If Harden is like the #2 PNR player and Lin is like the #5 PNR player, then how is Lin spotting up helping our offense more if Harden is like the #5 spot up shooter and Lin is like the #200 spot up shooter? 5+5 is better than 2+200.
Lin will run PnR as well. PnR teams to death. Plus im pretty sure Lin is working on that set shot. You do remember players like Chalmers and Conley could hit that open set shot to save their lives in their 1st few season. But after work work and more work ( work means practice) they can light it up from down deep.
what he failed to mention is that their internal analysis probably shows harden to be as good if not better of a pick and roll player in the nba last year, which makes lin expendable. the reason he gave as to why lin is a good fit is true, but not unique on this team. lin is valuable in the nba and specifically because he's such a good pnr player. but on the rockets team with harden, he pnr talent is redundant. this is the reason why i don't buy the whole not trading lin stuff. unless harden has told morey that he wants to play a different role on the team and wants lin to play the traditional pg role and run the pnr's with harden while he plays a more traditional shooting guard role. who knows...
Notes/Summary: We tried to trade for Dwight twice. Orlando told us they were going to trade Dwight to us if he wasn't going to resign. The NBA has become a rim and 3pts league, and Dwight is the best at protecting the rim when healthy Criticism on Dwight wasn't valid. Impressive to lead the league in rebounding on a bad year. Did physical on Dwight, is totally healthy. Wasn't healthy on Lakers. Dwight is a great player who can fit anywhere. Lakers aren't as good anymore, Dwight made the right choice to join Houston and give himself the best chance to win. Never felt comfortable that things were done until Dwight's hand moved on the contract. We encouraged Dwight to take a careful look at the process. Out of all the teams Dwight was thinking of joining we have the best superstar, the youngest team, most draft picks going forward, most free agency money going forward, most young talent we can either trade or develop into good team mates. We felt if winning was his #1 criteria then he would pick us. Both Harden and Dwight will be the leaders of our franchise, Dwight has no issues with sharing the spotlight with Harden. Dwight saw a 23 year old superstar who hopefully will become as good as Kobe Bryant one day, not there yet but Dwight thinks it can happen one day. Harden is more of a playmaker, Kobe is one of the best scorers of all time. Getting Harden was a harder piece than getting Dwight because we didn't want to tank, it had to be a trade. The way we rebuilt is a more true path than tanking. Both Lin and Asik will be here to start the season. Lin was the 5th best PnR guy last year. Dwight's the best screener, screen and roller. We gambled and lost with Royce White. Admit it was a mistake, but the concept of the gamble was right. We're still behind a few teams, but we are in a position where we can win and now it's up to the coaches and players to improve the team.
I don't think it's as cut and dry as you make that math out to be. I guess the most broad answer would be you don't waste all the abilities Harden has to relegating him to a spot up shooter when he is so good as the PNR ball handler. But really nothing is done 100% of the time. Lin will get plenty of opportunities to run the PNR, but since Harden is proven to be better at it, even if only a few spots, will have more of these opportunities. Because of this Harden will see some time as a spot up shooter, but Lin will have more. So since Lin will find himself in spot up opportunities more often I feel like it would help our offense greatly if he manages to keep that 3 point percentage up where he had towards the end of the season. It makes Hardens and everyone else's job that much easier.
What you mean you dont think so. Morey said it, so I will believe him over anyone on this sports forum.. LOL
...and here we go. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hoy_en_la_revolucion/7569753484/" title="jokeroo by *The last son of krypton*, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8433/7569753484_a323c21106.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="jokeroo"></a>
Hopefully the complexity of the offence increases. I would love to see sets where the PNR initiated by either James or Jeremy is a misdirection for setting up for the real point of attack. It took the Heat a season to run something simpler than a high pick and roll with shooters spreading the floor. Hopefully with all our high IQ guys on the team, we see more intricate plays on the offence and not just running high pick and rolls over and over again.
Nice thinking I really like this line of thinking. If they can quickly get into that 1st PnR while manuevering to go right into that PnR... That would really confuse the defense right around the elbow... Good BBall strategy.
Response If Morey knows that Lin is 5th best pick and roll player in the NBA last year, then why not allow Lin to do what he does best? That's the thing I don't understand. Not saying Lin should not improve his 3 points shooting, but can someone be effective at PNR without controlling the ball a lot?
Morey leaves coaching decisions to the coach, and this is how McHale feels about analytics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IKWn-dCupk
Response Question: When did Morey say Harden is "proven to be better at PNR"? From what I observed, Harden is very good at driving to the basket and then making short bounce passes with one hand to a big man waiting for an easy shot. I have not observed Harden be effective playing with a big man. Of course, Asik is hardly an offensive weapon. Asik's offensive points are inflated IMO because sometimes Lin, to the detriment of the team, kept on passing the ball to Asik who often couldn't catch the ball or couldn't make easy shots by dunking the ball. Of course, Lin sometimes forced the passes to Asik, but a lot of those passes would have been caught by Dwight. If the argument is that Harden does a lot of what Lin does but just better, then Rockets should just trade Lin.
Response Interesting. Basically, Mac says "I knew that, so I don't really care about analytics." If that's the case, it seems Mac basically ignores Morey's analytics? So, are you saying it's good or bad that Mac ignores sports analytics? Or you don't care? It seems to me that GM and coach should coordinate.
