I do see your point and I also think it's on Jeremy to prove his worth more and be aggressive every game...but I would not be surprised if Mchale has been the one that has been telling him to take it easy, not to force it, and hand it off to the primary initiator as soon as he crosses mid-court, which is Harden, like Douglas does. He probably told him not to force things as he has too much to learn to be the primary ball handler and to just shoot it when he gets that corner 3 swung his way. And I truly believe that both Sampson and McHale has been judging him based solely on that criteria. That's why they've preferred Douglas over Lin cuz hitting that 3 swung his way was the only thing that Lin should do in this offense and he hasn't been getting it done. I'm sure they never in their wildest dreams thought that Lin could perform at last year's level cuz it was a fluke and thus never gave him that responsibility. McHale's confirmation bias, the eye test, tunnel vision, blind awe at Harden's bossness, and lack of coaching creativity and ability is what has been holding Lin back even more than Lin himself, i.e. the lack of screens and high pnrs set for Lin and putting the ball in his hands during most if not all breaks. From every interview I've seen, Mchale never seemed happy about getting Lin. He just tried to soldier up and pretend to be happy cuz he had too. Strangely, Morey gave off the same vibe, actually, though he did put some positive things out there for Lin on twitter and whatnot. One last pet peeve: People in the media keep qualifying any compliment of Lin with a limit on Lin's potential, like it's not cool to say that Lin may actually be a star someday. It's like people's hate of anything Apple or Twilight, the hate is a bit irrational. As an example, I've read sooooo many --"well, he's good, I mean he's not gonna be a top 5pg or anything.." --"He's not that good, he's servicable.. and that's alright for who he is..." I deplore using the race card but jeez, it sure seems like people can't just see him for who he is or let him have room to grow.
Why come off bench...Lin and Harden played well together last night and if they try to replicate that, they can be successful. Also as long as Lin gets his screens, he will score/create scoring opportunities. Even Harden set a pick for Lin, which Lin used to drive to the basketball for a bucket. MEOW
If McHale is this dumb, I have very little hope... You can tell everyone to be aggressive, like I have also been doing, sitting on my couch during every Rockets game, but unless he actually puts his money where his mouth is and have plays called for Lin (i.e. 5x more screens, tons more high pnrs), he coulnd't have expected him to be aggressive going 1 on 4 everytime and getting yanked if it doesn't work out, using Douglas' D as an excuse.
I disagree. I mean of course if there is a break and an opportunity, you should exploit it, whoever it is, but Lin is usually the quickest one out there with the best decision making ability on a fast break. In addition, there is a time to push it up and a time to set up the offense. Lin sees the difference, McHale, it seems often does not (how else do you explain his preference for Dougie.) Douglas often "speeds up the court" for early offense when nothing is present and just hops up and down like a rabbit on offense, whereas Lin leads fast on breaks when opportunities arise and slows it down when the defense is already set, conserving energy and being more efficient, having pieces set up better.
Exactly. I don't think the coaches try to pull him back. It's up to Lin NOT to defer and up to Lin to be aggressive to the rim. Of course, he has to be able to hit shots to keep the defense honest. He needs to practice that floater going to the basket.
Do you really think that when a guy grabs a defensive rebound or a steal, he looks and sees Lin and says to himself, "Oh, no, I'm not gonna pass it to him. Let me find Harden or Douglas instead"? They just give it to the first ball handler they see and run up court as fast as they can. One of the reasons why the Rockets can run so much, apart from their youth, is that they have lots of good handlers. Lin, Harden, and Parsons can lead a fast break. Douglas of course. And even guys like Morris and Jones can go coast to coast. (Delfino thinks he can too. :grin
This is crazy talk - no offense meant. But do you realize that Morey WENT AFTER Lin??? I mean we wanted him like crazy. We knew his flaws and weaknesses. We know his jump shot wasn't great. We knew he struggles driving left. And we know he ain't exactly mr. dunk-master-P. All of the above is speculation at best. You have no clue as to what McHale tells Lin - no one but the players and the coaches do. But we do know that McHale has wanted Lin to be more aggressive and have the ball more - he said that publicly. I doubt McHale is so crazy as to say the opposite to the media as he tells Lin. Remember, Lin is 24. He's young and feeling his way around still - after coming off an injury no less. There may be a bias against him. Who knows. Who cares. The media is annoying. They are annoying about many things and many players and many teams. There's only one way to shut them up. And that's to prove it on the floor.
http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/story/_/id/8757744/jeremy-lin-shows-new-york-knicks-why-keeper .....he was struggling to find his niche with the ball-stopping James Harden as much as he'd struggled to find his niche with the ball-stopping Carmelo Anthony. In fact, Lin had confided in a friend that he felt like he was back in New York with a healthy Melo all over again.....
This is ridiculous. I live in NY and have watched every one of Lin's games as a Knick. I was ecstatic when he became a Rocket, probably even moreso than when we acquired Harden. Because even though I knew Harden was a much better player with higher potential, I was a bigger Jeremy Lin fan. With that said. Carmelo is on pace for a freakin' MVP caliber season. Lin fans need to understand that it is Jeremy Lin's responsibility to fit his game next to MVP caliber players like Carmelo, and potentially Harden. NOT the other way around. Knowing the type of person Lin is, I highly doubt that he is sitting in a corner crying to anonymous sources about how he needs the ball in his hands more instead of MVP caliber players. And to be clear, I DO think he will have the ball more in his hands, as soon as he gets more comfortable and actually does something with the ball when its in his hands, instead of deferring. But either way, I doubt he is crying about it right now.
things can be miscontrued. for all we know, lin said that he is in a similar situation and has to learn how to adjust....and that gets interpreted as a negative. we just have to be careful about hearsay
So, last night was the third game I have been able to watch at home ( thanks NbaTV ) and I don't know what it is or why it happened , but the offense looked completely different from the previous 2. Much more ball movement ( though both Lin and harden did a good deal of iso/pnr ) and even player movement. Lin brought the ball up more in this game than probably the last 5 combined, and then actually ran the offense. Whether this was by design from coaching, or he just put his big boy pants on I don't know. But the results were pretty damn good. Much prefer it that way, Lin doesn't need to finish every play but I think bit would make the game much easier on harden ( and everyone else ) if they continued with this. 50 points from your back court is pretty ****ing solid. Also, both Lin and harden have to be two of the best at pushing the ball after a miss ( or make ). Everyone else on the team pretty much sucks at this.
Would agree with this. I think Douglas is faster than both of them, but he doesn't quite have the playmaking skills and usually hands it off after he gets it across court. Parson has the ballhandling and is working on his playmaking, but he brings up the ball markedly slower than any of the guards. Delfino brings it up faster than Parsons, but slower than the guards, but his decision-making makes me facepalm almost every play or every other play.
So I went into the depths of the internet looking up some articles on the 'Rolls Royce backcourt' of Frazier-Monroe and found this article from 2010: Sounds familiar? Hopefully the Rocket's backcourt can mesh just as well... (later Monroe started having injury issues)
Your not taking into account that the 4 other players on the court should be dependent on the PG to make the pieces fit and work properly... and there is no doubt in my mind that Lin is a better point guard than James Harden.. he's played the position his whole life Harden hasn't. You have to respect the way the game is played when it's played right. Even Lebron handled the ball in high school and assumed the defacto PG role for his team... he has the mindset to assume the role. And the reason why it appeared like Harden was this kind of player who could assume a lot of the PG duties in OKC is because on that team he was the best PG because Westbrook was so deficient in what it takes to be a PG.. he's getting better at it but it's been a process. So the problem the coaching staff made early on is incorrectly assuming that Harden could create shots for his teammates better than Lin can and can pass better than Lin can and even penetrate in general better than Lin can... because in all honesty he can't.
you just dont get it. i doubt anybody thinks that the coaches literally tell him to just give it to harden. instead the offense is designed around harden's high pnr. so if harden is the one with the ball, what is lin to do except spot and spread the floor? how does one "make himself the ball handler" in such an offensive set? not pass to harden, and in doing so completely destroy the offensive set? further evidence of this is when TD plays with harden. TD also does the exact same thing. this is the houston offensive set and thats how they will start most of their halfcourt offense. its not lin's decision to pass it off. its his decision to play within the offense thats asked of him. also on rebounds and INBOUNDS they sometimes "ignore" lin and give it to harden instead. lin literally readies his hands to accept the ball and instead asik or whoever will give it to harden. not once or twice, but over and over. on inbounds no less... how is that lins fault?
The Toney Douglas comparisons need to stop. Do you seriously think Tony is being scouted to the level that Lin & Harden are? Like are we seriously going to do this right now? In the Knicks game last night there was so much concentration on Lin & Harden that it allowed the Rockets to beat the Knicks with back door cuts. It has been like this all season. We all saw the OKC games, teams would rather dare our front court to beat them as opposed to even allow Harden or Lin to get in a rhythm. And nobody on our front court is intimidating offensively or defensively, (except for Omer who is intimidating defensively). Also jacking up shots is not a good thing. I don't want a player chucking which is what Douglas does, he hasn't seen a shot that he doesn't like. I watch the Knicks consistently with my boyfriend & all Raymond Felton does is CHUCK. I hate it, & hate players that do that. I would rather my player take 5 smart shots as opposed to 15 YOLO shots. You are synonymizing chucking with being aggressive. I want aggressive/smart play but I also want smart play first & foremost. Great example last night, Morris has a mismatch on Novak, instead of taking advantage of the mismatch he chucks, that is an idiotic play. What some people would see as being aggressive I see that as being incredibly dumb. Just a few thoughts.
It all depends if you think Lin has the opportunities to get his shots and be more aggressive in this offense.
