I doubt mchale learned nothing from the loosing streak. In any case, did you not notice how Delfino SLOWLY took his time to shoot the threes? He was wide open, so was Parson, Douglas and others. The Nets defense was simply awful. So what "opened" up this game? - Getting stops & running the fast breaks. The nets was always 1 step slower on transition defense. This maybe due to the nets being the slowest team in the league, fatigue (being on the road) & Deron's injury. - lots of pnr, on & off the ball screens. For eg, there was 1 play with 5.30 remaining in the 4th Q where Smith picked on Deron to setup Delfino for a wide open 3 before he even got the ball. That would not be possible had the nets not packed the paint in the first place. Smith also set an off the ball screen for Harden who eventually connected with Smith with a bounce pass & Smith rolling to the basket for a dunk. Asik also set multiple screens for Lin & Harden as well. At 2nd Q with 6.50 remaining, the Lin/Asik pnr resulted in Watson/Asik mismatch enabling Asik to roll to the basket with an easy dunk. You can find all these on the video highlights posted in this thread. So there were lots of on & off the ball movements creating the space necessary for a wide open 3 or for finishing at the rim. Btw there were 8 3pt attempts during the 4th Q, how many of those were contested before the shot was released?
Hey man, I can't speak for the OP, but the way I interpreted that post was that people have unrealistic expectations of Jeremy Lin. My question is, what do you want him to put up to justify that contract? He's at 12/6 right now, but I think the OP implied that 15/7 is approaching all-star territory. Personally I think people are judging him on a scale that's not consistent with his salary. What do you think?
More like both Lopez & Watson were trying to trap Lin thus allowing Asik to roll to the basket for an easy dunk. Guess they did not expect Asik to be capable to do that. Anyway, not saying your rationale is wrong, but there's not the SVG Magic's offense that I saw in the last 2 games.
I see your point but I do see Lin initiating more plays, and being given more room for mistakes. I don't see the hand off to Harden and stand in the corner set play as much. Or when they do initiate that set, the ball actually leaves our players hands quicker and tge ball comes back to Lin. Its too much of a stark difference for me to think there hasn't been a change. And I've also noticed that when Lin calls for a screen, they actually give him a screen. Once again, it's not like he earned the respect of his teammates to give him a screen during the losing streak. I believe McHale learned that Harden ball was not good for us and shifted the playmaking burden on Lin. Having said that, perhaps just as important if not more so, is the sense of urgency they've been playing with in starting the break and the quick ball movement as well as the focus on better help d. Both changes I attribute to coaching
I agree if you are taking 16 shots a night you better drop 18 points. I am not overusing the Spurs game nor am I going to call it an outlier. I brought it up just to say that he is capable of hitting shots like he did that night. (No I am not saying that he is going to put up 38 points). But if he has a solid jumper those driving lanes will be there. It isn't really about how many points he gets. I just want him to be a confident shooter. That is most important to me. Lin will never be a 36-38% shooter from deep. He just needs to be good enough to keep the defense honest. In NY he was 32% from 3. That is good enough & likely what he will be. 35% from 3 is unlikely for him. 32% is likely what he will be once he improves if he improves (fingers crossed that he does). 15 & 7 are better than just good starter numbers those are great numbers. And I agree Lin shouldn't be your best player. If he is your fourth best player then you have a great team. I want him to be what Mike Conley is for the Griz. a guy that just is surrounded with talent & just puts it all together.
Mike Conley is a good comparison, and perhaps not coincidentally, Lin and he are putting up very similar numbers this season. However, Lin is only in his first season as a starter while Conley is in, what, his sixth? And remember that Conley was a 4th pick, OVERALL.
#1 McHale did not change the offense he ran during the losing streak, so if he learned anything it wasn't as dramatic as some are making it seem. #2 The offense opened up because the Rockets hit their 3's which meant that the defense could not just clog the paint. The fact the Rockets had plenty of time to hit 3's only proves the point. #3 Also the Asik P&R and Asik screening worked better than usual, in part because the interior defense of NJ was terrible. This idea that the Rockets threw out the play book during the losing streak and McHale went ISO heavy is simply false. Our set offense was not working because it is predicated on 3's and penetration. The lane was clogged and they dared us to hit 3's and we didn't so we lost.
To me he is already playing at a level to justify his contract. I posted concerning what I thought Lin was capable of.
Lin is initiating the offense more, because he can when the middle isn't clogged. I want Lin initiating the offense atleast half the time. However when the lane is full there is not much he can do because they cannot run as well and he can not get open looks for his teammates off of penetration. Thus the offense stagnates and the P&R fails more often than it should. It is hard to be a point guard when there is no where to go with the ball.
Conley is remarkably underrated one of my favourite PG's to watch. And his shooting is so good. He has improved tremendously as a shooter from 33% in his rookie year to 37% now. Hopefully Lin can become a dependable 33% shooter.
disagree on your statement - not much difference. lin held pg duty most time during 2 winning games. well, other players just knew what role they should take, such delfino and parsons. they dribbled much less and they gave the ball back to lin or harden if they have no chance to score. even harden played much less pg position.
#1 The strategy did not change much, but the coaches made a concious effort to adjust/influence the players' execution on the court. Harden got benched a few times during the last 2 games. What was unusual was the timings & frequency of his substitutions. For eg, against NOH, Harden played for about 5mins in the 2nd Q & was replced by Delfino after he turned the bell over a few times as a result of his iso plays. After his substitution, ball movement picked up & the lead extended from 2 to 8 again at the half-time. In the 3rd Q, Harden was replaced by Lin immediately after he allowed Rivers easy layup. In each of the last 2 games, Harden logged less minutes than Lin which is rare. In fact I do not recall Lin ever played longer than Harden prior to the last 2 games. #2 "The fact the Rockets had plenty of time to hit 3's only proves the point". This is a flawed logic. If the nets' defense were not clogging the lane i.e. if they had respected our 3pts shots, they would have opened up & would be contesting the 3pts attempts & not gave the shooters space. Let me put it in another way, where were the nets when Delfino, Douglas, Parson, etc were left opened shooting the threes? Is it at the perimeter of the paint or are they contesting the threes near the arc? Did we watch the same game? #3 As I said earlier, the nets defense was simply awful. I think their perimeter & transition defense were worse than their interior defense.
how is he better? they are shooting about the same fromt he field.....Lin has more assists, better on d, steals isnt close? Hows he better exactly. You said hes a better shooter, HOW?
Those are almost Chris Paul's numbers. I have been thinking about this for a while now, and I have reconciled to 15 and 8 for this season. Let me explain. While I think it would be good for Lin to take more shots to jack up his PTS, and to satisfy those who think scoring is the most important for a PG, I also believe that it might not be good for the team at its current stage of development. Reasons for a lower target in PTS: 1) We have been talking a lot in this forum about the need to reduce Harden and Lin's play time to keep them healthy and strong, and I think 35 minutes max for them would be ideal. (Both of them were kept at 34 minutes in the last game vs the Nets, and they had 43 points combined.) This means Lin will have less time with the ball to score. 2) Lin is still trying to find his space within the system. If he make more FG attempts, then some one has to make less. Who should that be? I want to keep Harden at the 25+ PTS level. 3) The team needs to have a PG that does everything an elite PG should do. Lin has to spend enough of the time when he has the ball in his hands doing those things to help develop the team's offense and increase its effectiveness and efficiency. And he needs to increase his AST to 8.0 through more and better play making. Where is he going to get the possessions to do it? I think a combined 40 PTS, 9 REB, 13 AST, 4 STL and 5.5 TO from the backcourt duo would be optimal to win most games for this season. We can consider making adjustments after making the playoffs.
