Even with the poor shooting late in the game, Lin got a lot of nice assists throughout last night. Most of these were exactly that, Lin getting a pick, probing, and then finding the open man. He excels at this, Harden does not. Yet he rarely gets the chance to do it...Parsons or Delfino get to play PG during small ball with no Harden but Lin almost never gets that chance. Benching him for 20 minutes in an important game is sending him the message that he really isn't important on this team.
maybe from his early knee or ankle injury, hes a tough guy, he plays through them, and too many minutes for NBA's long 82 regular season games, i really think next season rockets need to find a back up and moniter harden's minutes...its not good for anybody to play 38-40 min a game per season, his body is going to break down sooner or later
With the way he plays and all the contact he draws, he is going to break down like Allen Iverson did if he continues to play 40 minutes a game.
The simple fact is his perimeter shooting and defensive productivity would increase if he let Lin control the ball. That doesn't mean Lin shoots more shots than Lin (he shouldn't), but Lin is the best playmaker on the team. Harden would also have more energy and be less likely to tire himself out by the 4th. IT's simple, he just needs to control the ball less and play the SHOOTING GUARD position.
Too bad Lin defers to him of his own will. Yes, Lin is too chicken to take over when Harden is on the floor with him.
http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?p=7836606#post7836606 Ever since Harden hurt his foot against GS on Feb 12, his play has dropped off significantly.
Regarding point 5, I don't know what a real PG should do when your SG controls the ball 90% of time. Shout at him to get the ball back? I guess Nash is not a real PG either this year when playing with Kobe, right?
Problem is McFail thinks he is Kobe, MJ or Bird. He is not yet that kind of winner, he needs some guidance. No real PG is definitely not where the problem is, the real PG is there and has been standing up, just that he has been misused.
Lin is not a "fake" pg, but he isn't the kind of pg that compliments Harden at this time. The kind of pg that would be great along Harden would be a pure shooter (steph Curry) [but who wouldnt steph curry be good to play with]. I think Jeremy training with his shooting coach over the summer will do wonders, there has undoubtedly been alot of growth in Lins shooting confidence over this season. At the begining of the season I had alot of doubt that Lin could co-exist with Harden dominating the ball, but now I see he can be functionable with it. Harden should dominate the ball for us, Lin is the one that needs to change his play style. So far he is starting to adjust.
i don't think he's being "chicken" about it. in my humble opinion he's probably being passive aggressive due to the fact that he doesn't really have the pull or rep right now to make a power move. rather he is letting the disaster happen and naturally everyone (teammates, coaches, and fans) will realize and gravitate towards his leadership... very "art of war".
wow your rolling eyes face makes your opinion of whats going through lin's mind much more likely than mine... anyway. that chicken" somehow fought through all that bullshe-ite with not getting recruited in college and not getting drafted pretty well.
i completely 100% disagree. Harden is already surrounded by a ton of shooters. Parsons, Delfino, Garcia, Bev, Lin, even D-Mo, TJ, etc could shoot the 3 ball. That is not the reason he bricks so many shots these days, nor is it the reason he has so many turnovers, or the reason he does so many isos which have been clearly ineffective as of late and during our 7 game losing streak. I hate this completely inaccurate sentiment that's been so prevalent on Clutchfans that a) Harden needs a pg that shoots well (Lin has been shooting around 40% from 3 in the past 3 months!) b) Harden needs a defensive specialist PG (how does a pg who can guard his man well have anything to do with Harden letting his man get by him?? Or are you saying that a 6' pg should guard a 6'6" sg and Harden should guard a FASTER guard? Or are you asking him to hide on defense?). Harden needs to play the sg position and work on his defense. Harden needs a floor general to make the team play together and to run the transition game so the floor can open up for him and he can pick his spots. I don't know if it's hate for Lin, or love for Harden, or misguided understanding of organized basketball, but Harden is struggling clearly because he is being overused not only in minutes but in usage. The more Harden is forced to iso or create his own shots as well as play the pg position, the more ineffective he will be and the more turnovers he will make on top of which the risk of injury multiplies even in the same alloted minutes. In addition, you're wasting away a potentially vey effective floor general especially in the offense that we run. You're basically agreeing with McHale's usage of Harden here!! Or even advocating MORE isos!! For Harden to excel, which he clearly can and have already shown evidence of superstardom, he needs to pick his spots better and play team ball the majority of the game with Lin running the point. Then, not only can he conserve energy to play defense, he can also conserve his energy for when he's feeling it. Then, he can absolutely demand the ball as our best offensive weapon, not every time down whether or not he's feeling it. Your opinion on this matter, imho, is not only misguided, it's dead wrong and a certain recipe for disaster.
Coach Game Plan play Harden 41 mins every game threw season and playoffs because the guy is not human. Threw all those game the coach has not tried letting another player take over now we're stuck with 1 go to guy.
