I can see McAwesome spend some serious minutes playing Lin and Bev together, especially in the second half. Bev would get Westbrook for his defensive assignment, while Lin would focus more on offense. That or ISO Harden. I was jogging through CF and then ran into this brick wall and fell over.
First off, love Bev. But come on now!!! We're not all of a sudden gonna be a defensive juggernaut and win games through our intimidating defense. We have to bring pace and firepower, and run a mean offense while trying our best on the defensive end. Without the potent offense, we're not gonna out defense OKC. This is our one and only chance, to play to our strengths. Some of you guys have totally lost sight of what our strengths are and are thinking without logic. And I can't even begin to tell you how big of a difference Lin and Bev is. This is one of McHale's biggest failings right here, his inability to use Lin and overreliance on backups, and you guys are doing the same thing. You really think benching Lin more is gonna make us a better team?
McSuccess is going to turn the Roxs into a defensive juggernaut for the play-offs after sucking ass on D the whole season; he's got future DPOY Beverley who gonna get into the cave systems in Westbrook's head and a match-up nightmare at PF in good, old Delbricko. We're all set!
I'm a Lin fan who's following the Rockets largely because of his presence on the team. That being said, I admit with some disappointment that... Patrick Beverley is by far the more impactful player. While I believe Lin has unique physical attributes (his league-leading acceleration and his 6'4 height) that could lead to him becoming a star, at the moment his flaws are too great and his current skillset too easily replicated for him to be considered significantly more than an average-impact player. Beverley on the other hand has a defensive presence that even good defensive bigmen have a hard time replicating. This is because: 1. His suffocating defense often forces the opposing PG to pass off the rock and have someone else make the initial play. This puts the opponent's offense out of the sync. 2. His steals, blocks, and offensive rebounding (he blocks and rebounds like a bigman) create extra possessions for the team. More possessions mean more points. I love Lin and I want him to succeed, but at the moment there are very few PG's in the league that can affect the game like Beverley can. If Lin doesn't significantly improve next season I fear he'll either be traded or relegated to the bench.
Not saying bev is the reason, but our defense has been top 10 in efficiency over a long stretch of the 2nd half of the season and ended up finishing 16th for the season after a absolutely terrible 1st half defensively. And this is the first I have actually heard someone claim mchale over relies on backups. I thought the argument was he ran his starters into the ground.
I said I'd love to see Beverly frustrate Westbrook with his intensity. I never said it was going to happen. I also said I'd love to see a competitive series.
What are you talking about? I have been incredibly supportive of Beverley and I think he is a great find! I also think he's a good player, I've never hated on any of our players. I even liked Machado! And you are wrong, the criticism is not that he ran starters to the ground?! The criticism is that McHale sits Lin and Asik too often and plays the bench "spark", "hot hand" too long. The criticism is that he ran Harden to the ground! If you read most discussions and the last games thread, it was the same thing! My point is that Lin is a bigger plus than Bev, and that we need to run and depend on our offense mas it is our biggest strength. And btw, I believe our defense has potential as well.
People have been saying that McHake over-plays the bench unit all the time! If you've never heard that then you're mistaken. Ask anyone else here whether this is true, or just read up on the McHale thread. I do agree that our defense can be good and is better than given credit for, but our weakness in defense is our pf position, not our pg position. Lins defense is good. Bevs defense may be better in some matchups but I don't think that can offset Lins pluses in the fans overall, imo.
I completely disagree. Lin is by far the more impactful player. He gets our offense running and gunning. I get the love for Beverley, I just don't get the negativity surrounding Lin. He's our floor general, Bev is not a floor general. If Lin sits, all we have is Harden ball, and we are more likely to lose when we don't run n gun and become iso-dependent. And what did you expect from Lin? If he's not 18&8 he's a disappointment? He's been great in the second half of the season and he'll get better but I don't understand how you could be a Lin fan and not see how important he is to our teams success
I disagree with you also and it's hard for me to believe that you are LOF. I like Beverley as a backup and I like his hustle but he isn't as good a Lin. This team is at it's best when the offense running on all cylinders and that happens when Lin is in the game. Beverley can't see the floor as well or get to the basket as easy a Lin, I think Beverley should play back up minutes for Lin then bring Lin back in the game when Harden goes out and leave Beverley in the game. That way Beverley can get more minutes without having Lin on the bench to long.
