Don't ever underestimate the coach's impact on the game. Sometimes player's mistakes just come from bad coaching. For example, Harden's 6/24 shooting was mainly because of ISO strategy from McFail. BTW, so far we are not in the playoff yet.
Funny how people are so quick to harp on iso ball when harden has one of his pretty rare poor shooting nights and never hear a peep about it when he's scoring 30 on around 15 shots. I don't care who you are, you can't make shots every single game.
All I am saying is do not harden iso all the time and give this guy a proper rest. We are reponsing to this v**** hater. Do you think his is post sound and ok?
I have pretty much stayed out of the Lin debate, but here goes. I am a very big fan of Lin. I love his skill set, his attitude, his whole demeanor. I think his best days are ahead. It is obvious that McHale lacks confidence in him. My guess is McHale thinks he can tell when Lin is going to have a good night and when he isn't. So, at the first indication that he is going to have a bad night, he pulls him. He seems to do that to other players as well with the exception of Harden and Parsons. I understand the logic, but if I were Lin it would be frustrating. I would want the opportunity to "get going." Clearly against the Pacers Harden couldn't hit the side of a barn, but he was given the opportunity to continue. I understand that too, but it seems that he could cut Lin a bit more slack. I think he prefers Beverly, but Lin is a big money player and a favorite of the owner. If that weren't the case, my guess is that he wouldn't play him at all.
Why are we so preoccupied with the 4th best player on the team. With Yao, I understood, because he was the 1st or 2nd best player (when Tmac was healthy) on team. We talk as if JLin is going to lead us to the NBA finals. Not going to happen, he would be an awesome backup giving fits to other teams 2nd PG's. But this board doesn't want to admit it.
I second that point. Not knocking on Lin's game or anything, but at the moment Beverley seems to be a better fit with Harden than Lin is. Bev is good at playing off the ball, is a good enough defender to cover for Harden's mistakes, and an okay spot up shooter (no better or worse than Lin is.) If you look at Lin's style than he's pretty much a poor man's Harden, a bit quicker but not stronger nor good at drawing foul, and both are about equal at passing (though I think Lin sees and directs traffic much better than Harden.) So with those points established, having Lin playing as the second unit's PG would give the opposing team's backup PG a living hell as Lin dismantles their second unit with his playmaking/attacking ability and the second unit. I think this will be an interesting strategy to try, especially during the playoff. Obviously this strategy is not sustainable during the long run, and that's Lin's and Harden's job (as well as the coaching staff's) to find something that can mesh them together. If not, Lin has no future in this current Rocket team with Harden.
Well you are not seeing the big picture here, it is getting closer to playoffs, the refs are swallowing their whistles, plays are getting more physical, and Harden is not getting as many easy calls as earlier in the season. The fact of the matter is, it is going to be this way all the way into the playoffs. Like I said a few times on this forum. This is Harden's first year to be in the role to carry a team, don't be like Ima defending him no matter what. Harden has done great this season, but the last few games there might be a not-so-good trend going on.
We're better off playing 4-on-5 than have Jeremy Lin on the court. It's like he plays for the other team.
Some people just easily forget about seven-game-losing-streak, when Harden-ISO ball made our offense so predictable. Those people also easily forget that when JLin has a chance to play as the actual PG, both harden and JLin thrive. Indeed it's true that Bev is a better fit for Harden ISO style. Question is if this is really the formula to success. Can the coaching stuff really learn something from that losing streak? It seems not. The current strategy used by McHale not only hurts Lin's development but also gradually make Harden a damaged good in long run. It also shows the impotency of our coach to take advantage of the strength from Both Harden and Lin.
