

 

There are huge difference, and as CXbby points out, all their strengths are the other's weaknesses. There's no two ways about it.

Jump shot, Rafer is much better than Jeremy at this point. Can't really get worse than Jeremy's converting 31% on his jump shot.

Ball Handling, Rafer again is much better than Jeremy given Jeremy's propensity of committing T/Os in iso situations, small sample size be damned.

First step-Penetration-Finishing, Jeremy is better. 36% of all JLin's shot attempts have been near the rim @ 64.7%, even more and better than when he was a Knicks. Rafer's only two seasons where he had 30+%, he converted 51.4% (04-05) and 42.9% (08-09) of those shots; Both seasons were when he was not a Rocket.

Passing, Jeremy is better. Guys who can get the ball to their 3 pointers or players in the paint are always more valuable. Those transition passes help too.

Defense, Jeremy's tendency to over-help sometime kills him. You give up spot-up long 2s, fine. 3s are no-no though. xRAPM has Alston as a +1 defender in 07-08. Jeremy is currently a -0.08 as of 12/16. Jeremy is a better rebounder, blocker, and stealer (per 36).


Oh, glacier921 is obviously trolling. If the mod isn't banning him, then it will serve us better if we just put him on ignore.

 

Well then provide some argument to show your logic

You are the exact type of vets that I laugh at who rarely makes any good arguments or sound reasoning backed up by data or facts (maybe because you don't have the abilities to do that), who has nothing to contribute to an thread other than one sentence of chanting or name calling.

 

It's not about being sensitive and overrating to the comparisons of Lin to Rafer. It's about no matter what you look at, be their numbers or play styles, there is nothing in common between these two players. I gave the detailed stats /numbers to explained why and CXbby did a good job explaining why their play style is nothing but the total opposite.