Before I spend any effort in doing this, is there any interest from posters to see a compiled, up-to-date list of hilarious posts from other sites about JLin? In the Dish ofc. I feel like this would provide quite a bit of humour (whether at the costs of haters or idolaters - tbd) in the upcoming season. Full disclosure: I like JLin's game a lot. I most likely think he's better than more PGs than most of you would, maybe outside of iconoclastic, torocan, Carl, etc... I'm planning to watch all Lakers and Rox games next year. Having said this, I do find a lot of posts from *some* Lin fans to be highly amusing and cray cray - in the same way I find Tinman and King1's LOF trolling posts hilarious. I feel like as a Lin fan, I need to help ppl separate their perceptions of Lin fans from Crazy Lin fans. Lemme know.
The Lakers are not a team that feel they need "star" players as their fans root for the name on the front of the jerseys and not the names on the back. Jeremy Lin is a good point guard who has potential to be of the calibur of Derek Fisher managing the offense and hitting a big shot every once in a while. Sure he's making $15M this season ($8.25 against cap), but I wouldn't say they would just dump him next season. He won't get $8.25M per season, but he could be a valuable PG at $4-$5M per season. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the Lakers convert him to a shooting guard. Lin is pretty good at driving to the basket and his outside shooting is improving.
Lin will do alrite with the Lakers. I see him posting similar (or better) numbers to what he did in NY (when Carmelo) came back. Kobe is ball dominant, but Carmelo type of ball dominant. With one year left on his contract and on a new team, I bet he will be working his arse off for the next season. Good luck to him with the Lakers....big market and big reward for him if he does well, but poor guy if he doesn't perform to expectations. I think he will do good, unless injury of course (which the lakers seems to be cursed with recently).
So if Lin does explode, I wonder what this will say of Morey's legacy? People are already questioning him over how well Dragic and Lowry are doing. If Asik and Parson's do exceptionally well it'll be bad, but to have a guy he got rid of twice explode? Ouch.
Its what happens when you hire someone to manage an NBA team that knows nothing about basketball. First he comes in as this wannabe Billy Beane and gloats that he's going to use sabermetrics to build a winning team. Then when it doesn't work, he decides that he needs "stars" on the team to win. So he dumps good talent with potential to free up cap space to sign players that he labels as "star" players...whatever that means. What it means to me is that he did a 180 from his sabermetrics and nobody noticed. All the while, he lets players like Dragic and Lowry go who end up being great players on other teams. Parsons, Lin, and Asik all would love to show Morey what they think of him and his perception that they are not "star" players. But the biggest problem with Morey is his lack of class when dealing with his players. He treats them like fantasy players on a computer screen and does not for one moment think of them as real people. That will be his downfall as the players do gossip and his reputation will catch up with him.
To the outsiders, Morey will be blamed. There is so much Morey hate among fans of other teams. Just look at all the FB comments in every article related to the Houston Rockets on ESPN. I feel that Morey has just pissed off so many teams for fleecing them in trades and FA signings in the past that it is now making the general NBA fan public go against him. Lakers fans (Dwight) OKC Fans (Harden) NY Fans (Lin) Mavs fans (only natural) Heat fans (for almost losing Bosh and now ridicule Morey since they feel Riley outsmarted him). Note that many of these fans are from large media markets. So the media in these same cities have turned against Morey. Legacy is about perception and the way history is written. Morey's legacy is currently not looking good in the general NBA due to the hate out there. Within Houston, Morey's legacy is looking quite good. We have been very competitive for a long time, but this picture is not painted by mainstream media.
I bet Lin play's well, wouldn't be surprised at all if he averages 17-19 points, 6-8 assist a game if given the minutes.
Morey's legacy should be linked to the number of championship rings he has won the Rockets. Before he claims he is one of the best in the business, maybe he should win something first.
Don't forget Aaron Brooks, he had a nice couple months in Denver. Let's see how AB0 does this year as well.
I think the players respect Morey as a colleague and smart guy, but hate that he would undervalue them as players. When it comes to players not getting opportunities on the rockets, Morey repeatedly put them in better positions to succeed for the sake of the player's career, even over the sake of the rockets. The most three recent examples are: letting Brooks go to Denver so he can earn a new contract. Letting Parsons off the hook and get a new deal. Trading Lin to the Laker where he would have an opportunity to play a bigger role in his contract year. In all three cases, the rockets would benefit more by holding on a little longer, whereas Morey's decision to let go actually benefit the players much more. There had been examples before like Jordan hill, ish smith, etc. where Morey would always keep in mind the best situation for the player to move forward in their careers. I think. Morey treats players as real people alright. What irks the players is Morey's incessant mentioning of Star players which implies Morey will not consider current players turning into stars. Only if Morey doesn't remind them of this every other day, players would have no problem feeling like "assets". You see how Spurs shuffle their role players throughout the years? Whoever had a problem with it? They would just trade away those who didn't fit, and not be telling them on his way out "no u not a star bro."