We'll I actually meant to say he didn't have the smarts to do it. I think Dwight and Harden are dictating this team. The offense has changed and the starters too. Whispers in his ear.
The more I watch Lin this preseason, the more I see what I had hoped when the Rockets signed him. However, the more awesome he looks with the ball, the more I like him as a 6th man. The Rockets simply have no other shot creator off the bench. Asik, Casspi, Garcia, Beverley, are all off-ball players.
For all the shallow LOFers, he's only paid $5 million this year. Plenty of sixth men make more than $5 million, if you wanted to argue salary. Let next season be next season if we want to bring up the $15 million dagger.
Agreed, great confidence and pace coming off the bench. Brings the unselfishness and helps get the entire second unit revving. Plenty of freedom to create... Repeated this in other threads, but D-Mo also looked great out there in that squad... can see shadows of Hakeem's training in both Howard and D-Mo, lots of misdirection, spin moves, and quick decisive shots.
I think people forget that McHale(top 50 player in NBA history) played off the bench at the beginning of his career. He didn't start for the Celtics until 1986, his sixth year in the league. It didn't prevent him from winning NBA championships and going to the all-star game.
I don't know why people are so opposed to Lin as the 6th man. Did we not see how the 2nd unit totally took a scoring dive and lost the 1st preseason game against NOP (freakin' NOP!)? I doubt we hold onto this lead in the 2nd half if Lin wasn't there to facilitate for the 2nd unit. Also, I noticed that Lin looked to set up his teammates more then score, so if he does come off the bench, he still has to work on reconciling when to create/setup and take over scoring if his teammates can't get going.
His cap hit is still $8 mil across the board. So people really need to stop bringing up the "$15 MILLION" argument.
It is just preseason I would be surprised if Lin isn't the starter during he regular season. Not to mention when Asik and greg Smith come back healthy the second unit will be strong. Though I could be wrong.
15 million dollars is 15 million dollar. You still have to pay the guy 15 million dollars cash. There is a reason why companies have cash flow statements.
Interesting decision by McHale. Still want to see how the 2 point guards work in either role when the team is at full strength. But like I and plenty of others have said before, the idea of Lin running the second unit didn't seem like such a bad idea and I think it played out that way today. Just one preseason game, but there were some positives to take away from the decision.
this is where Lin's diverse offensive talents works against him starting and Bev's somewhat more limited offensive skillset actual works for him. If Lin gets his 30-34 minutes then whatever. If he comes off the bench playing 22 a game then that' a coaching problem.
15 mill is for year three. The cap is 8 but hes only being paid 5. Imagine your college charging you 10k this year and 25 k next year because of tuition increases. You cannot complain that you are not getting 25k worth of services this year because it is not what you're paying. And you do not know what kinds of services the school may upgrade for next year just like you dont know if Lin will take it to another level by then.
