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

Interesting view......

I can understand your love for having grit and tenacity at the beginning of games, but it's not very good for the team because IMO you're overrating the offense of the starters. Asik is not so good offensively, Parsons isn't an all star, D12 isn't a great offensive player. So actually the only thing potent is Harden. So you'll get a lot of Harden dribbling and it's not good for the team. It's better to get the whole team involved and let Harden do his thing once in a while and at the end of quarters/games. That way, everyone gains some momentum and Harden could avoid fatigue and unnecessary wear and tear.

Excellent!

I hear ya. So now you're 14? j/k

 

Right, Rockets won last 3 games, with Lin starting or played significant time in the first game. I don't see a problem with him starting, so why some people want to mess it up?

 

stay the course

Messing it up is just the some fans' partial window into the situation. They spent all their training camps with Lin mostly playing on the second unit in practices, so changing back to have him start now will mess things up actually. Once Lin's ego learned to handle his role, no harm done at all to have Lin come off the bench. So far McHale is still right, as the winning percentages of both arrangements are still 100%.

 

Howard isn't even 28 yet. Unless injuries are a problem, his prime is at least another few years. And the rest of our players (Harden, Parsons, Bev, Lin) haven't even entered their prime yet, they are still a year or two away.

 

I wanted to edit my previous post but couldn't. I didn't mean that McHale intended to yank Lin's chain lol, it was bad wording. I don't think McHale is doing any of this to spite Jeremy or his fans, I think he just valued Jeremy Lin's worth differently than some of us.

I also see that this year he is less harsh on Lin thus far and has said good things about him repeatedly. Lastly, I'm sure that they are reassessing the situation after every game as McHale even said that nothing is set in stone as they'll need time to experiment.

 

That last game against the Jazz just show how good the offense can be with Lin orchestrating. Harden can't do it all by himself so who else do you go to?? Howard isn't producing consistently either. You have to go back Lin. There is no doubt 2 guards (Lin and Harden) attacking the basket is better than 1...so i am 50/50 when it comes to who is in the starting lineup...Beverley or Lin. Despite all of that, i am still leaning toward Beverley starting because it just make more sense for the team. The 2nd unit need someone to orchestrate the offense for them and Lin has to be the one. And Beverley can help shut down the other team's starting PGs like Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Westbrook, Parker...ect.. Lin can be the X-factor coming off the bench to help either maintain our lead or extended our lead coming off the bench.

 

I don't agree with this stance. It's a 81 game season why do we need to determine a playoff lineup right off the bat? It's also not about who's right or wrong or who should start right now, it's about finding the most optimized lineup that gives us the best chances of winning, especially down the stretch and into the playoffs.

McHale originally said that he didn't mind rotating the guards for the first couple of months into the season. I was a bit surprised that he let PB finish the last 2 preseason games as starter but even with this, I got the sense that they are still "experimenting" as McHale expressed some doubts about the lineup right after the Bobcats game. Perhaps by them being kind of vague on the entire situation, this leaves them room for experimentation and flexibility? If so, then I apologize about my remarks about them misleading the public.

I actually think that the coaches are more patient than some of us are. Yes, they've been leaning toward Beverley starting but doesn't mean that they're set on it for the long run.

 

I think people need to understand you're dealing w/ two different kind of fans. the LOF fans and the team fans. LOF is all more about pride...Asian pride take priority over winning...not saying winning don't mean anything...winning lead directly to success and success lead to pride. As LOF, you want him to be the BEST he can be (make everyone proud) and so when he's coming off the bench, it's a signal of demotion and nobody likes that. On the other hand, you're dealing with fans that want to do what is best for the team's success, disregarding individual pride. So they prefer Lin coming off the bench because it makes more sense for the team's chance of success. Now, is Lin's game justified to become a starter and is Beverley's game justified to be a starter? I'll say they're both 50/50...and maybe that's why McHale says he has two starting PGs. Both have weaknesses...if you can combine both skills together, you have yourself a PERFECT PG in the making, but that's not happening.

 

82 games season

 

Lin has been playing very well this year. He's playing with confidence and isn't second guessing himself. He's doing what he does best, which is getting to the basket. Lin will be a very sexy 6th man of the year candidate this year. Teams are not focusing on Lin as much as last year.

 

One thing I do know is that McHale and Lin have different views on what a PG should do. McHale wants a PG to make aggressive but "safe" plays. (This might be seen as an oxymoron to some). Beverly makes more "safe" plays that McHale likes, even though he usually doesn't score as much. Lin is a high risk high reward type of player. He has learned from his own BB experience that in games where he takes more risk his team was more likely to win. He is willing to risk a high TO game if it results in a win. They both have different ideas on what a PG should do.

 

Lots of people must have been asking Feigen about it. He sounds over it lol.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Have to run, but for those asking, don't know if Pat Beverley will start 4 or 5 games from now, and nothing new on CSN-Houston.</p>&mdash; Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/statuses/397138369018220544">November 3, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

Thanks, this just confirms that the coaching staff is flexible on this matter as they should be. To me, It'd be silly to expect a rock solid formation right away.

 

Nothing is set in stone

No need for the caveat - of course nothing is set in stone if we don't see a winning record. My theory is that McHale didn't see eye to eye with Morey a whole lot but he wouldn't show up Morey either. Thus last year Lin, Asik, and Harden starting were set in stone after the big contracts handed to them by Morey. This year Howard starting is set in stone whether he delivers or not. And of course Harden overwhelmingly earned his starting spot after he delivered for McHale and Morey last year.

 

Uh, no. Asian pride is about winning.

 

I think Harden, Howard and even Parsons are the guaranteed starters, everybody else is fair game even Asik. Morey has said on many occasions that he does not get involved with coaching decisions so whatever McHale wants to do with the rotation is totally up to him.

Remember last year Sampson was the first to start benching Lin the entire 4th quarter for Douglas. When McHale came back he followed the trend set until Lin started picking up his game early in the 2nd half of the season. Then PB came onto the scene and history repeated itself. It was apparent to many that the coaching staff didn't think too highly of Lin, some of this may be due to them feeding their own egos since they never endorsed this signage.

I believe that this year will be different because the stakes are much higher, they're realizing that whatever decision they make will be for one interest only and that's to win the championship. I sense that Lin is starting to come around and grow on them if can continue his improved play.

 

as they should. if cp3 was injured and jeremy was starting in his place, obviously cp3 would get his starting position back. but jeremy is playing well and bev is a roleplayer, so if team is on a roll and winning, no need to fix what's not broken.

 

Bev's not gonna shut down elite pgs... he couldn't even slow down reggie jackson during the playoffs. Rockets can always stagger lin and harden's minutes so lin can play with the 2nd unit, that's not rocket scientist.

 

I don't remember it like that. I don't remember Lin sitting for an entire 4th quarter. Maybe it happened once, I'm not sure. I do remember Douglas finishing some games, but I seem to remember Lin still playing more minutes on most nights. I definitely do not remember a trend of Lin sitting out the entire 4th quarter of games. It was also never apparent to me that the coaching staff didn't think highly of Lin.