Should we look to Jeremy Lin to be our closer as opposed to James Harden?

Teams know that Harden is our goto guy and they are going to do their best to keep him from beating them.

When teams choose to double Harden as Toronto did last night, the best move is to find the man that gets left open due to the double team. Last night Toronto chose to leave Lin open in order to try and contain Harden. Rather than forcing shots over double teams, we got the ball to Lin and he made them pay. That's exactly how you beat those double teams.

Here's Dwayne Casey's comments after last night's game:

Defensively we did as good a job as we could on (James) Harden. We knew we had to give up something and it was Jeremy Lin.

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/11/11/pesky-raps-take-rockets-to-double-ot-before-losing

So, if the Raptors are going to leave Lin in order to double Harden, you'd prefer if Harden went 1 on 2? Really?

Michael Jordan was the greatest closer that I've ever seen but who hit the series clinching shot of the '93 finals? It was John Paxon, not Jordan. Then in the '97 Finals it was Steve Kerr that hit the series clinching shot.

Paying a guy to be a star doesn't mean that he has to take every shot. It means that he has to make good decisions and make his teammates better. When doubled and triple teamed, the smart decision is likely to be to pass the ball.

Here's Jordan's explanation of his passing to Kerr on the game winner:


"everybody in the gym, everybody on TV knew it was coming to me. I looked at Steve and said, 'This is your chance,' because I knew Stockton is going to come over and help and I'm going to come to you.

http://www.nba.com/history/97finals_moments.html

 

do you know why we were sluggish again in the 4th?

"But the Rockets continued their trend of slogging through long dry spells and scored just five points the rest of the fourth quarter, with Lin taking just one more shot." - from chron.com.

and guess who had the ball most of the time in that quarter, even though lin was having a great shooting night...

harden is the best player and should have the most touches. but along with that, comes the responsibility to produce a good shot not just for himself but for the TEAM. shooting an airball with 3 guys in your face while your teammate who was shooting above 50% from the 3 is right next to you is not a good shot, and i don't care how talented you are. on this team, pounding the ball for 21 seconds and shooting a step back three is NOT the best shot to take. harden will have the most touches in crunch time, but he seriously needs to trust his teammates and know when to shoot and when to pass. he got much better with that in OT, i'll give him that, but this is the trend we see in every tight 4th quarter game, going all the way back to 2nd half of last year.

 

I don't disagree with that. He should do better, but he should still have the ball to determine what happens when the game is on the line. I'm sure he learns from his mistakes like everybody else.

 

and yes, for the games that harden was out last year, he played well. not 31 and 38pt well, but very well regardless. and really, harden wasn't out that many games last year so your argument is r****ded.

and as for games on another team without harden? yeah he got shut down by miami for one regular season game. if you want to talk about miami... harden got shut down by miami for an entire playoff series, in the finals, no less, as the third option on the team.

harden is an awesome player - 26 and 10 being injured is ridiculous. i'm not hating him at all. just point out how ridiculous and stupid this whole "well he got exposed by miami" argument is.

 

Man, I'm glad you brought this up. Even the ones hardest up for Harden I don't think could defend that shot, could they? I'm not so sure having been here for over a year now. You can be the biggest Lin hater and I still think that would be a wrong thing for a person to try to defend. But as I said, I'm not sure.

 

Not once did I bring up anything about lin vs Miami so feel stupid. Lin didn't do crap last year in the playoffs before he got hurt.

 

Harden is now officially playing like mini Kobe




By comparison:



The beard is almost there...

 

Should we look to Jeremy Lin to be our closer as opposed to James Harden?

We need more than 1 closer. Give the ball to Harden, Lin, or whoever is hot or in a position to get a high percentage shot.

 

These lin fans a 1m times worse than yao ming fans. ay least yao was a 2nd team all nba vs a reserve.

 

stop or they will say you are racist and a troll. anyone who disagree with lin being goat is a racist troll according to them.

 

Let me feed you.
Above picture: Parsons and and Casspi were as wild open as they could get. But why beard no pass to Lin? Lin is clearly GOAT.

Since I didn't see anybody else claiming Lin's GOAT, I had to say it. All those so called lofs are too chicken to tell the truth.

 

Exactly. Remember Jordan to Kerr or Wennington. How many game-winning shots did Robert Horry take in the playoffs? Steve Blake who had the game winner in LA has done that quite a bit, hit buzzer beating shots. Some guys have a knack for it, sometimes the superstar or good creator can set them up, and sometimes the superstar takes them. There's no one way to do it and superstars impact the game more but you definitely need guys around them to win games and sometimes step up and carry the teams when the superstar is either the huge focus of the defense, or under the weather or just having an off night.

 

That is why we may need another coach to the next level. Flexibility and making quick adjustments are required in today's game. He is old school. Look how he let 'hack a Howard' go on without subbing and we lost the game. If he had done that, we would have won the game against the Lakers.

 

Thanks Idk how I didn't notice the other rockets wide open...

 

Lin would make better decisions down the line. Harden will just try to jack it on multiple defenders. Lin will find the open man.

 

They are both flawed.

Lin still has the propensity to do something stupid like drive into a brick wall. He might just turn the ball over for no good reason.

Harden has a tendency to go iso. He might not see the open shooter if he's looking for his shot. At least he'll get a shot off.

If we have pretty much a full possession, then I would probably prefer Lin (or the team in general) to handle the ball initially. Don't do anything stupid. If nothing opens up, then dish it to Harden as the clock starts winding down. Everything else being equal, Harden is still by far our best scorer and he should get the last shot. This way we can maximize both their abilities.

 

LOL this coming from the guy who thinks Goran Dragic is all that's missing from this being the best starting 5 in the league....no really he said that!!

 

Lin might be a better decision maker than Harden, but it's not like he's Nash or CP3. It doesn't make up for the fact that Harden is much better offensively.

Lin has problems taking open 3pt shots, let's wait for him to figure out that basic stuff first, before we start talking about having him run clutch situations.

 

In the games without Harden, Lin's numbers have been All-Star caliber. You can't fault Lin for Harden not being injured a lot. Lin's played well in the few occasions that have arisen. I personally have never said anything about you thinking that Lin sucks, only that I could disprove that Lin couldn't do shet without Harden.

 

Yeah definitely. My statement is more from a general sense. Different situations require different approaches. But it only makes sense to look at your super star first, then weigh your options.