Free Jeremy Lin

Superstar, if you don't have anything valuable to add to the conversation, dont stir the water.

 

Both you and Torocan are very informed members of this board, especially you Durvasa, has been so ever since

 

This is false. Again with the generalizations. I like duravassa we don't always agree but I like the posts. Also love the signature. Love that more than the mosts to be frank. I don't care if you disagree with me, if you bring facts & have a stimulating discussion I am cool. There are times where I agree with the persons overriding argument I just disagree with how they went about it. In general I just like to argue ;P

But yes I have no issue with durvassa at all. If I had a issue with you I would ignore you & not respond to your posts.

 

lol I know. Just funny seeing Allegro trying to discredit Durv. and acting like he owned him.

 

BTW Roxxy -

Do you think it's the coaches fault or Deron Williams for his lack luster season?

 

Great question. Coaches first & foremost. Avery Johnson is an atrocious coach & he looks like the evil sloth creature from Monsters inc. Avery micromanages things way to much & he has a great PG running things no reason for him to be doing that nonsense. His offense is abysmal (he doesn't even have one), long 2's, isolations yuck. Avery's system is not conducive to effective play. They don't use enough screens either & I really can't stress enough how important screens are to effective PG play man. Deron isn't playing like a elite player but he has elite talent people have forgotten that. And Avery isn't utilizing his skill set enough. I haven't really looked at the numbers to be frank, I am not a Net fan but from what I know they don't emphasize screen play, nor the PNR.

Now don't get me wrong Deron has a ****ty attitude I also think he is a tad bit overrated but his talent really can't be disputed. Derons defense is also very poor also. He is a total diva, not a good leader, throws his teammates & coaches under the bus & I secretly suspect that he is dogging it to get Avery fired. Just like Carmelo did last year with Dantoni. He ousted Utah Jerry Sloan who I loved & he b****ed & moaned in BK talking about how he liked Sloans system after he drove Sloan to quit. Frankly I think Deron deserves a season of hell under Avery in the cruel NY market so that he can learn from his past errors. Also he cheats on his wife ;P

I blame Skiles for Ersans poor play & I also blame Indiana's offense for Hibberts struggles as well. Hibbert is a great player & he is dominating on the defensive end right now but Pacers offense is ****ing putrid. One of the reasons I think Jrue Holliday is playing well is because he is being given more responsibility on the offensive end & he has responded well. The coaches have so much confidence in him & have really put him in spots to be successful providing him with a big man in Bynum & shooters he got that extension & frankly he is worth every penny of it. Also they don't b**** about his TO's they let him be aggressive knowing that the TO's will slowly but urely come down as he gets more comfortable. Jrue's ability to run an offense has improved since last year, his decision making has improved also, last year he was terrible at it. His defense is also stellar, & his 3 point shooting is so very lovely & him & his girl are a adorable couple. Just a few thoughts.

 

I wasn't talking about that post and I didn't mean it as a personal insult. I hope you didn't take it that way.

 

I don't think he "wanted" to do that, but neither did the coaches ask him to do that.

It's his decision to pull that trigger. The coaches know what he is capable of, they can only put him in a position to do his thing. You can lead a horse to water as the saying goes.

He was coming of an injury, he was playing timidly, and there was harden who was respected as the guy who could make things happen. Lin didn't have the confidence. He played like he was afraid of everything he would do. He was trying "too hard" to please everyone when they weren't even asking to be pleased.

I watched the games and that's what I saw. Now I see Lin playing differently....but the same freaking plays. The coaching hasn't changed man, it's Lin.

And I tip my hat to him for really taking a big step forward. It's great to see.

 

This is simply not true. Taller physical teams can bust up the Rockets offense in more than one way.

You have named one. Getting back faster on defense. But there are two key other ways to combat this type of...what is essentially "Cherry Picking". Most of the time you see it's Parsons breaking on the shot, a quick inbounds to Lin who makes a great pass to a streaking parsons. Other variations - but that seems to be the most common.

Here's how teams can break it apart:

1. Press the inbound pass. This will give 2 other guys time to get back and catch up to the cherry pickers.

2. Front the outlet passer. Again, it's about buying time.

3. Send a "secondary" to intercept the outlet pass. Parson guy breaks, then you send the other guard sprinting on the other side of the court. When the pass goes up, they can intercept it as the passer won't see the "secondary" defense

4. Make the cherry pickers play defense. Run them through picks constantly. Bump them. Make them work hard on defense, and then play them physically on the other end. it will tire them out and slow them a step or two.

5. When the cherry pickers are in the game with the outlet passer - post up more. This will keep the guards back and make for easier transition defense.

 

This is a really interesting discussion, It is what I have been wondering, what will teams do to counter the Rocket's fast paced offense. The Rockets have gone against some great defensive minds recently, but those teams didn't really have the personnel. This is one thing to watch for in the MN game, MN is ranked 10th in pace, and it beat both Denver and OKC in December.

 

... I meant to say, those teams didn't really have the personnel to go fast. If that was a requirement for beating our fast paced offense

 

You can slow the game down in the playoffs. Just by pressing the inbounds and having one guard pressure the opposing point guard you give your bigs time to get down the court and thus slow the game down. It's taxing, but what you do is use your bench players to shift their mindset away from the run and then they will stop running.

Throw in a few steals by knowing when they will break (which you do before a playoff series much more than a regular season game), plus being very physical, and you can take away the break.

Just look what the Spurs did to the Suns years back.

Fast break points are great - but you can't count on them in the era of the playoffs. The Pistons/Knicks/Bulls of the 90's took that away.

 

You know I was thinking Harden drives in all the time but he rarely takes a beating while Lin always looks like he has been hit by a truck whenever there's contact. Clyde was talking about how Lin has to learn how to fall and it makes me wonder if Lin can last like that if he doesn't learn

Spoiler

 

That's because Harden doesn't really jump into the air much where Lin does. Harden just rockets past people with his speed and throws the ball up as he is running. Lin really leaps to get close to the basket and that exposes him a lot more.

Lin does need to learn how to fall. Maybe he should take a tumbling class.

 

Except for the fact that the Rockets have 2 very good facilitators in Harden and Lin and one decent facilitator in Parsons; all they'd have to do is to pass the ball to another facilitator. And Lin's been improving with passing out of the hard double team, I think there was a couple full court pressure too. TBH, Lin has had experience with the sort of 'playoff' defense you describe with that first Miami game, and he's since improved in those situations.

Also, Harden, Lin, and Douglas are all superfast and bring down the ball very quick, so they might be able to get that quick first step around the opposing point guard and then quickly pass it downcourt... and we've all see that Lin's great at the full court 'quarterback' passes. Even Asik and Harden's been throwing a couple.

 

This. If you watch harden carefully, he exposes the ball, but only enough to draw a foul. And as Lou said, he doesn't get very high into the air. Whereas Lin, man that guy just puts everything into it, hard into the air, so when he falls it's mad dangerous. Good example is last night, when Lin went to drive,I think it was Deng who fouled him and Lin flew like a rag doll doing a 720 spin in the air into the ground. Lin needs to be trickier. Wade also is great at drawing fouls too without getting destroyed.

Are there PGs in the game that draw a lot of fouls effectively without getting hurt? I can't think of anyone

 

This is an interesting example, I wonder how Lin will do now with a lot of pressure on him? Miami destroyed Lin last year - and it has been awhile since Lin has been put under that kind of pressure again (unless I am wrong). But as the poster pointed out - the team does have more facilitators to pass the ball to...

 

rofl, this was the exact moment I was talking about in an earlier post.

 

In one of the recent Mchale interviews, he was commenting on how Jeremy and teammates were learning each other, then paused and added "I was learning more about him, really". He didn't have to say this, but hesitated and still went with it, commenting on himself when asked about the players. To me this implies Lin had gained his trust esp after the spurs game.

I can't find the vid now, Mchale was standing instead of sitting though.

I think its fair to say coaches were not ready to give Lin the reign after Lin's poor preseason and knee. Lin also admitted to have been passive. I think they were just waiting on the knee man, Lin couldn't finish them like he is now anyways. And u can clearly see the Knicks games lifted mental blocks on Lins part.

I agree with both points that Lin's opportunity to run the point had been limited since the 3rd game, looking like has to do with coaching; at the same time they still start with the same plays now, where TD would run point and Lin in the corner. The difference now is Lin would run around more to let the ball move to him, and he keeps it moving anyways, which is great.