[Y Sports Radio] Calvin Murphy: Jeremy Lin Needs The Ball In His Hands

All those guys had at least one other great scorer playing alongside. The problem with the Rockets is that we don't have the second threat that forces the defense to respect Harden's playmaking for his teammates. The defense only needs to concentrate on stopping his scoring.

 

It won't change with mac at the helm. And I doubt morey makes a coaching change mid-season. Most likely morey rides out the season with mac; in a worst case scenario, houston has another lottery pick.

The players are incredibly po'ed right now, however, so it's going to get extremely ugly. They just might force morey's hand.

 

They are the youngest team in the league...what did you expect from them this year? None of the starters have ever been starters in the NBA for a full season before...this team is in the middle phases of rebuilding and they are still hovering around .500, that's pretty good if you ask me.

 

the great ones can pick their spots. I believe harden is a top 7 player so it should be easy for him. These coaches on the other hand, they tend to catch up to things slower than us.

 

Odd then that russel Westbrook and KD have somehow managed to play together. Can't imagine why Scott brooks hasn't tried to turn Westbrook into a spot up shooter yet though.

 

What bobbythetroll either fails to realize or refuses to acknowledge is that lebron COULD be scoring a lot more but chooses to give up some of his touches and shots to keep wade and bosh integrated into the offense as primary scorers.

No such effort on harden's part, partially because he's relishing his role as the #1 option, but primarily because mac wants the offense run as a one man show.

Harden's ambition and mac's lack of trust in anyone else not named harden, has created a ridiculously imbalanced offense.

 

Which is what is currently happening, and which in turn what Murphy and many here are arguing against. Harden is the top dog and should stay top dog, but the argument is that the offense can still be ran through him while he is playing the 2 and Lin at 1.

 

I dont think anyone is comparing Harden to James. He simply pointed out that James is the only non-point guard with a higher number of assists. There is no one in the NBA on the level of LeBron James.

Having said that, Jeremy Lin is not a superstar and the Rockets need to figure out a way to get players other than James Harden involved. Right now Harden is being ran into the ground.

 

This team conversely had very good results when mac made a greater effort to integrate Lin into the offense as a scorer and creator.

 

What do you base this on? What possible evidence do you have that Harden's "ambition" and "relishing his role as the #1 option" are part of the problem?

There is none...

One could just as easily say that Lin is timid and lacks the confidence to be more involved, and that is why he isn't.

Both are based on speculation and not entirely true. I do not think that Harden has any issue passing to other players, the problem is that you have to hit the shots and too often they are not.

 

bobbythetroll's take is that lebron and harden are both superstars and therefore the offense should be run through them. Unfortunately there are two massive errors in this distorted, almost deluded perception.

1. Lebron is so much better than harden it's a joke. There is absolutely no comparison between these players. It's laughable to try to compare the two.

2. Lebron is very unselfish and has made it a PRIMARY goal to share the ball with wade and bosh, and with chalmers, miller and allen as well. Harden has no such desire at this stage of his career, and mac is on board with the harden dominated, iso offense.

Try harder.

 

I'll find the sources for you. Don't feel like doing the search right at this moment.

 

No. No. Terrible argument. Lebron is a better pg than Mario Chalmers. In fact, he's better than most of the pgs in the league. Harden isn't. Its not hard to sit down and think before you post. Mario Chalmers is a spot up shooter. That's it. He's at his beat when he's doing this, because HE CAN FUXKING SHOOT. Jeremy Lin is not Mario Chalmers. He's a playmaking pg. He has proved this. That's why Morey signed him. He has also proven that he can't shoot. Asking Jeremy Lin to be a spot up 3 pt shooter is like making russel Westbrook ( who is by far better than Jeremy Lin ) do the same. Waste/misuse of a player. You will never see how well Lin can play in that situation. To do this, you have to look back on when he was running things in NY. Small sample size yes, but its really no smaller than a lot of other players get before they are labeled the next big thing.

 

I agree that Harden can pick his spots, until the last 10 games he was not shooting a terribly high number of shots for someone of his stature.

 

What you fail to realize or refuse to acknowledge is that the Heat have 2 legit superstar caliber players and another star caliber player. The Rockets have one legit superstar caliber players and a bunch of very young role players. It's just not the same situation at all.

 

Jeremy Lin is not Russell Westbrook...... and even KD and RW has issues.

 

The 40 minutes a night thing bothers me. I know that James averages 40 minutes a game for his career. Jordan averaged 38. Magic averages 37. The Dream averaged 35. Harden should be in that 36-38 minutes a night range.

I think McHale just lacks discipline sometimes. Harden is the top player, so when the team is struggling, he just plays him more.

 

Lebron is not only a far superior player, incomparable really, but he has a far different offensive mindset than harden.

bobbthetroll labels both "superstars" and therefore wants everyone to believe they are equivalent. Sorry, son, but not all superstars are created equally. As a matter of fact, there is still a huge gulf between Lebron and Durant, even though Durant will likely win the mvp this year.

Harden is light years away (below) Durant. Trying to equate harden therefore with lebron is straight up delusional.

 

Of the players listed, harden is better than ginobli. Ginobli comes off of the bench for a reason. Part of that is tony parker. Even when they are on the floor together, parker is still a major part of the offense. Of all those players, Jordan wa probably the only one who won while dominating the ball. And he had great teams /coaching and it is literally r****ded to compare him to harden ( on top of this, Jordan defended ). Neither lebron or Kobe could win it by themselves, and harden is not even on their level.

 

I agree that Lin is a terrible shooter and he shouldn't be asked (or allowed) to shoot often, that's what makes him a poor match for the team. He essentially does the same thing that Harden does, he's just not as good at it. Lin is at his best when he has the ball and he's penetrating the lane getting layups or in the pick and roll. Problem is, there isn't another good PnR guy on the Rockets right now so that's pretty much out the window and he's not as good penetrating as Harden which is why I'd rather see Harden with it.