Behind his overactive imagination, he does have a point. Do you think McHale would let him take over, considering the amount of confidence has has shown towards Lin?
Uh...hmm... Interesting take? Do you think that Lin will ever develop that rep/pull? Considering as he develops next to Harden, Harden's rep/pull will continue to outweigh his. Its interesting that you're making Jeremy out as this guy who is setting up Harden up to fail so that he can swoop in and "save the day" as a better leader. But I guess some people do just want to watch the world burn.
Yeah SG should be a ball handler while PG should be a pure shooter, what logic, do you even know what those positions mean? You might as well say Steve Kerr and Mario Chamlers are you ideal "real PGs". Sadly, your hero Harden is not as good as Michael Jordan and Lebron and doesn't make it work.
Agreed. If Lin wants to be a winner, a leader, even a team player. He's gotta do what he feels is best for the team. There's no way a pg with his court vision and understanding of the game doesn't see what we see. He needs to be more assertive and have a talk with Harden AND maybe more importantly with the coaching staff.
i didn't say he is setting up harden up to fail. i think he is adapting to the situation. if you were in lin's shoes and you felt like harden ("the franchise player", "superstar", "piece to build around") was brain farting would you call him out and confront him against the perception of the media, couching staff, management, and fellow teammates??? or will you allow them to see the truth for themselves? i am a big lin fan because i trust his interests are at least 55% for the team over himself.
I am pretty sure Harden is still playing with a significant injury-- It has been reported that he tweaked an ankle stepping on David Lee's foot a while back and he has not looked as fast since then. McHale even sat him and said it was an effort to get him as well as possible before playoffs. Doesn't really look like it worked so far but we'll see. I hope Harden was just playing somewhat conservatively the last few games-- yes, he played, shot and even drove, but maybe not at top speed.
let me be clearer. here is a guy that if he wanted the fame and spotlights probably should've stayed in nyc. granted you can make the argument he came to houston for money but his background was pretty comfortable (remember he went to harvard without a scholarship!). also nyc never offered him a contract. houston was the only one ever made to him (i.e he never declined a lower contract from ny!!!) point being, this guy is hungry and it's not about money and it's not about individual fame. all those people that loved him so easily were drawn so easily to him because they saw that mentality and drive to win and win by playing right. somehow i think most if not all LOF feel that. call it delusional, fanatical, whatever, but that value for team above self, is ironically, what draws fan to him - at least that's what i feel.
Delfino said that Harden has apologized to them in the past for mistakes he made in a game. So I doubt Harden is afraid of some feedback. These guys are teammates and if you've ever played ball on an organized team, you'll know its definitely possible to have a constructive conversation about flaws and how to improve. If Lin is sitting back and not approaching Harden on how to adjust (which I doubt he is) then he fails as a potential leader and as a "second in command." I sincerely hope that his interests are 100% about the team over himself.
if harden was backing up his apologies with action and change than i suspect this whole thread wouldn't exist. if he's the type of personality that i suspect he is then he would need either a strong coach (sorry not available), veteran leadership (hmmm, not available either), or consensus/majority that are voicing the same discontent. by "55%" i was trying to not sound cliche.otherwise i would've suggested 110%.
You're also making assumptions that this is the norm versus someone who is trying to adjust to a possible injury as mentioned by Carl. He's had a tough stretch the last month which people are holding against him as if he's performed below the standard the whole season. Also, making an assumption of his character based off his play is probably not the best way either. I would comment about the whole fans flocking to Jeremy thing but that'll just turn in to a long racial debate (potentially ugly, depending on who chimes in).
i haven't played professional sports but when i am playing hurt during pick up sports i tend to defer more, pass more, and not do the opposite of that.
wow! sorry everyone! just realized my posts are sounding awfully antagonistic. shizist!!! that lakers loss really got to me. sorry again. nothing to see here. just a traffic accident.
define "take over". what does that mean exactly? going iso regardless of what the defense is doing and look for your own? that's not how he plays, and he will never play like that. he's the point guard. he WANTS to get harden going, because when harden gets going, it's good for everybody and they have a better chance of winning the game then if harden is cold. harden is either tired, still injured, or just in a bad slump. all the idiotic iso's aside, he was also missing open shots that he normally makes. lin is doing what he can to get harden going and get out of his funk, just like what he normally does to get the bigs going. it's on deferring. it's playing team ball within the system they have in place.
Not to discredit Lin but it's not like he's the only dude out there who's valuing the team over himself...
Lin should test the opposing teams defense more by probing first and much more frequently before moving on to the pass-off-to-Harden portion of the Rocket's offense. Yes, I realize that this is against McHale's philosophy but sometimes you gotta take the bull by its horns and I wish Jeremy would do it more often. People often seem not to realize that Jeremy is not being "passive" but rather is following the coaches orders and for Linsanity to come out, he has to often go against the coaches wishes. Our offense is simple. McHale's philosophy is that unless there is a transition opportunity (the only time Lin is allowed to play the pg, that is if the ball is passed to him initially) whichever player brings the ball up should swing it to Harden as soon as possible. Only then does McHale's offense begin. Then, Harden should initiate the offense through either a pnr, iso, or off the catch from whoever brought the ball up or the intermediary like Asik, followed by ball movement if Harden decides to swing the ball and not shoot. When Harden holds for too long, we get what we got in the Lakers game, when he moves early, the ball can swing quite well, theoretically. Unfortunately, Harden likes to either create his own shot or make the nice assist taking up a lot of the shot clock. And in this instance, ball movement is out the window and the consequent lack of ball movement leads to lack of player movement and morale, snowballing into an iso-heavy ugly ball game and probably a loss. When Harden wants Lin to give him a breather and waves for him to take the ball and initiate the offense, Lin looks for a pnr opportunity and looks for his bigs or for a Parsons/Delfino 3. Actually, Lin looks most often to create a mismatch, a defensive switch to explore or draw one extra defender and to pass it to the vacuum created by his penetration. I believe that a better offense would be for Lin to initiate the offense to get everyone going (including Harden the sg) and for Harden to demand it when he's hot or feels like taking over, NOT with Harden as the default. Harden as great as he is, is iso-reliant by nature, and is not conducive to McHale's theoretical strategy though McHale tries hard to make Harden his type of guy. On the other hand, and rather ironically, Lin is that guy. He makes moves to involve everyone and makes the quick pass. There is no reason for McHale to continue with this unless he truly can't trust Lin to initiate the offense (actually quite likely that he doesn't trust Lin). I do not believe McHale will ever come around to trusting Lin nor will he be able to give up hope that Harden will be that quick passing pg he's looking for (..maybe becasue Harden is not a pg even as great a playmaker as he is). So, if Harden is to continue to develop as well as Lin, McHale must go. As for Parsons, dudes' been near perfect all year long. Shots come and go, but Parsons plays his role to a T and has been a joy to watch develop. His role is to spread and once the ball is swung his way, to either shoot or drive quickly. This is in addition to his role of running out in transition, and cutting to save the penetrating guard that gets stuck. It's no wonder that McHale likes Parsons 2nd on the team, if not first, considering that Parsons makes less mistakes (even with his TOs) than anyone else out there even Asik. However, his role is easier as he is not the spear of the attack but rather the secondary option. ...smh, I wish McHale were a better coach. Then maybe we can shut up some of these "we already surpassed expectations, who cares if we lose these games, naysayers." This team, with all that talent, could easily have had a better record with a better coach. Our team stats, point differential indicate as much, and it even passes the eye test. I'm pretty much thinking that all the "we shouldn't have even made the playoffs, we've overachieved" crowd has not watched every Rockets game, cuz if they did, they'd know that "hey, maybe we got something special here, maybe we can do big things even this year." An 8th seed for me is NOT success considering how well we were playing and how quickly some of our boys have developed. Morey did great, McHale failed him, and the result is the 8th seed. A better coach could have (should have!!) gotten us the 6th seed AT THE LEAST, perhaps even contend for the 5th spot.
