Jeremy Lin needs to change his jumpshot form. It looks like it is going to miss 100% of the time. He needs to lessen the arc in my opinion. Such an ugly looking arc. It looks like its going to be too long or too short all the time
OKC's defensive pressure Lin's best plays are transition offense and pick and rolls. We are so easy to scout.
Lin can not thrive without having the ball in his hands. If Lin is the primary point guard, then you will be mediocre at best
I'm sure he also focused on leadership since Harvard produced more presidents than basketball players, so he must be a natural leader now, more so than other Rockets players. WTF? Sorry man, this is just as bad as the theory that Lin's a good PG because he can read the floor better since he's Asian because, you know, Asian art emphasizes the background so he can read the floor better than others due to his ability to pay attention to the background, whereas western art emphasizes the foreground and that's why western players can't read the floor, never mind the fact that he was born and grew up in America and the fact that the most of the best PGs in the league right now grew up/played here. Lin gets pushed around more than anybody else I've seen in recent years, but credit OKC for running a great defense that packed the paint and took away the driving layups we see often from Lin and Harden. Lin also got smacked a few times, with no calls or replays to show what happened. His shot wasn't there today, his teammates weren't moving around well, and he made boneheaded plays. Even Harden, after a while, seemed to have given up driving and shot 3s instead. It's tiring getting beat down and getting no calls. Pretty much it's automatic turnover. Rockets had no easy shots tonight. OKC set the tone with their physicality and the refs let the game be physical. Rockets played fairly timid today. It's amazing how when other players get shut down by a defense that gameplanned for said player we hear about the great defense, but when Lin gets shut down he is "exposed." People might as well finish their sentences with "as a fraud." I like how halftime was focused on his turnovers instead of turnovers of Rockets as an young inexperienced team. I think the grasping at straws due to his lack of basketball pedigree is excessive.
If Lin isn't on a short leash with Mchale, he definitely is on a short leash with many, not all, Rockets fans, whether from 99 and beyond.
He actually does have decent handles / passing. Remember his trademark no-look pass and the good alley-oop passes he used to do all the time back in NY? Asik just can't catch those so Jeremy doesn't do those However.. I do agree with OP that Lin's strength in penetration comes from his quick first step. He blows by defenders sometimes and he even did that to THE athletic Westbrook this game couple of times. The only problem is, Rockets offense don't really set screens. And the few times that they are set, I just see half-ass screens. I think that's part of the reason why he was so successful in NY and he's sucking in Houston. NY offered him good screens, bigs who could catch his passes, and let him play the PG role. Houston doesn't let him do that, and makes him shoot 3's all day. Definitely not utilizing Lin to his strength.
This is a good point. I don't understand what he was thinking with that lob pass. Serge & Perk are lengthy can't be throwing those lobs or those touch down passes against them. OKC did a great job of running back in transition. Also it isn't like the rockets have been finishing on lob passes a lot this year. Also that baseline pass was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen in my life. You can't do those passes against OKC's length with KD standing right there. All of these passes he has successfully completed in the regular season several times. But it won't fly in the post season against OKC's length. I really hope he is a quick learner & makes those adjustments.
Response I would go as far to say this game was Lin's worst game entire season, given the importance of the game. Anyway, if Lin plays this badly during all 4 losses (yes, I expect Rockets to lose 4 straight and if Rockets get lucky, maybe win 1at home), I will definitely reevaluate the ceiling level for Lin. Yes, I do agree that Lin needs to learn more of step back and shoot, hesitation moves, etc. He's not that fluid in this area. I was not pissed at his missing open shots because he seemed to take those shots with some confidence, but I was upset at his passes.
In all fairness, I think your theory goes back to his experience which would be supported by the fact that he wasn't just a point guard for his Harvard team and played in the Ivy League. A lot of it just points to experience, which makes his journey remarkable with everything considered. If he was given that scholarship to Stanford, he may have ended up being a better PG than we see now. I've always wondered about his outside jumper, like Curry and Lillard have already, since a few coaches pointed out that his mechanics were off so maybe that's a lack of proper shooting coaches to help fix it. That would have made his game much deadlier and probably gets him drafted. Anyways, Lin apparently trained at the 1% club, not sure at what age though. http://www.1percentclub.org/index.htm <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3Oo7G4aP6Zs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/s...n-improving-his-game.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
I knew he would struggle but I didn't think he would struggle that much. He had Serge & KD on a couple of mismatches & didn't drive. That really pissed me off. His first possession with the ball he had Serge on a mismatch & didn't exploit it. Right then I was like your head isn't in the game. Its his first playoff game & everybody was nervous. Greg had a dear in the headlights look, Harden was so bad defensively & some of the shots he was taking were awful. Like the missing shots & poor passing is one thing but his teammates worked to create a mismatch for him (put him in a possession to succeed) & he didn't exploit it I was like good lord who does that? I am also really shocked that Parsons struggled. He was the one person that I thought would step up in the big moment but he didn't. A bit disappointing. As long as I see some improvement for the guys before the series is over I will be happy. Even if it is just by the end of the series I will be pleased just get better.
Never-mind, the info to the video says this, so looks like Lin most likely trained with him either Pre-draft or during the off-season in the NBA.
The OP has some good points. In my view, Lin is at the crossroad of defining his playing style to succeed in this league. Currently, he is a tweener between athletic drivers and smart ball handler with deadly shot. He is not sufficiently dynamic and dominant with his driving moves of a Westbrook, Parker, Rose, Wall, Irvine, etc. But this has been his stronger skill set from his playing background, so he tends to explore it as the first on his mind. In PO-type games when defense tightens and specifically prepared for each player, he gets tracked down and stopped easily. OTOH, his handle is not Nash, Stockton, Andre Miller or Curry good that allows him to roam in the pain to keep options open, nor is his shot which helps those less-athletic PGs keep defense honest for better maneuver spaces. Passes out of drives primarily committed to finishing layups hardly can be precise or optimal regarding timing. So, despite having the court vision and mental willingness to share the ball, Lin has yet to truly see his physical limit and committing to become Stockton, Curry, Nash (on offense) type of PG by improving shooting to be excellent (not just respectable) and ball handling and passing while keeping dribbles alive. It took Nash 6 years to be elite, so there is hope for Lin.
What's puzzling to me is the version of Lin we saw last year in NY seemed like a completely different player than the current one. During the Linsanity run, as well as his prior play in the summer league, you can see that Lin had the ability to beat his defender, get to the rim, and most importantly, finish difficult layups with a variety of moves around the rim. However, the current version seems to only utilize a very limited and basic set of finishing moves that are usually easily defended. My only guess is that due to his injuries this past offseason, Lin did not have the time to really seriously put work into brushing up on his offense. I heard he did not actually start practicing heavy till late July when he finally felt his knee was ready go. He was also mainly focusing on tightening up his ball handling (which did improve) as well as shedding extra weight in order to relieve stress on his knees. Whereas in previous seasons, he had done a lot more work at sparta science to strengthen his body and trained for months with his shooting coach doc sheppler. In addition, Jeremy did also have a lot more on his plate as far as promotional obligations overseas this past summer which may have hindered him from getting the additional training to hone his offensive touch. Hopefully this year, Jeremy will learn from his mistakes and really put in the time and effort he needs to in order to regain and develop those skills
