Let me start by saying that I am a Jeremy Lin fan. I’m happy the Rockets got Jeremy in free agency this summer and I think he is going to be a great core piece for the Rockets for a long time. Anyone that has not seen the hard work and the improvement in Jeremy Lin’s game over the course of the season has not been paying attention. Zach Lowe said that he still did not have any confidence in the Jeremy Lin 3 pt shot. Well as much as I respect Zach Lowes opinion, he has not been paying attention. Jeremy Lin and has transformed his 3 point shot into a very reliable shot. In November and December Jeremy hit .263 & .292 from 3 pt range, every time he took a shot from beyond the arc I was screaming “No Jeremy No!”. But starting in January, Jeremy started to hit a respectable .327 from behind the arc. Now teams have to at least pay attention to him when he was at the 3 point line. But Jeremy continued to improve in February, March and April, his numbers went from respectable to deadly by hitting about .400 from beyond the arc in that time span. I absolutely love the way Jeremy turned a weakness into strength during the course of the season. Jeremy’s biggest complaint coming from New York last season was his turnovers. Last season in just 26 minutes a game Jeremy turned the ball over 3.6 times a game. This season the Rockets are playing at the fastest pace in the league and Jeremy has logged over 32 minutes a game so his turn over numbers should be up… but they are not. This season Jeremy Lin has only turned the ball over 2.9 times a game. His assist to turnover ratio is about 2:1, that’s good. But Jeremy Lin is not a finished product; he is in the infancy of his career. If you know that about Jeremy going in then he is a pure joy to watch. He is a great team player and everyone loves him (coaches, players and fans). Jeremy Lin is growing by leaps and bounds as his hard work has been evident throughout the season. I don’t know what his ceiling is but I think he is going to be one of those fringe all-star types like Goran Dragic or Kyle Lowry but because of his scoring ability maybe with an even higher ceiling than those two. Unfortunately the LOF’s do not see this version of Jeremy Lin. They see Jeremy Lin as a finished product, the Asian American version Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. Because of their view of Jeremy Lin anything less than a game where he scores 27 points with 8+ assists is the fault of the coaching staff or some perceived selfish player on the team stealing shots and opportunity away from Jeremy. How frustrating it must be for LOF’s, unable to enjoy the games or the growth of Jeremy Lin as a starter and as a basketball player because of your non-stop anger at everyone else that he is not a superstar. How cheated you must feel to not be able to enjoy the magic of a 45 win season and a play-off appearance by what is the youngest team in terms of age and experience in the league. It must be so emotionally difficult to watch every game with the perception that Jeremy Lin is the best player on the court so every time he misses a shot or turns the ball over it must be the stupid coaching staffs fault for putting him in the wrong position. How distressing it must be for you every time Jeremy Lin goes to the bench to realize the coaching staff does not agree with you that Jeremy Lin is a superhuman that can play 48 minutes a game and take every shot while being the only one to handle the ball on the offensive end. It must be very depressing for you at the end of games when the ball is in James Harden’s hands and not Jeremy Lin’s hands. No wonder you feel so much anger that you are driven to hate superstar players like James Harden or coaches like Kevin McHale who has done a great job this season. LOF’s, consider this your life preserver, your own personal bottle of Prozac or just a chance to get back to the love of the game and enjoy Jeremy Lin for what he is… a very good basketball player in the infancy of his career that has a real chance to be something special. If the journey is the reward then you’re missing out on the best part of Jeremy Lin’s career. The play-offs start today and everything the Rockets do from here on out is icing on the cake. Don’t miss out because of some ill conceived hatred for players and coaches. The Rockets are a good team with a terrific young core of players that includes Jeremy Lin. The Rockets likely would not be a play-off team without Jeremy. The team is going up against arguably the best team in the Western Conference and possibly the league so there will likely be more downs than up but it’s not going to be the fault of the coaches or players, it’s just a part of the process of a young team becoming a good team. Enjoy the Series and enjoy the growth of Jeremy Lin as a player and a starter. Don’t be a hater. Go Rockets and Go Jeremy Lin!
well said. the LOFs you talking about are mostly trolls anyway. the real Lin fans would know his limitations and criticize him because they would want him to improve, not just making excuses for him.
To be fair, '12's and '13's are not the only posters criticizing Mchale or Harden. I've seen 1999-2013 everyone saying what you are referring to as" Only LOF's hate"(that's what the OP make it soound like). Poor LOF's getting penned/blamed for everything these days.
I use "Poor LOF's" in my title because they are cheating themselves out of something really good and special with all of their blind hate.
Unfortunately I couldn't rate this post 6 stars. Hopefully this eases the anger in the game thread today.
I don't know why grown ass men get into all this divisive "_OF" stuff. Its stupid. There's people that go against the grain and take an anti-support position of a player just to "rub it in" the face _OF fans. (And even worse, become self assigned experts of "Rockets history" of where that player "actually" stands among the past greats to "school" the _OF fans.) Why not just like a player, watch the games and leave all that other crap alone.
Lins become a respectable starter, but it is sad that certain posters can't understand that we are the least experienced team in the league. That's why we look terrible at times. Mchale just took this team here and is not going to lose his job, that's why fans need to enjoy the ride and wait until next season. What we accomplished this season is amazing. We were predicted to be were Phoenix is, yet here we are. Yes it sucks we choked at the end, but **** our players are still young, can you imagine how exciting it was for them to hear they made it to the playoffs after being disrespected all year.
His TOV% hasn't really decreased that much. It was 21.4% last year. It is 18.8% this year. He just handles ball a lot less since harden handles the ball most of the time. For comparison Harden's TOV% is 14.9%, Cp3 is 13.7%, LBJ 12.4. Jeremy Lin has been ok not great this year by his own words. He has played great down the stretch averaging 17-7. He needs to continue to do that.
I think the word I like for Jeremy Lin is "Improving". Which is good for a player in such an early part of his career. Imagine if Jeremy Lin were any other player having the year he has had? We would all be praising Daryl Morey for finding good point guards (AB, Kyle, Dragic and now Lin). Anyway, I'm looking forward to Jeremy in this series and especially next season.
Yeah... I think a lot of people are falling for trolls pretending to be "LOFs." Now I agree with everything the OP is saying, but if you read what real Lin Fans are posting, they often recognize his weaknesses and are also eager to see him improve. Whereas the more crazy comments, basically people you mention who "think" Lin is a finished product, are consistently blatant and antagonistic to the point that it's very obvious they are trolls (not even LOHs, but just trolls trying to upset people on both sides). So this is a great post OP, but it should be more directed to the trolls, rather than the Lin fans
Um TOV% is a flawed stat. If you shoot a lot you can turnover the ball a lot. Harden shoots a lot and leads the league in TOs. In many ways this is a meaningless stat. Not hating on Harden. Just the stat. I think with the vacuum of advance stats people make up stuff and it just sticks and the mass public just uses it. Advance NBA stats are still in their infancy compared to say baseball sabermetrics.
Honestly, the fans we call LOF's don't even bother me. I mean they worship a player that they respect, good for them. Sometimes I think its hilarious, like that Jeremy Lin mouth guard thread, which turned into a not so funny and hateful thread quickly. What I don't like, is being told how to be a fan, who to be a fan of, and be given a criteria on what it means to be a true Rocket fan. I also don't like getting anonymous reps to go visit a Jeremy Lin forum and being branded an LOF because I criticized James Harden once lol. You can preach your positivity, but why degrade other people who don't share your views in the exact same thread. Kind of defeats the purpose and adds fuel to the fire.
