Understanding How Well Lin & Beverley Are Playing In 2013 Preseason

A huge part of our success so far has been the addition of Howard - whatever lineup we choose, we have to keep him happy with enough/good feeds.

 

So you wouldn't like Camby at the point

 

Thanks. He is proving to be elite. We have a very good team to go with...Looking forward for the season to start. Go Rox.

 

Harden is clearly elite and has been dominant even more so than last year, imo. I'm slightly worried about his decision making as he looses the ball a lot, but he makes up for it with so much skill and innate ability to score that it's tough to criticize him for anything, lol. In my eyes, he is clearly the best sg in the league and his prime is yet to come!

 

Understanding how well Lin/Bev are playing? Then you compare 3 games to full seasons from last year and say they would be top 5... What the hell kinda horrible logic is that.
Also the fact that Cousins name was in the top 5 shows how useless of a stat that is.

 

Damn, Beverly is good. Starting to think he should start, but the thought of him coming off the bench to provide a red hot spark when we are lagging is exciting. He might be better at the Ginobli role than Lin.

 

He did not say they are top 5. He said their playing level on these 3 preseason game is comparable to 5 top on the league.

 

Really neither of them can pass to the post? For some reason I find this doubtful.

 

He probably means that nobody stood out and it's a skill everyone should work on. I think Aaron Brooks is the only one with real experience passing to the post and that was in a different system.

 

anyone know casipis?

 

I expect to see a lot of two PG lineups. Beverley and Lin are too good not to get them in together. I would love to see McHale throw out a Lin-Beverley-Brooks-Howard-Asik lineup as a joke against against a poor shooting team.

 

good analysis, but the sample size is too small. Let's hope both play well and help the team to win.

 

this may become one of the strangest demotions in the league ever w Lin

usually

- team traded or signed a new pg and you get demoted

- player got injured

- team drafted a new stud

- player is playing horribly and didnt improve


none of these things have occurred and the only thing subjective is the last point. but seems to me Lin improved a ton (better shooting, seemed quicker).

 

The second one kind of happened last year in the playoffs. That's when the talk of Beverley being the future starting PG of the team really started to take off in the media.

 

this is not the first time McHale did it. gogi vs lowry is another example. sometimes, I don't get what is in his mind. I am not him. nothing is broken. why make changes?

 

His perspective is that this is a young team that's not yet "established". Last year was a development year where he was learning about what the players are capable of. As a coach, he reserves the right to make changes in Year 2 which he feels are best for the team.

 

yes, he is the coach and has every right to do so. the question is I don't see it is needed. lin played very well last season and was getting better and better as the season went on. if Beverly was a copy of cp3 or some elite pgs, I would have no problem with his choice.

Beverly show nothing special except his ball pressure defense when playing one on one defense. ball pressure defense can be good at times but sometimes it will burn you due to how aggressive and how close a defender is to a ball handler. last night, Beverly had a few times when opponent pg got around him easily and attacked the rim. lin's defense is really underrated. his style is completely different from Beverly. lin uses staying in front and holding position when playing one on one, those types of defense are hardly measured by #s. well, ball pressure defense leads TOs and so is easily identified and recognized. Other than defense, lin is better than or as good as Beverly if no better almost on every thing. I don't see why we should consider to put Beverly into the starting lineup.

 

The biggest reason right now is because Lin makes the 2nd lineup that much better. Against the pelicans a bench led by Bev killed a massive lead. But against the Pacers, a bench led by Lin was able to sustain the lead. But both as starters didn't make much difference to the outcomes of their 1st qtr. Another interesting note is that even during scrimmages, a line up with Lin and Parsons + bench was able to beat a Harden Dwight Bev combo. We can take this with a grain of salt, but the fact that they don't totally get destroyed means there are potential to this lineup.

 

Hear, Hear!

 

I see your concern. in reality, how many games you see a coach substitute his players 5 on 5 (I mean 5 starters out and 5 backups in)? only scenario I can see is your team wins too big for starters to continue playing.

let's look at all games last season, more often you see Beverly played along side of either harden and lin. it is rare to see Beverly led all 5 backups. basically whole team (no matter starters or backups) was led by either harden or lin or both at any moment. if your concern is real, only thing I can think about is lin is the best floor general on our team. I don't know what it means.