Either start Lin, or bring in a new starting PG, Bev ain't cuttin' it.

Dwight Howard fouls a lot, always has. Having a PG who can stick with his man is absolutely important for Dwight to be able to stay on the floor. When PGs penetrate, it's never good for bigs. It's not just because of the abomination on D that is the Lin-Harden backcourt.

 

Yep tinman is my old school brother, we are the historians on this board. We try to educate new members on the board about the history of the team and not just the present. Some seem to feel as if the Rockets were only created when their favorite player joined...

tinman and myself remember the days of when the Rockets were playing in Hofheinz pavilion.

T_man

 

In all fairness...it's a tough call. Another 2 of 9, 3 of 10, 1 of 7 shooting night for Bev; only 2 assists in 40 minutes. Still...he basically shut down Lillard. If he keeps this pattern up he might well me the worst offensive PG in the history of the NBA; but...he defends well. The Rockets have to make a choice; because, not only does Bev not score but he actually inhibits the offense by not getting involved and in which case the offensive becomes comprised of Harden and Howard and Parsons taking turns on ISO. It's the BENCH which kept the Rockets in the game last night (late 3rd quarter comeback).

Bev was -15 last night, the second-worst of any Rockets player.

 

The Rockets have the biggest scouting dept in the league and it became that way under Morey.

 

Kelvin Sampson is notoriously anti-Lin and anti-DMo. He even wanted Toney Douglas to play over Lin. It might be a race thing with him even (there are people like that in the world believe it or not), who knows.

 

I haven't been through the whole thread, but Lillard had one of his worst games ever, and to be able to take a scorer of that caliber out of the game is just as important as being potent on the offensive end.

Our PG will never have the opportunity to display true playmaking skills. What we need from our PG is defense, 3pt shooting and hard work. Beverley needs to improve his 3pt shot, but otherwise he is doing a fantastic job of what he's been asked.

Lin, as well, is doing a fantastic job off the bench. I'm glad he has a role where we can rely on his strengths rather than try to get by on his weaknesses.

More than anything, we need depth at the 4, and if Asik leaves we need depth at the 5. After that, a defensive swingman would be nice but how much of a better player than Garcia or Brewer will we get given our assets? Not much.

We lost to one of the best teams in the league on their homecourt, where we've beaten them once already. It's fine.

 

i would agree with you 100% if we're still talking about Lin of last year. the case for Beverly starting over Lin, and getting more minutes, is that Beverly's the better defender and the better 3 pts shooter...therefore he's a better "fit." all of that was true...last season. this season, Lin improved. While Lin may not be the better 1on1 defender, he's the best TEAM defender. Our team plays better defense as a whole with Lin due to Lin's superior team defense. Lin's also the superior 3 pts shooter now. and let's not forget that Lin leads the league in shooting % when he's driving to the rim. Lin's an elite penetrating guard.

with all that in mind, under no comprehensible logic should Lin only play 15 minutes a game while Beverly plays 30+ minutes...when Lin is better in every possible way....and espeically not with Beverly airballing shots after shot.

 

Let's just put it this way...yes, Bev played great D last night, but testimony to the fact that his non-playmaking ability and non-scoring outweighed his defensive effort, is the fact that Bev was -15, which was the second worst of any Rockets player. The offense slacks when Bev is on the floor, turns into ISO heaven. In 2 out of the last 3 games the bench outplayed the starters, and Bev factored in big to that.

There are no one-trick ponies in the NBA, never have been.

 

I'd like to give Sampson the benefit of the doubt and say that because of the B-2-B, and coming off an injury, he didn't want to stress Lin's knee. That being said, he played the starters WAYYYYYYYY too long considering they have a more win-able game tonight.

 

Yes. Exactly. FOBolous made some excellent points that I agree with. But Lin playing 15 minutes yesterday after coming off an injury isn't a big deal and distracts from the good and valid points he made.

 

honestly guys, i was frustrated watching Beverly airballing shots yestrday and trying to make plays when he's in the game. he's in it to play defense and spot up for 3....stick to that PLEASE. instead of trying to "create" something, he should've been setting picks and/or getting himself open at the 3 pts line. the moment he started looking for his own shots instead of playing off of everyone, dribbled for 6+ sec, and hoisted an ill-adviced airball is when Sampson should've said "enough!" and put Lin in. if we're going to have Beverly in there only to have him play like a VERY poor man's Lin, why don't we just put Lin in?

 

I don't know - Irving and Lillard are both about all-star quality PG's. You could make an argument for one or the other.

Harden is an all-NBA player.

Is Lin an all-NBA player?

 

lillard scored 22 points in the game we won by 15 @ Portland. he scores 8 and we lose by 7. in the game we won we committed 20 turnovers, just 8 in yesterday's game. we were 6-22 in the first game and 5-20 in the second game in threes. in the first game, Dwight/harden had 62 pts, 20 reb, 5 ast, 3 blk 14 tos. in the second game, 57 pts, 23 reb, 8 ast, 3 blk, 4 tos. first game parson was 4-11 for 9 pts, second 6-18 for 14 pts. btw, jones only played 1 minute in the first game where asik scored 8 whereas jones scored 10 in second and asik sat out. and of course the obligatory lin/bev scored 24 pts in 58 min (equally) as opposed to 14 pts in 54 min (39 bev, 15 lin).

so basically, our 3 main guys had similar outputs and lillard scored 22 in the rockets victory. so what does that mean? 1. Houston shot better from the 2 point range and shot 55% for the game allowing 2. Houston to outrebound Portland by 17. Portland's output for both games were remarkably the same. besides rebounds, Portland made more free throws and ended scoring more points but fg percentages, assists, turnovers, etc. were basically the same.

the point I am trying to make is that sometimes more defense isn't the problem. sometimes the offense is the problem. just because we scored 104 points doesn't mean we were great offensively. we just had 19 more shots to score 12 less points than the first game.

 

Um, Dwight was single-covered and beasting the blazers in the post - that's why it was Iso-heaven. The PG had nothing to do with it.

 

Start Lin please. Teams are figuring out attacks from Harden. Putting Lin back to the starting lineup will make Rockets offense less predictable.

 

is lin playing 40 mpg?

 

You need 3 offensive weapons - Howard, Harden, Parsons or Lin. Anytime Parsons is off (like last night), Lin should stay in the game to provide that punch.

And don't tell me Bev stayed in the game because of defense, because TJones was out there and he gave LMA a game of his life.

 

This is why Lin is a better playmaker than Harden. If Harden is looking to playmake, he will. But he's often looking to take a guy one on one and then do something. Lin is more of a surveyor, will drive if there is a hole or take his shot if it makes sense, but often is looking to either get it to the hot hand, open guy, or get a guy going. It's intention and attitude along with ability and I think Lin is a better passer anyway than Harden. Harden is a shooting guard and fantastic scorer with some playmaking abilities, but it really isn't a point guard or a LBJ type of playmaker.

 

No, because he's neither good nor healthy enough, and even if he was and suffered 0 efficiency decline, he wouldn't be all-NBA quality.

 

no, Dwight was scoring in the post. technically it is iso but most post moves are isos. what we're talking about is iso out 20+ feet and allow a player to drive/shoot/pass one-on-one with little to no offensive movement.

the PG has a lot to do with it. if the PG penetrates (and bev had a couple of really nice drives in the 1st half), he can get to the rim or dish to howard/jones. instead of depending on individual skill, the team would be playing team ball, plus add the factor of getting to the free throw line, disrupting the opponent's defense, actually having offensive movements.