Would you stop following the Rockets if they traded Lin?

Fair post. No one is above blame. Not even Michael Jordan.

 

Confession of a basketball junkie:

"I would never watch basketball again!
Food now has become tasteless!
My TV is going back to SD instead of HD or UHD!
The good looks and points in the paint are gone!
I lost the true meaning of life!
Lin, please save me!"


"Honey, the Rockets game is on League Pass, now!"

"Save my seat, I'll be there in 5 seconds!"

 

It took less than a day for you to retract your ball hog comments based upon your love for Linsanity. Congratulations.

Every Lin fan loved him when he was taking 25 shots a game. I'm sorry that he doesn't deserve that many shots anymore.

 

Basketball is a team game. The ultimate goal of a single offence should be finding the best shot the team can get, if time allows. When you have time and it's not clutch time, going iso ball is simply lazy and inept coaching.

It's not about the number of shots you get. It's about you take what the defense gives you. I don't care if it's Lin or any other players. If a player gets doubled any time he touches the ball, any shots would be excessive unless your are MJ or Shaq. If the defense is sagging 2 feet away from him, he should shoot the ball every time without counting the number of shots he's already taken. If he consistently cannot hit open shots at a higher percentage, he shouldn't be in the game. Simple as that.

 

The problem with that theory is that not all players ISO equally. I don't have the data but off the top of my head I seem to recall Houston only running a Harden ISO something like 15-17% of the possessions? And the scoring rate on those plays was equal to or higher than even the pick and roll plays. Keep in mind when I say "ISO" I mean the true Isolation play. Not when a player beats his man one on one or off the dribble. So many people misuse the term ISO, it's maddening.

So the ISO play absolutely has it's place in an offense.

As for taking what the defense gives you, that too can have issues. Most teams will defend Lin by giving him open jumpers from distance since his strength is penetration, particularly off a pick. Guys like Harden are tougher to defend because they can shoot. The premise of exploiting what a defense does not defend is great but the execution can be tricky. Take Portland and LMA. Only Asik had even a prayer of guarding LMA one on one. So a simple double team (which we all knew we needed) was going to free up a shooter somewhere. The problem there is that Portland has very good shooters. So you're now picking your poison. There are other ways you can handle the LMA/Portland problem and I thought that FINALLY we made some adjustments that helped. But they came far too late.

I guess what I'm getting at here is that it's not as simple as it seems to run an offense or defense. For every one solution a fan thinks he's found there are ten other subtle things going on that you haven't taken into account. I've been watching the NBA for over 20 years and I still learn something if I watch games closely. Good commentators help as well.

 

Who knows

 

Lin appears to be a very nice young man, and I wish him well, but I do not want to see him in a Rockets uniform next year. Seriously, I don't. He is one of the most erratic players I have ever seen. For a variety of reasons both he and the Rockets will be better off if he is elsewhere next season.

 

I have to admit I voted "yes." I basically only watch basketball because of Lin.

Still I rooted for the Rockets the past couple of years, even though I can't stand the way they play (too much isos and not really team basketball or fundamental basketball made watching the games very difficult). But I wanted each Rockets player to do well.

 

Yes. I would stop watching basketball altogether. Not just the NBA, I'm talking about all basketball, including people playing pick-up.

Jeremy Lin is my life. Jeremy Lin is Asian. I'm Asian.

 

This is where I have an issue. You admit to only watching basketball because of Lin, then you immediate make negative comments about fundamentals, ISO plays and lack of team ball. I'd wager that you're just repeating those complaints because it's become popular to do so. I'm guessing you don't watch any other teams? Can you compare the Spurs offense to the Heat offense? Can you really pinpoint what fundamental team skill we lack, or how to address them?

The Rockets offense does have the tendency to bog down at times but I really put that more on coaching and team youth. You can't expect every NBA team to share the ball like the Spurs (experience). If it were that easy everyone would just do it. We had one of the best offenses in the league last season. IMO if we get a few tough minded defensive coaches on this staff this team could be very, very good.

I'm not taking a shot at you I'm just pointing out that THIS is why I think a lot of Lin only fans get frustrated. You're making negative comments that you probably don't fully understand because you haven't had experience with the NBA long enough to know better. It's like when I took a girl to her first NBA game, and she couldn't understand why the big guy (Luc Longley) wouldn't shoot the ball when he was wide open. Again, I'm not trying to be condescending but I think a lot of folks get upset without knowing why.

 

Dude, you're making our lives difficult with comments like this.

In behalf of other Lin fans let me tell you an advice, only say things like this in your mind or within your family, they'd understand wether you're fanatical or not, but people who are basically strangers wont, especially in CF or anywhere else in the internet.

Anyway, don't stop supporting Rockets even if it means Lin will be gone this summer. This is a good team with just a rotting coach, but once we get Love maybe Morey will think twice of giving Mchale another extension of what he's already been given.

 

I respect your view of the game, but I still think Spurs has the most optimal system. You don't even need top 5 super stars to win, just great + solid players and a deep bench. All players are 2-way players. Everybody defend the way it should be. Players help each other the way it should be (screen, assist, boxing out, etc.) Team always try to find the best shot. Everyone is capable of hitting a clutch shot (see Manu, Parker, Duncan, Belineli, Danny Green, Lenard even Diaw).

It's simple on paper, but really not simple who you try to apply the system to a bunch of multi-millionaire brats.

 

You're right there. The Spurs have great two way and role players. Part of the reason their system works is because they get good (and better fitting) players more consistently than most other teams. But if you plug in the Rockets players from 2010 into that Spurs system I bet you still miss the playoffs. I'm not even sure we advance much farther if you swapped players and system with THIS Rockets team that we progress another round. Again, I agree we have some fundamental flaws in our players/system but I don't think it's a simple as the system fixing it all.

It's a bit of chicken and egg. Do the players make the system look good or does the system make the players look good? IMO it's a bit of both but leans more towards the player. The Spurs have a great organization from front office, coach, scouts and players. There is a reason they've been this good for this long.

 

I forgot to add that the Spurs may not have any top FIVE players, but they have multiple all stars that have at one time dominated their positions. That goes a long way for my earlier point about the players making the system look great. We have two clear all stars and the rest of our team are basically role players, with Parsons as the wild card.

 

Iso basketball isn't necessarily not fundamental basketball. It's just another style of play.

 

Nobody can run into the lane and jump pass the ball in traffic like Lin, it doesn't matter if he throws to the wrong team or to a dude in the front row

it was entertaining, he kept you guessing on where the ball might go

he's not as boring as a crisp kenny smith entry pass in the post for hakeem olajuwon

we don't know who jeremy is passing to

 

With Duncan, they've had a first ballot HOFer for more than a decade, not to mention Parker, who's still top 5 at his position. Hell, even at his age, Duncan is easily top 10 at his position, arguably still top 5. Then you have Ginobili, possibly the greatest 6th man since McHale before Harden emerged at OKC. That core has been together a long time. Add in Pop and a stellar front office, and you have the reason the Spurs have been so good for so long.

I think Morey is overrated, he's great at pulling off great deals and finding good players, but the jury is still out on whether he can find the right parts that mesh well to form a great team.

 

I agree. People that think that the Spurs and Pop can just plug in any player into their "team ball" system and still be great are overlooking a lot.

 

20% lofs, sounds about right.