Some people are double counting Lin's salary. Some count it like 8, 8, 15, while some people count it 5,5,8 for argument's sake. Asik and Lin would like to get 8,8,8 rather than getting deferred payments.
The games you mentioned are often with Harden not playing at all. Lin needs ball in his hand to be effective, but it's unlikely with Harden in the lineup. Even when he comes off bench, most of the time overlaps with Harden who playing heavy minutes. Lin is adjusting hard, but I'm afraid the role we require from him is not what he is or ever would be.
The impression I got from the statement "Lin could get 17 points easy" is Lin could get 17 points on a consistent basis, not from one game. Any player could get "17 points easy" if you point to one single game. He has turned it around the last few games, which is a good sign.
This notion of Lin as inconsistent is a bit mythical. All players have good and bad shooting nights and all players play hurt which diminishes their stats. What is inconsistent is his minutes and how he is used. When he plays 24 minutes or more he averages around 15.3 pts and 5.5 asts and shoots a bit above 47%. Those are really good stats. The team's record is around 14 games above .500 when he plays that many minutes or more. McHale is somewhat responsible for the intense Lin debates in Rockets circles because he wasn't clear as to whether he supported him or not or what role he thinks he can play. Even when he made Beverley the starter, he had Parsons announce it last minute, rather than taking the issue on himself. I think as this season has progressed we see that McHale views Lin as a playmaking #2 guard on this team, not as a PG. He plays PG only when key starters are out of the lineup. Lin really isn't even competing with Beverley. He comes in to be another James Harden to mix things up on offense. Lin views his game a lot differently. He views himself as a playmaking PG, as that is what got him into the league. Ultimately, Lin is willing to play the role that McHale has carved out for him, but when his contract expires, he will look to go to a team that will let him play a more traditional PG role.
This is what we call a confirmation bias. Your evidence could just as easily lead to the conclusion that Lin only gets >24 minutes when we are blowing someone out and likely facing the second unit.
So player coming off the bench gets more minutes either when he's playing well or when we're winning? Well, slap my ass and call me Sally. As opposed to other starting lineup changes, all of which got their very own McHale-patented press conference? Nobody is responsible for announcing lineup changes. You just happened to hear about it because a member of the team happened to be giving an interview around that time and people bring Lin up often. For any other lineup change, you'd find out right before the jump-ball, when lineups are actually supposed to be announced. So McHale is using a ball-dominant, penetrating guard that can score and dish to replace a ball-dominant, penetrating guard that can score and dish? Where did he ever get that idea? Lin's bench role is pretty much the same as his role in New York during linsanity. McHale made this adjustment especially to achieve this instead of NY-Lin-right-after-Melo-returned, with Harden being Melo in our case (superstar ball dominant volume scorer). The main difference is that our bench doesn't have a post finisher like Tyson Chandler or a 3 point threat like Novak.
Problem with Lin is that he makes some really bonehead plays that stick out in your mind. If just sticks to his man better and keeps his dribble a longer then I think our perceptions of him would change drastically.
All Lin has to do is the following: - DO NOT PICK UP HIS DRIBBLE - DO NOT JUMP UP WITHOUT A PLAN - DO NOT PASS WHEN JUMPING, SHOOT INSTEAD! This will improve his effectiveness by a crap ton and really help with public perception of him. I don't even care if he is scoring or not. I just don't want to see him do that dumb crap game in, game out.
He has already improved quite a bit imo. His midrange jumper in particular is looking better. Handles are looking better as well. Sometimes he goes through the motions but that is expected as he doesn't have at this point the ability to do some of the things he would like to.
As long as he keeps picking up his dribble and does that stupid as all hell jump pass TO that he does, I honestly can't say he has improved. Just my opinion ofc.
Unfortunately, if he's not getting any good movement or doesn't know what to do, he just passes it off. Then people yell at him for being passive. It's a team game, remember. Lin thrives with a team that moves a lot and has a nice flow. His handle is too weak to allow for him to create on his own. He needs good role players which is why as the bench goes so does Lin. Look at how good he looked tonight when Donuts was playing lights out.
They told you this? Are you intimately familiar with their financial and tax situation to be able to know this? Considering that each makes a bit over 25 million, I am pretty sure they would NOT like to get 8,8,8.
I don't mind passive nearly as much as stupidity. Stupidity angers me, especially from our 6th man. Driving blind into traffic is NOT passive, it's dumb. Picking the ball up with no idea if he is going to shoot or pass and to whom is not passive, it's dumb. Jumping and then trying to force a pass to someone is not passive, it's dumb. What is passive is what he does when Harden and Howard is on the court, which is fine. When those 2 are NOT on the floor, he needs to take the wheel. That means ask for the ball regardless of who is inbounding. Call for screens and picks from the wings. Call for PnR for whoever the hell that is big and not named Asik. Despite my misgivings of Lin never being more than a solid to good role player, I believe he does have a fair amount of upside. That said, he needs to figure out fast when to seize his moments in the game and forcefully establish himself as the alpha dog on the court when our stars sit. Lets face it, Parsons can't shake a defender to save his life. That's not his strength. That's why he will never be a star. PBev has a nice floater, but let's be real, he's not here to score. T-Jones...maybe. Donuts can sometimes go nuts too. J-Ham as well when he is using his brain. Then there is the others...sometimes they might get hot? Point is, we need Lin to take over when Howard and Harden sit.
