Kelvin Sampson discusses the Rockets' growth on offense, the Jeremy Lin-James Harden

Good grief, I didn't say smart everywhere at all times in all circumstances every moment of every minute. In general, I think he is a smart guy, and is he totally responsible for everything you list?

 

There was a report in the NYDN (New York Daily News) that an anonymous source that there were members on the coaching staff that were not as high on Lin as McHale and Morey.

On the other hand, we need to consider context.

The coaching staff took ALOT of heat last year for Lin when he went ballistic. If you were part of the coaching staff that wrote off Lin, and he goes crazy as soon as he leaves and the Owner is screaming murder, are you more likely to admit that you misjudged him? Or to look for things to reaffirm your initial impression of them and thus preserve your own self-image of your own skill?

Confirmation bias combined with self-interest is a very powerful thing.

In other words, if you make a living assessing talent, the last thing you want to admit is that you got it completely got it wrong. In fact, you're more likely to look for as many reasons as you can to re-affirm your initial judgement.

It's also part of the problem with "eye" tests. We are heavily influenced by our personal biases, prejudices and most importantly our expectations.

This has been confirmed and tested over and over by psychologists and statisticians.

Here's a really good summary article on the topic of the many factors that cloud our judgment of Basketballl....

http://wagesofwins.com/2012/03/22/you-watch-the-games-so-what/

In short, don't trust your memory, especially don't trust highlight plays. Realize your limitations as human observers. And most importantly, try to analyze games devoid of emotion as much as possible if you intend to draw meaningful conclusions.

 

Whether he is racist or not he has clearly been prejudiced against Lin from the beginning. There weren't legitimate questions about Lin's defense last season. It was the same as here, when he got picked and Amare or others didn't help, the opposing PG got to the basket for the laylup. It was idiots looking at box scores and not watching the game that concluded on this bases that his defense was suspect.

What's his role on the team exactly? I thought it was supposed to be that of a starting PG not of a spot up 3 point shooter. His shooting would be fine if he was allowed to play as a PG. He'll shoot better when he's allowed to PLAY, not when he's only allowed to camp in the corner.

Strawman. Fake holier than thou. There's no conspiracy. It's just simply that Sampson doesn't rate or value Lin as a player. It's obvious that the he would much rather not have to play Lin, but I suspect he doesn't have that option, so he does the next best thing by completely marginalising Lin on the team and putting him on the corner and as far away from being able to influence the game as possible.

 

Let's see how the Hornets game plays out. Lin did play a lot against the Heat, and he seemed to be freer in the 2nd half.

 

The last time Lin was 'free' was against Detroit. He barely touched the ball in the 4th Q vs the Heat.

Was Sampson on the coaching staff when Lin was cut last year? If so it's not surprising that he still doesn't rate him.

What's more likely?

That Sampson has the humility to admit that maybe he was wrong about Lin and not just wrong but massively wrong or that he thinks it was 'just a lucky streak' because he saw Lin and cut him and knew what he was doing because he's a good coach and forget what those idiots in the FO think, who signed him for marketing reasons, he's not going to put the ball in his hands.

 

Why do Lin fans have to make everything out to be a conspiracy. "Sampson likes Harden, an Olympian, played on a finals team, brought here to be a superstar... more than Jeremy Lin? That can't be true!"

Oh, the hilarity.

 

My conclusion:

1. Make Lin a defensive player, concentrate only on defense. That is why he is camping at the 3 pt line.

2. Let Harden handles the offense and every play needs to go through him.

period.

 

They are as credible as a bag of chips

 

Strawman.

It's not that Samspon likes Harden more. It's that he simply does not rate Lin at all period.

If the ballshare was 60-40 you could say Sampson likes harden more. But you could understand that, because Harden is a great player.

Only, the ball share is more like 80-20 or 86-15.

Please explain to me why Tony Douglas has a higher USG than Lin on this team?

 

Slightly more credible than a bag of chips.

However, if it were true it wouldn't be shocking. Saying that there are various opinions within an organization in terms of upside talent on younger players is like saying the sky is blue.

5 coaches or scouts can look at the same player and reach different assessments and conclusions.

They didn't say that any of them thought he couldn't play, just that some held differing opinions on his ultimate talent level and upside than other coaches did.

As for the case of Lin, that he was assessed and "missed" by multiple scouts and coaches puts him in a somewhat unique situation for coaches/scouts. This ultimately will make it more difficult for Lin to achieve widespread recognition of his talents by those same coaches and scouts.

 

Morey needs to do work.

 

It was reported in the Sports Illustrated that last season Houston's decision to cut Lin was a heated debate. I assume there was different opinion among coaching stuff. It would be interesting to find out who wanted Lin to be released then.

According to WiKi, The controversial around Sampson in the past was about his 'integrity' on some recruiting issue. A coach with integrity issue, Hmmmm, very interesting......

 

When he was coaching in College, he was fired after he was sanctioned by the NCAA for breaking player recruiting rules.

He then left Basketball for several years before resurfacing as an Assistant Coach for the Bucks.

 

It's not that unusual ,isn't it? Harvard's current coach ,if not mistaken,has been probated for breaking similar rules.Rose,if I'm not mistaken has been involved in false uni entry rules.

I think the coaches put the ball in Harden hands because heis their best player.As they go on,they may forced to adjust what do work and dont work.

 

uni entry rules-->Grading controversy

 

Sampson's situation was more significant than the Harvard violations. They not only included recruiting violations, but further violations while under probation, then lying to NCAA and University investigators about those violations.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3258506

That said it says nothing about his ability to coach. It does speak somewhat to his character.

 

Allow me to sum it up from your discussion:

So the coaching staff(not sure if Morey involved) are trying their best to prove to Les that their decision of releasing Lin in the last season was right by making him a spot-up shooter (?)

If that's true, it'll be the most evil thing in nba......

 

Quite a conspiracy, isn't it? Or maybe the coaching staff Lin to turn into:


Next to Harden.

 

Then those coaching staff need to get their head checked up. Lin isn't 1/10 of the shooter Kerr was and Harden couldn't hold Jordan's jock strap.

 

If something like that is happening, it wouldn't necessarily be a conscious decision.

They may truly believe that the best decision for the team is having Harden play the primary PG role. That's the thing about the situation... bias influences our decisions on a subconscious level, affecting our judgement even when we see evidence to the contrary, then impacting our decisions.

It's no different than subconsciously believing a woman is less capable so you end up promoting a less qualified man, or seeing a black teen in a hoodie and assuming the worst then shooting them out of fear for your safety.

Subconscious bias while unreasonable can still result in decisions that are internally consistent in terms of their logic.

It's not evil, it's Human.