I see what you're saying, and you've been pretty much saying this all year. But you've also heard, I'm sure many times, that Harden plays 40 minutes a game, so benching Lin does nothing, especially if McHale continues to stagger their minutes and start Lin in the 2nd and 4th as he has been.
A good perimeter defender + a bad perimeter defender != two average defenders. You can not compensate for a bad defender by having a good one. The only solution is to have Harden developing his defensive game and I am optimistic that he can do that. He is so committed to be a good player that he can not afford to be always bad defensively . Beverley is very good as a backup pg and I really like him. not to discount his skills and effort, his way of play is hard to sustain for a starter's minutes. Think about how Dmo struggled with it and you get the idea. But Beverly could eventually develop this and it would great for the team. Offensively, I would disagree with the notion that harden + Beverly offense is good enough right now. You need at least two creators on the court to be a really good team and we currently only have two on the team: Harden and Lin. The reason you have the Manu or Ray or former Harden as the sixth man is because they've already got two good creators on the team. If we got another foundational players who can create, we might start to stagger Lin and harden's minutes more. Harden and Lin not working perfectly together NOW does not mean they can not do that in the FUTURE. For they to work together in the future, they need to play together more as starters. They are already doing better than earlier in the season. Lin is doing the catch and shoot better. The 12 pick and roll is working better. If you are worried about our offensive in the 2nd unit, which is really like a rollercoaster this season, I think the better solution would be to develop Mr Anderson better or get another play maker. You do not try to improve you 2nd unit by using one if your starters as a bench player. It might be a short term solution but this will hurt the team in the long run.
I agree with you to an extent, except that I don't think Beverley is good enough to be a starter. We'd just be better with McHale consistently trying to stagger Harden & Lin's minutes with both starting and letting them both learn to coexist. Terry played behind Kidd with Dirk. Kevin Martin plays from the bench with OKC starting their 1a and 1b options in Durant & Westbrook. Ginobili plays from the bench with 1a Parker and 1b Duncan. Notice the pattern of having two scoring options on the court? It's just fortunate that in the case of Dallas, OKC and San Antonio that their other scoring option doesn't need to dominate the ball in order to be effective.
And yes, I'm aware that 2011 Kidd wasn't a huge scoring threat but what he was was the Dallas floor general who could get it to Dirk in his sweet spots and run the offense.
Next season may be interesting if we can nab a legitimate post scoring threat to be our 2nd option and Parsons continues to develop his game. We'd probably have a fair case then for starting Beverley so that Lin can freely play his game and allow the Rockets offense to become a well oiled machine.
Saying he isn't a good shooter, is not the same thing as saying he's a bad shooter. I never said he was a "bad shooter". I simply stated the truth. He's not a good shooter.
Patrick Beverley's Journey to the NBA Pretty good, and long, read about Patrick Beverley. Lock if posted. http://www.thedreamshake.com/2013/3/8/4080344/patrick-beverleys-journey-to-the-nba
If this happens then Lin's getting traded before his contract is up. Lin isn't Ginobli good. You're not paying 8mil/year to have Lin come off the bench.
His TS% is around 55% which is above average. His fg% is misleading because half his shots are 3s. This is Carlos delfino territory.
This is a little confusing to me. Are we talking about his technique? Shot choice (3 vs 2)? I didn't see anything in his mechanics that screams bad/inconsistent shooter to me. And what "looks" good isn't always statistically good, while "ugly" can be effective. There's a long list of good shooters that didn't have perfect technique. But again, I wasn't sure where you were coming from. I like Patrick's intensity off the bench. He's annoying as hell on defense and never gives up on a play. He's also gifted athletically. I think his PG play and decision making needs work. He does also appear to be a streaky shooter. He's a great change of pace guy off the bench and I can see him becoming a fan favorite.
Good Lawd Mannnn, calm yo @zz down....!!! Lol... If you read my previous post you will see I said Beverly is the better running mate for Harden because of his defense. I SAID NOTHING ABOUT SCORING... Harden's defense can be bad to terrible and Lin isn't much better. Lin hustles hard and he is active but you can't confuse activity with productivity because he gets lit up like a Christmas tree just like Harden. So two bad defenders in the backcourt with no true consistent shot blocking rim protecting big men backing them up (which would make both of them better defenders because opposing players may not drive the lane as much) can be a recipe for disaster when they are not just flat out outscoring their opponents. But Morey will bring in another guard to compete with both Lin and Beverly (if none are traded). That's not saying what I want him to do, just what I think he will do and I would be willing to bet that he does. And Tony Douglas better than Beverly... Bwahahahahaha...!!! NO COMMENT...Lol...
I have to disagree, coachbadlee (are you really a bad coach, or just a bad boy? ;-)- ). I think we've seen the backcourt rotation start to jell the last few games. McHale has discovered that Lin and Beverley work very, very well together, especially when we need to bump up the defense. Jeremy is a plus defender, IMO, and Bev is just rediculously good. Between the two of them, Harden gets a blow, which he could use more often than he gets, and the opposing team is faced with quite a different look on both ends of the court. When Jeremy and James are on the court together, it's obvious to me that they're starting to click. Changing the rotation there is the last thing I want to see. When Lin sits and Beverley is playing with Harden, Bev is very disruptive for the other team when they're having to double Harden, and as you point out, is hell on wheels defending, which helps make up for Harden's current problems in that area (I think he's going to improve a lot there, given time and fewer minutes). In other words, I like the direction the backcourt is going and am tired of this continual search for an "improvement," when to my eyes, we're seeing just that. Why don't we see what happens in the post-season? We obviously need an upgrade at the backup 2 spot, but that's for later this summer, hopefully. Meanwhile, again, why not stick with what we're seeing evolve.
It's easier to play defense when you're only playing 17 minutes a game. You can be more aggressive because you have more energy and you also don't have to worry about fouling out.
This is true (and also why so many backups "look" better than starters). Lin led the NBA in steals per minute by a large margin, I believe, when he was playing off the bench in GS, although he is still in the top ten in the NBA as a starter. I believe Lin was also #1 in blocked shots per minute among PGs. Bev's role as 15-20 min/game is perfect for him to go all-out the entire time. Bev's efficiency will be reduced if he is a starter. If Beverly can develop a better offensive game (court awareness, passing, etc.), then he might become more effective as a starter than backup, but he is not there yet.
