To be honest, I am too. We get flashes of it. End of the Dallas game ( yeah we lost but that, I think, was due to some unfortunate calls and harden just being in a funk/missing shots that he normally makes, and some poor free throw shooting ), games during the winning streak. But then there are games like today, and the rest of the losing streak. If KD and Westbrook ( no Lin is not as good as Westbrook, that is silly ) or to and ginobli can co exist, there isn't any reason Lin and harden can't.
its kind of funny that 2 weeks ago this combo was the top back court in the NBA.....Lin was shooting over 50% from the field in dec and playing pretty well....harden is shooting like under 25% over the last 5 games....talk about how bad that is....gonna trade him too? Hes a turnover machine.....hes awful lately...
I just think they have him doing too much and playing too many minutes right now. 20 shot attempts and 21 free throws is a ton of work on a large number of possessions. And even if he isnt shooting, he's running the offense in most other plays. Probably part of the reason for his pretty poor defense as well.
The difference is, like today. harden still helped us win the game. 25 points even though he still had a bad shooting night. Thats what stars do. they have bad nights, they find other ways to score. If lin had been dropping 25+ 18 games in a row and just hit a slump this last month this thread wouldn't exist.
To be fair, putting up those kind of numbers requires you to have the ball in your hand and be the focal point of your teams offense.
Let you PG be the floor general, your offense will be more flexible and responsive to the defense. Taking away the PG's play, the offense will be more robotic. Our offense has regressed toward to latter which is the default of the current system.
I think everyone here acknowledges Harden is playing terrible lately. The difference is that despite being aweful for three quarters he had a big 4th to lead us to a win. Harden is also on a much different level then Lin. He's one of the best young SGs in the NBA. So far, Lin is one of the worst starting pgs in the NBA.
right now harden is the star of this team. the guy they spent all that money on and the guy they are building around for the future, not lin. lin just needs to learn how to get his when the ball is not in his hands. he's done it before this season so it's no reason he can't be more consistent. either get down or lay down.
No. He's possibly the worst spot up shooters /3 pt shooters, but not the worst pg. He doesn't even play the point. If Westbrook and Durant can coexist without one of them being relegated to camping the three point line, why can't Lin and harden. Coaching...
No problem for Rox trading Lin. This is the NBA and it is a business. I am happy to watch Lin playing for any teams, the TRUE Rox fans will get their peace back and discuss Dragic or Lowry, etc and whine all they want about why nobody else pays attention to Rox. It will be a win win.
the plain and simple truth i've come to realize is this (and i LOVE jeremy lin as much as any LOF)--if you want harden as your primary handler in the offensive scheme mchale wants to run, then you need the other guard to be a spot up shooter, PERIOD. you need harden to be confident in throwing the ball to you for the open three. JL is not that guy. that's not his game and never has been his game and never will be. he built his rep on kicking it out to steve novak, not BEING steve novak. patrick beverley is serviceable. he's not great by any stretch of the imagination, but one thing he IS is a better spot up 3 point shooter than JL. JL and harden aren't going to work. unless the rockets make a coaching change, a trade is best for the rockets and him. IF NOT, then the best thing to do is to: 1) start beverley with harden and have JL be the sixth man and split up the minutes fairly evenly between beverley and lin. 2) harden and JL should never both be on the bench at the same time except garbage time. 3) JL should never play shooting guard when he's on the floor and harden is on the bench. 4) JL's standing orders when he comes off the bench is to green light to the basket. attack attack attack.
If Lin was doing that he'd be a Max ($60-$80M) player and the Rockets would have had ZERO chance of getting him. People really overestimate what $8m-$10m actually gets you in FA or Trade. That and they conveniently ignore that comparing FA and Rookie contracts is pointless. I refer you to the following... http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/48033/jeremy-lins-contract-in-perspective After a terrible November (PER of around 10), his PER is now 13.92. In other words, improving. That's while taking fewer shots with a new coach and new team. Finding a replacement isn't as easy as you think. Even IF you trade for a PG with a lower salary, no team is going to trade you a solid starting PG on the cheap without you taking on bad contracts or giving up similarly underpaid contracts. And this is all assuming that Lin does not improve over the life of his contract. Which is a big assumption for a 23 year old player. That doesn't mean that Lin should be immune to trade. If there's a smart trade that presents itself, the Rockets should do it. However, don't think that there aren't teams that won't entertain that trade. Trading Lin without getting a significant PG upgrade just means you have less cap room to fill out another position. And honestly, how many PG's are NOT ball dominant? Not many unless you're looking for a glorified Shooting Guard. Now, if you're arguing the Rockets should abandon the idea of a PG ala Miami, that's another argument entirely. However, don't overestimate how much player your Dollar actually buys in the NBA, in salary or trade value.
At this point we'd be lucky to get 50 cents on the dollar, but trading him would be worth it just to see which other owner cared more about hype than good basketball.
I wonder what the ramifications would be if the Rockets traded him and he all of a sudden starts playing a lot better in another system. I doubt Morey would trade him just for the possibility of this happening unless they got a significant upgrade.
Rebuilding a team not only needs time but also intelligence. Do Rox coaches have it? Ridding Harden 41 minutes so they can win bottom Team by 6 points doesn't show much of intelligence. Morey should get easier tasks for coaches. Harden and Lin are two big cards in Rox. If coaches don't know how to play them, don't know how to make their potential #2 score option player be productive, then Rox will fall and most likely fall at Lin's cost. Why should Lin stay here to develop his "other" aspects to become an average SG while he can develop somewhere else to be a great PG. It's very likely that Morey gave Lin a very different perspective in terms of Lin's contribution to the team than what coaches are doing now to attract Lin to sign the contract. If he can't keep his promise, he'd better get Lin another good place to go. Well, at least a team where he can play PG.
What other choice did Les have? Lin brought a 10% increase in season ticket sales and 4 national TV games before Harden even got here. You can't blame him for wanting hype instead of a tank job of a team.
