Beverly was signed in January but didn't start getting significant minutes until late February/March, which is after the time window for that stat box. Which is why the Lin & Harden both off stats are so awful. Our bench was not good last season.
I have laid down my saber and am not going to get into the emotion-laden kind of posts that I had previously as regards Lin. No more of that for me. It's a bad example and I can't allow myself to do that anymore. Someone wrote me a comment rep basically telling me to grow up, and they were right. I'm too old (41) to get into that stuff and it's not professional conduct. So, I'm going to try to avoid that kind of thing in the future. However, that doesn't mean facts and informed opinions can't be presented in my posts. It makes me sad to see how some people react to Jeremy Lin. I'm talking the Marc Lamont Hill kind of reaction. To me, that is classic "ABJ" commentary. I've heard it before, heard it from Hill, Mayweather and plenty of others. I like Patrick Beverley and was working hard to convince people in my own circle that he would be a big upgrade over Toney Douglas. If Lin could have been dealt for CP3, do it. If Lin can be part of a package next year to try to reel in LeBron James, do it. That's just smart business, in my opinion. Saying Aaron Brooks may start over Jeremy Lin in 2013-14 -- and I have heard that in the past -- is, well, yeah. Lin isn't the next Jordan. But I think he's much better than many people give him credit for.
Some crow eating here since i'm not a LOH and simply want what's best for the team. Lin's 3p% improved significantly throughout the year excepting a mild drop in April, though april only included 9 games. http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_/id/4299/jeremy-lin His February-March-April 3p% was a highly respectable 39.8%. He's mostly dragged down by his abysmal start, posting sub .300 percentages in the first two months. Beverley on the other hand started hot, but declined every single month. He's a hard working and intelligent guy, and according to everyone his biggest priority in the offseason is improving his ranged shooting. There was a report that he's shooting 78% from all areas beyond the arc in training. Obviously that will come way down in real game situations, but if he can maintain or improve upon his Jan-Feb-March numbers he will be a great player. I still think a heavy minutes 6th man would be a great role for him as it would allow him ball handling duties more often and reduce skill overlap, but he's becoming a better shooter than I realized. Still, 6th man is not an insult. Lin leading the second unit with Asik would be very very good and could dominate lots of NBA benches.
No one's saying he's that great of a player. Hell, part of the idea is that he's much more limited as a facilitator compared to Lin.
Totally waste of time on this tropic. We don't know how they improve and the new chemistry with Howard.
If Lin doesn't play with the first unit, then Howard is not going to get easy looks. He'll work as hard as he did in LA.
Appreciate your comments. From what I remember, JVG's never been too high or too low on Lin. After D12 chose HOU, he mentioned that, now people are underrating Lin. They're looking for any weakness to criticize.
JVG's been relatively low on Lin as well, but it's upto Lin to show everyone what he's got. Not the other way around. And it is sad to see people hate on such a hard worker especially when it's not justified.
We will see if McHale actually gives the minutes and pg responsibilities Lint needs. Don't count on it happening. What makes anyone think that McHale will change his usage implementation of Lin?.
what in the bloody hell? lol. less minutes = more energy and more accuracy. He does not have to score 25 ppg as long as we are winning. I don't want him to win a scoring title I want him to win a TITLE.
James Harden* and for that matter who says Lin won't be on the floor with Howard if he is the 6th man???
If Lin can hit an open three on a consistent basis, we don't have this conversation. Who cares if he doesn't handle the ball much, he just needs to make an open jumper when it comes his way. It's that simple. We have studs that can do everything else in Harden, Parsons, and D12.
Harden was almost universally praised for being willing to play the role of 6th man. Why can't Lin be the same?
He can and would. Most (not all) of the LOFs just don't want him coming off the bench. One even used the All-Star game voting as a reason why
