Jeremy Lin and Beverley, who fits better with the team and James Harden

How many games did you watch last season?

 

And you conveniently ignore the fact that the Clippers have the best bench in the NBA.

 

It happened so many times lol.

 

They do? Ryan Hollins and Byron Mullens being the first two bigs off the bench = best bench in the NBA?

 

They "had". I'm referring to last season.

http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2013/01/18/clippers-top-leagues-best-benches/

 

The piece you referenced was dated January 18, 2013, only halfway into the season. I wonder whether their quality bench play kept up for the rest of the season.

 

James checked himself into the game without McHale's permission? Describe one instance where this happened and how you know that McHale didn't tell James that he should go in at the next dead ball.

 

WTF are you talking about?. I've never ever seen a player check himself into a game without the coach giving him the call. Not even Jordan got that treatment from Doug Collins or PJ.

 

It's very possible, but my point isn't that the Clippers had the best bench last season.

I simply believe that if a team has a strong bench, the coach could and will rest their best players a lot more. I pointed to the Clippers because Griffin and Paul played less than 35 minutes a game, and that was made possible because the Clippers had a strong bench unit.

Thus, if Jeremy Lin strengthens the 2nd unit by a reasonable margin, it's feasible to assume that Harden would in return play less minutes, which in turn provides Lin with more opportunities on the basketball court.

 

That seems pretty improbable.

To be fair, though, James was our one max player, and primary offensive threat. If he wanted to stay on the court, or get back on the court, I can't picture too many circumstances where McHale would say no.

 

Yah I'm sure James demanded to go back in quite a few times, and I can't see McHale refusing.

 

psychotic bunch in here

 

That's a lot different then getting up and just checking himself into the game.

 

TTNN's analysis looks beyond the "ADVANCED" stats you listed below. Those are "Advanced" stats are nothing more than a weighted score and the weights are usually questionable. It does NOT provide any new information comparing to the original score except it tries to compare two player using one score which is not a good choice to begin with.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens. Harden has mentioned in more than one interview that he worked on his conditioning to be able to play 40 minutes offense and defense. I assume some of that is saying he wants to be able to play a lot of minutes when necessary, but he clearly wants the recognition as a great player too.

He also says not just that he wants to improve on defense, but he wants to guard the best player on the opposing team.

How many minutes he actually plays and who he winds up guarding will be interesting to see. (Assuming he isn't our best wing defender... but, then, maybe he can be that, in which case more power to him).

 

You should read up on 4 factors and offensive efficiency if you don't know what they are (sounds like you don't).

The initial post in this thread only looked at shooting from the field and ignored other things on offense, which is why he incorrectly assumed that the difference in point differential must be attributed to the defensive end only.

 

^^
camera caught it quite a few times.

My bad, should have explained it more.

 

It is not at all uncommon for a "star" player to ask his coach if he can get back into the game, because such players inevitably are on the floor anyways in crunch time unless they are just stinking it up. Its just a matter of when, not if the coach is going to put them back in.

Role players, on the other hand, may or may not see the floor at the end of the game depending on how well other role players are doing, because there's less of a clear-cut advantage to them being on the court.

And, as others have said, asking to go back into the game is very different from just walking past your coach and checking yourself in without his input. That's disrespectful, and if Harden does that it should not be tolerated.

 

Great analysis. I wonder what adding Howard will do to that analysis. Hopefully Harden can get more efficient and w/ Lin playing w/Omer more Lin will continue to play strong, or even stronger bringing up the efficiency of our bench. Our bench has the chance to be amazing w/Omer and Lin.

 

I already explained it at the above post. No disrespect on James part.