Isiah on Harden and Lin: Could be the best backcourt in the NBA

I like how Isiah conveniently forgets to mention he had the Detroit Bad Boys in the frontcourt behind him and Joe that enforced the "Jordan Rules" on every team they played and had opposing guards fearful to drive into the paint. That had everything to do with their defense on the perimeter.

Asik needs to become a high volume shot blocker and a better rim protecter (are the Rockets need to get someone who can) if they want to be championship contenders with Harden and Lin in the same backcourt.

 

Curry is not average to below average on half of the things you listed. In fact he is good to very good on all of these things you listed except for defense.

 

Lin's per 36 min stats before and after the Heat game:

Before: 23p/4r/9a on 50% shooting (8 of 16)
After: 17p/4r/8a on 41% shooting (6 of 13)

Hardly being "locked down"

 

Remember when heat played clippers? Yea they shut down CP3 as well.
If they want to shut you down, consider its done.

 

I don't see this happening, Omer just doesn't have the hops or wingspan to be a good shot blocker. He can't even dunk half the time when he's point-blank under the rim.

 

Lin's production declined towards the end of last season but you have to consider Melo and Amare came back so that will cut into his scoring. He was also basically playing with a torn meniscus for a lot of that stretch.

 

He was responding to htown's post about Lin being locked down by other teams after the Heat game due to being scouted.

 

we talkn last year with the Knicks

 

Yeah I was just adding in other factors for his declined numbers.

That being ineffective after being scouted stuff is pure bs. After the Miami game Lin still had these games:

19/13 vs Cavs
20/4 vs Spurs
20/13 vs Bucks
19/6 vs Pacers
18/10 vs Raptors

Unless those teams just stink at employing the "scouting report" I don't see how any "lockdown" occurred.

 

You right pimpn

 

I don't know how you can assign a number to ball handling and claim one's better ball handler, just like you wouldn't assign a number to court vision, those are difficult to measure. Curry does not have the tendency of jumping in mid-air without knowing what to do, he does not lose handle because of ball pressure by the defender. These are 2 fundemental flaws of Lin's game and they are hard to improve.

 

It doesnt matter. Miami is great at stopping the PnR ball handler by trapping hard with super athletic perimeter defenders, it's a well-known strategy against PnR

 

You are welcome to your opnion Htownballer 38, but if you watched every Knicks game last season, you would know that Jared Jeffries was known to be a great defender, but an offensive liability. Thats why everytime he attempted to shoot the ball, the crowd at MSG would grown. After Lin arrived, Jeffries defensive tenacity showed and he was able to score better with an assist from Lin, so Jeffries even became a fan favorite. Novak's 3PM% last season with Lin was .472, good for number one in the league. This season without Lin, it is .429, which is tenth in the league.

Here are further stats to support my claim (taken from lightningbolt in another thread):

 

I haven't see much "jumping in mid-air without knowing what to do" from Lin's games recently.

 

I am sorry but again I disagree, he had a few good games but he didnt elevate their games..Novak been a top 3 point shooter. Jeffreis had a few hustle plays and a few layups during that time. Tyson was always good at positioning himself for lobs,,been doing that his entire career. They had a good run but when teams started locking Lin down ( go back and look at the Heat game,) they shut that **** down.[/QUOTE]

You can't deny Lin makes other players better. No matter how hard you position yourself for lobs, you don't score if the passer doesnt see the opportunities or can't get the timing right. Look what kind of contracts Lin gave Field and Novak this year. I don't know why everyone's talking about that 1 game vs Heat. Who doesn't get shut down by Heat these days? Harden has several those kind of game this season, do you see it as he would get locked down by other teams as well? In fact after those crappy shootings the first two OKC games, he scored 46 vs the same exact team.

 

Actually it was Melo who said that he was the one who asked coach D'Antoni to play Lin, but neither D'Antoni nor Lin ever supported that claim.