I think McHale should give Bev a few "trial" starts towards the end of the preseason

~lol~ Yeah. But we have to understand that he was a first time starter. It made sense he tried to show he belonged.

 

Agree with all your points.

 

I see the Lin loyalist are as fervent as ever, lol.
No one should take any of this personally. Point guard debate is a time honored Rockets tradition for nearly 20 years now.
Smith
Cassell
Price
Maloney
Mobley
Sura
James
Alston
Brooks
Lowry
Dragić

All were debated at one time or another. Francis was the only exception and he was criticized more than any of them outside of Alston (and maybe Maloney ).

To the original topic: Preseason is the time to figure out your best lineups, combinations, and rotations and when you have two capable point guards it only makes sense to try different scenarios.
If Lin has improved as expected he should be able to thrive in either role. Beverley has demonstrated his worth as a reserve and his potential as a starter.
It is definitely worth it to experiment with both in different roles to see which could be most beneficial for the team.

 

You don't mess with your starters head by doing that. Especially not with Lin who seems to have confidence issues already. Berverly is good as a fireball defender off the bench and let's keep it that way.

 

i don't see this being a problem, Lin would probably be the best energy guy on this team, in terms of giving the Rockets an offensive explosion off the bench. He could do what Harden did for OKC as the 6th man or what Jamal Crawford does for the Clippers.

I wouldn't worry too much about the Rockets having trouble with play making, anyway. Harden is going to be our primary trigger man, we just need a point guard who can shoot, and be the first line of defense so that Howard can roam and protect the paint.

Whether that's Lin or Beverley, that's to be determined. they both deserve an equal shot to earn that starting position.

 

If he's that fragile he shouldn't be in the league and certainly not on a team with championship aspirations.
Winning at the highest level requires as much mental toughness as it does physical skill and I don't think Lin is as mentally weak as some of you seem to think he is.

 

it's up to the coach to decide what's best for the team.

this is the big boys league, Lin doesn't need to be coddled.

 

Maybe we should try starting McHale at power forward too. Since we're just trying things out in the preseason instead of preparing our team for a Championship run this season. Maybe Calvin can run for James but he'd have to change out of his crazy suits. Maybe we should start the backups and play the starters off the bench and have the best scoring bench in league history.

 

But yet Lin averages 6-7 assist a game. We all know who handled the ball more. That is the forte of pretty much all Superstar SG/SF.

J-Lin was hurt during that series..I was at the game when Lin went head to head with Westbrook. The game Harden went off for 40+. Did you not see that game.

All Bev did was hustle and play solid D, made a few nice shots. That is exactly what your backup any player suppose to do..Step up your game when one of your starting Warriors go down.

 

Nah ... from what I saw from the 1st pre season game . Beautiful ball movement from the starters. almost spurs like.
I was pleasantly surpised that Mchale let Jeremy Lin play like a normal PG, and looked like our 2 stars were looking good from it.

Beverly cannot initiate that sort of offensive.
Just imagine Bev coming up passing the ball to Harden and Harden isos. Sucks alot of time on the shock clock. Thats what I saw when Bev was rotated with the starters. There's your answer.

 

Your need to extrapolate to ridiculous extremes only highlights your inability to form a cogent argument against the proposition.

Let's be honest, Lin was healthy throughout game 1 and much of game 2 and was godawful the whole time. Hopefully that was a learning experience for him.
The team did perform better once Beverley was inserted into the starting line-up.
Game 1 when Lin started opposite Westbrook the Rockets lost by 29 in a blowout from start to finish.
Game 2 with Beverley starting opposite Westbrook the Rockets lost by 3 in a game that came down to the final quarter.

 

Lin is better at the pick and roll. One of the best in the league.

We are a pick and roll team.

He's our starter.

 

Harden will be the primary trigger man of the pick and roll with Howard. This is just how it's going to be.

 

Well, Beverley is a rookie, though he was drafted in 2nd round before, but never played in NBA. He for sure was not got pulled as fast as Lin was.

The argument about Lin put up good numbers thus McHale must have handled him right is just ignorant. Even Calvin Murphy had speak in the 1560 that Lin needs the ball in his hands, and they should let our PG play 1 position and our SG play 2. Lots of people says that we should stacker Lin and Harden's time. All that you could not just deny it.

Last season Lin's number is not bad, but I do think he could be better, if he was completely healthy, if he was trusted more, if he knows his teammates better, if he understand his role better, if he is more familiar with the system......

However, that said, I think last season is different from this season, the team priority is different, and we were not in the "win now" mode, it is more important for the team to build an identity, and also to build a super star so that we could attract other stars. Looking back, we were pretty successful there. Though it is very painful to see as a LF. But looking long term, Lin would eventually benefit from it, and I do hope eventually Lin would have the opportunity to shine.....again.....

 

Obviously you don't keep up to date with the latest Rockets news. Houston assistant coach Chris Fitch recently gave an interview in which he stated that the Rockets' game plan on offense this year was to take the ball out of Harden's hands to allow for a more "free flowing" offense and which will allow Harden also to focus more on D. And guess what? That's exactly what they did in the first scrimmage. With Lin this tactic worked; however not so well with Beverley running the point. With Beverley as floor general it was ISO after ISO after ISO...exactly what the coaching staff sought to avoid.

Consider this stat from the first scrimmage: with Lin, Harden was +17; with Bev, Harden was -1. If the Rox's coaching staff means what they say about "taking the ball out of Harden's hands" and "less Harden ISOs" then the obvious implication would be that Lin starts because he can playmake. Simple as that.

 

Why should we even have this discussion while the starting unit worked well in the first pre-season game?!

 

Gosh, that series took a turn was due to our coaching stuff changed the team strategy, you could not give all that credit to Beverley and not left anything to coach McHale! I would bet that if it was Tony Douglas playing instead of Beverley, Rocket would play equally well. (though we might not be able to push to game 6 since WB might not get injured.)

However, I could also bet that if that is the case, you could say exactly the same thing just replace Beverley's name with TD. And don't forget, in game 2, Beverley become a starter not because he was replacing Jeremy, but because we went small.

 

You need your starting point guard to be able to run an offense and create for others, even if you have a superstar SG. I really don't understand the debate. Beverley is basically doing what a backup should be doing- bringing energy off the bench, hustling, and hitting some shots- and he's doing it magnificently. Beverley deserves to be playing more minutes, but Lin is the clear starter.

 

That's not true, he was OK in game 2. Him and Bev had a very similar stat line at the half time.

 

The head to head matchup in that come back win here in Houston was the game I was referring too.

Yes he played poorly in that 1st game and you are right. But the entire team played like S***.


The team was going to play good regardless. We wasnt getting swept in that series with or without Lin.