I know coaches get to input who gets cut and who stays. But isn't it true that most coaches in the league are hired to coach the players the GM has assembled, and they don't really have too much of a say? Although, McHale being a former GM rather than pure head coach may make him view players differently. Shrug.
Great post. You seem to be spot on about McHale. It seems that he often does not make the right decision the first time around, but it seems that he is able to slowly fix his mistakes (perhaps with some help from his staff or from the executives), though he never admits them. At least he is flexible enough to do this. It does seem that he takes things personally out on players, which is not cool and not a sign of good leadership. It was frankly pathetic when he made up the 9 turnovers on Lin, when Lin had only 3 turnovers in the game and has NEVER had 9 in a game in his NBA career, I believe. Ultimately the key is whether he makes the right decision in the end and whether messes up anyone mentally during the process.
This is why I always love OMR's posts. Rational, logical, objective, and without prejudice. I think most players improve most between their first and third years of consistent minutes, depending on whether they suffer a sophomore slump or not. In Lin's case, the first half of the season and his NY games were pretty much his first season. And this off-season he lost critical time rehabbing his meniscus injury, but nonetheless we have seen substantial improvements in all facets of his game as he returned to health. Most obvious has been his 3pt shooting, but in general his defense, turnovers, left hand, court awareness, passing, orchestrating an offense have all improved. And I think he's finding a better balance between finding his teammates, deferring to Harden, and picking his spots. Hopefully he's found his comfort zone on this team. Let's not forget that Lin had rarely played against NBA-calibre athletes at Harvard, with most games played against Ivy League opponents. So he probably needed a longer adjustment period compared to rookies. With what looks like play-off experience coming also, I'm hoping Lin can take his game to another level following this coming offseason. Key thing is consistency. Consistency in his shot, decision making, and continued incremental improvements in all the areas above would make him a pretty good two-way NBA PG, which is actually quite rare. And more work with SPARTA Sports. I think the four core players on the Rockets - Harden, Asik, Parsons and Lin - can all grow substantially following this season. Hopefully Morey doesn't trade any of them away.
Other then SPARTA Sports, he also needs to be put through Gary Payton's meat grinder for one month in the summer. Pick up the defensive skills and post up skills from the Glove, and then he can carry more of the backcourt's defensive load and cover Harden's back while having more options picking his offensive spots.
Thanks for your post Old Man Rock, in giving us McHale's point of view. Its true, last time reporters asked about Lin, McHale deflected the question and spoke about the team's youth. The good news is McHale seems to be trusting Lin more with the ball lately. Btw, Lin has already trained with Gary Payton before.
I couldn't let this go. For all the apologists and ppl who think they know about this particular knee injury. Metta World Peace impresses "Metta World Peace will play in the Los Angeles Lakers' game against the New Orleans Hornets on Tuesday night, just 12 days after surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee that was supposed to sideline him six weeks." It took Lin 10 months for this injury?????
Lin had his repaired. I'm guessing MWP had his removed completely, which takes lesser time to heal. He's nearing the end of his career so he probably doesn't care.
It's more that torn meniscus varies immensely in recovery time based on the exact location of the injury. It varies from recovers in 1 week without surgery to can never recover even with surgery.
You care because? Are you implying something about Lin? The only people discussing and feeling butthurt about this (more than any other forum) are NYK forums. Be better than them, unless you're one of them.
so, in your head, what makes more sense to you? 1) all injuries are different in severity, and people recover differently. it took MWP less time to recover (or maybe he's not recovered yet but doesn't care) than people thought, and it took lin longer time to recover than people thought. the rocket's organization has said that lin only recently is back to 100%, which we've seen reflected in his play. didn't cp3 took about a year to get back to his normal self from a similar injury? or 2) lin was fine all along but just didn't feel like playing well so he purposely sucked it up in november, and only gradually played himself back where he is now because he's lazy. or 3) he's a slow healer and a wuss and can't play through pain (even though his ankle have sprained multiple times this year and have yet to miss one single game).
I had a small left knee meniscal tear, and after arthroscopic knee surgery my doctor allowed me to play sports after three months. I am a doctor myself, and Lin made the intelligent choice.
As a current medical student at a university with multiple top-20 sports teams and a renowned orthopedic surgery department, I can verify this. MWP coming back 12 days post-op says absolutely nothing about Jeremy Lin's surgery / recovery. There is a great deal of variability in terms of size and location of the tear, as well as the thickness and overall health of the cartilage. I'm not trying to downplay MWP's grit, but simply put: no two menisci are the same.
Simply put, Lin was fine when the new season began. He had MORE than enough time to heal. He just needed time to acclimate to his new surroundings. That was a bigger barrier. I've already stated this. 6 weeks is standard as had been stated MANY times in the media and by various medical opinions. Give a slow healer twice that time (3 months). 6 months??? What did Lin get hurt again??? 9 months??? Cmon now.
You can't compare any human being to Metta World Peace. I don't even know if i'd go to class 12 days after having surgery, where all I have to do is sit down.
This is just wrong and nonsensical. As to the general question of whether Lin was affected by the injury, who knows how much but both Lin and Morey said he was..
Geez ppl still not getting it. It's not about MWP 12 days recover time which may be too soon. It's not about 6 weeks stated standard time for recovery for that type of injury. Some may say you need less, some say more. Fact is, Lin had 9-10 months to recover. WAYYYYY beyond what was needed.
