ClutchFans Game Thread: Grizzlies @ Rockets 1/24/2014

I almost feel like he's just mailing it in at this point. Must have been upset to be regulated to the bench despite his decent play in the past few weeks. I have a feeling both him and Asik will be dealt before the deadline.

 

In fairness to Lin....our starting backcourt shot 3 of 22 from the field. That's what cost this particular game. And we do have a starting PG, his name is James Harden.

 

Just watched the game...

Damn.

That's all I got.

Damn.

 

Gotta admit though that it was fun watching Parsons light it up. Was hopeful that it would be enough.

 

Because Mr.Must Fail told him he must not show his shooting skills. Instead he should be supposed to make play for others only. If Lin didn't do it, they will bench him or make him invisible on the floor.

 

Everyone is complaining about the play calling, but that isn't the problem. The problem is that the Rockets failed to execute the plays called because of good defense by Memphis. Good defense can and does win games.

 

Is there anyone keeping track of how many times Lin gets hit in the face or head. It is usually two or three times per game.

 

Parsons is not suppose to get the pressure Lebron was getting because he's not on that pay scale or on that hype scale yet but it wasn't enough obviously to win but it was more than enough being the third option. At the end of the game the two allstars should be demanding the ball and head coach should be drawing up better plays with multiple options then putting the ball in the third options hand and saying go.

 

Predictable one on one offense without ball movement makes average defense look like good defense.

 

If it's a low scoring defensive game it's a loss. We need to impose our will as a team on our opponents... straight indication of weak leadership on all levels.

 

Ok, so let me see if I understand this correctly...

We have 2 of the most efficient PnR ball handlers in the NBA with Harden and Lin, who just happen to be our 2 best passers and most efficient finishers around the rim.

So McHale calls a PnR with Parsons and Dwight? REALLY?

Give the ball to Harden, give the ball to Lin... either one can be justified on some level. However, giving it to Parsons to run a PnR may be one of the dumbest coaching decisions out of a time out I've ever seen.

With 8s left, they didn't need to catch and shoot on the inbound. There was no reason to give the ball to Parsons except as a pass or kick from a real ball handler. Heck, giving the ball to Aaron Brooks to ISO would be a better call than initiating a PnR through Parsons.

McHale's in-game basketball decisions repeatedly disappoints...

 

While it's true, don't expect to see PNR for Lin. Nowadays he's just handing the ball to Harden, and he didn't even get to run PNR with second unit other than with Dmo. He's literally playing fulltime backup SG now that Bev is back.

 

I do not buy the conspiracy theory. But our coach is coaching like buying cooked food in supermarket. When they need something, they try to achieve it by single player. Bad defense in PnR due to lack of defensive coordination? Instead of working hard to build up a team defense, they just try to change the player. Remember last year how our defense collapse when Asik is out? You know why? Asik himself has made a name in help defense before he came here.

Had a bad offense game? Ball sticky? Instead of emphasizing moving without the ball, just let your star do IsOs. When parsons whose offensive game mainly come from good off ball moving keeps standing still at 3pt line while our offenses is struggling, you know the coach is responsible.

About Lin? It is balatant disrespect because the coach really does not how to use it.
He put up decent numbers last season and he becomes a backup PG this year the first game. He played decent games when the starting pg is down and became the backup pg in the first game that the starting pg is healthy.

"Two starting PG now...." And everyone can continue to live in the fairy tale of 6th man. While clearly either harden or parsons is running the show most of the times. Our coach simply does not how to handle Lin in their game plan.

He showed up when harden each time harden is down and the coach's hAnd is tight but he is just a backup PG now.

It's ok for lin and feel a little bit bad for him for losing the chance to march forward in his career.

Our coach is unable to make TT work. They simply put Asik in together with Howard but does nothing to coordinate the offense. Asik was simply taken out of offense, watching at some corner and waiting for rebounds. You know why TT did not work, because there was never a carefully adjustment to make it work. Everyone was playing the same way as if Asik is substituting for 2Pat.

Our offense is always individual player's play and our defense is always individual defense. Except a finite number of plays,who honestly who can say that we play with an identity in offense or defense.

We have a good record now partly due to an easier schedule - we are almost even with winning teams and get most of the Ws from losing teams. But we had 1 superstar and 1 superstar in the making. We have two young players who are really putting up performance that is way above an average role player. Our talent as a collection of individual players is already there and we are playing worse than what our talent level.

You give a man time to develop when either he is a rookie or he has performed well on his first task. Our coach seems to be getting more chances even if they kept a record of failing.

We are not going to get a much better roster than now because three of our starters are playing for little money now. Morey has done a phenomenal job at identifying promising young players. We can not honestly bet our Champaignship dream on Morey doing a even better job at talent than he is doing now. So tell me, how are we supposed to go from here to a championship? Do not tell me trading Asik and Lin away will solve the problem because our help defend will still be bad. And we can no longer have a cheap Parsons and TJ. Our coach does not have not a track record for making players work together and I do not have any confidence in how they can make it work for another ball dominating player.

 

Mchale is betting in a "surprise" factor? You thought we would be playing PnR with harden? Surprise! We will not use our best players because we could surprise you and that will somehow help us win the game!

 

McHale does not bench him for one wrong move.

 

Why wouldn't Lin be frustrated. This season, he has shown that:

1) He can play very good defense, as seen in the way he severely limited Tony Parker, Mike Conley, and Jrue Holiday in a series of great defensive performance around Christmastime.

2) He can still light it up Linsanity style, as seen in the way he scored 31, 34, and 21 against the Raptors, Sixers, and Knicks in his scoring outburst.

3) He can be a great efficient offensive player, as seen in the way he was putting up near all-star offensive numbers in the first 15 games of the season before he went down with that injury.

4) He can be a very good facilitator, as seen in the way he was racking up near double-doubles during the later end of his stint as starter in the absence of Beverley.

5) He can be a pretty decent spot-up 3pt shooter, as seen in the way he was shooting very well in the year of 2013, starting from last year's all-star break (until his recent slump).

Lin is frustrated because there seems to be no metric by which he can succeed, while conversely, there is no metric by which Beverley can fail. Bev can shoot 1-11 and still finish games. If Lin shot that badly and had Bev and Brooks waiting on the bench, he would never see the 4th quarter.

 

Good post but I don't get what's with the $22mill guy always getting a pass

 

I pointed out multiple times that Lin needs to man up, be aggressive, and just play his game. I still believe that is what he needs to do in order to find his mojo and regain his confidence. This is NBA. In many nights, there is a dog-eating-dog world out there. You got to be thick-skinned and selfish sometimes. I wish Lin would say to himself "screw this. I'm going to play hard, play freely, play my game. If I'm going to be yanked for mistakes and turnovers, what's the worst that can happen to me. Bench me? They are doing that to me already. Trade me? They're trying it already. So, I will just go out and play my game." I guess Lin is just such a nice kid and trying too much to be a team player. It is like DH in LA. When you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing nobody, including yourself.

On the other hand, in fairness to him, the current coaching staff are not helping ( I'd argue they are partly to be blamed for his lack of confidence). Put yourself in his shoes. If your boss does not have confidence in you, when you make a mistake he quickly pulls off your current assignments and leaves them half-finished and don't give you many chances to learn from your mistakes and redeem yourself. Don't tell me you can do a good job and have confidence in yourself. If your answer is yes, you're obviously lying. This is what I don't like the most about McHale when every time he downplays the Linsanity. I have no doubt he is a good man, trying to alleviating Lin's pressure. But it is obviously not working. For some players, you may have to try the opposite cause certain people simply thrive under pressure. I believe Lin is one of them. Look at what happened to him during Linsanity when his back was against the wall. As a coach, you have to have high expectation on certain players. You need to set high bars for them. If you have mediocre expectation, then your players will be mediocre. Just like a math teacher, if you say to your students in your first class "math is hard" and then stop there. You know what is going to happen. But if you say "math is hard. But I believe you will be good at it as long as you work as hard as you can. I will do whatever I can to help you" and you then indeed did whatever you can. Guess what? You may still have some students bad at math but you have certainly many good at it.

Sorry for the long post. Just a few of my thoughts. You can agree or disagree. Just label me this or that. I'd like to be myself :grin:

Btw, I like many of your posts in the past. I know you're frustrated just like many of us. But pls be fair and be patient. Spring always follows winter. All will be well if we have a little faith with each other, with Lin and maybe even the coaching staff:grin:

 

Corrected

 

Great post. Just brilliant!