As of right now, is Lin one of the worst starting PG's in the NBA?

You can use shooting% all you want. The Rockets front office, and most knowledgeable fans of basketball, understand TS% that takes into account FT made and count 3 pointers more than 2 pointers.

So unless your boy Lin works on improving his TS% to even respectable levels, no one besides his legion of fanboys will ever take him seriously as a quality PG.

 

Even if you think he's the worst PG in the history of the game, at least he wasn't born as royce white.

 

He's "inconsistent" because he's playing in a crappy system where Mchale forces their "system" on him. Lin is a fast break, ball movement guard. They're making him into a defer to Harden type of player. Well, we've seen the last 8 games and we saw how that worked out. 120 points per game earlier, down to 80 points per game. Kind of like Gasol being misplaced on the Lakers.

 

if lin had a chance to shoot 30 times a game he'd go to the line a lot more and his TS% would go up... or am i wrong?

 

You began by claiming that JLin was a terrible shooter. TS% is not strictly about how well you shoot the basketball b/s it weighs heavily the FT's and I agree Harden gets more Fouls and more FT's b/c of it.

Clearly getting Fouls and FT's is Harden's domain. But actual shooting percentages of 2's and 3's they are about the same.


In fact JLin's 3's % has been slightly increasing. They both have shooting% lower than they should and they both need to get better.

JLIn 3pt%
October 0%
November 26.3%
December 29.2%
January 29.5%
Last 10 33.3%
Overall 28%

This is still lower than it should be but at lest it is trending up.

Harden overall is only 32% not stellar either. If you would claim that they are both needing improvement in shooting then I totally agree but to single JLin out is not looking at the data in a rational way.

 

I've read posts from too many Lin supporters who rip Westbrook for shooting too much. So now you want a guard who can't shoot at all to try to make it rain? What's it going to be?

It's going to be yet another "well if ... then..." scenario.

Lin's not Jesus. He's sure likable. He's definitely a Rocket so I hope this gets better. It's too bad his fans have to tear down the Rockets in an effort to build up Lin. Even a guy as easy to root for as Jeremy isn't worth that.

 

You are wrong. Just like flipping a coin more times does not change the probability of the next flip being heads or tails.

 

Another reason why fans should watch basketball games to supplement their data. Harden takes bad, beat-the-clock shots. Lin does not. Harden's defenders play close to him, because they respect his shooting, allowing him to get to the rim and get those FTs. Jeremy Lin's defenders sag off of him and pump fists when Lin brick after brick on shots given freely to him. When things go badly, the ball goes to Harden and not Lin because Harden can create something out of nothing. Lin can't even create at league average PG levels even in optimal half-court conditions.

Consider it a lesson in basketball 101 so you can have more viewing experience in future Rockets games.

 

James Harden shoots 17.8 times a game and 5th in scoring. Well, if you think Jeremy Lin needs 30 shots a game to put up numbers, that's why he's not James Harden.

 

I do watch and the player I see Bricking shots is Harden. His volume of shots is very high although his percentage is about the same as Lin. contested shots see to be the same to me. it is just that Harden takes so many more shots in a game.

I see Harden often driving into the trees to force a foul and get FT's I do not see Lin do this. This is the determining factor I see in their points per game. Lin and Harden both need to work on their shots but Lin needs to learn to plow into the trees and draw fouls.

However the plowing into the trees and drawing fouls is only useful as long as the refs don't swallow their whistle... this has happened and Harden and the team pays dearly for it.

 

In their defense how much hoops knowledge can you expect them to pick up in one year?

 

It's like the new Lin fan talking point. Saying that Harden draw fouls is a bad thing.

 

Not a bad thing I hope the whistles keep on coming though.

 

what points are wrong?

 

Harden not only takes more efficient and more difficult/contested shots, he has also taken 120 more three pointers this season already which obviously drops your overall FG%. If Lin took the same number of three pointers Harden has took, his FG% would drop to around 39%. You're skewing statistics right now to try to make a pretty ridiculous point.

 

Lin is also assisted on a higher percentage of his shots than Harden. If the ball was in his hands more rather than Harden's, his shooting percentage would likely drop as well.

Anyways, this is a pretty dumb conversation. Harden's simply a much more efficient scorer than Lin. There's no comparison.

 

Lin changed his shooting form in this past off-season while still recovering from his torn meniscus which is probably not the best thing to do. His legs weren't as strong as they are now and that's what's throwing off his shot mechanics tremendously, because he's been great at shooting the mid-range shot throughout his life and was a major reason why he was elite in the PnR in PPP last season. Unfortunately for him, fixing it while the season is in flight is extremely hard.

He'll definitely have to devote this upcoming off-season to fixing it.

 

This is key. You'd think a point guard would be delivering more assists than receiving the ball to shoot a la what a shooting guard would do. Lin's a terrible catch and shoot player but is pretty good off the dribble, but he hasn't had the ball a lot or is too tentative when he does have the ball cause he thinks he needs to get it to a better scoring option when Harden is on the floor. His mindset needs to change when he's on the floor with Harden.