Haters gonna hate. You will still have haters bumping Fire McHale threads, fire Morey threads and maybe someone will create Harden suck, Howard suck threads. You will still see fans defending their guys and being labelled as XXX only fan. It just happens Lin consumes most of the discussions. If he's gone, the haters will be distributed across players on the team and coach. In a way, I like Lin taking majority of the attention, at least that holds his fanatic fans and haters on a few threads instead of spreading negativity against the whole team.
Please don't confuse criticism for hating. Much of the "hate" you see for players are knee-jerk reactions after poor performances that die out really quickly. At least with Lin gone and subsequently his fans, we won't have outrageous claims of racism and conspiracy theories of how we are holding back Lin from being an All-Star.
Two things holding Jeremy back: - system where he is allowed to initiate a lot of the offense - confidence In other words: Houston is not the right situation for Jeremy, sadly because I like him as a person and even if it was, his confidence is something he will always struggle with. He didn't seem to have issues during his insane period, but it does seem to be a problem most days since joining us.
Naw I pretty much mean LOH. ok picture this, its Feb 8, 2016, Lin is playing for the lakers. He is averaging 17 and 8 and is making a push for an all star spot. The Lakers are 5th in the West. Steve Nash is retired and Mike D'Antoni brings in Lin to run his uptempo offense. Kobe is in the twilight of his career but still a good player. Kevin Love has signed with the Lakers as well. The Lakers beat the Clippers and Lin goes for 20 and 10. Meanwhile, Houston is dealing with some injuries and are 4th in the West. They drop a tough game to OKC. Westbrook goes off. LOF rejoice on Lakers Grounds. Then they come back to their CF accounts and gloat until the end of time. LOH retaliate in kind etc. Be honest, you could easily see this happening.
I call that hate. Criticism is when you give sounding and structural advice by pointing out player's weaknesses and perhaps even give suggestions for improvement, instead of saying "XXX sucks, he doesn't belong to this league". Yes, those are knee-jerk reactions, so are all the Lin threads. Thing will be just about the same, just distributed across the board. We saw that after Alston was gone. The hatred was distributed across the team, coach. There are just a lot of people want to release their stress and anger on internet forums behind their desk. You can't stop that.
We will have to disagree then. Hate is a very strong word and reserved for players like Pippen, Fisher, and even T-Mac at times. Knee-jerk reactions are just passionate fans needing to get their frustration off their chest. Consider it like 2 friends arguing. It happens and will happen no matter which fan base you go to. I would much rather deal with occasional knee-jerk threads than constant jock jerking on Lin by his fans.
You guys are completely delusional. Very few will care about Lin when he is gone and he certainly won't be excelling elsewhere. This is the player he is. You can lie to yourselves about "upside" all you want but he's rounded out as a player. Maybe one day you'll meet him though and you can toss your panties at an average NBA basketball player. Being a groupie is a bad look
Alright, I agree hate is a strong word, but knee jerking is too weak. Probably more like dislike deeply. Knee jerking is everywhere, but for me, i like all the knee jerking goes to Lin, though I like to see it controlled within no more than 3 threads.
I have intentionally avoided this thread for the most part especially the last couple weeks. However, I decided to pop in and see what's going on. The first thing I read was about Rafer Alston. Just a reminder to me that all trash dumpsters stink. No matter how many times you lift the lid thinking there's going to be something good in there...they all stink.
Lin may only produce the numbers that LOF's talk about like 18/9 or 17/8 if he is the first option on the team. Unfortunately, any team with Lin as first option is heading nowhere but to the lottery. And don't bring up that small sample Linsanity when teams barely scouted him. Lin is never going to be up the numbers that he did during his time in NY. He is what he is now.
Come on man. This is exactly the stuff that makes people sour on Lin fans. A fantasy hypothetical where Lin is performing better than most suspect he can on the freaking Lakers all while at the same time The Rockets are dealing with injuries? Sad thing is there is certainly SOME who are actively dreaming for this to actually come true.
Not really. People who visit to gloat about the Rockets losing would be banned. Problem solved. When you add up the number of people lamenting the loss of Dragic, it becomes difficult to believe that few will care about Lin when he is gone. A player who gave good effort as a Rocket gets my goodwill for all but a few games a year when he is on another team. And "this is the player he is...he's rounded out as a player"... first, I don't think that is true. Second, look at his games when Harden is out. That is also the player he is right now without any improvement. He may well excel in another environment. I haven't even given up on him here yet.
I have a list of "do not attack" for non Lin fans. You're on that list. It's a short list. I didn't say that the above situation was going to happen, just an example of where if lin does well and Houston struggles, LOF will troll and piss off LOH. On another note, you don't think he can be 3rd option on another playoff contending team?
pretty much this. on the confidence issue - just don't think mchale is the right type of coach for him. one thing he talked a lot about regarding dantoni was the confidence he instills in his players. dantoni gave him a lot of confidence to just play the way that he knows how to play. mchale is pretty old school and doesn't coach like that. if you're not confident, he'll find someone else that is. he won't go out of his way to help your confidence. this is really no one's fault. it's just different coaching styles and personality fit. i'm sure if you ask lin after his playing days with the rockets about mchale, he'll have other great things to say about him as a coach and what he took away. i think he really appreciates the professionalism and the blue-collar style that mchale brought to the team, especially with coming back to work so soon after his daughter died. yeah i'm sure some will take this post as "well there he goes again blaming the system and the coach". no, i'm really not. just like you're not gonna be best buds with every boss you have, players aren't gonna mesh with every coach they have. anyway, one benefit to lin, though, is that this is an opportunity for him to learn to be confident regardless of his situation. that's ultimately what's going to help him the most, instead of relying on his circumstances.
17/8 is a lot for a 3rd option. And I don't think a 37 year old Kobe with 19 years of playing time can be a top 2 option on a playoff contending team. I think he could be a 14 point and 7-8 assist third option on a playoff team if the top 2 options are top 20ish guys who don't need the ball in their hands to be effective.
18/9 is attainable. He's 16/5 per 36 right now at decent efficiency (sans turnovers). I could see 18/9 with more minutes and a higher usage rate. Doesn't even have to a "first" option - but will have to be the primary perimeter ball-handler. I think there's enough evidence out there that he's not a "volume" scorer. The team would not necessarily be lotto-bound. As a caveat - there are A LOT of point guards these days that could put up good numbers per 36 with a lower turnover clip too.
His numbers are pretty good in a few games when Harden was not playing, but the same can be said for Asik when Howard was not playing. Skillset overlap...
