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I don't really think his opinion carries much more weight than other scouts or analysts, but it does squash those who think it's something in the water at ClutchFans. Exact quote: "I think Jeremy Lin has been a disappointment. I think that he has his moments where you're thinking, 'OK I see Linsanity', but most of the time I see a lot of forced jumpers. He's a terrible passer. Patrick Beverley is an amazing defender but not really a great point guard."
Parsons is a natural complementary player for on a talented team. He rarely ever beats his guy with a lightening quick first step or a fancy crossover. He shoots 3 pointers and drives off of pump fakes. Lin, like many NBA guys who are used to being a primary option in college, has more adaptation to make in order to play a role next to Harden and Howard. It just requires a different skill set than a situation where you have the ball in your hands everybody else just spaces the floor to get you open. I don't think Lin is a "terrible passer" but he is a risky one. Sports gambler Bob Voulgaris noted that Lin made a high % of passes that lead to dunks, FTs and other high efficiency shots. But these are also the kind of passes in tight spaces that tend to get fumbled or lead to turnovers. I think Lin's passing was better last season than this one. For some reason, he worked better with Asik than he has so far with Howard. It also helped having more natural floor spacers at the PF spot in Patterson, Delfino and Morris. The team has gone to a more traditional look this year. Jones and DMo can shoot some 3s but they are not quite the natural spot up shooters that last year's crew were.
It's a pretty big compliment when Thorpe say's that Chandler is the 3rd best player in the NBA 6'9" and above driving to the basket. Only Lebron and KD are better. That is a huge endorsement.
His assists to turner ratio is bad with a 1.65 assists to turnovers ratio, ranking Lin 43rd among point guards. This is like James Harden bad, which is unacceptable as a point guard. If you take enough high/unnecessary risks, then you are terrible decision maker, i.e. a terrible passer.
Ever since seeing Parsons rookie season tip dunking like crazy going to hole strong(albeit at the the time not finishing at the rate he does now) hitting threes, breaking down guys off the dribble, and locking down on D. I knew he would be something special. At the time he was was what we wanted C-Bud to be. He's only gonna get better with more experience and practice because as Thorpe said, "he's wildly talented!!". I thinks it's safe to say he could easily and will be our third star. Also he has great intangibles like his leadership abilities. There's a reason the Rockets are very reluctant to let him go. He's got rare skills and talent at that size. It's not far fetched to say that he's probably a top five SF in this league.
One of my main reasons for wanting us to get solid at the PF position is so CP can go back to working on his defense. There are way too many elite SF's in this league for him to settle for being an average defender.
The assist to TO ratio is a fairly worthless measurement of how good a passer a player is. Specifically, a bunch of turnovers for not just Lin but many other players come not from passing, but from driving to score. If you have a guy like Calderon, who rarely aggressively drives into the crowd to score the basket, then they are going to have a high assist to TO ratio. On the other hand, when a guy's job is to get into the paint all the time, not just for passing opportunities but also to look to score baskets and get to the line, the Assist to TO ratio is going to be lower. This kind of stuff is really more of a matter of role as oppose to ability.
I think that sounds as insulting to Parsons as it does to anyone else. Parsons is not KD yet nor will ever have the length (arms) to be. He's a very good player on a good team that can't be compared to even a Paul George yet but he's getting there.
More like he goes for the touch down pass too often and sometimes isn't aware of his personnel. (Throws the same pass to Asik/Dmo as he would to a Howard/Jones but not always.) :grin:
I love watching these segments because of the knowledge and honesty these two men portray. They tell it like it is.
