ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Bobcats 1/21/2013

I don't see how Lin's value doesn't drop when McHale's offense involves nothing but having Lin bring the ball up the court then either immediately passing it off, or passing it off 2 seconds later to somebody coming off an off-the-ball screen.

Entire game there was 1/2 half-assed screen set for a PnR specialist PG. Lin is a professional though, didn't complain and still played hard on defense, but if this continues for another few games something has to give. In all likelihood a McHale firing.

 

Thought I share my observation of this game. The turning point I think came at under the 10min mark in the 3rd quarter (~9.40) when Walker brought up the ball & Biyombo was running towards him. That's when Lin shouted to Asik to help on the pnr defense. That Walker/Biyombo pnr play has been pretty effective up to that point. When Asik came out to help on the pnr defense, they pretty much neutralise that play. Subsequently the Bobcats stopped using the Walker/Biyombo pnr play & Walker was not able to score again for a long stretch in the 3rd quarter (except for 1 fast-break layup). He was forced to shoot the threes the rest of the way which he made some & missed some. I think that has a huge impact on the game, just my 2 cents.
Appreciate if someone can post the video link on that play.

 

Lin was not having a great game but a lot of starters were not also. Lin usually has very strong 4th quarters but was not given a chance because McHale preferred someone who played in Russia and had 4 games of NBA experience over his starter (who is making 25 million).

 

sigh this team is stressful lol, and so frustrating to watch with rotations. christ. i wonder how if effects the teammates and what they really think of the coach

 

Great observation. Interesting that McHale would prefer someone who played in Russia and had 4 games of NBA experience over his starting PG. Lin should get some ba*ls and tell McHale to fu** off.

 

You can download the games on torrents and judge for yourself. I don't remember which games of course, because there are so many of them. But if you watch through the games on the Rockets recent run before the 7 game losing streak, when Lin did well and goes to the bench, normally people gives high 5s and all, but Lin seemed to look away on both Mchale and Sampson. Might not mean much, but that's how I was judging it.

Also, if you watch the Hornets game till today, the Rockets completely changed their offensive sets.

 

The way Lin has been used, I don't think it would have made much of a difference. Probably better off on offense with Beverley shooting the 3 anyway.

This entire losing streak has coincided with a reversion to pre-San Antonio offense. We had that San Antonio game that Harden sat out, we switched to a more balanced offense after that with screens set for Lin, and we f***ing rocked on offense, then inexplicably, McHale switches back to the pre-San Antonio "no democratic ball" offense again.

Why?

I don't know, and quite frankly, I don't care.

I just want that moron of a coach gone so we can go back to playing some rocking team ball.

 

This!!! I have been saying this all along. A lot of the LOHs out there are basically implying that because Lin sat out in the 4th, we won. Well, it's like, the Rockets didn't exactly blow this Bobcats team out of the water. We were actually struggling to get the lead all the way in the 4th. It's not going to work later on either if we continue.

 

I agree Lin usually plays well in the 4th, so why bench him in the 4th? But I must say Lin needs to start thinking about the way he starts - it's way too slow man; some games I have seen him took 1-2 shots by halftime - not aggressive at all, lol. Why always wait till the 4th? If he doesn't play well in the beginning he may not see 4th quarter, like today (Mchale is not D'antoni). Only if someone can tell him that.

 

This is awesome!

Mr. D

 

Don't know if this was answered already, but what happened to TD? He was playing decent and now he's benched for Bev? Weird.

 

Actually I was puzzled a lot on this. In Rox I don't think they want Jeremy play traditional PG, they would like him to be a combo guard, more like a SG when Harden play PG. And yet I don't understand why Jeremy could not do that, why he suffer that much off the ball, he was playing SG when he was in Harvard, and he was playing off ball sometimes when he was in D-league, it is not like he don't know how to play in that position, and it is not like he has much better FG% when he was in Harvard, yet he was still effective and aggressive then.

Last year he was blamed bacause he score too much, people complained that he is not traditional PG, then this year he become all traditional PG, and without distributing the ball, he don't have his own offense. What happened?

 

It may not have made a difference at all and we'll never know. The point is that you just don't do that to your starter without a very good reason. He is just destroying Lin's confidence by repeatedly pulling this stuff. Everyone is complaining about Lin's lack of aggressiveness - I'm not suprised at all.

 

Just trade him already. Or fire Mchale. Or bench Lin for the whole game and see how well the team does. I'm willing to bet that the team will tank if they completely bench him. Sort of like when Emmitt Smith refused to play a few sets and the Dallas Cowboys actually lost those games he sat out in during their championship years. I mean, this team could barely beat the Bobcats. Jeesh.

 

I'm happy! We finally won a freakin' game. To hell with the griping, enjoy the moment!

 

when did that happen? Lin is far from a traditional PG role last 8 games...

 

I think most people here (and even the people you guys call LOFs) understand that this could work if they really want to keep using the current system. The things that bothers everyone is that we have seen none of the stuff you suggested from the coaching staff. This shouldn't be that hard to figure out, hence the coaches are clueless and "fire them" threads.

In my opinion, McHale is a boneheaded person. In most of his post-game interviews, he seems reluctant to shoulder the responsibility for his mistakes. I could understand his lack of experience limiting him but if he doesn't notice or accept his mistakes, he will never grow as a coach. In a team full of young people who are trying to improve themselves, he is the worst kind of coach you would want.

While Sampson seemed better with his substitutions a time management, I still didn't like the kind of game we played under his coaching. I still would be willing to give him a try as he seemed to experiment a bit and PLAYED THE ******* ROOKIES!!!

TL;DR get rid of McHale and maybe get rid of Sampson for an added good measure.

 

nah, it's the same reason there are KOHs (Kobe haters), ISO all the time kills the offense, no other player has any momentum.

Kobe to his credit has become a better teammate as he ages. Let's see how Harden plays out. Coach Mcfail never benches Harden for a mistake (and Harden makes plenty of them), but he would bench any other player who makes a mistake. Running Harden to the ground. Harden needs to be held accountable for his mistakes. He's not quite Jordan yet.

 

I like Beverely but I also don't think TD should be a DNP either. He doesn't deserve the shaft.

 

One can always tell when Lin has had a crappy game.