Jeremy is a very likeable guy and it's easy to root for him. His work ethic seems high, which means that he'll continue to improve. I'm comfortable with him if he's fully heatlhy.
This is correct. I think that Lin even said that he will always have haters. Even during Linsanity people were making up all kinds of cra* about him being slow, unathletic, and a bad defender, when defense has been his calling card ever since he entered the league, the key to Linsanity was defense, and his scientific measurements of athleticism were off the charts in New York.
I agree with you! I think the coaches really don't want him to be a scorer, more pass first PG as evidenced by McHales comments "Jeremy wants 29pts and 9 turnovers and I say to him we want to win." He has to ignore the coaches and just go Linsane.Get the swagger back. Give the finger to Harden when he's bricking every shot. Just take control of the team. The coaches aren't going to give him a new contract. The only power they got over him is playing time but McHale's on thin ice already with his poor in-game decisions and rotations, and if he keeps benching Lin when he's playing well next year, I reckon he'll be gone before Lin goes.
If he being aggressive and turned over the ball or miss the ball, you would have calling him another name. He can't win.
The raw (PPG & APG) numbers argument is a very flawed one. They are a factor, certainly, but if you're just looking at raw (PPG & APG) numbers when comparing PGs you're doing it wrong. At the very least look at the other key statistics. Leaving out turnovers when discussing Lin is like leaving out blocks when discussing Ibaka, only the other way around. You also might wanna adjust for pace to get a more even bottom line and though it's common sense that it's harder to be quite as productive on a per minute basis playing 40 minutes compared to playing 'only' 30 minutes, it might be wise to look both at actual averages and averages adjusting for minutes played. Still even after doing all this the statistics available to the public will only tell you so much. Things like not creating angles in early offense/transition, picking up the dribble too early, passing up open shots, defensive play, etc... simply don't show up in any the boxscore and the +/- data is very much cloudy.
I applaud him for playing through pain, because you never know how effective you are until you actually play. The courage is the only thing I care at this point, and we are not winning the series anyway.
I want to believe Jeremy can get better. I really do because he's a great teammate, hard worker and good off the court but I just don't see it happening in 2 years. Even if he does turn into Linsanity great it will be under the last year of his contract and then we won't be able to afford him. He needs to go to a team that needs a go to guy because he won't get that chance here since Harden is the star. I expect a trade before the trade deadline next season.
Whoever think Lin can succeed with this team is kidding themselves. Harden's and Lin's skillset do not fit together. They will never, ever have perfect synergy with each other. Not saying that Lin will blow up on some other team that will give him a bigger role, but the team is not playing to his strength. I do agree though, that maximize Harden's skillset is more ideal/beneficial for the team, since he's definitely the more talented one. It's best for both, Lin and the team, to go their separate way.
I sort of echo REEKO's thoughts here. I do think the Rockets will want to give him one more shot but they will definitely be open to trading him if A. they need his salary to take on another max all-star salary, and B. They get to next February's deadline and haven't seen drastic improvement & consistency. I personally think the Lin signing was before the Rockets knew they would strike gold with Harden. Had they known that was going to happen you might see them go in a different direction at the time to set themselves up better to make the move for a true #2 superstar. Still the contract and the player are good enough to allow them some time to see if the experiment can work. If not, the clock starts ticking come January/February of 2014.
If LeBron and Wade can work together, I don't see how a Harden Lin will be a problem? Why do people think moving Lin will make this team better under McHale? Yes, if you just look at end of the game stats, then Lin is at best better below average. But if you have watch the game, more than half of the time when he was at the court, he was camping at the 3 points line. This bag the question: Why would a PG, know for his speed and court vision camping at the 3 points line? For the time where he was allowed to run as a PG, AKA, moving, controlling the ball, he excelled. NOT only he excelled, his improved Harden as well. Harden actually get over than 50% of his FG when Lin controlled the ball Lin problems as most of you bought up is his jump shoot, but this is not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is the system. There is lack of movement from the players without the ball. Most of the time, they just stood there.
If he can't fix his god damn aweful jump shots in this offseason, then he will be a nothing but average PG, at best. I had high hope for him but I really have doubts now after his performance in the last 8-10 games or so. Disappointed.
I agree that he's slumped a bit in the playoffs but last 10 games? He actually played quite well some stretches. Wed 4/17 @ LAL L 95-99 35 4-14 .286 2-7 .286 2-4 .500 2 8 0 0 4 2 12 Mon 4/15 @ PHX L 112-119 36 8-19 .421 2-6 .333 2-4 .500 3 4 1 0 4 2 20 Sun 4/14 vsSAC W 121-100 26 4-8 .500 1-2 .500 6-6 1.000 4 2 0 0 1 3 15 Tue 4/9 vsPHX W 101-98 37 5-14 .357 0-4 .000 3-3 1.000 1 6 0 2 1 2 13 Sat 4/6 @ DEN L 114-132 35 8-15 .533 2-6 .333 5-6 .833 2 8 0 0 3 1 23 Fri 4/5 @ POR W 116-98 34 8-13 .615 2-4 .500 4-5 .800 4 8 0 2 2 4 22 Wed 4/3 @ SAC W 112-102 34 5-13 .385 3-6 .500 2-2 1.000 1 10 0 1 4 2 15 Mon 4/1 vsORL W 111-103 30 8-16 .500 2-4 .500 1-2 .500 3 11 0 0 1 3 19 Sat 3/30 vsLAC W 98-81 31 4-10 .400 1-2 .500 6-8 .750 0 3 1 0 4 6 15 Fri 3/29 @ MEM L 94-103 23 3-9 .333 0-1 .000 2-2 1.000 1 3 1 2 2 2 8
First off, i've been a Rockets fan since 1991 and i disagree with this assumption. I'm not the knee-jerk type. I support all the players on our team and wish them the best. Especially for a team and players this young and inexperienced. Lin cannot win? That's just an unfair assessment for any player who's practically on his first full season in the league.