The point is not Lin>Beverly or Beverly>=Lin. The point is to ask yourself what is best for the team. Like it or not Harden is the team facilatator. As is Lebron for his team (see Mario Chalmers) or Kobe for his team (Derek Fisher). They don't need true point guards they need clutch three point shooters to keep the D honest. I actually think we need a better shooter than beverly. A sixth man can have more minutes than the starting point guard. Ask yourself this question, when Harden goes out would you rather beverly run the team with Asik or would you rather Lin? our second unit will be nothing but Asik surrounded by three point shooters, now who besides Harden can break down the d and get them the ball, it almost begs to be done.
You made a great post. People on this forum get a little defensive when talking about Lin. About your post, Lin would make a great 6th man. The extra energy he would bring off the bench and his ability to create for himself and others would help the bench be dynamic. Usually a 6th man is a scorer (Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson) but their are a few creators (Jarrett Jack, Andre Miller). The thing with JLin is he is a hybrid of the players above that has a high potential. JLin is good enough to start and be a solid starter, but as a 6th man JLin could become a real beast and bring back some Linsanity off the bench. You could also run with a line up as following for a bench crew to come in late first, early second quarter. JLin Isiah Canaan Francisco Garcia TJones Asik That line up alone could win up to 43 games, put that with a starting line up that has the potential to win 59 games you get a championship contender.
harden plays at the least 35 minutes a game so whether Lin is a starter or the 6th man he will still have to play along side harden. Unless of course you want Lin to play 10 minutes a game.
Lin don't have to be the 3rd or 4th option in scoring. He is a PG, as long as he can play his role, do what he was told to do, then he should be the starter.
Its not about Beverley being inferior to Lin. Lin is the obvious better PG. But with Harden handling the ball so much. It would benefit the team to use Lins skills with the second unit where he could be the main ball handler and us his abilities where in the first unit he cant because he's shadowing Harden. In reality having Lin as 6th man would only be to make him look better!
I just don't understand this line of thinking. Lin is a team player. I guarantee he would rather play for a contender, even if it meant coming off the bench, over being a featured player on a middle of the pack team. I do think that as long as he is here he should start though. Like someone said earlier Lin and Harden had some absolutely amazing games together last season. Hopefully the year together and this summer will make those games happen more often. At the same time if we did happen to trade Lin I do believe Bev could fill in fine as a starter.
If u put Jeremy Lin back in NY, and reduce his scoring from 20+ to 8-10 (I.e. true point guard), he'd be making 800k a year, and a backup. He is a score first guard, that's where he excells. He will not be near worth the contract playing 5th fiddle. Either put him in a position to succeed, a place where he can control the game, or ship him out before next season when no one will take his $15m contract.
As a Lin fan... sure why not he would do great as a 6th man. As a Rocket fan... thats alot of money to be paying a bench player. If we could trade Lin for another 6th man at a lower price then that would be a better option. But if we cant find a 6th man of his cailbre at a good price, then I guess were stuck with him.
The starting rotation isn't about putting the 5 best players you have on your roster out at the same time, it's about creating a rotation that gives you the largest [points for - points against] through 48 minutes of basketball. The concept isn't any different than not starting Asik and Howard together in the frontcourt. They're both better than any other 4+5 we have, but there skills overlap massively. Lin would still end up with more minutes than Beverley in this scenario, he's just get more of them when Harden is off the floor.
Ummm he did exactly what he was told last year. The result? Crazy hate on this board and his stock value dropped to next to nothing. Just saying.
How about Lin doing true point guard and Harden as a spot up shooter and focus on his defense and act like real shooting guard?
I have a feeling Jeremy will be focusing his offseason on improving his jumper. Many players (Kyle Lowry, Jason Kidd) have shown the ability to develop a consistent 3PT shot and it is not out of the realm of possibility for Jeremy to be a 38% 3PT shooter this upcoming year. If he can do that, I'm more than comfortable with Lin starting and Beverley bringing his infectious energy off the bench.
Because we don't pay people 80 million dollars to be spot up shooters. He is the best sg in the NBA why would we make him a spot up shooter just to give the ball to Lin because YOU like Jeremy Lin better??
Because James Harden is a superstar top 10 player in the game with great ballhandling and PnR skills. AFAIK there isn't an angry contingent on the Heat forums raging that LeBron is being primary ballhandler and not Mario Chalmers.
Bench players won't be on the All-Star ballot. Lin had way more votes than Harden did last year, and fell just 20,000 votes shy of Chris Paul for the All-Star point guard spot. Assuming that Kobe is out for most of the 2013-14 season, there is a very good chance that Lin could be an All Star next year.
Money aside, the better point guard should get more PT. But it would be killer to have Lin/Asik and destroy other second units. Maybe the front office will experiment a little with the idea.
