Lin is the best. Even though he is worse at everything else, he does 3 things that they can't do and that is adding: 1. Maxxis Tires 2. Peak Shoes 3. some other Chinese bank. Great get by Les to boost the bottom line.
Lowry is still better than Lin, it's just that he's playing in Toronto alongside two ball dominant wings in a system where they want him to play more like Calderon. Imagine being a PG and playing alongside Rudy Gay and Demar Derozan, there's only so many touches that can go around. The thing of course is that Lowry has also shown that he is a volatile headcase and is injury prone, while Lin's size has proven to be advantageous and means he could probably guard twos quite well. Dragic? I haven't watched the Suns this year besides our games. Dragic is a Lin clone, just more seasoned. Worst case scenario Lin becomes an inconsistent Dragic, best case scenario he improves his game and becomes an exceptionally talented PG that could be a legitimate 2nd option. It's still Lin fellas, even if he played poorly this game.
The only conclusion one can make so far is that neither Dragic nor Lowry are game-changers. They're good players, but a bad team will suck with them, and a good team will be good with them. Lin is still worse than both, but he at least has the chance to be a game changer. So like most other Morey moves, he's paid for his upside more for his upside. Time will see if Lin reaches that potential.
No one care when Parsons or Asik has a single digit game, poor FG% or limited minutes. But when it happens to Lin, it is a big deal.
LOL, yep and threads like this keeps popping up flooding the GARM when we should be focusing on the team and soon to be in 6th place..
You need to update your appraisal. This season has proven that Lin is at or above those guys' level. Lowry has ego problems, is injury prone, couldn't play his way above Calderon and now is struggling to replace him. Dragic is the most competent player on his team and has no one to share playmaking duties with, and has marginally higher per game production than Lin, who is not and does. So Lin is not only 3 years younger with much better upside, he is already better. It's a no-brainer at this point.
oh believe me, people will care a whole lot after parsons signs his next big contract at 8mil/yr. asik... the expectation early on was that he doesn't have an offensive game whatsoever so any offense you get from him is a bonus.
The gap is less than 3.0 for the first time. Current PER: Lin 14.92, Lowry 17.86, and Dragic 17.31. <table border="0"> <tr><td colspan="6" align="center" >Point Guards' PER, Season 2012-13</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#0069B9";font style="color:#ffffff;"><th>Player</th><th>Oct. 31</th> <th>Dec. 31</th> <th>Jan. 31</th> <th>March 1</th> <th>March 16</th> <th>APRIL 2</th> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"><td align="right">Kyle Lowry</td><td align="center">25.47</td> <td align="center">21.92</td> <td align="center">21.26</td> <td align="center">19.41</td> <td align="center">19.02</td> <td align="center">17.86</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#eeeeee"><td align="right">Goran Dragic</td><td align="center">20.19</td> <td align="center">18.50</td> <td align="center">17.51</td> <td align="center">16.87</td> <td align="center">17.31</td> <td align="center">17.08</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#ffffff"><td align="right">Jeremy Lin</td><td align="center">15.07</td> <td align="center">14.69</td> <td align="center">14.34</td> <td align="center">14.68</td> <td align="center">15.05</td> <td align="center">14.92</td> </tr><tr bgcolor="#0069B9";font style="color:#ffffff;"><td align="left">Gap</td><td align="center">10.40</td> <td align="center">7.23</td> <td align="center">6.92</td> <td align="center">4.73</td> <td align="center">3.97</td> <td align="center">2.94</td> </tr></table> Lowry has played badly recently, and Dragic's stats look good: <table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="3" class="tablehead" bgcolor="#ffffff"><tr class="colhead"><th>PLAYER</th><th style="text-align:right !important;" title="Games Played">GP</th><th style="text-align:right !important;" title="Minutes Per Game">MIN</th><th style="text-align:right !important;" title="Field Goal Percentage">FG%</th><th style="text-align:right !important;" title="Rebounds Per Game">REB</th><th style="text-align:right !important;" title="Assists Per Game">AST</th><th style="text-align:right !important;" title="Blocks Per Game">BLK</th><th style="text-align:right !important;" title="Steals Per Game">STL</th><th style="text-align:right !important;" title="Personal Fouls Per Game">PF</th><th style="text-align:right !important;" title="Points Per Game">PPG</th><th>TEAM RECORD</th></tr> <tr class="oddrow"> <td>Lin</td> <td>10</td> <td style="text-align:right;">28.1</td><td style="text-align:right;">.486</td><td style="text-align:right;">1.5</td><td style="text-align:right;">5.6</td><td style="text-align:right;">0.3</td><td style="text-align:right;">1.2</td><td style="text-align:right;">1.9</td><td style="text-align:right;">14.2</td> <td align="center">7-3</td></tr> <tr class="evenrow"> <td>Dragic</td> <td>8</td> <td style="text-align:right;">34.1</td><td style="text-align:right;">.480</td><td style="text-align:right;">4.4</td><td style="text-align:right;">9.4</td><td style="text-align:right;">0.3</td><td style="text-align:right;">1.3</td><td style="text-align:right;">3.3</td><td style="text-align:right;">17.4</td> <td align="center">1-9</td></tr> <tr class="evenrow"> <td>Lowry</td> <td>10</td> <td style="text-align:right;">31.4</td><td style="text-align:right;">.360</td><td style="text-align:right;">3.8</td><td style="text-align:right;">6.2</td><td style="text-align:right;">0.5</td><td style="text-align:right;">1.1</td><td style="text-align:right;">3.5</td><td style="text-align:right;">8.4</td> <td align="center">2-8</td></tr> </table>
Lin has the best PER last season, and he's bothered by knee recovery especially ealrier this season. So in the last two seasons, Lin tied with Dragic/Lowry in PER.
I hate to say it but it doesn't look like Lin's PER has improved at all since October. The only reason the gap is closing is because Lowry and Dragic are falling back to earth.
It's irrelevant. Using PER to judge player is fundamentally flawed to begin with, by doing so you are ignoring player roles completely. Look at Nash's stats this season being the secondary ball handler, are you saying Dragic is better than Nash?
I would say it doesn't make sense to compare straight PERs of Lin/Dragic/Lowry because neither Dragic nor Lowry are playing alongside a ball dominant guard like Harden. I think Harden's essential to the Rox success, and love his play, but let's be honest, Lin's assists and points would go up significantly if he were playing with another shooting guard.
Great post. PER is an extremely flawed stat. Among the advanced stats it's one of the worst. The reason is because PER is highly highly influenced by who shoots more. If you look at the formula, even if you shoot poorly, something like anything over 35% shooting will automatically raise your PER. Lin only shoots 10 a game. It's very hard to have a high PER if you aren't shooting a lot per minute (high shot rate). For example, John Stockton handled the ball a ton but his usage and PER weren't super high because he selectively shot the ball.
PER doesn't account for the fact that of the three Lin is in by far the worst environment for a point guard. Neither Lowry nor Dragic are forced to play shooting guard every game. As you can see when Harden is out, Lin puts up much better numbers. He has the highest field goal percentage of the three and is also the best passer. He'll turn out to be a much better player than either Dragic or Lowry.
