So am I but what does that have to do with anything? Maury and Lex industries signed him because one, they believe in his growth at that position. Two, he is a name that nobody can stop talking about, lovers and haters. Three, no other pg of your choice wanted to sign with you without that player option. As to he is not a fit with harden, that's a bunch of horse crap. Maury can put any five players and still lead the league in points and assists. Harden's defense isn't a good fit for the rockets. =/ Just go back and look at our offense output before harden and lin and with a 4'1 center.
If the regular season and playoffs were only that 2.5 months long and games were only 36 mins long than yes...it would affect my decision, but unfortunately for your reasoning they aren't. That's silly to try to bend number in all sorts of ways to try to make someone sound much better than they ACTUALLY did. Also, you do realize that if you took all the other point guards and bend their stats in this way (in a way that's much more favorable to them) they'd all have much better numbers too and Lin would be right back in his same place among pgs, right?
Come on Clutch! This is a ridiculous NO-Brainer too and 29 people selected Jeremy Lin. 29 people think cutting Jeremy Lin who Morey said is our third best player is a smarter move than cutting Royce White. Even cutting Trob would be smarter. He did nothing for us this year. What we have with him is potential and that is all. And I would never in a million years cut Trob over Royce White! Morey said Lin was our third best player on the team. Lin has a great work ethic and talent to improve. Either you believe him or you don't. Everyone says Asik is a bargain. But Lin is a bargain too when you think about what he did and his potential to get better. I think it's ridiculous that 30% of the people on here pick Lin over White. Right now you would have to give a 1st round pick and cash to get someone to take Royce off our squad. I guarantee there our teams that would gladly take Lin off our hands. My thread should be locked because it is ridiculous but even in that ridiculous scenario 10% of the people picked Lin. This is a stupid thread that is only bringing out the Lin haters. At least my thread was pretty obvious what I was trying to accomplish this on disguises it.
It's always the same... Linsanity ... too small a sample size... HALF OF THE SEASON as a starter (after fully recovering from injury)... too small a sample size... But ONE bad game of the playoffs and the rest being injured to the point of not being able to use his right arm... THAT's a REAL reflection of Lin the d-league, bench scrub. Beverely has TWO decent games in the playoffs - against a BACKUP point guard - who scored like an all star on him - and its all VOID LIN, START Beverely! I'd love it if all the people who talk about Lin's inconsistency would show some consistency in their evaluations of players and in the arguments in their posts.
They are picking because his contract is greater and there is more potential that cutting him lets you make a bigger move.
I voted White, but I think it also makes sense to choose Jeremy my future husband. By no means Jeremy is not good or not worth his pay cheque. But the Rockets already has a ball-dominant guard in Harden, making Jeremy a secondary ball-handler which is a waste of talent. The Rockets can replace Jeremy with a serviceable PG for less. It won't necessarily mean saving money, considering the revenues (e.g. Courtside ads) Jeremy brings in.
Mario Chalmers. By any statistical measure is not a starting PG. What he is though is a cheap capable option on a stacked team, which is exactly what Beverley could be. Again I'm not arguing that Bev should start over Lin or that Bev is better than Lin or that Lin is not worth his contract. The argument is you could possibly reallocate your cap resources in a more beneficial way at other positions.
Sure it does. The question to me is a) will he become a star and if not, b) could his contract prevent us from getting one? Regarding "a", I don't think so. He has obvious strengths in his game, ie speed, finishing, mid range, disruptive size for a PG. He also has obvious holes: decision making, iso defense, consistent 3 point jumper. His jumper will improve over the next few years. Decision making will probably improve a little, but I'm not sure by how much. His defense is my real concern. I think he lacks the lateral quickness to guard most NBA PGs, and I don't think that will improve. His steals are as much a factor have having Tyson Chandler (NYK) and Asik behind him as it is his instincts. Others have mentioned his "fit" with Harden, and I do think this is a valid concern. Fit doesn't matter if you're dealing with two stars, ie. Wade and Lebron, but that isn't the case here. He doesn't play well off the ball right now, and he is not a good defender, which is where Harden needs some support. I don't know the answer to "b"....only Morey does, but I would like to have some of that extra cap room. I believe Morey is expecting Sergio Llull to be our PG of the future. He brought him up again today on 790, and retweeted a post about Sergio being the "perfect PG next to Harden" in December (ie AFTER Lin was signed and playing). I'm not saying Lin is worthless. He has potential. He IS overpaid for his performance, and it's not as simple as saying "look at his points and assists". Theres a reason Beverley (a rookie) was closing out games for us at the end of the season.
I would lean on Lin's but I vote for White's out of principle. I hope he burns through his ill gotten gains fast. At least Jeremy earned his albeit overpaid contract.
I think it's more silly to look at the raw box score and season average as some kind of holy grail when trying to evaluate a player's talents. (Which is why NBA teams don't use them, and Morey certainly doesn't) It's also silly to completely ignore any kind of CONTEXT when making these evaluations or trying to have a rational discussion about them. Different players play different minutes. Coming back from injury does affect your stats, as does having to learn a new role, new system. Whether a player improved or not over the course of the season should certainly factor into the debate. I've given my reasons for why I think these stats are fair to use. I'll summarise them here... They are the most recent, decent sized sample when he was not injured that take into account his improvement over the course of the season. I think you are overplaying the cherry picking angle.
When did I say any of that small sample stuff? Check yourself dude and explain to me the difference between hanging on Lins stats and Collisons? Honest question
Morey and Les signed him because of the Linsanity gravy train. I know its a business and before the signing of Harden this organization was reaching for anything to make this organization relevant again. As far as fit with Harden, its been quit obvious at times Lin did not fit with Harden and was not as affective off the ball. Lin's strengths and Harden strengths don't mesh as well as desired at times. I've expressed before that if Harden was signed before Lin the organization would have never signed Lin to that contract. I hope for the Rocket's sake Lin can improve but he has been the definition of inconsistency. Its a great chance the Rox could get a better fit for less if they could void the contract. But since voiding the contract is not an option for now I really hope Lin can improve on some areas and become more consistent.
The only reason Jeremy Lin was brought up was because of the "what else could Morey do with that capspace" that has a touch of intrigue. Beyond that, its obvious that Jeremy Lin is on a very good contract given what other teams have paid in the past for PG's like Jose Calderon, and the length being only 3 years is a huge plus. Royce White is the obvious choice though since he's going to almost certainly be cut anyways at the end of training camp in October, is virtually untradeable in the meantime, and will take up a portion of the 2013/14 capspace that could be used elsewhere.
This year Rockets weren't contending. Whether anyone or Lin performed up to his contract means little. By my calcualtion, if we acquiring Smoove/Millsap, even with Lin and everyone performs above his contract, we will not able to beat Heat or a healthy Thunder team. However if Dwight come aboard, next year onward, Lin will have to perform above his contract if the team is to contend for the title. The same applies for every one of the starters.
The best fit argument works. I guess under this argument Morey shouldn't try and get Chris Paul, another ball dominant guard. Irony is that he would be the one we want to void Lin's contract for. Morey said he'd double up on positions if he got another star, I'm so glad he's running the show and not the brainiacs here.
White. If I could wait until the first week of next season and Lin is the same player? Then definitely him. I don't think we will really need that much cap space this off-season. Those saying this team isn't built for Lin, let's clear things up. I would rather build a team around Kevin Martin because at least that team has a shot of making the playoffs. A team built around Lin is destined to fail.
Lin is a bad fit for Harden is like saying Westbrook is a bad fit for Durant or Wade is a bad fit for James.
I was pissed at first. But then I thought about it and it really is not surprising that Lin would get a third of the votes given how polarizing he is. It is what it is. Just be prepared to eat crow next year.
