I would've asked, "Is this where all those 'ah-we-can-beat-them' bad losses come back to haunt us? Tell me this isn't the third late-season collapse in a row?" I love Daryl Morey. Specifically, I'd love him to clean up this garbage bench this offseason. He has his work cut out for him, to be sure. He can package Asik and Tjones together; perhaps another team's GM can sell its owner on, "Look at it this way, it's $17,000,000 (just this season!) for the two of them, and this is what they bring." And get us a Millsap or a Thaddeus Y. or etc etc. Use the MLE on a Kaman or some such. Flush these second-rate small forwards. Lin? That's a tough one. The guy's got the confidence of someone plucked off the street, thrown into firefighter gear and made to run into the burning Toyota Center to save Clutch the Bear. Hell, you could make it worse by hiring me to play for the Rockets, but the result would be the same: L L L
That was unexpected. Morey saying specifically that Lin's back isn't responding to treatment and might not play some games in this last stretch is a worrying development. We know he's had back issues all season, but nobody's really said much about it lately so I assumed that it had pretty much worked itself out. If it's still an issue it makes me wonder if there's an underlying injury that they're keeping under wraps. Definitely not good.
I'm more worried about the seeding implications. Lin missing games would completely kill us with Beverley already out. That Morey would even toss out the possibility that Lin would miss games down the stretch implies that this isn't a minor thing. Even as sub-par these last few games have been for Lin, the team is WAY better with Lin + Canaan than Canaan + nobody.
Maybe he's saying Lin will go out once Bev comes back. If Bev is out for 2 weeks, that would mean he could return for the Pelicans game on 4/12. That would allow Lin to sit out for 3 games before the playoffs start. But we cannot lose him before then. To have only Canaan when we're almost at the point where every game is a must-win in order to hang onto home court would be a disaster. That Brooks trade is gonna haunt Morey for a long time if the Rockets wind up in the 5th seed and lose in the first round.
I don't see how sitting this Lin would hurt our team. Even though Troy Daniels at this point is a replacement level NBA player, that's still better than what we've seen from Lin in the past three games.
The Lin contract will haunt Morey much more if he goes out and puts up a 2nd straight incompetent postseason performance. The Brooks trade certainly doesn't help.
You expect Harden to play 48 minutes? Canaan played zero minutes last night without either Harden or Lin on the floor. http://www.popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gameflow.cgi?date=20140402&game=HOUTOR Even in the Brooklyn game where he played 3:46 without Harden or Lin, Parsons was the primary ball handler. And while Lin isn't exactly 1st NBA defense, he's a LOT better than Harden or Garcia when it comes to guarding opposing PG's. Garcia's long enough to be okay on a 3 or 4 and the occasional 2, but he just isn't anywhere near fast enough to remotely slow down a PG. No, if our only PG is Canaan that's a huge hole.
Howard coming back 2 early was a really poor and stupid decision. Who did we play again? Philly and the Jazz? stupid decision
I think we need Bev and Lin to make any kind of real playoff push. All of this is really very frustrating. What a (potentially) disappointing end to what was a great season so far.
I think Morey knows what a colossal F'up that was. The Rockets have reportedly been trying to move Lin all season. At this point, they're likely stuck with the guy for another year. At least with Omer, there's the chance someone will want him this offseason given the monster rebounding numbers he's put up in Dwight's absence.
This is a worrying trend for Jeremy Lin. He seems to be perennially battling injuries at season's end.
Actually he came back in the game at Charlotte which wasn't exactly a guaranteed win. I did say at the time though that they could've just sat him that night and then against Philly which would've bought him nearly 2 weeks off heading into that Clippers game.
To be fair, even trading Lin at the deadline could have potentially left us in a similar position if we didn't get a PG back in the trade. Beverley/Brooks/Canaan ... now take Beverley out with a torn meniscus and it actually looks worse. Brooks can score, but he's a significant downgrade from Lin defensively. We'd still be vulnerable to opposing PG's. And his lack of length and height makes him even more of a mismatch against the bigger/longer shooting guards. Just like not trading Asik turned out to be a good thing this season, not trading Lin is probably the best scenario for the Rockets this season outside of a very limited set of unlikely trade scenario's.
T. Jones' mysterious injury has me worried too. First it was just flu-like symptoms, but he's listed as having an "upper body injury." Since when don't they just say "flu" if it's the flu?
Actually, this injury has been nagging him since the ASB, so it's not so much an end of season injury vs a mid-season injury. Given that it's an injury completely different than any of his previous injuries (meniscus, chest contusion, knee sprain), I really don't see it as worrying per se except in the short term play off implications. Now, if he was also having ankle problems (typical follow on injury from knee injury), THEN I would start getting worried. Still, the end result is the same. This is the time of year that we can't afford to have Beverley AND Lin out. Terrible timing.
I don't know. If there's one thing that can be said about Brooks, it's that the dude was knocking down his 3-pointers. In fact, he was the team's best outside shooter before we traded him. Lin has had stretches where he played really well, but he's completely unreliable most of the time. You don't know what you're getting from him on any given night. As for this upcoming offseason, it'll be tough moving Lin's contract unless it's a major deal involving other players and a few draft picks. More than likely, we ride out the last year of his deal and hope we get something out of him(it will be a contract year for him, after all). Another quality backup point guard will be essential though given Bev's injury woes all season and Lin's inconsistency.
