Racism is valid. I totally agree. No one is more racist to Jeremy than the basketball rim. Whenever he jumps in the air, he actually takes a floater but the rim being so racist somehow makes it a live ball turnover.
The Lin Solution The Rockets should re-wire Lin to be a defensive, pass only point guard. We don't need him to score at all. I think this will really help his confidence. Let him guard the other team's PG and tell him that his main priority out there is defense. For example last night, put him on Dwill and let him take his lumps if necessary and his defense will improve. I remember back when I played ball if the coach took me off of the guy I was supposed to be defending and put someone else on him it would shake my confidence. I mean come on, I know Lin's defense is weak right now but there is now way it's worse than Parsons. Parsons does not need to be guarding point guards, that's just silly. Lin will never improve on defense unless given the chance to. Give Lin the confidence that he can guard the other team's PG and his defense and confidence will improve. Turn him into a defensive stopper, let him extend all of his energy on defense and on offense all he has to do is handle the ball and get it to Harden/Dwight so they can score.
He is not a good passer, his passes are lazy, slow and late on timing he is a good scoring PG, but his passing is iffy at best. DD
The Lin Solution is to get Beverley back and let Lin lead the second unit. Only a handful of guards have the burst and penetration skills to get into the paint at will. Harden is probably the best at it, but Lin has that ability as well. Having Lin and Harden on the court at the same time is pretty much redundant. Either way, you don't try to turn a player with this type of unique skill into a defensive stopper. You're negating that player's best skill.
Stats agree with both of you, he has 1.9 less assists than last year and he's playing 3.3 minutes less. Those two don't add up. He should be averaging about 5.5 assists per game instead of 4.2. Something has changed.
I have been saying that since his slump. He should just emulate Bev's game - 3s and defense, and let the offense come to him. No need to force anything.
LOL, did you guys watch the game? Could you tell me how many points DWill scored on Lin? Again, he is playing more of a SG role standing in the corner and waiting for the ball to come to him on half of the possessions. How many assist do you expect from him in that role?
I was thinking that he HAS been trying to do this and that's one reason why he got into the slump, but I don't know. Lin at start of season vs Lin now is day and night. It's weird. I at least expect a Lin somewhere in between. But ever since Lin came back from his back spasm after Bev went down with his first broken hand, his O production is in the toilet and his D is getting even worse than what it was already.
He looks like a 12 yr old when he drives into the lane and picks up his dribble.. He gets the man off his feet sometimes but you need to be good at keeping your dribble alive for that to work more. Defenders knows the dude is going to pick up his dribble.
While we are re-wiring players, can we rewire Francisco and Casspi to be sharpshooting 3pt specialists and non-defenseive liabilities also? Also, I would like to re-wire DMO to not foul anybody......ever! Actually, scratch that.....can how can I get re-wired to become a world famous surgeon?
Lin can guard the other team's PG. Williams didn't score on him in the 4th quarter. He shut down Parker and Conley earlier in the year. He has the tools and the skills to do it. He just needs a clear assignment and direction from McHale. Parsons sort of alluded to this issue, but the Rockets have the players they have right now. He didn't elaborate further but it sounded to me that he was implying that the coaching staff needs to make some adjustments to bend the system a bit to fit the players rather than have them rigidly fit the system, because the depth isn't there right now. To make this current roster of healthy players win, the ball should be in Lin's hands more. Playing him as another 2 guard isn't going to win games. Lin had a nice game against Brooklyn with 16 pts, but to win that game they needed 16/8 from him but he didn't handle the rock enough to make that many plays. Defensively, using Parsons on the PG hasn't worked.
