Being honest, I've only read half of what you've written so far, but I'll finish up after posting this. I wanted to answer your question of what I meant by "...time will tell if he has the mental fortitude to step beyond his physical limitations." Once again answering honestly, I was (and still am) kinda drunk typing that out, hence the awkward wording in that particular sentence. But what I meant by that was, if Lin -- like greats before him, ie. Jordan, Kobe, etc. -- were to maximize on his god given talent and truly reach his own physical peak, his own physical limitations, would he be able to surpass them through pure bball IQ and unrelenting will? Basically, is he willing to put the game over everything. And will he, in any given situation, believe it to be best if the ball is in his hands.
In my opinion: Lowry- will be the most consistent. His game is predicated on running the offense, defense, and rebounding. Goran- highest bust potential. He needs to get in a rhythm and be shooting well, otherwise he's nothing special. Lin- highest upside. At only 23, he had a stretch of games that was higher than the other 2. There's nothing he does really poorly except maybe some decision-making.
Well, given your views on Irving and Lowry, it could just be you don't know very much about basketball, as opposed to being a bigot. So I'll give you that. That said, you not included, there are plenty of people who have capped Lin's "upside" on the sole basis that he does not pass the "eye ball test". You know, the one that you pride yourself with. That same eye ball test is why he was unrecruited in college, undrafted to the NBA, and not given a single chance until he was the last PG standing on a depleted team. The "eye ball test". Not because of his production. Not because of his skill. Not because of his physical strengths/weaknesses. Just the "eye ball test". What the hell does the "eye ball test" even mean? Even today people unknowingly call him "deceptively" quick. "Sneaky" athletic. WTF does that mean? If you can't see how much racism(most of it unknowing and subconscious) went into how he got to this point today, then you were probably part of the problem. You honestly believe people would be talking about his upside as a solid starter if he put those numbers up as an African American or white? If you truly believe that then congratulations, you are not a racist. Just an idiot.
I know, that's just preposterous. Maybe we could trade everyone to Washington and build around John Wall though.
There seems to be a correlation between poor decision making and only starting 25 games. It's possible they are related.
Lol. Seriously though, I don't think we should build around Lin. But funny how plenty of people would jump through hoops to build around an inferior player with less upside who has shown zero growth like John Wall.
Don't take away Washington's only hope lol. They have no one else to "build" around. You could say the same for the Rockets at this moment, unfortunately.
Call me whatever you want,but the whole lin thing I don't think is race related. These guys way of living is on the line with these draft picks. Yao ming went #1 Yi went 6th, dirk went 9th,detlef went before karl malone. Bargiani and bogut both went #1, darko went 2nd, tsitiavilla went top 5 as well as gasol. We see it every yr that some guy on grainy video pops up and goes in the top 5,yet I'm suppose to believe that gms didn't want to draft lin because of his race? Jimmer freddette,morrison,reddick were all drafted. Boki nachbar went before tayshaun prince. If gms could find a purple guy who can rebound and get buckets they would draft him. If lin is your next hero for your well being, so be it. As long as he's on the rockets,I hope he does well,I'm just not a dummy. So continue with ur investment or whatever the hell you do in ny. Your new superhero is the next stockton,nash,with magic combined,lol
Francis has the same amount of bball iq as Westbrook. Never really watched Brooks play so not sure about him. Come on the kid is a Harvard grad he should be fine. Seriously though your comparing him to low bball iq players. To be honest people might overestimate Lin's bball iq since he is Asian and a Harvard grad but from what I have seen his bball iq is at least above average.
When u draft someone #1, you expect them to be a major core piece. I'm not saying you build around them either,you collect talent and see if it fit. Portland didn't build around oden because they already had roy and L.A. They rockets tried to build around tracy and yao ming because they were always going to be a 50 ish win team. The mavs collected talent around dirk until he proved you could build around him. You don't build around jeremy lin,I'm sorry.
Nice. I thought your post brought some interesting points to talk about, hehe drunk typing is better than drunk txting!
Classroom iq has 0 to do with basketball and decision making. No one ever made the mistake of calling magic a doctor in class,but he had a tremendous bbiq. We know about rose and his test scores,but on the court, we know the deal. The same words they use for lin,they use towards lowry,miller,and other players who turned out better than expected. What do they say about lowry? Heady,tough as nails,great decision maker.
Well a quick wiki search makes it pretty obvious that Lin was a victim of racism. He won led his team to Division II state title and won against heavy favorites in California. His team had a 32-1 record and he was first-team All-State and Northern California Division II Player of the Year. He didn't get any scholarship offers and no Division I or even Division II team wanted him even though every other player who won Northern California Division II Player of the Year that year got Division I scholarship offers. So then he was forced to play for Harvard which is not a good school for basketball. Also why are you comparing euro players to Asian players? How many players in Europe play in the nba? Plenty. How many Asian players are there? Pretty much none. How many Asian Americans played in the nba? Almost none. How many were even decent backup players? None except Lin.
It was a joke.... Thats why I said people probably overrate Lin's bball iq due to stereotypes. Regardless there is no way in hell Lin's bball iq is not higher than the Steve Francis's bball iq.
You build around superstars, period. Jeremy Lin is not a superstar, so of course you don't build around him. However, why is that so intuitive and easy for people to understand, yet it may take years of failure for Wall to PROVE those same things people already ASSUME for Lin?
I am really not comparing him to low bball players. I'm just saying that his biggest relative weakness is decision making, and it doesn't necessarily improve over time. We know he can score efficiently, rebound, and create turnovers. He needs to improve on running the point and playing overall D.
Cleveland tried to do that with Lebron for how many years? Dwight Howard with Orlando? The Bulls with DRose? Knicks now for how many years? This superstar obsession has to stop. Was Jordan a superstar with the Bulls when he first started? No he joined the league in 1984, He didn't win his first title til 1991. At that point he was considered a star. Finally got his first NBA title after 7 years in the league. Just because the Brooklyn Nets threw down 300 million this offseason - doesn't mean they will win the finals. The Dallas Cowboys regularly spend a jillion dollars every year and have yet to see the same dynasty years when Aikman was QB. There is no guaranteed recipe for success, its about building a strong roster that can compete, with the right attitude, leadership, character, work-ethic and skills to bring to the collective table.
This is basic logic based on the entirety of NBA history, save for 1 team in Detroit: Superstar != guaranteed recipe for success No Superstar = guaranteed recipe for failure The superstar obsession can never stop. Unless failure is an option. I don't think Jeremy Lin likes failure.
