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

Whoa. Morey will trade anybody and everybody, harden and dwight included.

 

Any trade for Rondo will most likely include Lin. There is absolutely no need for 3 ball dominant guards. Celtics will also need a pg in return.

 

It's all stated in my long post a couple of pages back.

I'd rather see Lin coming off the bench in attack mode, instead of wanting to throw rocks at the tv because he is just watching harden dribble.

Because I want the rockets to win another championship and Beverly hitting his potential as an elite defender of elite pgs will help that.

You care about Jeremy the person more than the rockets as a team. I get that and it's your right. It's a free world (for the most part).

I'd just suggest you consider whether starting is really the best for Lin. I think it sets him up to not close games and be watching Beverly what it should be Linning time. It sets him up to get scored on by elite guards, to hear more crap from media about how he can't defend, to burn his energy doing something that is not his best skill, to take away from his ability to dominate as a creator and scorer.

If Lin comes off the bench and goes supernova, we will need that and he will dominate. You won't be Able to pull him from the game with four minutes left and a game to win. He will be on the floor with 16 seconds left, rockets down 1 and rockets with the ball.

I can't remember from all these posts. Do you really want Lin to start if there's a good chAnce it hurts his production and importance to the team?

 

Honestly, there's only one really good reason why Lin is not starting.

-Beverley can't run the offense on the 2nd unit.

There is one really good reason why Lin should still start AND run the 2nd unit

-It's better to come out with guns blazing on the offensive than hide in a corner and defend.

The main reason I like Lin starting, then being subbed so that he runs the 2nd unit is that Lin's +- in our best starter unit is Monstrously better than Beverley with our best starter unit.

As in +18/26 vs +4/5/6.

http://www.82games.com/1314/1314HOU2.HTM

Bet you guys didn't realize how big the gap was...

So, I would rather that the starting unit is Lin, Harden, Garcia/Casspi, Parsons and Asik, because that's the one that will run up the score differential the most, get us the lead the earliest, and have the opposing team back on their heels.

And if we run up the score high enough in the first half, then Lin, Parson and Harden all get the luxury of playing fewer minutes and our reserves get lots of reps.

Remember last year when some of our games were over by the end of the first half? Or even the first quarter? That happens when you absolutely *CRUSH* the other team out of the gate and they don't even get a chance to build momentum.

Go with a 2nd tier starting unit like Bev, Harden, Casspi/Garcia, Parsons and Dwight and that's what you won't see. You'll see us limping to the end of the quarter with a close score and the opposing team feeling like they're in the game.

Send in the big guns out of the gate. Run them off the court. Then swap minutes all you like, just make sure that Lin is running the reserve unit.

And hopefully by the end of the 3rd the other team is running out the white flag and Harden, Lin, Parsons and Dwight get to call it a night.

 

Caris, no need to dislike the Rockets. This decision -- is just one step along the way for Lin. It does not strip him of his dreams; it may even make him a better rounded, more effective player in the long run.

He's in a good place, and will have options in the future. I'm not worried about Lin.

 

Isn't that rather impacted by the twin towers experiment?

 

You make more sense then McHale. But you know Dwight would be absolutely furious if he's not a starter.

 

No, because the Twin Towers are different line ups. The +- are by line up.

The highest Bev +- is Bev/Harden/Parsons/Dwight and Casspi/Garcia, and those are +4/6 respectively.

The TT line up +-'s are even worse. As in horrific.

 

Sorry, typo. That's supposed to be Howard, not Asik. No edit function.

So used to typing Asik for center. Still getting used to typing Asik.

 

Gah, getting used to typing Howard. @(#*$&#@$

 

Exactly.

I want the opposing team completely demoralized by the end of the first quarter by their complete helplessness before the Rockets' offense. Like the Mavericks game, which felt to me like for all intents and purposes it was over by the end of the first 12 minutes.

 

Wow. What makes you think Lin likes the Rockets? Do you think that he's like one of those chicks whose boyfriend physically abuses her and cheats and she's still there for him?

 

How long do you plan on running this kind of lineup? Parsons at the PF spot is not a lot of minutes kind of proposition; and we use him at the PF in our small-ball bev/lin/harden/parsons/dwight lineup, which I think is our best of all (though I haven't checked that recently).

 

Ok dude. You can't read my mind and I won't bother to prove how much I want Lin to succeed. Just suffice it to say that I identify with Lin more than any athlete I have ever followed because he is Taiwanese American, because he is 6'3"', not huge like Yao Ming, because he is a stand up guy on and off the court, because he balls that nobody appreciates, because on a tiny level I remember what it's like to be the Asian dude playing ball with black dudes in the old neighborhood, because he went to Harvard, because he represents the biggest stereotype busting figure for Asian Americans in the last 30 years.

 

Same reason why you are on CFs instead of jeremylin.com

 

Our best 2 line ups are Lin, Harden, Parsons, Casspi/Garcia and Howard. After that it's Lin/Bev/Parsons/Jones/Howard.

Personally, I'd run Harden/Parsons/(Casspi/Garcia) and Howard with Lin for about 5 mins with TJones occassionally if we need to go big, then sub Lin for Beverley to about the 8 min mark when you would sub out the starters and Bev for the Lin and the reserves. Then you go to your normal rotations starting in the 2nd quarter, with Bev starting the 2nd quarter with the starting line up, Lin coming in mid way with the reserves, and Lin closing the last mins of the 2nd quarter with the starters.

That would include some time with Beverley and Lin so that Beverley gets a decent amount of time and to switch defensive looks against the opposing team.

The main thing is you want to try to leap out to a lead right out of the gate, and have your best line up on the floor to close the half and 4th quarter. And there's nothing wrong with swapping Lin/Beverley on offensive/defensive possessions late in the quarter.

One thing that bugs me about McHale's rotations is he leaves in units for stretches that are WAY too long. 4-6 mins tops is ideal, and have 2-6 minute rests for players.

Rotations like running a player for 22 out of 24 mins in a half are pure stupidity.
Similarly, faster rotations with breathers will mean our guys have more wind to defend.

I would also cut Harden's minutes to 36-38, Parsons to around 35, and Lin/Bev ideally shouldn't go over 33-35 since PG defense is the most physically active in terms of anaerobic exercise. Just lots of sprinting around screens and the life.

Lots of options, but ideally we should open and close with our strongest units excluding special situations.

 

Small sample size. Give Beverley an honest chance before you pull the plug. He hasn't even been out starting PG for a month yet. He's been inconsistent, but that could be said of Jeremy's first season as a starter too. Our guard rotation has never been the problem. The real problem lied with the frontcourt, and it seems like we might be on our way to fix that. Beverley's offense has improved from last year, give him time to work it in.

 

And this is why I think that the rockets and lins interests are aligned in one respect -- for Lin to come off the bench and dominate. I got no problems with people that like Lin more than the Rockets. It's their freaking right. My beef is that they don't understand the realities of how the NBA works.

 

I certainly agree that Harden and Parsons are playing way too many minutes.

I think the lineups will settle down and be reasonable in another couple weeks of playing for analysis, because I think there will be some analytic feedback that makes clear which ones are working best.

I don't have that same comfortable feeling about minutes and giving players rest. I can't figure out why McHale is running Harden and Parsons for as long as he is, although he did have three years in his playing career of 37-40 minutes per game.

 

Hate to say it, but inconsistency isn't the only problem. Aside from his 3 point shot being a mess right now, he's just not the type of offensive player that Lin is in terms of generating offense.

This isn't a guess, this is the actual stats.

Lin plays 34 mins per game, Beverley plays 29 mins per game.

Lin drives 10.3 times per game, for 12.7 ppg on drives. Lin is #1 in the NBA in drives per game, and #2 in team PPG from drives.

Beverley drives 2.3 times per game, for 2.8 ppg on drives. That's #98 in the NBA in drives per game, and #94 in team PPG from drives.

http://stats.nba.com/playerTrackingDrives.html?pageNo=1&rowsPerPage=100&sortField=DVS&sortOrder=DES
http://stats.nba.com/playerTrackingDrives.html?pageNo=1&rowsPerPage=100&sortField=DTP&sortOrder=DES

Beverley not only takes fewer shots, and drives less, but he passes less per game and generates fewer assists. In fact most of his points are assisted (passes from someone else).

Beverley
FGA/game - 7.8, 77% jump shots, 92% Assisted
Total Assists - 18

http://www.82games.com/1314/13HOU3.HTM

Lin
FGA/game - 11.2, 74% jump shots, 53% assisted
Total Assists - 54

http://www.82games.com/1314/13HOU4.HTM

More starts won't fix his lack of drives to the rim, his lack of generating his own offense, or his lack of generating assists.

Remember, in terms of minutes differential you're only talking 5 mins or so. So even IF Beverley found his shot, it still wouldn't come close to the impact that Lin creates on the floor in terms of offense.

And it's Lin's threat on offense that creates space for Harden and others to operate.