No, absolutely not. The Rockets have been playing Lin because there are not enough shots available in the starting lineup. One ball. Only one. 1.54 shots per minute. That is all. No more. I have posted the data in other threads. Do I have to post it again? Isn't this sort of reminiscent of Manu and Harden coming off the bench in SA and OKC? God I see the light! I am saved! Pitiful.
You mean reminiscent of how OKC started Thabo for defensive reasons over Harden? Not having Lin take a lot of shots doesn't really hurt the team, it might not maximise Lin, but that's not the goal there. Heck his minutes spent alongside Harden has barely changed, what you'll instead see is that Bev's minutes are tightly mirroring opposing elite pgs, that's not by accident, it also wasn't by accident that all hell broke loose when he sat with 4 fouls against the Clippers for example. As for the shots per minute thing, please don't, it's stupid.
Cant you say your/many a poster on here's inherent love of Lin is clouding their judgement on just how good the guy is? Dude is a solid player. I love his game for our second unit. But Bev is starting for a reason. (and its not some stupid conspiracy or racism) People on here need to get over that.
Clueless. Absolutely clueless. Please consult http://stats-for-the-nba.appspot.com/ before commenting. Harden is a super star. OKC traded him because the owner was cheap assed. Sefo is certainly a decent NBA player, but compared to Harden ... well he is just road kill. 1.54 shots per minute. Max. That is all. To accommodate Harden, Parsons, Jones and Howard. That is 1.37 shots per minute without the point guard.
I am all about stats. I have no love for any Rockets player. Only the team. I believe that you have confused me with a LOF. Not true.
I am not sure you are a Lin obsessive or not but Ill use this to bring up something about this argument that bothers me to no end. People always try to use this argument for Lin being just as good as Harden. So lets say Lin is traded tomorrow. Rockets don't get a first round pick back for him. Rockets don't get 3 additional players back for him. They are not the same player. Not even close. I wish people would stop trying to compare them.
Dude. Find another moniker. Yours brings to mind mass murders. Not a basketball fan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Berkowitz
HAHA I got under your skin didn't I? It is my fathers and my name. I get it. that's the point. I guess its a dark sense of humor. Way to deflect away from my point though.
Actually, Lin's been getting similar minutes to Bev on a per game basis, and similar minutes per game with the starting line up as Bev. Lin has also been closing games as frequently if not more so than Beverley. So if it was purely for "defensive" purposes, then the actions don't necessarily back up your assertion. Probably the most compelling arguments for Beverley starting would be twofold. 1) So that Lin can orchestrate the 2nd unit. Beverley's facilitation and scoring abilities are highly suspect (as Utah and Phoenix reminded us). You can argue that Harden being in the line up with Beverley doesn't give him the opportunity to facilitate, but even when Harden was off the floor and Beverley was with the 2nd unit, Aaron Brooks ran the offense for the most part. And Aaron Brooks is FAR from a strong facilitator. Without Lin OR Parsons our offense ground to a halt. With Lin + Harden our offense is still pretty effective. 2) So that Beverley can apply pressure on the opposing starting unit early, thus "softening them up" for Lin when he's in full attack mode. There's something to be said for Beverley "pestering" an opponent, at least in terms of fatiguing them. 3) There is not a significant drop off from Lin to Beverley if during that period Harden is doing all the facilitation. Though Lin is currently a superior 3pt shooter, finisher at the rim and all around scorer, it's not like it completely falls off a cliff if all you're looking at is 3 point shooting. We give up Lin's 39% from 3, but Beverley's 33% from 3 is only slightly below NBA average. Of course, if you're up against a top end defense, then you probably need Lin + Harden + Parsons on the floor simultaneously. Beverley just doesn't draw enough offensive attention to seriously impact a really good defensive team. Let's be honest though, if we had another PG that was a decent facilitator like Dragic or Lowry, then Beverley wouldn't even see the floor outside of specialized situations. Most likely you'd see Dragic and Lin getting all the playing time and Beverley would be 3rd string.
You're vastly underestimating the dropoff. If we're using vague terms like "terrible", "subpar", "okay", "decent", "good", "great", I'd say Lin's a decent defender while Brooks is terrible, Lin's a great scorer while Brooks is subpar (actually statistically he's been closer to terrible, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt because he's shown brief flashes of ability to score), and Lin is a good playmaker while Brooks is somewhere between subpar and okay. I agree Chandler >>>>> Garcia though. Garcia has actually shown some very impressive defensive flashes in the past (last year vs OKC), but I don't know where that's gone this year.
yeah, trade Lin lol. I am sure a lot of Clutchfans'd be happy. Not because Lin is gone, but because both dumb LoH/LoF will be gone. It's getting harder and harder to tolerate these fools.
IMO Asik's presence is missed more than Lin on the bench. The Rockets need a solid defensive backup for Dwight for the bench to not give up leads, and it remains to be seen if Greg Smith can be that guy without fouling himself out every game. Lin is a luxury, but not a necessity. The thing is I don't think his trade value is high enough yet that it's worth trading him, if he keeps up this level of production and convinces the league he's not a fluke he could be a great trade asset.
ROFL, I must be a LOF because I can see that Lin is clearly better than Brooks? Posts like yours are the reason that Clutchfans has turned into a cesspool.
Lin is replaceable with any other relatively high scoring guard. But the same is true, in my opinion, of Harden. You can replace either with high-scoring players. They wouldn't be THAT hard to find. Guys in the 6-3 to 6-5 range that can score alot if given the minutes?
so if you replace lin or harden with other high-scoring guards, the replacements may not necessarily be BETTER, but the team as a whole wouldn't take a huge hit.
I never said Brooks was Better than Lin. Thats where all this starts. You quoted the parts you wanted in my initial post without reading it, or intentionally leaving parts out. A better fit for a team is not always the "better" player. I don't know how to explain stuff like that to someone that probably hasn't even played basketball before or lacks the adequate knowledge to understand it. Your LOFism is clouding your reasoning abilities so I suggest you take a step back and go read what I said. Good day.
I also hate double posting, but since your going straight on my ignore list after this I might as well say it. Posts like yours where you look for an argument because you fail to comprehend someone's post is one of the reasons that CF has turned into what it has. Part of it stems from your insecurity with Lin, any attempt to criticize him is seen as an act against god and you go full irrational mode to make sure the idol you spend your days shining remains clean. I have stayed out of these threads forever, avoided the GARM even, so its ironic that your character of poster that has dropped the quality of this forum has the audacity to call me out. I hope you find reason.
