Member since July and already demanding pictures of hot girls or Kate Upton. You're becoming a true CFer. *sheds tear*
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TBH, I wonder if it was the type of thing that Morey wanted, that he wanted the coaches to provide some semblance of cooperation in preparing players for the future and not just a win now mentality. The comparisons to Paul etc aren't really valid because at no point would they ever want him at C, but Lin really does need to be able to spot up.
The addition of Harden so close to opening night threw a whammy into an already 'who do we have' situation - as there are a lot of young players on this team, incuding Harden. However, on the surface of things, just by watching how the players are being used by these coaches, these coaches do not seem to know more than the fans as to how to use these guys effectively individuallly or as a unit. This team will win games by sheer chemistry, luck, or individual/combined heroism. I don't see coaching as being one of the bright spots on this team. I have no faith in their ability to get the best out of this team.
Nice theory, but the Rockets aren't going to lose games at the expense of "development" that should go on in the off-season. My theory - the coaches are lost, and don't know how to utilize these guys correctly YET. Key word YET. If we give the "they are gelling together" excuse to the players, why not the coaches as well?
Alright lets get it out of the way right now. He's only got two flaws, but they are both fatal. Left Shoot. Can't pick and roll without those two. Cos you got no Big Man to pass to. So you are always driving right.
TBH, I don't have strong conviction that this is what they're doing. But as highly as we all think of ourselves, there is a reason why we are fan forum coaches and GMs, not real-life ones. There is absolutely no way in the world that McHale or Sampson don't know Jeremy Lin is a PnR and iso player, not spot-up 3pt shooter. You just have to look at Jason Friedman's articles on Rockets.com analyzing each player, often with video and context (& Synergy data) most likely supplied by Rockets video coordinators. There is no way they don't know Asik is not a good PnR or low post option, yet they feed him. And the list for each player goes on. Quinnolivarez mentioned we are top 5 in defensive efficiency. We may not have above average offensive coaches (or creative offensive schemes), but good defensive coaches most definitely can scout and recognize the strengths and weaknesses of individual players' ability on offense. I have no doubt they know the strengths and weaknesses of Jeremy Lin, James Harden, Omer Asik, and all the Rockets players better than we do. The reason why I think there is more to what appears on the surface, is Douglas getting to run point when playing with Harden while Lin plays corner spot-up 3pt shooter when playing with Harden, and the comment about Lin not getting PnR plays because of his left hand (if you have a PnR play going to the left, you have a PnR play going to the right, it's the same play, you just reverse it ... and have Lin run it instead of Harden). I think the Rockets are toeing a very tight line right now. They want to win because they have max money available for a free agent, and a quasi-superstar in Harden to help draw one, in a season where there's few teams with max rooms and all the attractive big city or star destinations are capped out. But they also need to develop their players because they may not get that free agent, which means the star would have to come from within, or via trade (but they have exhausted most of their draft picks for trade). And the reality is, even if we get a star PF, the team as constructed isn't a real title contender unless the players we got currently continues to develop and become more well-rounded. And the areas I can think of, really, are Lin's spot-up 3pt shooting, Asik's offensive game, Harden's role as a closer and someone to create a shot when things break down, and making Parsons, Patterson, Morris, TJones, DMo etc multi-faceted role players as opposed to just defensive specialist, mid-range jump shooter, versatile mismatches etc. Ideally, like 'meh' said, all our players can develop into versatile players, and the style of play resembles that of Miami.
First, you clearly don't understand Lin's game if you just say "he can't go left". He can go left, he does go left, and if you watch the games you'll see how often he goes left. There is a Huge difference between a player that can not go left, and one that is more dominant going Right. Strengthening the Left is purely a matter of repetition, no more, no less. And then you only need to do them often enough to force the opponent to respect that side on drives. Would it surprise you that Harden has a dominant hand too? That in fact over 95% of players have a dominant hand? Harden is dominant going left, he has an above average Right. He didn't walk into the league that way, he worked on it over the seasons. Perhaps we should defer to someone more knowledgeable such as Hall of Fame point guard Bob Cousey, the namesake of the award for excellence at the Point Guard position... http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/sto...nd-bob-cousy-loves-new-york-knicks-jeremy-lin He shot well last year (above league averages in TS%). He is inconsistent this year. Players go through inconsistent shooting, especially younger players. Shooting also improves in consistency over time, especially if the player works on it. Lin is an unfinished product. He works diligently on his game, and has since he began. If the ONLY things holding Lin back are his shooting consistency and left side driving, Lin will do just fine.
Did you and Apollo33 just decide to swap views on Lin for fun? I don't know who I'd be if I became NotMike_Lu. Maybe I'd have to go to an Utah Jazz fan forum :grin:
i agree somewhat, but believe opposing defenses play a role in this also. defenses are designed to make you do what you dont want to do or bait players into doing thing they are not good at. defense will force players to their weakness until proved otherwise. clyde said something interesting the other day, when bill said you have to take what the defense gives you. clyde said no somethings have to take the shot you want. my take on that is, young players need to learn to adapt to a given defense and make a positive play. ie if lin is always left open at the 3, he doesnt necessarily need to shoot a 3 esp if he is struggling. he could maybe take a few steps in and shoot a mid range shot or drive in and shoot a floater, but until he makes the team pay for the defense they are playing he will continue to be left open at the 3 point line.
An infinite amount of monkeys given an infinite amount of type writers will eventually recreate all of Shakespeare's works. Mchale, genius development by pure chance?
This big thing I don't see current strategy is trying develop Lin half-court PG skills. Most of his recent assist are transition (fast break for layman) assists. Personal, I think when Lin attack the rim he still needs to work on his in the paint passing. You saw this a lot more in preseason where he actually attack rim where a lot passes was not cleanly caught by the big man. He definitely partial at fault due position of pass and the speed of it.
OP, interesting take on the situation. Don't know if I want you to be right or not... To be fair to the coaches, it is only 7 games into the season and in this period, they are really just feeling things out, especially with the late addition of Harden. If indeed, this is the plan of the coaching staff, to expand the skill sets of basically the entire roster during the season, then it's pretty unprecedented. And as Meh stated, it's not a "win-now" move, might even be a tanking move. More to the point, even if Lin was running PnRs more, as Roxxy has pointed many times, there's no big man skilled enough to pair with him. Every time Lin runs a PnR w/ Asik, the defenders double Lin leaving Asik wide open - thus limiting Lin's penetration into the paint. Opposing teams are content to let Asik have his chances and would rather limit Lin's game (since if Lin is able to penetrate, more problems arise for opposing defenses). So by forcing Lin's game to develop an outside shot, the coaching staff hopes defenders will be forced to stick to him on the perimeter more (making it easier to drive into the paint - whether on PnRs or not). [Similar thing for Asik, if he finishes consistently, then defenses can't cheat off him in PnR sets, opening lanes up for ball handlers.] That said, Lin's shot is not going to improve significantly in this season. He's hitting 30% on 3's now. Unless what we're seeing now is an atrocious shooting slump, the best we're going to see is 32-3% (35% would be a gift from above - though apparently his percentage is higher on the 78% of assisted 3's he takes). Which means that indeed, low expectations for this season since the coaching staff isn't looking to maximize production with the pieces they have now. Rather they are looking to develop players' weaknesses. That's walking two paths at the same time if we're to believe what the coaches are saying - winning and development are essentially two separate goals during the season. We'll see midseason, when playoff chances get clearer which goal wins out.
Good post....good read. I hope the theory is true because that would just make too much sense. We haven't heard the method come from the coaching staff or DM (I doubt they'd say it), but given where the team is at age wise and development wise, this would seem to be the best thing to do.
There are plenty of teams in every sport that have great players and never win titles. Most of the time, those players aren't willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team. The funny thing is, in the end, their unwillingness to sacrifice only makes individual goals more difficult to achieve. One thing I believe to the fullest is that if you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.
nice observation...however many people are too judgmental and linear to think of that...even the best coaches in the world aren't able to hit it off with the players in a few games...and it sometimes takes them a year and two to get somewhere even if they have the best players let alone the houston roster...
I love how people say he can't go left just because people have said it before and now it's just become a label attached with him. If you even watch the games you know it's not true. A big flaw that you completely left out, though, is ball handling. He loses the ball way too easily in traffic and he can't shake off guards who apply pressure to him.
"way too easily?" WT...if what you're saying is a fact, then he would have a higher TO rate...which is simply not the case this year
