You can only say "he has potential" for so many years. That's all I ever heard about Lin for the past three years. Potential, potential, potential. Guess what he's 25. He's entering his athletic prime and I've seen very little improvement from him. In fact, its possible he's even gotten MORE inconsistent. Houston better pray he's a late bloomer, because so far it seems he's just a flash in the pan.
The way they have played together this season has not suggested a bad fit as one would expect. What has been bad for the most part is the two PG, one SG, one SF, one center or two PGs, a SG or SF, and 2 PFs lineups. Rockets small ball has not worked this season except in very small amounts and even then usually only when the Rockets are small at one position.
You want to completely destroy lins pride then yeah start Canaan. I guarantee Lin won't even play well off the bench if Michael does that
We don't have two weeks to waste. Lol. Are you kidding me? You're also defending Lin against a rook who has only played a handful of games. One turnover being the difference actually works in Canaan's favor. Lin belongs on a crappy team that's used to being let down.
There's no guarantee Lin will play well in any scenario. So what's the risk? He should've lost all confidence last night when he didn't even get a chance to guard the opposing PG. And rightfully so, of course.
Why? Lin's already lost on this roster anyway. No way is he brought back when his contract is up. Even if he took a massive pay cut. Rocket fans should let Les know that we're too good a franchise to chase pure gimmicks. We don't need to be the Dallas Cowboys.
Which is why you throw Canaan in to the fire pit now. You don't waste time this late in the season, only to know you're absolutely going to fail. Not about Lin or Canaan. About what's best for the team.
so you think 'whats best for the team' is putting an unproven, inexperienced rookie as your starting pg?
It worked for the Knicks when they put in Lin. If it works for the Rockets when we put in Canaan, then why not? Lin is two seasons ago's Knick's Toney Douglas. He'll get packaged and sent to another team and have a career revival as a backup PG and then become a good not great role player for the rest of his life.
A team where the owner doesn't care about how much he pays his players, and makes billions from the worth of the team, and where a successful Lin would be a large draw? Maybe a team with a Hall of Fame President of Basketball Operations...
I will never understand why Lin gets so many excuses. It's like he has a bad game and he is NEVER to blame for HIS bad game. Even Lin knows it. It's his tunnel-vision fanbase that cannot accept that Jeremy is not a legit starting guard in the NBA. Will he be one day? Possibly. Is he right now? No. Based on his own numbers, his numbers related to the team and the chemistry that even the most biased fan can see, Jeremy Lin is not playing well. Patrick Beverly was starting for a reason. Jeremy Lin now has an opportunity to show if he can string together a consistent amount of respectable games. History has shown that his does not end up being the case. The OP may have created a knee-jerk thread, but damn, EVERY point guard on the Rockets has outplayed Lin at some point this year. AB was the better option when he was here. Canaan is a rook, but he's taking advantage of his minutes. Jeremy has struggled to make the most of his minutes when he's had the chance. Eventually, the excuses have to stop. Basketball is not about equality. It's competitive. Some players are just better and more consistent than others.
And you are trying to defend making a rookie point guard the starter who has a grand total of less than 100 minutes based on ONE good game. Lol. And we sure as hell DO have two weeks to waste. Why the hell do you think the Rockets are sitting out Howard for...drumroll...the next two weeks. It doesn't matter if the Rockets lose 5 our of their last 10 games. They'll still finish 4th unless Portland goes on like a 8 game winning streak. Given their schedule, that's very unlikely.
who exactly are these excuse makers u speak of? I like Lin and I admit he was bad last game. He needs to be much better as the starting PG. I think he'll turn it around but I always call his bad games as well as his good ones
It's not so much Lin getting excuses for bad games. It's Lin getting exclusively flamed. TJones had a terrible game against the Clips. Arguably, that's as big if not a bigger reason as to why we lost the game. What's delusional is to think that the SINGLE reason the Rockets lost the game was because of Lin went 1-9. All of you dumbass fans that think simply starting Canaan over Lin will solve all of these problems will still be crying when the Rockets lose to the likes of OKC, LA, or SA regardless.
We already know what we have in Lin, and inconsistent role player who can't be trusted. We already know he shrinks in big time games. Canaan at least didn't look intimidated out there and hit his shots and gave them some okay minutes. Lin isn't apart of the future anyway so why should the Rox be concerned about hurting his confidence by benching him for Canaan? Lin is not bigger than the team, he's had enough chances. Give the kid a shot at this point.
Well, hello again. Just to appease you: I like Jeremy Lin. I want him to succeed with the Rockets. But, his output has been mediocre. A good game every so often is not sufficient for a team that is 4th out west. That's not me being a so-called hater. It's me looking at our record, our deficits at the point guard position and the fact that night in and night out, Jeremy's game fluctuates. Yet, many posters give him the "potential" excuse, the "McHale hates Jeremy" excuse, the PatBev screwed Jeremy over excuse and the "James Harden hurts Jeremy's game" excuse. There are too many to name. It's bothersome that many posters consider Jeremy to be in the same breath as Chris Paul, but blame his year on everything except, well, Jeremy. Obviously, this post hit a nerve with you. I guess I should have expected as much. A simple search history for certain posters will find PLENTY of examples of excuses being made for Lin about a variety of deficiencies in his game. I like Jeremy Lin, but the whole notion of potential should be shot down for right now. We're in the playoff hunt. It's not time for "potential". We need a point guard that is consistent, can penetrate, shoot the ball, play defense and make sound decisions. We don't have that, especially with Pat out. The fact that Canaan has shown more production on the floor than Jeremy in a HUGE game brings up the discussion. Yes, it's one game, but how many more times does Jeremy Lin get a pass? I'm tired of hearing that he can't play well with James Harden. He couldn't play well with Carmelo. People said he couldn't play well with Dwight. Jeremy is still learning WHO he is as a player. Unfortunately for us, at this point in the season, we don't have the luxury of identity-searching. We need a starting guard that can consistently TAKE CARE of the ball and hit shots when James, Dwight and Chandler are doubled. Jeremy is not delivering. We don't have the time to "play around" with things to see if they work. If Canaan begins to outplay Jeremy in the next week or so, I don't see why you wouldn't start a hot-hand in the playoffs. We have nothing to lose at the PG spot at this point. I wish we had a veteran guard to bring in, but I doubt that would happen. Shoot, even Mike James is a "system" guy and could take care of the ball, penetrate and limit the turnovers. It's ironic how we used to talk about the PF position being our problem...now it's back to the PG spot. Gotta love the NBA!
