That is a fun true fact. Can't be sure until the regular season has been going a while, but both Beverley and Lin seem to have gotten better, possibly significantly so. And the fact that they have such different styles gives so many options...
I think the Rockets are more dangerous w/ Lin starting simply because Lin is a better offensive player than Beverley period. Better passer and court vision and awareness and intelligent, nobody dispute that. It is the defense that is always a concern and i don't know how it is going to change. Even in game that he play great like the Taiwan game, he still play bad defense. Teams are going to take advantage of his position every single time if they have a dominate guard. They're not going to take advantage of Howard, Harden or Chandler. They're going to take advantage of him. Now, occasionally Lin do play great D, such as staying in front of his man and challenge them or helping out teammates and stealing the ball...but the one on one defense and pick n roll are still not there. He's just not good man...I am a LOF I admit, and i give him many chances and still not good. He's just slow in regard to pick n roll...his reaction seems a bit slow and doesn't fight over the guard blocking him and constantly getting exploited in that area like the Indiana did to him in Taiwan's game. That is why i understand coach want to start Beverley because if you have Beverley in there, you won't see guards trying to take advantage of that position every single time. And i understand the bench is lacking if Beverley and some of those players are coming off the bench in the 2nd unit, where is the offense going to come from?? Harden and Howard need rest unless you want to play them more minutes pass the 1st quarter. But in my opinion, the coach will try to start Lin anyway because other positions are solid and will help him out and they will take him out quickly like 4 or 3mins before the end of the 1st quarter and then reinsert him back in to help out the 2nd unit in the 2nd quarter. Now if Lin struggled and doesn't fit with the 1st unit, then it is more reason to have him come off the bench. But he fits in fine and i think he help out Howard's game a lot more than Beverley.
Lin's 3pt shot looks a lot better now. With the Knicks and the Rockets last season, he used to do this thing where he'd almost tuck his knees in when he went up to shoot. Anyone know what I'm talking about? He doesn't do that anymore, I think.
Not necessarily. And we haven't had the Vance to see Beverly play starter minutes against a starting pg yet. Jeremy's proven he can play with the best PGs in the game. And he's shown that he can carry a team on his own. He's also a much better passer than Bev. Wouldn't you want your pg whose strength is the pnr to play with the best big who does it in the game? His Passing will also be much more effective playing with better offensive players. Right now it looks like Beverly's our defensive spark off the Bench and casspi is looking like a huge offensive weapon and a great pickup who's also great on the boards.
With that being said, don't forget players that like Steve Nash never was great at defense or known to play great defense and yet was an automatic starter throughout his career, without dispute...WHY? Because teams are willing to take that risk since his offense is very important for the team's success. So any hope of Lin not being a starter due to his lack of defense is nil if you compare to the Steve Nash scenario.
Lin's D is not that bad. He has size and quickness. Being a threat in the offensive end can help his D too. If Beverley play over 30+mins and b2b, his D won't be the same.
Nash was the best player on his team. Lin isn't even in the top 4 on his team. The suns offense revolved around nash. So it ia a terrible comparison. Novak did't start since he is terrible on deffense. There are many examples of role players not starting bacause of another player being a better defensive option. I'm not saying i want beverly to start.
True. The Nash situation and Lin's are completely different. Though, I must say that Lin's defense is miles ahead of Nash's AND actually is a plus defender who of course still needs to get even better, but by no means are pgs going to attack Lin and succeed. I welcome that challenge and I think they'll be just playing into our hands.
No, you're wrong. Here's what Yao said: The key phrase being "throughout his career." Nash was not always the best player on his team throughout his career, even when he was starting in Dallas. Here is an example of what I mean, from Nash's 3rd season in the NBA, in which he started in every game he played: http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DAL/1999.html If you go down and look at the PER of the team, Nash is 11th on the team. Hardly the best player on his team and even Robert Pack, who did not start any games, was tied with Nash for assist per 36 minutes. Additionally, Pack had a better net rating (ORTG-DRTG) than Nash had. Yet Nash was the starter. Why? My guess is Dallas had faith in Nash's ability or saw his potential. And they invested in that potential. Based upon those statistics, I find Yao's comparison valid and find your rejection of his comparison unconvincing. Nash was not "Nash" until later in his career. And part of why he became "Nash" was because the teams he was on showed faith in him by allowing him to remain the starter, despite his sometimes-paltry stats and despite his back-ups possibly having better, or similar, stats than Nash had. As we have seen some idea of Lin's potential and ceiling based upon Linsanity and during several starts last year, I am far from ready to give up on his potential. As such, in my opinion, I would need to see a substantial difference in performance between him and Patrick Beverley in order to feel as though Beverley should start over Lin. That hasn't happened yet in any circumstance I have seen yet. It didn't happen in the regular season last year, it was incomplete in the playoffs last year (Beverley mostly played against back-up Reggie Jackson and was actually outplayed slightly by Jackson), and it hasn't happened in this preseason. I'm still open to Beverley being the starter over Lin, but I have yet to see any convincing argument that it should take place. I'm open to one, but have not yet seen one that is compelling to me.
I'm not saying that a good 6th man is not nice to have, but these teams were able to play a starter as the 6th man because they were deep. Still the majority of NBAteams play their best five players as starters. You also don't see top 6th men that are point guards. You want your best playmaker in with your starting unit not coming off of the bench. It's not just about the points that Lin can score it's about how he makes the offense flow.
6th man is still too big for Lin. Besides, he'll be traded soon. For now, he is best suited as part of the clean-up crew.
But that's the thing. A lot of people here disagree and think that Harden can run the point or make plays. I disagree with that notion as Harden is most definitely not a pg guard with vision that can shoot, but rather a sg with good vision that is dominant. No bad can come from having a playmaker beside him except that Harden will have the ball less, but that is not necessarily a bad thing as it may make him more efficient and make other players more willing to cut and move. Now, this is not saying that Lin as a 6th man can't be a good thing. But, Lin is not good enough to be a 6th man who can put up points as that is not his skill set though he has done it a few times. Lin is better suited to distribute the ball making the most use of the players around him.. or a pg, if you will. I would not fault McHale for sending Lin to the bench as that is not only his prerogative but his job. What I would fault him for would be not recognizing talent and utilizing them correctly. Lin is showing (early still, but) that he has improved on the things that everyone's been criticizing him for, but they still want him on the bench. Does that mean that whatever Lin does, it's best not to start him or that Bev is that much better of a fit for Harden and Howard, or that Lin is expected to be a great 6th man? I have my doubts, and that is my prerogative.
You could say the same thing about Parsons. Let's let Garcia start and Parsons can be our stud off the bench. (I'm totally kidding but the reasoning you guys are using to start Bev over Lin would totally apply there too).
I don't understand how/why everyone wants Lin to start...I think it's pretty evident that it'd be best for him and for the team if he embraced a 6th man role. Also, I disagree with those who claim the ball-movement is better when Lin's in with the starters - he's more ball-dominant and Beverley does a beautiful job of swinging the ball (and rarely wastes time sizing up defenders). Lin's a better playmaker, but that requires him to have the ball, and his main strengths are unquestionably neutralized when he's the 4th option on the court. Ask yourself what each guy brings to a Howard-Jones(?)-Parsons-Harden lineup Beverley: Great on-ball D; Solid spot up shooting; Unselfishness; Hustle/Intangibles Lin: Solid on-ball D; Avg to solid shooting; a 4th scorer?; Ball-dominant creator (next to Harden) Now ask yourself what each guy brings to an Asik-D-Mo(?)-Garcia lineup Beverley: Same as above Lin: Same as above, but a go-to scorer, a primary shot creator The fact is that Beverley is what he is, and he doesn't need the ball that much for him to contribute. Lin on the other hand, is affected greatly by how much he gets the ball, and ranges from great to invisible depending on that variable.
doesnt matter who the starter is as long as LIN gets at least 30pg and is always on the floor when harden is out. Its just how miami does it with wade and lebron, they always have wade in when lebron is resting vice versa.
Lin started an entire last season and has proven himself worthy, does Houston Rockets really want Beverly to start and gamble on the lack of sample size?
