this is the problem when it comes to evaluating lin - he's gotta be the only players where people are comparing his production possession to possession, quarter to quarter, and game to game. nobody, no one, contributes the same way every minute of every game, or even every quarter. we've seen horrible quarters from james and chandler but they also get 3 other quarters and 36 more minutes to contribute positively to the game as a whole. just because your points-per-possession is 1.36, doesn't mean you will score 1.36 points every time you have the ball. now, coaches have plenty of options when it comes to lin (and this applies to everyone outside of harden, chandlers, and bev). if lin is not playing well, there are other options to put in there. sometimes he gets the chance to come back in and redeem himself, and sometimes he doesn't. and that's totally fine.
And whose fault do you think it is that Lin is viewed with such scrutiny? A hint; it starts with L, ends with F, and is a 3 letter acronym. If LoF's did not place Lin on such a blatant pedestal and make up such ridiculous excuses when he does poorly (which is most of the time nowadays), Lin would not be scrutinized so much. They seize every possession where Lin does well and try to inflate this into a "Look how good he can be if the whole world wasn't holding him back" type argument. If LoF's were content on letting Lin be Lin and enjoy his occasional contributions NORMALLY, we wouldn't be having all this nonsense on CF. The problem though, is that Lin has Tebow type fans, meaning really dumb and fanatical ones.
lol. Neither player drastically underperformed or was underutilized here. And Lowry has already publicly admitted he wishes he would have done things differently in Houston, that HE should have handled things better and been more mature.
The most egregious LOFs seem to actually be trolls. But they post just enough to rile people up on both sides. Excellent points. Also, Lin's not really overpaid at $8 million a year.
False. The reason Dragic got the big contract from the Suns was because of how well he played for Houston. The reason the Raptors traded a first round pick for Lowry was because of how well he played for Houston. Lowry had friction with EVERY coach he has played for. So for you to say they under performed in Houston because of our coach and using that to excuse Lin's lack of production is disingenuous at best. But hey, we have come to expect nothing less from delusion LOF posters like yourself.
Your argument in the beginning actually supports your dismissal at the end. Lin is not Harden. He can't play the role he is best at, so his performance suffers. If he were Harden, that wouldn't be the case. But when he is "allowed to play his game" he typically does really well. It is not his fault that the Rockets ask him to do something different. His roles on the team are backup Bev, backup Harden, and lead the bench. Which does he do best? Backup Harden. He can still go off, though. If he does that during the playoffs, this team will be hard for anyone to beat. So here's hoping...
It's not quite that simple. The way FA and RFA are structured, you actually aren't really "free" to turn down contracts. Lin was a minimum salary player in NY. NY was over the cap and only had 2 options in terms of offering him a contract. 1) Offer a QO (qualifying offer) which would have been minimum salary, and let him pursue free agency 2) Offer the MLE or some portion of the MLE (which Lin may or may not have taken) and either lock up Lin or have Lin enter RFA The Knicks chose option 1. They offered him the QO and told him to find his market price in FA. One of the reasons that the Knicks didn't offer him the MLE is that Lin was a restricted free agent and the Knicks had limited bird rights. What this meant is that if they offer Lin a QO and he goes to market and another team offers him a contract, they have the ability to salary match while still retaining their MLE and Lin would NOT have the option of turning down the Knicks contract (Restricted). If the Knicks had offered the MLE, Lin can either sign (and the MLE is lost to sign another player), or Lin can still enter FA and the MLE is considered "locked up" until another team offers a better contract and Lin either signs with a new team or is re-signed as a RFA. So, when Lin entered RFA, he had only ONE contract in hand, the QO ($800K or so). If Lin goes through the FA period and does NOT sign a contract, then his contract defaults to the QO, or $800k and he's a minimum salary player locked in long term. Lin had a fairly short list of destinations that he would consider, and of those teams many were deterred from making an offer on Lin as they believed that the Knicks were 99% to match and automatically retain Lin. The reason the match is such a deterrent is that in order to make an offer on Lin, it would require "locking" up their cap space until Lin signs his actual contract. So, if you're another team you're looking at 2 possibilities... you have the cap space but lock it up (potentially losing on other FA's) on a player who you are 99% sure the Knicks will match, or you don't have the cap space and you are releasing players AND locking up the cap space on a player you are 99% sure the Knicks will match. In any scenario where the Knicks match, they get Lin and the other team loses the opportunity to sign other talent for the duration of Lin's free agency in addition to any players cleared from the roster to clear that cap space. By the end of the process, Lin had 1 guaranteed offer from the Knicks (QO at minimum salary) and 1 guaranteed offer from the Rockets (his current contract). Even with the current contract, Morey stated that he believed that there was a 90%+ chance that the Knicks would match. If Lin does NOT sign the contract and another team does not come forward with an offer, then Lin's contract defaults to minimum salary. In other words, he would be giving up in excess of $20M. So while technically Lin was "free" to refuse the contract, in practical terms he was not... unless you consider giving up $20M+ guaranteed as a "free choice".
This is what all of us Rockets fans are hoping for. If LoF's bothered to take off their rose tinted glasses, they will see that no one who roots for Rockets WANT Lin to scrub it up, though I won't deny some of us get really mad when he does. The difference between Rockets fans and Lin fans is how we view Lin as a player and his value; most Rockets fans don't think Lin is that good and most Lin fans think he is the next superstar waiting to happen.
How about you and all the other delusional LOF keep your mouths shut? Has that ever crossed your mind while you continue to makes excuse after excuse for Lin the 75% of the time he under performs instead of blaming everything else? Maybe that would help create a civil environment.
Likewise, when CF posters retaliate to the trolls, it drives generally moderate Rocket fans who see something in Lin to come to his defense. Then these guys suddenly get categorized as LOFs because they think Lin isn't complete garbage or whatever hyperbole gets thrown around. In the end, there is no such thing as a LOF. You have people critical of Lin, people who defend Lin, and people who troll. Guess which of the three win when we argue like this? I'm not a LOF, and you're probably not a LOH, but we're acting like them right now.
This is rich... LoF's are trash that came to pollute our board and they want people who do not share their ridiculous mindset to keep their mouths shut to keep things civil? Either way... just ONE MORE SEASON before this madness ends.
LOL OK, it's admirable that you're defending your team, or how about the fact that the suns had dragic on their team before which gave them insight on how good he was already, irregardless of what he did for Houston. As for the Raptors, they had a dumb FO at the time and needed a body at PG, any PG available. Lowry was available and hence he was traded for. In fact, Lowry was mediocre last year. It wasn't until they traded bargnani and gay that he was finally playing up to his potential, but sure, it was because both were freaking superstars in Houston that gave them the leverage to land on their current teams.
Like I said, ONE MORE SEASON and this will be all over. LoF's exist. They are very real. LoH's are just trolls as Rocket fans before Lin's arrival WANT Lin to do well so the ROCKETS can do well. LoF's don't care how well the Rockets do as long as Lin does well. That's neither here or there anymore though, as all we have to do is hold out until Lin leaves after next season.
The problem is that your premise about the LOF issue is a huge strawman. Once upon a time, there might have been quite a few LOFs posting all the time, but nowadays, maybe 1% of the posts I've seen around here are actually ridiculous claims about Lin's prowess. 99% of Lin threads are people trying to defend Lin eloquently, and then a barrage of one-line insults or reaction gifs from posters telling them to stop being a LOF and picking apart every other bad play. Perhaps this is due to some kind of PTSD from the previous LOF influx, but that threat is no longer relevant. People are just overreacting to anyone who says anything positive about Lin whatsoever.
I will strongly agree that this happens a lot, but this is the sort of environment LoF's fostered so it always cracks me up for the few that remain when they pathetically whine about it. It is unfortunate, but it happened and everyone is currently paying for the mistake caused by this small group of fanatical crazies. Here is the thing, when Lin jumps and throws away the ball for a live TO, we don't need LoF's here digging up pages of data and writing a sob novel on why he didn't actually suck and that it was due to x player not being in y position at z moment. We also don't need to know that he doesn't do it as much as reaction might portray. We just collectively want ONE THING from Lin after that situation happens at least once each game; DON'T ****ING DO IT TO BEGIN WITH! When Lin misses basically all his shot as a 6th man, we don't need rants about stupid and failed (yes I hate those situations too as a ROCKETS fan) Harden Hero-ball desperation pass to anyone on the perimeter to bail him out. We are fans, we are passionate and greedy. We want our teams to win and when someone gets in the way of that, especially one with as obsessive and insane a fanbase as Lin, sometimes we get angry. Believe it or not, Lin's treatment is mild compared to say Omir Casspi, which most fans disdain from even referring to by name right now. He seems to be more popular as Trashpi currently. Lin is largely considered a mediocre to decent PG by most here. Very few actually consider him a scrub or complete garbage.
At the time when Lowry and Dragic were starters on this team and doing well, were there other players that were on the same level as Harden on the team? Were Lowry and Dragic used as the #1 or #2 option? Did they play more minutes than Lin does now?
Agree with what you said. I came to the bbs cause of Harden. But I find myself posting in defence of Lin more than anything else. If you look at my post history, I try to stay positive and neutral, but on this bbs I find myself posting less and less about Harden and more about Lin. And each time it's to defend him on some of the most ridiculous claims I've ever seen. And the brilliant part of all of this is I get called for being a LOF when a little look at my post history will let you see how much I support players like Harden, Parsons and Bev. Heck I spent hours making Bev and Harden posters on Photoshop. I even replicate my ball game based on Bev. I haven't done **** for Lin except defend him. But sadly this is what Clutchfans have become and hence why a lot of the more reasonable posters have stopped posting in the GARM.
c'mon, man. chicken and egg, dude. chicken and egg. you can also say if LoH's aren't so eager to jump on him and label him a scrub at every opportunity, lof's wouldn't be so quick to inflate his good games into more then what they are. but really, i don't really care who's fault it is. my point is that he is scrutinized more than any other player on this team to an unhealthy, illogical level. honestly, this place would be so much more productive if no one talks about him for a whole week - not good, not bad, not in the game thread, nothing. well except in the lin and the hotties thread which is actually very entertaining.
This is not a chicken or the egg argument. This board would not be as down as it is, were it not for the LoF invasion. However, that is neither here or there as it has happened already. Like I said though, I am just eagerly waiting for the day that Lin's contract ends or we trade him away for the board to return to normal.
