Valorita, honest question. How many Rockets games have you seen recently? And what do you consider to be a good defensive player. You're right, of course, statistics alone never tell the whole story. But when I watch Lin on defense, I see a defender who has excellent stance, elite hands who prevents shots from being taken up at times, great anticipation in terms of where his man is heading and to be there first, plays excellent team defense and has amazing foot speed. If you watched the last couple of games as an example, there is almost no way that you didn't see Lin put pressure on Kyrie and Vasquez and the like which TD or a typical average defender could never do. Just my opinion but one that I'm fairly confident in saying as I've played ball, coached ball, and am a basketball fanatic. Not that it means much, but I know what good defense looks like and it all starts with fundamentals, effort, and finally athletic ability and Lin is all of the above in spades considering his size, strength, and speed -- excusing his bone-headed over helping in the first 10 games of the season or so.
Measuring credentials now? Lol sure i'll bite. Honestly, i've watched all but 2 games this year and have been following Rockets for well over a decade. I've played basketball competively for 20 yrs and have been the defensive ace in most of them. While I am not a fanatic, I am an avid fan and would feel comfortable debating with anyone on this board about basketball sans cap space and figures. Just for lulz I am Asian, have a double major in mathematics and business and am now a physician. Oh and my name is Daryl Murray. Or, i could be a 12 year old kid trolling. Have i covered all my bases?
Funny how you just pointing out the stats of steal...how about BLOCKS? PPP @ Synergy? REBOUNDS? DEF EFF? DEF Rating? Not to mention we all watch the games carefully.
he cant seem to get over the screeners tho. anyone else think using a screen is the best way to score on lin?
PPP Stats rebounds, blocks, and steal have little to do defend. Bowen, Battier and Artest don't fill up a lot of these numbers. All he is saying is that Lin is hardworking defender with average skills and tools.
That's not what I meant. I played as the backup pg to Arthur Lee and used to play pickup with Jacque Vaughn back in the day and definitely held my own as a quick pg. I won MVP of several albeit very minor (lol) tournaments and was also known for my defense. I'm still quite decent, imho lol. Anyways, it means nothing. That was back in the day, and it does not mean for a second that I would have more credentials than anyone else. I know that. It's just that I can't fathom how if you've seen the games and know basketball why you would say Lin is not a good defender. Did you not see Kyrie come up empty on many a juke attempts yesterday while easily getting around TD or Harden? Or did you see only his dazzling 30 points? Considering your experience, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you are just upset at the Lin fans, and that you do see Lin's defense for what it is. OR maybe the world is even bigger than we know and even simple matters as judging a player as a positive or negative on a team can vary. In my personal experience, if you've played, you should know who's a positive and who's a negative on your team right away, wouldn't you. I know that as a pg, it was obvious. Even when a player did not shoot or do much, you could see that they were just playing the right way and conversely even when players were scoring that they did not understand the art of basketball.
Actually, they do. Defense has ONE purpose, and that is to reduce the number of points the opponent puts on the scoreboard. When you block a ball, they get ZERO points. When you steal a ball, they get ZERO points. When you get a rebound, they LOSE a possession and your team GAINS a possession. If you have 50 possessions and shoot 70% from inside the arc, but I've stolen the ball 35 times, you earned 70 points on those possessions. In other words, you might as well have shot 35%. To try to separate steals, blocks, rebounds and points per possession from defense is as meaningful as saying that And1's, fouls drawn and turn overs don't impact your offensive efficiency. How is it that a team can shoot WORSE than an opposing team and STILL win? Empty possession, whether through misses, blocks, or steals all have the same impact. Defensive rebounds when the opposing team is looking for offensive rebounds takes away potential possessions from the opposition. It's really very simple. Possessions = shot attempts = points. The more you have, the more you score. That's why PACE impacts scoring totals. It's why steals, blocks and turn overs impact scoring totals. And it's why rebounding differentials impact scoring totals. There's more to defense than what percent an opposing teams shoots. Forcing a turn over on an opponent is basically forcing them to shoot 0%, except it doesn't show up in the FGM/FGA.
Nice post. Just go easy on them otherwise you'll be accused of being a LOF and only LOF will ruin the board.
Some people are so hell bent on proving that he's average/below average. Why? If you care about your team, then you should want all the players on your team to be more than average, role players. It's odd to see members so invested in making sure everyone knows just how average certain players are. Way to stick it to the X-only fans. Yeah, put them in their place.
Rather than pointing out any specific stat, it's telling that Morey talks about the little things that Lin does on defense that helps a team. That he's disruptive and such. Sure, it's vague, and Morey never talks specifics. But obviously Morey's own stats, which should be much more telling than anything we have access to, thinks Lin is a + defender. Of course, they also much feel like Douglas is also a + defender. Which is why sometimes Douglas finishes games. My own layman's opinion? Lin is a better team defender while Douglas is a better one-on-one defender. But both players are likely above average overall compared to the rest of the league. But neither one is elite on the level of all-defensive team.
The thing is, people just don't want to eat crow when Morey got them to. Also, I believe most people think a good player are the type of players making difficult shot. Kobe makes incredibly difficult shots. But is that good for the team? Kobe could win the title with Phil. Once he's gone, look what happens. Some of those decisions, like those contested 3, fade aways look spectacular, but now your team is 3 games below 500, looking to be 4 games below 500 this Tues. Is making difficult shots really that important?
tools : 6'3(6'4 w/shoes), 202lbs, quicker lateral quickness than last year, short arms(compared to Rondo or Douglas), average vertical. skills : knows how to contain the opponents, knows how to take a charge, knows how to cover his teammates, block shots in the paint and steal the ball from every spots, can't fight through screens and leave his man wide-open at times. My conclusion: Lin isabove average on the D end.
tools : 6'3(6'4 w/shoes), 202lbs, quicker lateral quickness than last year, short arms(compared to Rondo or Douglas), average vertical. skills : knows how to contain the opponents, knows how to take a charge, knows how to cover his teammates, block shots in the paint and steal the ball from every spots, can't fight through screens and leave his man wide-open at times. My conclusion: Lin is above average on the D end.
Douglas is not finishing games anymore though. Ever since the Spurs 38 point game Lin had, Lin is the finisher, with the exception to the Toronto game following the Spurs game.
In this league, no other point guards belong elite as a defender except for Rondo and Conley nowadays.
The problem with TD's defense has a lot to deal with the style he plays. Well you could said it is the team strategy too. TD apparently can push up the game tempo a lot. But sometime the traditional defense of its own team can't sustain the pace. I will actaully say DT is a - in D for the Rox.
