This is funny, b/c I had that same thought - at least about McHale but not Harden - that McHale would put Lin in if they were losing and hope it would distract attention away from him in on to Lin if Lin were to mess up. Okay I know that is probably a far-fetched idea, but I thought it for a second.
The reason is really easy to understand. The microscope on Lin is big for two reasons: 1. Lin fans are quick to defend their god and an argument that normally ends after a few pages for most players, blow up into threads longer than Harry Potter books. It is just a back and forth that quickly dissolves into pointless poo slinging from fans on either side. 2. Most Rockets fans cannot stand Lin's fanatic fan base and have a much shorter tolerance level. This unfortunately translates to losing patience quicker and antagonizing Lin fans in retaliation. ToF's and YoF's were tolerable, because Yao and T-Mac were legitimately great players. The majority view on Lin ranges from mediocre to good PG though this season, many have been disappointed. The longer story is that since the beginning, Lin fans constant shined a microscope on him every time he did something good and when he was bad, they come up with every excuse under the sun and blame everyone else. Rockets fans feel like a bunch of strangers kicked down the front door and started slinging poo everywhere. It got to a point where Rockets fans basically snapped and things started really escalating. Granted, with Lin's decreasing production and popularity, there are a lot fewer LoF's remaining on this board, but the trauma is very much still present. The simple truth of the matter is, most Rockets fans don't hate Lin, just his fans, though I won't deny however, that our bias towards his fans often leak into our perception of Lin. A lot of us like him. He is a hard working kid... stupid a lot of the times, but hard working. No one can hate on that. I will readily admit that I have somewhat drifted into the "I hate Lin" category after Game 4 as I largely blame him for us not winning the game then and there. I am still bitter about that, but slowly getting over it and my appreciation will improve a lot if he repeats his Game 5 performance. Fans are passionate and easily riled up into a mob like frenzy.
I'm a fan of Lin, and I do criticize him fairly, but there are definitely a lot of people out there that criticize him just to spite the LoFs. having said that, there are some pretty annoying LoFs out there that pretty much keep this vicious cycle going. I can see some valid points in your post.
Well, they will have no other choice because Bev is ineffective/injured/sick at the moment. He doesn't create as well as Lin.
My issue with him is the $$$ tied up. There was some similar though not as bad disdain directed at cap albatross Kelvin Cato back in the day.
judging by his trending in the playoffs so far, lin will suck again in game 6... lin please prove me wrong.
This is why I'm awlays arguing with posters on here I guess. Let's not give props for one game. Remember when the Rockets looked their best this season during their winning streak where they beat Indiana and Miami. Everyone including me was like ok now this team is legit contender. Guess what? Miami and Indy were playing their worst basketball and lost to a lot of other teams too. No one deserves props right now. We are down to a team that we should be better than. We come back and in, amazing. We lose, disappointing season, from top to bottom.
People seem to be in denial that he's making $8 million. He's not making Parsons money anymore like he was in NY. Actual expectations of consistent basketball production is warranted now given his salary. We're celebrating one good game he had out of five in the playoffs? That's not acceptable for our third highest player.
How much is our second highest player making? Are you in denial? Actual expectations of consistent basketball production is warranted now given his salary.
Welcome to the NBA. NYK has Amare. Lakers have Kobe. Bulls have Boozer. Not sure if DRose counts towards the cap. Isnt Orlando still paying GArenas? This is just off the top of my head. Am sure I can come up with a few more. $8M is a lot of $$$ for a sixth man. For comparison, other 6th man monies. JR Smith is $5.6M. Jamal Crawford is $5.25M Harrison Barnes $3M Jarrett Jack $5M Anderson Varejao $7.7M Kris Humphries $12M Manu Ginobili $13M But then, I guess he was brought in to be a starter. So starter money. [Names I kind of got from here]
I forgot to include the link. http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2014/04/02/sixth-man-candidates-by-the-numbers/
I certainly won't deny that. Both sides are equally guilty of unprovoked antagonism at times. Here is the things though, fans (especially passionate ones) will overreact both positively and negatively. Clutchfans happens to be a community of fans dedicated to the Houston Rockets and Lin's past and achievements elsewhere means very little to most of us. When our players perform poorly, we rip them apart. When they perform well, we praise them like gods. The difference however, is that when Parsons, Beverley, Harden, Howard, and any other Rockets play poorly, they do not have a legion of fans digging up every statistic under the sun to try to defend him or pointing fingers at anyone and everyone and accusing them of racism/bias. For most players, we grumble and mumble and then we move on. With Lin, this is literally impossible. Lin's balloon payment is really bad, especially in comparison with some of his teammates. It also makes him virtually untradeable. Our FO has certainly tried hard enough. Truth is, Lin will most likely be a Rocket beyond next season. Our team is with the personnel that we have, is not the right system for him. Maybe if Harden played more off the ball or if Howard was willing to run more PnR or if Parsons would focus more on defending than propping himself up for his next big payday that things would be different, but it really just didn't work out that way.