Lin can play better with no pressure and more free as a 6th man. He and the team should sacrifice to win it all
Guys, some advice. If you are going to make arguments, try to ensure that you know what you're discussing before saying things. If not, you can easily be shown to be wrong in at least some cases. Let's look at Dwight's fouls from the Taiwan game: Dwight Howard personal foul (David West draws the foul) Dwight Howard offensive foul (Paul George draws the foul) Dwight Howard shooting foul (Roy Hibbert draws the foul) Dwight Howard shooting foul (Roy Hibbert draws the foul) Dwight Howard shooting block foul (George Hill draws the foul) 4 of Dwight's 5 fouls had nothing to do with a player that Lin may have been guarding. The foul on Hill came with 4:37 left in the third quarter. Or, 31:13 into the game. If Dwight Howard picks up one foul every 31:13 helping out on Jeremy's man, I'm ok with that. * Now, the claim was made that some people may not understand the importance of a 6th man and that the Bev-for-Lin change in the starting lineup is about defense. I said that the reason I considered Lin may be better as 6th man was because I was not sure that Beverley could lead the bench. So, it's not that I don't value the 6th man role. The opposite is true. I am actually saying I was thinking of Lin as the 6th man for the good of the team BECAUSE THE ROLE IS IMPORTANT. If the role is not important, than it doesn't matter if someone can be good at it or not. So just play anyone in the role, even if they are not good at it. However, Beverley showed in Taiwan he could be good in the 6th Man/lead the bench role. Great! So I am now feeling less concerned about the issue and less-inclined to think Jeremy has to be able to fill it. As regards defense. The points scored and allowed in the game all add up in the end. Thus, any points scored count at the end of the game. And the object is to have more points than the opponent, even if you give up a lot of points but you score more points than you allow. Beverley and the benched punked the Pacers down the stretch of the game. If they can do that, it doesn't matter if it happens in the 1st quarter or in the 4th quarter. As long as it happens. I'm not saying Beverley won't or should not start, but I am saying that I am personally beginning to lose reasons why it makes sense for him to start or why he needs to start rather than Jeremy. If one person is going to score 17 points in a game and another one is going to score 2 points, I would probably go with the guy who is going to score 17 points in my starting lineup, provided that the bench seems to be in decent shape.
Looking back at all the previous conference champions, there is often at least one prominent 6th man. 2013: Ginobli 2012: Harden 2011: Terry 2010: Odom 2009: Odom So having a strong 6th man does seem to make a very big difference in terms of success.
The offense starts with pg. To have a better team defense you have to pressure and hassle the pg. It may not be a foul on goerge hill but it started in him.
I think it is not about which line up will fit JH better coz JH seemed still got his shot no matter what during those 3 preseaon game. But DH seemed struggled in last 2 games so maybe it will be their priority for the coaching staffs to figure out the line up and plays that fit well with DH.
The 6th man is key. And to be honest, the best looking scoring 6th man on the team right now appears to be Casspi. So if Patrick Beverley is able to facilitate as he did in Taiwan off the bench and can feed Casspi and Garcia, we would appear to have a very powerful bench. Patrick did a great job of this yesterday. All 5 of his assists were to bench players (3 to Garcia, 2 to DMo). Awesome. So if Beverley is ready to make plays with guys and set up scorers off of the bench, guys like a Casspi who could be our 6th man, then we should be all set. I don't think anyone would seriously say that a contending team doesn't need some bench help (although Miami might argue about the need for a 6th Man). What is not clear in the discussion is that it is Jeremy Lin who needs to be that 6th Man. Particularly after last night, and Beverley's and the bench's performance.
Phi. Lin would never be a star playing as a starter next to Harden n Dwight. Even if the Rox win 3 chips, Lin will always be that thing that happened in New York, and that role player that may have been on a championship team. Aka Steve Kerr at best. But if he plays the 6th Man, wins a 6th Man of the year. Becomes a Manu Ginobilli (which he could, given he would have 32 minutes, Bev has 28 minutes and Harden 36 between the 1 and 2 guard position). He could quite easily be one of the Big Three. The Hall of Fame could even be on the horizon given Linsanity, contribution to Basketball worldwide, championship rings and one of the Big Three. As a Lin fan you have to think long term. He can be an average role player. Or a Star as a 6th Man.
You know Dwight had 5 fouls in the Manila game as well. Lin didn't play 1 minute with Dwight in that game. So Dwight almost fouled out because of Beverley too? Man, you are totally reaching for reasons to start Beverley.
If Lin plays next to Dwight and Harden he's going to be as useless as he was last season. Why not start Bev who doesn't need the ball in his hands? It makes perfect sense.
Based on all 3 Preseason games, these are my thoughts: 1. the line up of howard, Dmo, Parsons, Harden, and lin seems to be the best 5 line up. but our 2nd unit sucked. 2. starting Bev or Lin will depend on opponents. still need to do more experiments on this one. 3. Howard is still does not gel with the team. once we figure all this out, I have no doubt that we are reaching WCF...
The point, however, is not to have Lin become a star, but to make sure we win a championship by best utilizing Harden and Howard, our big two. I personally believe a floor general like Lin who pushes the pace best accomplishes this. Having said that, sometimes Lin's asset in facilitating is sometimes at odds with Harden's need to hold the ball, but that's something we have to figure out as we need an efficient Harden while giving him as much touches as possible. Simply put, I believe imo that a Lin/Harden/Howard/Parsons/D-Mo(TJones) lineup is more effective than one with Bev, especially when one of our big two is not playing well. If the pg can distribute the ball wisely it defuses the possible problem of one of our stars pushing too hard to score as in the case of someone like Kobe. Without someone to put him in check, that team is jsut ugly Kobe-iso ball. Now, I'm not saying that Harden is like Kobe, cuz he's not. Harden is a more natural passer and willing passer.. but a pg he is not.
I'm not concerned about Lin getting into the Hall Of Fame. And again, it is clear he both can put up good numbers as a starter, and that Harden can do well with Lin as a starter. Case closed in my book. Especially if Beverley can do well off the bench, which seemed to be the case last game.
My concern last game was, Harden only had 1 field goal for the whole first quarter... Yes they have shown that lin and Harden can both pile huge numbers despite starting at the same time but when one or both are having bad to normal games it would be a different story... I still see value in Lin being a 6th man... but it has to be done right(Media\Marketing wise)
But Phi its clear he would have a greater impact as a 6th man. Its not a demotion, its giving him the tools to succeed.
I don't think last night's game show that the team is at it's best with Beverley on the bench. I would argue the team looked far more dominant in their first game against the Pacers. Again, sample size still a big concern, and I would not be surprised at all if Lin remains starter. However, at this stage, things could go either way. The team still needs to play out the rest of the pre-season before we could decide, and I would trust McHale's judgment either way.
If James Harden scores 1 field goal in a quarter and Houston is +8 in the quarter, I don't care how many field goals or attempts Harden had. Additionally, the way the offense ran last night is not likely to be the way that it will run regularly. For example, McHale said after the game that the first three pointer Jeremy shot was a designed play for him. They were trying to get him a bunch of shots in Taiwan is what I think he meant. That won't always be the case. Still, Harden had one FGA and 4 FTA in the first quarter. So it was not like he did not have chances or just deferred to Jeremy. Harden will get his shots and will get his touches. The Lin-Harden duo has been proven to be effective for Harden in the past. I can't see any reason why it would not continue to be so going forward. Which is to say, Lin doesn't appear to be holding Harden back any.
That's fair. Honestly, I am not concerned about it any longer. Both point guards are playing well and I think either combo could work well. As someone who likes Lin, I won't freak out if Beverley starts ahead of him in the regular season. I might not agree with the move, but I am not going to like melt down, either. The best thing for the team is that a potential weakness (PG) now looks like a strength. All that is left is to get PF shored up, and we are ready to roll. This team, if healthy, is going to do major damage.
I don't think you can give all 96 minutes to those three at the guard spots. Depending on match-ups surely Garcia will surely spend some time there (not all at the three).
