You're an awful poster. You just posted mistaken crap about Harden in the "harden is Overrated" thread and now you come and post this garbage in here. Nobody wants to replace Lin. Fans with agendas like you, well, we'd trade you for hemorrhoids.
You know, remove your first paragraph and you would have had a decent post, instead of one that screams conspiracy. Its a decent point. Theres plenty of confirmation bias here. Just look at the game threads and its obvious.
With Lin, you HOPE hes going to be confident and fight. With Bev, you know youre going to get hear, hustle, defense and grit on every play. Bev has to start
Bev is a great player. But he won't win you games. He isn't exactly capable of going 20 plus points. Lin is. Besides, as proven tonight, they can both start. So why is this Lin vs Bev again?
Speaking of trade values, Asik would be a tough trade with that 14 mil balloon year. If Asik doesn't improve offensively, if he can't learn how to grab the ball one-handed and hold it, if he can't learn how to use his length to keep the ball up high, if he can't get over the fumblinas, then he's gonna be tough to trade and get anything of real value after next season. Right now, both guys are basically $10 mil per year for 2 seasons. I know they only count $16.7 mill against the cap, but they are being paid $20 mill over 2 years. A max contract for either guy would only be around $13 mil per season. So both guys need to drastically improve this off season or their trade values both go to nil.
No, his 15m salary in 3rd year will count 8.3m against any team's cap, even it's Knicks. But still, 15m is a lot of money out of pocket.
That's why I think if Rockets want to move him, next year would be the best time unless he improves significantly (I believe he will).
lin wont be effective until he has a big to pnr with. its really that simple. while i love what asik has done on d this whole season, his lack of offense has severely hurt lin's (and harden's) game. in ny lin had the luxury to lob passes to chandler. he had the luxury to pick n pop with stat. he had a reliable (im looking at u delfino) 3 pt ace with novak. and this is all in addition to his own scoring. getting a legit scoring big is an absolute necessity to this team. lin's game is almost predicated on playing with talented bigs because they become an extension of himself. they do things that he cant (contested dunks for example) and he will feed them all day while still getting his own shot. and this applies to harden as well. there is no reason why harden and lin cant coexist but i think this can only happen if they have a legit front court setting picks and finishing at the rim. if lin still plays "poor" with a legit front court then, and only then, can you label him as a "failure". but as of right now, without a legit front court linsanity 2.0 is impossible.
yup. pretty much agree. love having beverley on the team because he's pushing lin to get better. you compete or you get left behind. simple as that. based on lin's history, i think he'll answer the challenge and get better. and yes, next season is crucial for him. but, you can't judge him in a vacuum, just like you can't judge any one player in a vacuum. are the coaches making any tweaks to the system? are they taking advantage of lin and harden's strength? will he have the ball in his hands more? those are all things that need to be considered. we've seen throughout the season that when he is the primary playmaker (games when harden was out) he is a very good player. next year, his numbers will not be linsanity but his production per actual possession might. you can't expect linsanity when he's not being used the same way.
I think you need a little reality check. Beverly's defensive play was actually brilliant . He held Westbrook to an astounding low of 29 points. This was great as Westbrook played played only 37 minutes, close to only 3/4 of the game. He sat on the bench for almost a quarter. Thus, Westbrook averaged .8 points a minute with Beverly guarding him. This equates to almost 34 points for 42 minutes. Great defence Beverly, you really shook Westbrook up.
I don't care about Lin's numbers: what's important is that he be allowed to play his style of basketball, which surprise, surprise, will help the rockets as well. McHale wants him to play a very specific role; off the ball, get rid of the ball quickly, a few spot up 3's, minimal dribbling, zero moderate/high risk plays and passes. Basically, a 6'3" version of chandler parsons, or steve kerr, or steve novak. Mchale does NOT want Lin directing the offense, making decisions, or playing the floor leader/quarterback decision. Those duties are exclusively in the hands of harden. And we saw what happened. Harden's efficiency dropped off the cliff, he played too many minutes and played too many games banged up. The offense stagnated as the other rockets stood around while harden dribbled out the clock, chucking a last second desperation 3, or dumping off to a teammate to attempt the same. Mchale is completely out of ideas with the offense, and he didn't have very many to begin with. I honestly think Woodson is the coach of the year. He's an excellent defensive coach and a hugely underrated offensive coach as well. I like to give Morey props as well, but he's human, he's learning on the job, and like everyone else, makes mistakes, sometimes big ones. And the hiring of mchale is one of his big ones. The offense is incredibly imbalanced, and I see more of the same next season; a fresh harden getting off to a hot start, which won't last as his efficiency takes a huge hit from over-use. It's going to be another painful season next season.
^ Enough said folks. Objective, unbiased data that doesn't shine Lin in a good light. While the Rockets are good when he's on the court, we're statistically better when he's off the court. The OKC playoff series is just another data point to confirm these stats.
