The problem here is he's buiilding a strawman argument. He saying Lin would get annihilated by superstars, well duh. The argument isnt Lin vs superstar, its Lin vs FELTON. Felton makes as much as Lin but is worse in every way. SAS has no leg to stand on hes just saying stuff to save face and generate attention.
Maybe...but I think Lin would probably be putting up the same numbers from last year if Harden wasn't here (18/8/44%). After the 4th game of Linsanity, every PG wanted a piece of Lin last year, and he was without Melo and Amare. It's just we wouldn't be winning nearly as many games...
I have to admit, I was impressed by Lin's defense this year. If you don't watch the games you don't have a clue; you just look at highlights that show him getting blown by without knowing that it's probably in the gameplan to funnel players towards Omer. But Lin's been very smart about playing passing lanes, bodying up on smaller guards, and forcing a better than average amount of turnovers on the other team. He's actually a plus defender to me compared to what effort Harden puts out.
SAS got too much of an ego. Knicks contending for title? Its never going to happen. They might make it to the second round though unless they drop to the 7th seed which can happen with the way they're playing. If Rockets make it to 6th seed and Knicks 7th seed, SAS better come with a good excuse with a Lin to Felton comparison other than Rockets having Harden.
On a statistical level. Lin's about 2 win share ahead of Felton as of today. essentially the difference between solid to bad starter. Lin's trending up while Felton's trending down if you look at their monthtly, probably related to that Lin started the season recovering from knee while Felton hurt his hand around the ASG. Felton's getting the ball more often then Lin (24% vs 20% USG), despite the fact that Melo's literally the league's biggest ballhog. (34% vs Harden's 28%) and he generally takes 3 more shots than Lin every game, but on average score less than a bucket more. It is difficult to say "what if" player switch because of style difference, but it's hard to think that if Lin had the ball more and had Tyson Chandler to PnR with he would not do better, or at leas the same as he has in with the Rockets given what he showed last year. From a numbers POV, Lin's basically "average starter, trending upwards as the months go" while Felton's "below average starter, trending downards since hand injury"
SAS is an idiot. And regd getting annihilated by the likes of Parket, I think when the Rockets played SAS earlier this year, it was without Harden. HOU lost in OT, but Lin scored 38. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/spurs-overcome-lins-38-points-052009165--nba.html
NIKKA PLEZ. STEPHEN KNOWS THAT TALKIN ABOUT LIN WILL STIR THINGS UP AND BRING IN SOME HEATED CONVERSATION ON THE SUBJECT. I'M ACTUALLY HAPPY THEY'RE EVEN TALKIN ROCKETS AND NOT ALL DROOLING ON THE SOUTH BEACH DIVAS' STREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stephen A. Smith opinion shouldn't matter and it is up to Lin and the Rockets prove that fact so they won't have to hear it.
Skip Bayless is right sometimes. He loves Lin. Not as much as he loves Tim Tebow, but Lin's up there. He wanted the Knicks offense this season to flow through Jeremy Lin and Jason Kidd. But Melo & the Knicks front office had to put a stop to it. Even SAS has already admitted J Lin will be a star in about 3 years.
