Keep whining about Lin, but the sad fact is if he continues playing the way he has regardless of the reasons...the poison pill contract + his PT and role will lead to a player nobody wants and a player we will be stuck with. Sucks for us and for him. If I were Morey, I would demand Lin get more integrated into the offense and be given more PT especially if the goal is to trade him in the near future. Let me reiterate that at this rate no team is gonna want him and he will have even less value as a trade chip.
Says the guy who has 22 posts on this board... 14 of which are about Jeremy Lin.... ...9 of which in this thread alone.
I wouldn't be too sure about that. Teams want a proven player. Coming off the bench in a limited role does not = proven. After watching this kid play the last season and a half, two things are clear to me -- 1) he needs the ball in his hands to be truly effective 2) he is a rythm player (he needs extended minutes to get in a rythm. Give him limited minutes here and there and he is horrible. The first isn't gonna happen due to Harden's role and Lin's role so we can pretty much scratch that off the list. The second is doable but Mchale has to find longer stretches for him just to play. The total minutes he gets doesn't have to change but he needs to just play longer stretches when does check in.
Being mediocre doesn't imply inconsistency and like wise. Take Kirk Hinrich for example. He's a mediocre player averaging 8.7 points a game. If you take at his game log, there isn't much variance in his game by game out put. Were he inconsistent as well, you would see plenty of games where he scored 16-18 points and plenty of games where he scored 0-2 points. Lin maybe inconsistent but it's tough to call him mediocre. Most mediocre players don't have the talent to score 30+ points in multiple games, or get a triple double, or hit 9 threes in a game in their entire career let alone accomplish these feats in a single season. Lin has the talent, and I believe he's a late bloomer. He'll get it right sooner then later. He's not a head case like JR Smith or lazy and content to earn his pay check. He has a hard work ethic, a good support system and a good head on his shoulder. He'll hopefully turn the corner in the near future and eventually become consistent.
Hinrich has 10 games where he scored 13 or more(or over 4 points above his season average) Lin has 11 games where he score 17 or more(or over 4 points above his season average) Both played 48 games this year. If I had time and cared enough, I'd provide variances on the scoring numbers of both players. But I don't really care enough. So there's that. If you watch enough NBA games, you'd know that EVERY player has plenty of games above or below his season average. No need to think only Lin suffers from this. And once again, JVG knows more about basketball than you.
You don't even need to watch basketball to understand what the term average means, it's a basic mathematical score, so duh of course if applied to a basketball player's point per game there will be plenty games above and below the average. If Hinrich was inconsistent, you would hypothetically see him score 16-18 points (7-9 points above his average) in 15 games and in 15 other games where he scores 0-2 points (7-9 points below his average). To me that is inconsistency, the huge variance in output game by game. A consistent player would have tons of game within a certain point range. If you were to chart the number of games on the y-axis and points scored per game on the x-axis in a column chart for a consistent player, there would be a nice bell curve distribution.
You are arguing too hard, for nothing. Bad, mediocre, or good, which one is Lin right now? If he's good, we wouldn't be arguing who should start, nor would be talking about whether he deserves the money or trading possibility. Can you seriously say that he's good with current production? What's so wrong with being mediocre? That's what he's now. You believe he will get better or much better. That's fine. I believe he will be better too. I hope he can be an above average starting PG one day. But we don't know for sure. He may be good or may not be in the future. But right now, he's not good, yet.
The problem with lin is he doesn't play with confidence or poise. He does some very strange passes and at times plays timidly when his role is to be aggressive. He should always be in attack mode and realize that when he's not attacking he really is a very limited player. He's not particularly explosive or quick, he's not hard-nosed, doesn't seem to be able to take much of a hit, and when people bump and grind him, he doesn't handle it well. He need to assert himself more even if he gets some fouls or pisses people off. He needs to attack more and be aggressive. If he can't play with aggression and confidence, he's not going to have a chance of being a starting pg or a back-up pg on a contending team anywhere.
I disagree. It's incumbent on the player, whoever he is, to adapt to the role given him by the coach and to be successful in that role if he wants minutes. A coach will often change his offense to better suit a superstar. Not always, but often, in my opinion. Jeremy is far from being a superstar, and I'm saying this as a fan of us. With all due respect, you have things backwards.
I am not implying that. How Lin plays is all on him. But as Rockets fans, we support the team even when they lose or under-perform, so why can't we do that for the players? It's not just Lin, but also applies to Casspi, TJones, Garcia too.
I think he's around average. He played some good games and some bad ones this season. Right now he's playing poorly. And aren't we all arguing about nothing? It's not like we're trying to solve the political crisis in the Ukraine, right? I find this entertaining and if it were hard, it wouldn't be entertaining and something I would probably avoid.
Are you trying to say Hinrich is an average player? He's not. He sucks. Bulls fans have been calling his suckiness since he signed there. Saying Lin has more upside than Hinrich is like saying Lin isn't one of the worst rotation level players on offense. So if you're trying to say Jeremy Lin has higher upside than Hinrich. Congrats. I agree with you. Now think back to how low a standard you're holding Lin to. An old guy who signed a MLE level deal and is hated by his own fans(and he's white so Bulls fans aren't even trying to be racist or any other excuse one can make). Again, Jeremy Lin is both inconsistent and mediocre. Kirk Hinrich is just bad. Mediocrity > Bad.
Because players can impede the success of the team. If you ask Knicks fans whether they should root for Felton, JR Smith, Bargnani because "they can help Knicks win", Knicks fans would think you are the craziest person in the world.
Why do We do we care about what Knicks fans think? The Knicks fans thought they were suppose to beat us in 94. What happened? Clutch city happened. The only truth is on the court. What Lin does there now is the truth.
If you read my original argument (I conveniently highlighted the key points I made) I stated Kirk was mediocre. I agreed with you on the fact that Lin is inconsistent, but being mediocre does not equate to being inconsistent. You can be consistently mediocre, like my example of Kirk. Or you can be inconsistent and mediocre, where your overall play is mediocre, but you know don't if you're going to be putting up 16-18 on 55% TS or 0-2 points on 0/1 - 6 shooting in a game. I think Lin is around average and just going through a 5 game slump. There are 24 games left in the season, I'm not ready to write him off yet.
