I agree that the 'Lin will have to deal with scouting reports now' is totally silly. It's not as if teams didn't hear about this guy before they played him once Linsanity started. The left hand issue was already talked about very early. I'll also add that the Heat are the best team in defending the PnR; their athleticism and quick rotations make their traps on the ballhandler very effective. Once the Heat shut down Lin (certainly not the first player they've shut down), that did provide a template for how to do it, but it's not as if other teams can just copy what the Heat did since they don't necessarily have the personnel to trap as effectively. I suspect also that roughing up Lin is part of the strategy of playing him. When he gets physically beaten down and doesn't get enough respect from refs to get a foul call, that has resulted in quite a few turnovers. As for the accuracy of Hollinger models, his documented success was specifically in the area of ranking teams and season outcomes. That is actually a separate issue from PER, so the usefulness of PER as a model for ranking players isn't proven by Hollinger's success with team rankings. The team rankings also use a different method that isn't purely statistical: Hollinger's ranking of teams also involves his own individual analysis and evaluations, and access to information about teams; it is less numbers driven than it used to be. My own personal opinion about PER is that it's a useful reference, one amongst others, useful enough that if someone's player rankings radically departs from rankings according to PER, then the discrepancy must be accounted for, by explaining why PER is a poor benchmark for evaluating this particular player's skills and contributions. PER shouldn't be treated as the only benchmark, but it shouldn't be treated like it doesn't exist either. It has to be accounted for in some way. Just seeing how overrated John Wall is in this ranking makes me laugh. Is that ranking potential, or actual performance...
It's not a matter of if he can ball. Everyone, even those doubting scouts, knows he can ball (well, maybe not everyone. There's are some ijuts out there). It was always a matter of if his game can translate well to the next level. In high school, Lin was the clear leader of his team leading his team to a 33-1 record and winning the State championship. He was the California State high school player of the year. But doubts remained as to how well he could do against bigger, stronger competition. Coming out of college, Lin once again was the clear leader of his team and the face of Harvard basketball, being selected to the All IvyLeague First Team unanimously. He was also a Bob Cousy Award finalist and held records not only in his school but in his entire conference. Questions remained, however, regarding the ability of his game to translate to an NBA level considering the freakish speed, length, and athleticism of NBA players. A 26 game sample is perfectly sufficient to affirm that Lin's game could, in fact, translate well to the NBA. It wasn't like he never played ball anywhere or sucked everywhere he went and has proven nothing and all of a sudden he blew up. He, by virtue of being Asian (?), was never given the reigns of any team he was on, but rather rose to the top in each program he was in, to become the leader and best player transforming those programs completely into winners AND he did it again in the NBA. After around two years, JUST LIKE IN HIGH SHOOL AND COLLEGE, proved himself and created a winning culture around his lead. Cream does, truly, rise on the top.. So to say he has proven nothing is ridiculous both in terms of logic and common sense. History has shown that Lin becomes the best player on his team and creates a winning culture wherever he goes. The NBA has been no different. And btw, there were just as many doubters then as now, even in the face of repeated achievement and accomplishments.
Oh hey thanks for YET again another summary of Lin's story. Serious question: do you type it out every time or do you copy & paste?
Idk why people keep doubting lin. He's been underappreciated his whole life. I hope he takes all these doubting fans and non fans into a strength... to make em eat crow by winter. I believe in him.
Lol. My bad. I'll try to refrain from overdoing it. I just can't understand how everyone just buys into whatever ESPN, SAS, and the like pretty much dictate what people think and am shooting for a little counter programming.
A classic example of what you number crunchers do. It's the same logic that someone on CFans used to determine that (as a Rocket) Chuck Hayes was the second most valuable player in the NBA after Kevin Garnett. Yet you all would be the absolute first in line to b**ch if someone extrapolated a players' 10 mpg out to 36 mpg. You truly want to analyze 26 games? Go get the tapes and WATCH them. The drop-dead only way is to watch what happened against the better PGs in the NBA. A PG could "average" 20 ppg by being totally ineffective against a Top 5 PG and dropping 30 on a backup replacing an injured starting PG. As most of the astute posters have already expressed in this thread. The reality of Lin as a Rocket is yet to PLAY out.
