You need to adjust it to take out the games where he played sparingly. Since his first game against New Jersey, he's averaged about 2.4 spg. He wasn't lit up by some scrub pg. He was lit up by Derrick Rose. There's no shame in that. Also, Lin had 5 fouls when he was switched off Rose. You don't think that factored into the switch? Monta Ellis is considered a bad defender b/c he's extremely undersized for a shooting guard. If he guarded opposing pgs, I think he'd do fine.
Ok. That still doesn't show that he's a good defender. Is Monta Ellis a good defender? Kobe has never got 2.4 spg, so is he a bad defender? James has only hit 2 spg once. Battier only got more than 1.3 once. Is he a bad defender? Point being you can't just point to spg and say someone is good defensively. Lin is not a good defender. He is a better help defender and not so good man to man. I'd call him an average defender at best. That's not the only guard to light him or the only time coach has pulled him off of guards to prevent him from getting lit. Did you miss the Toronto game, just for example?
Why do you think they gamble? Could it be b/c they're both extremely undersized SG's? Do you think they'd still be bad defenders if they guarded opposing pgs?
Well, Ellis is kinda stiff defensively and doesn't really get down in his stance. I think he would get burned even harder by PGs. I think he could be solid with better help defense if I think about it. I find perimeter defense hard to judge. Especially with PGs. For example, watch Orlando play the Bulls. Orlando has no one who can matchup with Derrick Rose and yet because of Dwight's ridiculous help defense, they are just as effective as any other team in keeping Derrick Rose on the perimeter. On the other hand you have Iggy, Tony Allen and Lebron who completely shut down their matchup irregardless of who is behind them.
Basically, I'm just saying, Lin is obviously not elite defensively. However, having Amar'e and a weak defensive coach behind him definitely makes him look worse. If he had a good scheme behind him, he would look solid.
Lin is better defensively than people give him credit for. He draws charges, gets rebounds, gets steals, and he has enough size to where you can have him switch onto the off-guard at times. Combine that with good intelligence and a willingness to work hard, and you have the makings of someone who can be at least a serviceable defender.
Lin and Fields are both better than average defenders, but unfortunately they're not good enough to cover up for Melo and the inherent flaws in d'antoni's system. I had an argument with a knicks fan about this, asking how the knicks would have any success in the playoffs with no one to guard the Heat players.
So basically everyone is piling on the fact that Lin is bad on defense because he can't fight through screens. Let's ignore the fact that you've got a 6'9"+ 250lb+ big man standing in front of you and giving you a little shove to prevent you from going around... let's just ignore all that and just hate on Lin for not having the strength of LeBron or the speed of Rose. Seriously? If you get picked its the help defenders job to delay the ballhandler so you can switch back, but if that help doesn't come its not Lin's fault. If picks were easy to get past and were ineffective nobody would use them. Holy **** the Rockets offense during the Tmac/Yao era was just pick and roll basketball all day. We should know how effective a pick is. I haven't seen Lin get beat much off one-on-one situations and Lin did a really good job disrupting Rose's signature double team splits. Sure Rose had some good plays where he nearly broke Lin's ankles but that's because he's ****ING DERRICK ROSE. Never mind the fact that Lin is getting significant minutes for the first time in his NBA career. Never mind the fact that Derrick Rose is the best point guard in the league. Never mind the fact that Derrick Rose has three years of NBA experience and an MVP award. Never mind the fact that the Knicks just suck at defense. Its all Lin's fault! Such a scrub! I hope he dies.
watched the game last nite. is there some reason shumpert is not starting? his on the ball defense is stifling. facepalm dantoni did not have him guarding rose instead of lin. why play baron davis and lin at the same time too? double facepalm. landry fields is lame for not passing to carmelo at that time. triple facepalm. lin needs to do a better job directing plays.
Yeah that confused the hell out of me. Why wouldn't D'Antoni put the best defender on the team on Rose? Also he never played Novak. Especially in the end of the game where he needed to get some threes.... D'Antoni is a class A idiot.
my thing is why hasn't lin made the adjustment yet to the double team hard trap? just watch some tape of nash and chris paul and then simulate it in practice. also he only runs a few pnrs with carmelo. as a pg, that's not getting the job done. the pickup on jr smith was stupid, why ruin team chemistry with someone who's had a history.
Shumpert doesn't do well with smaller faster guards, and he gambles quite a lot. Lin did much better than him on Brandon Jennings
Also Lin is averaging 2.36 steals since the Nets game, when he broke out, and got more minutes, then became a starter the next game. Second in the league
Knicks tuning out coach - it's gonna get ugly! http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/sto...new-york-knicks-locker-room-according-sources
