Lin can't shoot this year at all & he ranks 33rd in the NBA as a PNR ball handler. Yes he is good but he doesn't do it often & he would prefer not to have to (in comparison to the Knicks PG) which was pretty much my point. ....
Lin is shooting 43% from the field; Harden is at 44%. If Lin "can't shoot this year", then clearly, neither can harden. Harden's 3 pt fg% is a very mediocre 33%, higher than lin's 28% but hardly impressive. Again, if Lin shouldn't be shooting the 3 ball, then neither should harden, based upon percentages. The bottom line is that the offense is terribly imbalanced, with harden being asked to do too much, and lin largely being asked to step aside while harden burns himself out dominating the offense. Harden needs help, a lot of it, and mchale refuses to allow his other players to step up and contribute, outside of the extremely limited role of jacking up the occasional 3. The rockets are tired, the offense is sputtering, and if rumors and our collective intuition is correct, the players are fed up with a harden dominated offense where everyone else is relegated to a bit part.
Your forgetting that one of them is expected to be the primary scorer and gets doubled all the time, has to create shots for himself and others. Lin gets set up for easy open shots all the time.
Disagree with this. Melo didn't have a problem with Lin's ball dominance. He had a problem with Lin's fame and NY loving him more than they loved Melo. Felton this season averaged MORE shot attempts was dominating the ball just as much if not more than Lin did playing next to Melo but guess what, Melo didn't have a problem with it because he is the undisputed "man" in NY. It was an ego thing, not a basketball thing.
Stop comparing Lin to Harden. One is an allstar, the other is a highly-paid D-League player. Btw, if Lin was better, Hardens fg% would be much higher on account of him not having to force shots and carry the freaking team all by himself. If Lin could make an open jumper every once in a while, Harden's life would be a lot easier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz3sKI_0Oe0 Lin right now is like a wild dragon gone domestic under these coaches. No more joy, no more freedom, no more swagger. Wish he could be freed one day.
**** Lin. His contract is too ****ty for us to get rid of. Everyone in New York is laughing at Morey.
First of all, 5% is a lot. Second, Harden is 10x more efficient than Lin. He draws more fouls and gets more free throws than anyone else in the league. It's not all about FG%. The way they score is completely different. Harden either drives and gets to the line or he shoots the three. He has shot 100 more three's than Lin this season, which obviously drags his FG% down, yet it's still higher than Lin's. I'm a fan of Lin, but he needs to learn how to shoot. Flat out, no way around it, it's awful when the PG can't shoot.
Give me a break. Name me 3 games off the top of your head the Rockets dont win if Jeremy Lin doesn't play. Now name me 3 wins the Rockets get without Harden? The game this is afternoon is a clear example of Harden's importance to this team if you actually watched it. Harden's shooting percentage is hardly telling the whole story here. This isn't a Lin Vs Harden argument because there is none. So lets just STOP IT. You are right though that the offense is incredibly imbalanced. Mostly because realistically this is a team with one all star, one quality vet, a nice second year player, and a bunch of scrubs... no offense to any of them.. I like them all, but lets call a spade a spade please. Lets stop trying to convince ourselves that a player like Greg Smith or Omer Asik is going to suddenly surprise the world and become the next Moses Malone. This team is far from a finished product and so are its players. Jeremy Lin is the poster boy for the makeup of this team. He's a project that's constantly a work in progress. He's going to look special for a glimpse, and the make you cuss and throw things at your expensive TV for a ten game stretch until you get to see another glimpse.... This is just who this team is. Which is why the Random Trade Thread is in higher usage than normal this year. People here just can't wait for Morey to make this team complete overnight... Lets all hope it happens sooner rather than later.
I don't think anyone believes Lin is a superstar pg, and that he has no weaknesses in his game. Comparing Lin to Harden is stupid, It's like comparing Vasquez to Kobe. The problem is that the coaching staff is literally giving harden the green light and telling everyone else to defer and be spot up shooters or run fast breaks with no half court set plays. Lin gets literally no picks or screens ( which is one of his biggest strength) It literally makes someone like Jeremy and his skill set useless along with 90% of pgs in the league. Our coaching philosophy literally sets him up to fail. If the coaches have decided that the best game plan is to run everything through harden, then it makes sense to get a pg that fits that role. The game plan / coaching philosophy needs to fit the players and vice versa. and right now its a square peg round hole situation. Hopefully they figure things out since we are still a very young team. But don't expect Jeremy to start taking 15-19 shots ( unless its against a team that cant run with us) and get linsanity numbers as long as the current system is in place.
kcal seems bent on this theory, he has posted it in 3 other threads. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=232557&page=4 http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=232545&page=3 http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=232454&page=12
Lin has to adapt everybody in th NBA doesnt run the Mike D'antoni system when Harden came to the Rockets he had to adjust to be the number 1 guy why cant Lin adjust to Mchales system ?
A lot of good points here. I have to say, I don't think I've ever stated that Asik would become the next Moses Malone. I thought I was conveying a simple point, which is that ball dominant PG's don't suddenly wake up and become spot up 3 pt. shooters. Expecting them to do so as a coach seems completely insane on top of that.
I won't say this again, hopefull, but lin is not a spot up 3 pt shooter. He's at his best creating his own shot. Some players are great shooting off the dribble, others are catch and shoot scorers. Lin shoots off the dribble, creating his own shot. Mchale doesn't want him to. Therefore, Lin can't contribute to the degree that he is capable of. Not a very controversial point.
At this stage in the game, we are well beyond the stage of developing "well rounded" but entirely mediocre players. At this point, coaches survive by exploiting player's strengths. As an extreme example, a coach won't ask Shaq to guard Rondo, or to bring the ball up every possession. Why? Because it's not his strength. Shaq was the strongest, most unstoppable post scorer in the game's history when healthy. Simple. You don't ask Dennis Rodman to play point forward. Why? Because he can't dribble. Or shoot. However, he was an extra-ordinary defender and rebounder who could help you win a ring several times over if you let him do what he does best. Lin. He can be a ball dominant PG and make great plays that make role players shine. And he can give you 16-20 ppg on top of that. ORRRRRRRRR. You can try to turn him into steve novak. This is why some refer to the coach as mcfail. Turning lin into a spot up 3 pt shooter is the equivalent of trying to turn dennis rodman into a scottie pippen. Fail.
Here is why you are absolutely wrong. Lin is not an all-star, not even close. The fact that you are using HOF players as examples just proves everyone else's point. That is, Lin needs to adapt to Harden. You don't ask Lebron to adapt to Chalmers, you don't ask Melo to adapt to Novak.
It's a lot more awful when the PG can't pass. There's many hall of fame PG's who couldn't shoot most of their careers like Kidd and Rondo. Maybe what you meant is that it is awful when the SG can't shoot??
