Either start Lin, or bring in a new starting PG, Bev ain't cuttin' it.

Lin has looked to pass first over and over again yet you still say he looks to score first. Lin looks to get his team mates going but there's Harden looking to playmake so he has to share that with him. Lin's a PnR player in a team that doesn't do a lot of PnR. Lin takes fewer shots than a lot of other point guards, so how is he looking to shoot first? Sometimes he's looking to penetrate and sometimes because he wants so much to pass, he turns it over by not making a good one after he penetrates opposed to penetrating and throwing up a circus shot. Brooks is a shooter by nature and when he comes in the game he shoots the ball but he can do some playmaking when he wants. Brooks and Lin are vastly different players.

 

And there is the crux of the issue. When Lin looks to score he plays he well, when he looks to play timid and force passes that aren't there and he struggles like in the last 3 games.Th problem is he sinking it up eitherway with Harden right now.

 

He's not stinking it up. He's coming off an injury and had a good game scoring 20. Then a solid game against Parker then had 2 games where he couldn't get much going in 3 Qs but was instrumental in the team's win getting it going in the 4th Q. That's not stinking it up. He stunk along with the rest of the starters yesterday. And I think the streak of ineffective 3Qs will come to an end soon enough.

It's not about only scoring with Lin. If he gets his team mates going that could be through aggression. I don't know what game it was, but in one game one of the first highlights is Lin drives into the pain and passes it off to Jones. That's not playing passive. It's either scoring or playmaking coming from playing aggressively, not just scoring and he has to find the right balance of control when he does so. When he's playing well he's aggressive under control and includes both passing and some scoring and playing good defense and at times getting steals and starting or finishing fast breaks. I think Lin needs to improve his dribbling, and all it takes is a good off-season of hard work for him to do that. But he will also do that if he gets the ball more as the season goes along.

 

agreed whenever Lin is aggressive he plays well but the timid Lin, LOL oh boy.

 

Pretty much. Don't know many players who can look like an allstar one night and then garbage the next. Hes young though and got some great attributes, hopefully he continues to develop

 

Out of 12 quarters dude only played good in two quarters BWS. That is classified as stinking it up. Yes before these last three games Lin played solid on both ends of the court but you have to call it like it is pimpn. 2 good quarters out of 12 is not good bro. real talk

 

See, I think that's a game we should at least be in. There is no excuse to get blown out by a Westbrook less Thunder team. There is no excuse to let Thabo, Lamb and Reggie Jackson beat you.

Perkins shouldn't ever be able to do that against Dwight. This isn't the same Perkins that was on the Celtics and not even the same one that first got to the thunder. This version of Perk is smaller, slower and frankly a guy who basically is out there to give fouls and grab a few boards. Howard should be able to get 20 and 10 on his athleticism alone. I do agree on the defensive scheme and it really illustrates our need for a stretch 4.

No question. That was an ugly loss and hopefully a wake up call

 

Not much. Lamb and Jackson were on fire too. Hopefully, it's a wake up call and we bounce back strong

 

I'm not counting the last game, I said he stunk in that game so it's down to 8 quarters. He along with 4 out of 5 starters stunk in last night's game. For me it's not stinking it up when you show up and make a difference when it counts. He hit big shots and made big plays. Big steals, big rebounds, he showed a winning attitude and made winning plays and the Rockets don't win those 2 games without Lin's contributions. We would have had 2 more losses had Lin not shown up. I'm not calling it pimpn, but it isn't stinking it up either.

In the big picture, yesterday's game was a loss. Rockets went 4-1 and could have loss 2 of the games without Lin stepping it up in the 4th. So, no, that's not stinking it up. That's a player struggling with his shot and finding a way to get through it and step up.

 

Which is why he's perfectly suited for a 6th man role. Jamal Crawford is like that too.

 

Players in their 4th year are generally who they are going to be, Lin is not that young any more.

DD

 

Most players hit their prime at the ages of 27/28. Considering that most players get drafted at the age of 19-20, that makes NO sense at all.

The Rockets are still the 5th youngest team in the NBA. 25 is still several years from peak development. Lin is part way into his 2nd full season as a starter minutes player and 2nd year of his first contract.

169 games played.
120 starts.

That's barely 2 full seasons of games played, and less than 1.5 seasons of starts. Harden has played 320 NBA games. Dwight has played 730 games. Even Omri Casspi has played 288 games.

This team is full of players still early to mid way on the development curve.

 

But he's only playing full time in his 2nd year. He was pretty much DMo or Brewer in his first 2 years. And countering what you are saying, has Lin not improved since last season, did he not improve some things? Also, look at LeBron James. I know he is an out of this world elite player but look at the improvements he made in his 5th and 6th year after being a full-time player.

I also think Harden will improve a lot more in decision making and hopefully in defense. He may develop a post-up game and I think he'll do more with the step-back. So, no, I don't think I agree with your statement. There are a lot of players that improved as they went along until after their physical prime or injuries slowed them down.

 

Harden was played 1 on 1 lady night. Like always he struggles against 80% of defenders in the league

 

What an ignorant statement. It's a consensus he's one of the the leagues best SGs. You don't achieve that by struggling against 80% of the league.

 

...

 

Also, very few breakout players play for their 4th team in their first three years. Most players that get shuffled around so much usually quit or were never good enough in the first place. Look at how many systems/roles he has been asked to play in. He's not been allowed to get comfortable, it's learn or quit. So far it seems he is doing the former. He has not showed any signs of plateauing, let alone regressing.

 

Agreed and I am glad Lin and the Rockets stepped their games up what looked to be loses in those last two games before this one. But IMO that dont take away from the horrific 3 quarters of play in each of those games.

 

I think it was more ineffective shooting. He played defense, he had a bunch of assists in one of the quarters and got TJ going, so that's not horrific 3 quarters in each game. I think one quarter he had way too many turnovers but besides that, it's more ineffective scoring. But I'm not harping on two or three games of non-productive scoring in an 82 game season. He's missed most of the month and then had a bunch of games where he almost had to play due to Bev's injuries and those games were closely spaced. Maybe his stamina just isn't there yet, both mental and physical plus he's playing with the starters opposed to how he was coming in prior to his injury. We'll see how he does after some rest.

 

if lin's gonna be traded, i want another starting PG..not beverley.