ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Pacers 10/10/2013 in Manila, Philippines (PRESEASON)

Could be both. As much as you like to nut-hug Beverley, he isn't the playmaker Lin is. In fact, he's not known for his playmaking abilities at all.

 

Lin's a happy guy, tries to keep himself positive. Given a day to mentally prepare himself I'm sure he'd be happy to carry the towels for the team.

 

There was a crazy storm that prevented people from getting to the game. That arena was sold out, no doubt about it. Bad timing is all.

 

I would like to see a team of Howard and Lin +filters vs. Howard and harden +filters and see which team could score more points and defend better. Make it happen, science.

Christ on a cracker, this team is loaded! south beach divas watch out.

 

I didn't see the game, but looks like McHale had the perfect starting line-up out there.

 

Never thought I'd do this.



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....it was Hibbert. Howard's struggles offensively in this game had nothing to do with Bev/Lin.

 

Texas was called the Armpit of America when George W Bush was the Governor.

 

Would they rather see Lin play 20 minutes as a starter and as a 4th option, or 25 minutes coming off the bench as a 1st option?

As long as they see him making basketball plays and its not in garbage time, they will be and should be happy. McHale should not be concerned with satisfying the desires of the "average" fan who supposedly hold onto the myth that if you're coming off the bench you must be an inferior player. His job is to learn as much about his team and how they need to play to win as he can during these games.

 

Howard was bad in this game. I guess it could have something to do with the lineup changes, but something is wrong if a $20 million player needs a particular point guard and/ or power forward starting to play well.

Harden's non-passing was in regular season form in this game too.

I would like to apologize to Omri Casspi for saying he has no skills or athletic ability. It just looks unorthodox but he was getting a lot done out there, not just deep shooting, and he is actually one of the best shooters on the team, pure swish makes. I pleasantly admit I was wrong on both respects.

 

Once again i see Omri Casspi was great.

 

Yep and his confidence. I'm really happy about our entire squad as whole. The PF's need to develop a little more, but we can't have superstars at every position. Hopefull Asik can play with Howard, then we are set.

 

Maybe because he's being guarded by Hibbert, one of the best centers in the league?

 

http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/setting-pace

Whoa...any video on that play in practice?

 

You're the only one doing nut hugging here, lol @ could be both, Hibbert blocked him 4 times on straight man to man coverage....

 

What an insulting thing to say. Lin is a world-class athlete who has proven that he's at, or at least around, starter quality in the best basketball league in the world. Yet you're still treating him as if he should just be thankful to be in the same building as the pros.

Would you say that about any other starter in the league?

This is the kind of casual disrespect that makes some people so hesitant to put him the 6th man role.

 

I'm not sure we should be that hard on Dwight.

Dwight is a force on the defensive end no matter who you put on the floor. However, there are very few bigs that excel without a good passer feeding them the ball at the right times.

With the exception of offensive juggernauts like Lebron, Melo, Kobe, Harden, etc, there are VERY few players that excel without good passing team mates. Even Primetime Dwight relied heavily on strong PnR play from the PG position.

While Harden is an excellent PnR passer, his strength in the PnR leans more towards his finding and kicking to 3 point shooters vs finding bigs in the paint. Whether that's more a result of not having at traditional big to find (KD isn't a traditional at the rim type of big), or just his particular skill set is still to be determined.

 

If by your own admission "Lin on the other hand has a better offensive game, and works significantly better with the ball in his hands." than why shouldn't he start? Shouldn't your best players start? If Harden has the ball the whole game and has to facilitate, carry the scoring load, and defend all 4 quarters he'll get worn out. You don't want Harden dominating the ball the 1st 3 quarters thats when we get caught up in Harden ISO and everyone is standing around. When you have a great facilitator and and elite scorer you want to move the scorer and the ball around. MJ and Kobe dominated the ball early in their careers and when they started moving around more and moving the ball as well he was impossible to defend cause the defense doesn't know where he's going. When Harden goes ISO mode you know where he wants to go and the defense can exploit that. With Lin on the floor he can facilitate and move the ball and get easy shots for Harden and Dwight, Beverly can't do that and defense's will figure that out. Lin is a $8M cap hit, starters money, he's going to start. If Beverly started he'd foul out every other game cause he's an irritant on defense and thats what makes him ideal to come off the bench.

 

Lin player of the game -790 houston radio

 

Playing beside Bev is a lot different than playing beside Lin, especially given the noticeable difference in playmaking.