[ClutchFans] Rockets to begin season with Beverley, Asik as starters; Jeremy Lin off bench

I thought those were interesting points anyway in that comment. Sometimes its not what is said, but they WAY its said

I do like the defensive tone and mindset of starting Asik and Beverley. Its the coach saying that DEFENSE is WHAT we want and what we'll have. Its almost like a Jeff Van Gundy team again (no WONDER he picked the Rockets to win it all)

Though it creates 2 different style units one with ALL the defense, then all offense 2nd unit.

As we can see though, Harden stirs the drink and when he's off the team doesnt look as good. So its good to have a "2nd Harden-lite" off the bench for a spark when he's not hitting

 

I think I've heard every reason for starting Bev and benching Lin:

- Bev provides on ball pressure that along with Howard (and Omer) will provide us with a defensive presence to start out games strong.
- Harden needs the ball in his hands as much as possible and Bev plays off ball better than with the ball (similar to Parsons) and may make up for Hardens defense.
- Lin creates an offensive presence off the bench providing a 48 minute offensive attack along with a 48 minute defensive presence if Omer and Dwight are staggered correctly.
- Bev may (or may not be) be a better spot up shooter which would be vital with Howard and Harden in the lineup.
- Bev does not turn the ball over the ball as much as Lin thereby lessening the total number of turnovers per game.

And I would agree to a point or in the least understand what people believe. Here's why I disagree.

- Harden is a beast on offense. His instincts are to catch his man one on one and go for the kill. The problem is, this often leads to a Harden-centric ISO laden offense and although it sounds good in theory to tell Harden to distribute better, that the ball will find its way back to him, that's not who he is. I've watched every single Bulls game since Jordan's second year and it was as ugly as Kobe's game. Great individual game but lacking the ability to creates team game that is necessary to win games ala Magic and Bird. It wasn't until years later that his game finally matured coinciding with theatrical and rise of Pippen. While I have no doubt that Harden will eventually lead us to a championship, maybe even this year, it's clear to me, at least, that Harden doesn't know how to balance isos against a team game just yet. That is where Lin comes in. Having Lin on the court assures for at least a substantial amount of possessions that another playmaker, a pass first playmaker can promote an atmosphere conducive of a run n gun free flowing game. Kind of like how we achieved such a potent offense last year. Taking Lin out alone will impact our offensive tempo significantly. With the twin towers, it may bring us down to a crawl. I think that the coaching staff has put the burden on Parsons to create more this year, but Parsons is NOT a playmaker. He is a finisher. A cutter. A shooter. And once again, you don't want Harden to be more pass happy, you want Harden to have that killer instinct every time he gets the ball, that is why I was not happy when McHale practically instructed Lin to hand it off to Harden nearly EVERY PLAY when a fast break doesn't present itself. It overworks Harden and kills our rhythm making the ball "sticky". They should run a true read n react offense, which is opportunistic and equal opportunity, with Harden as our ace in the hole. That would make Harden more efficient, better rested, less turnover prone, and has a byproduct of developing Lin which is worthy imo as we have bigs that can run pnrs and a run n gun offense which everyone should clearly see IS Lin's game.
- Secondly, staggering Lin, as in staggering Omer, can provide the same 48 minute offense/defense that we are shooting for. The Lin off the bench as we need a continuous attack is bogus as then how are we doing it for Omer? The answering: by staggering their minutes. There is no need to bench Lin for what we could just as easily do my staggering minutes. It's just that McHale doesn't deem Lin worthy of staggering like Omer, which I disagree.
- As for spot up shooting, Lin deserves a chance to prove that he can shoot that spot up jumper as he "out-shot" Bev both in number and percentage since Bev joined our team. Why not give our starter the chance to show it, when he put in the work and anyone can see that his shot has fundamentally improved and that his hitch is gone and that his shot is truer (straighter, meaning missing long or short, not left or right, which is indicative of repeatability, the key to shooting 3s). The answer: McHale "sees" Bev shooting better. The infamous eye test. McHale has already gone on record several times that he believes Lin's performance in NY was a fluke that EVERY NBA player if you look at their career can accomplish. It's this negativity, whether right or wrong, that will not easily allow any person to admit as it is Han nature to see what you want to see.
- Howard needs to have as many penetrating guards around him as possible. You should clearly see that although his post game is good (he commands so much attention), he can literally dunk every ball given to him near the rim and guess who ranks as one of the best two years in a row as assisting at or near the rim. Hint: rhymes with Laraby Flynn.
- Lin is most definitely not a sieve on defense. Look at any and all stats, advanced stats, prior team's stats, etc. in fact, he's been known for his defense all his life until Linsanity. In fact, I dare say that Lin's defense is near the level as Bev and not that far behind. At least, not enough to justify playing Bev over Lin despite Lin's other great advantages.
- Finally, respect. I realize this is a business and that they are professionals, but unless there is a clearly better outcome, it is a personal affront to bench your starter, and as a coah you have to be mindful of egos and players as a person to a certain degree unless you feel strongly that the other player is better. I know what McHale thinks,at least according to his actions and sound bites from interviews, he values Bev more than Lin, at least as currently constructed. I just respectfully disagree. Not that he would care, lol.

My point in writing this essay is to state that most posters, save the few idiots out there calling McHale names or dogging Bev or Harden, have legitimate reasons to think that Lin starting is the appropriate basketball decision and are not just idiotic kids in their 20s that worship Lin. But frankly speaking, that's how Lin supporters are treated. Most people blame Lin fans and Lin the player more than vice versa. Simple as that and that's pretty juvenile and r****ded.
In the end, it's all about the Rockets and that is exactly why I want Lin to start and finish games as I believe in my years and years of playing and coaching and watching games religiously, that Lin could help more than McHale realizes, imo. Let us argue this point without automatically being banned an idiotic fanboy. Please.

 

The Curious Case Of The Sticky Offense. If the staff wonders why the Offense gets sticky that's on them. They should know by now that appointing Harden PG duties and letting him run the offense is a disservice to the entire Offense.

And If you're going to let Harden do that, then you have rate his performances as such. 5 turnovers and a sticky O by the orchestrator of the offense is just terrible.

Harden is a better fit for Harden when he plays within the Offense like in every 8+ point win last year.

" let the pg play the pg." that doesn't mean harden can't take over at certain spots in the game. I don't know what mchale is so afraid of? that the beard might pimp slap him like he pimp slaps Mike bermans? play a democratic offense already and do what you do best.

 

Having Lin come off the bench actually makes an immediate difference as Lin plays 6 less minutes with Harden.

I am a huge Lin fan but these arguments are non-sequiturs. Harden holding onto the ball doesn't mean that he has to beat LBJ one-on-one.

Why don't we just all wait for at least 10 games before arguing.

Lin's points should go up this season as he will get to play against backups (good for my fantasy team! - took Dwight as well so bye bye FT% ).

 

And he is assigning the offense off the bench role for Lin? Meaning turning Lin into a scorer?

This is what I wrote before:

And somewhat relevant:

 

What difference did you see? That another player is passing the ball to Harden after the half court line only to have Harden hold on to it for the majority of the time? We don't need to wait 10 games to see what happens. We already saw it last year for the majority of the season.

 

Just as McHale didn't bench Lin for having a chest contusion last year without giving him a chance to see if he could play, so too, he shouldn't bench Beverley without giving him a chance.

 

I begin to think that it's not they do not know the ball gets sticky while Harden handles the ball. Perhaps they just want to optimize the usage of Harden, helping him to further enhance his playmaking ability. Once Harden is able to create and pass like a real pg, together with his shooting prowess, he's gonna be huge.

I saw somewhere people pointed out Jeremy came out second during player introduction in the opening game after our rookie Covington. Could it be a sign that he's on the way of Houston? Well, I understand he's not a starter now. But him as the 14th guy? I find it hard to comprehend.

 

for those of you who are new to watching or following lin, the rockets will not trade Lin for the remainder of his contract. whether he gets re-signed again is another matter, but he isn't getting traded this year or next year guaranteed.

 

Just wondering, are you new to Rockets?

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=245945

 

nope.

 

Maybe Jeremy asked or volunteered to be introduced early. He is a devout Christian and may be taking the humble path.

 

in this case, asik should play with 2nd unit to maximize his capability. can't our coach see that?

the article just states one side of effects when harden and lin on court at same time. there also are other facts, such as harden efficiency drops w/o lin.

whether lin starts or not is not big deal. the deal is McHale didn't come out to clarify the logic behind the change. because of silence, rumors are flying as crazy as you can see not only on this board but also on national media. not a lot ppl agree with this article. they think bev outplayed lin so he got the starting job.

 

You're way overstating. I have observed:

1. A handful of people who refuse to accept the organization's explanation that it's about fit and instead argue that Bev outplayed Jeremy for the job.

2. A large segment of people -- the majority, I'd say -- who accept, understand and agree with the "fit" explanation and are on board with whatever works best for the team. This group understands that it's not about one PG being superior to or outplaying the other, but about what lineup allows both of them to play to their strengths.

3. A segment of ardent Lin fans who refuse to accept the organization's explanation that it's about fit and instead argue that Jeremy should be allowed to start unless/until he proves he isn't capable, regardless of whether him coming off the bench = a better fit or more wins for the team.

The problem is that the agitating and frequently unreasonable people who fall into categories 1. and 3. are so vocal in their delusions that they drown out the people who fall into category 2.

 

it is still debatable whether bev is better fit with harden than lin. lin and harden were doing fine playing together. lin even helped harden to increase his efficiency, better than bev.

the organization has never stated anything. I may be wrong on this.

the more reasonable explanation is lin can help 2nd unit more than bev.

 

Best fit for our team is get the ball moving. Not ISO (cough *Harden* cough). It's not about PBev or Jlin. It's about our players playing team ball and moving the ball around. Only during last two minutes when the game is on the line would I want Harden to ISO. If not, ball should always be moving to find open man...

 

You clearly fit into category #3, so there's no point in debating with you lol. The explanation all along has been that (1) Beverley fits better with Harden and (2) Jeremy can help the second unit more than Beverley. If it makes you feel better to eliminate the portion of the equation that gives Bev any credit, that's your prerogative.

 

ISO means one player has the ball, every other player spreads out and let this one player do his thing, right? How often does that actually happen? True, Harden has the ball in his hands most of the time, but there are still off the ball screens going on, cutters and pick and rolls. And of course there are entry passes to Dwight. I´d like to see a statistical analysis of how many ISOs we actually run. I am pretty sure it is not half as much as LOFs on here think. Our offense last year was great for the most part, and we had lots of passing the ball around - same this preseason. The other teams commentators regularly say stuff like "this team just likes to pass, they are so unselfish".

And another thing, I´d like to see how many points we score of ISOs. Harden is a premier shot creator, both for him and others. ISOing him is not really a bad idea.

I too don`t always like the playcalling, and I also don`t understand why Lin isn`t handling the ball more, especially when Harden is out - but don`t make such a big deal out of it. We were one of the best (and prettiest) offenses last season and we won more than most analysts believed we could. McHale is doing more right than wrong right now - and it is the beginning of the season with McHale needing to find out, how best to play with Howard, Asik, Lin, Beverly and Harden...

 

what factors do you consider in categorizing Harden as an ISO player?

why?

 

Perhaps because Harden is most efficient offensive player on the team?