Byron Scott may well start Price over Lin due to a perceived need for scoring off the bench. With Nick Young and Steve Nash out, they can go Kobe-ball with the starting lineup but what do you go to with Kobe sitting? Lin can at least generate some penetration semi-reliably. Not sure Byron Scott is comfortable enough with his rookies yet or should want to rely on Price and Ellington throwing up pull-up midrange Js. Then again, the Lakers team lack many things so they will be scrambling to fix one issue at the cost of creating another all season. The Lakers have also been starting Boozer and Jordan Hill while bringing Randle and Ed Davis off the bench. To my eyes, the bench bigs are better than the starters. Seems like Scott just loves his "veterans."
Add Lin and Young to that, although Young won't be back until the end of Nov at best. I don't know if this is planning for the future or trying an unorthodox strategy to win games now, but if Lin, Randle and Davis are on the second team to start the year something is up. The difference between them and the starters is too noticeable.
I mean Lin, Randle and Davis as a group are still on the second team. If Byron pulls one of them up then never mind.
Ed Davis is not playing much when Jeremy was injured, was it coincidence or the coach just trying to keep their chemistry? Jeremy Lin, Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle, Ed Davis, these 4 played quite a lot together and is building chemistry already. They are not only young but also talented enough to be the future core of Lakers. Let those guys plays together iso of shifting Jeremy to starting might not be bad idea. Moreover, they are young and fast enough to play Jeremy's uptempo game.
I don't remember how he handled preseason in other gigs, but maybe he's just playing around in preseason and it won't bear on the regular season. We'll know soon enough I guess.
turnovers are still an issue, at least in yesterday's game, which lillard had one less t/o than lin in 17 minutes. Definitely not saying Lin's handles are on par with that of Lillard's, and definitely not saying Lin has even decent handles for a 1, but let's not use a single preseason game, a back to back following one where he had 0 turnovers while coming off of 2 injured ankles, to bolster a certain narrative. Also, Ronnie Price's handles are seemingly just as bad if not worse than lin's... I never thought I would ever see the day, but here it is, and here he is getting the start... just wow... This Lin being a bench player issue is hilarious, everyone in Los Angeles (not just Asians because I know that's what you're thinking) wants Lin to start, thinks that he deserves the start, and knows that he will probably take the starting job sooner rather than later. Him being on the bench has nothing to do with his skill, or lack thereof. no arguments here about the poor handles though...
What happened is when Lin was injured, they were getting blown out by 20-30 points because the second unit turned into summer league heroball with crappy shot selection. Lin stabilizes the second unit by controlling the tempo and his dribble penetration. He slows it down in the half court set, which is what the rookies need and if he wants to run in transition, everyone is fast enough to keep up with him. His dribble penetration also gives Davis a lot of easy looks. Starters have Kobe and a bunch bigs that can pick and pop. All they really need from Price is solid D, which he gives.
My point is if Lin cannot beat off Price (whatever the reasons may be) for the starting PG position for a lottery team, then the narrative will be set that Lin is a back up. That does not augment well for the rest of his career being pigeonholed as a "quality" back up but not starter worthy.
Before last nights game, he had 1 TO over 3 games. Even after last night, his assist/to ratio is something like 3.2/1
Yea it's similar. Difference is the Rockets starters can dominate offensively and you got multiple superstars to draw doubles and get easy looks. Lakers starters, if Kobe's not hitting his shots, they're screwed and there are only two guys that draw doubles - Kobe and Lin. Making Lin come off the bench is saving the second unit at the expense of making starters have to work harder on offense. Having Swaggy or Nash back would make a huge difference with this roster.
Stamina has always been the reason of Lin's inconsistency. It is no surprise that he is turnover prone on the second night of a back-to-back. If there were a fix to his stamina, I sure hoped he had done it for Rockets.
McHale sucks at a lot of things but I thought the move made good coaching sense Nylon Calculus wrote a good piece on PG roles a week ago. All the Rockets 1's last year - Beverley, Lin, Canaan - had some of the lowest on-ball %'s in the league because Harden's the defacto point guard. If you guys get Rondo, who leads the league in on-ball % and start him, I wanna see what happens
If I had to guess, the Lakers priorities are 1. Find a future core for the team 2. Allow Kobe a graceful last couple of years in gratitude for all he's been for them 3. Win a 'ship In that order. Cause winning anything really ain't happening this year no matter how hard they try.
