Lin - Starter or Sixth Man?

[KungFuJoe]

Even pushing the whole "McHale hates Lin and Asik" thing aside. Even if Lin and Asik played 48 minutes a game I would still want him gone.

He hasn't addressed Harden's lack of defense or turnovers ONCE. He has no problem talking about other players not putting in their due...but all he does is kiss Harden's ass and continue to let him play hero ISO ball.

And he's not even a good strategist. They never seem to have a good gameplan against the team they're going up against.

He had no answer for Dallas going zone...instead pulling out the ONE guy that was actually moving the ball (Lin). The Rockets always blow big leads...opposing teams always hit last second shots that tie up or win the game. On the flip side they NEVER get a good look when it's the other way around and Houston needs a big shot at the end.

The whole TT experiment. The fact that you bring in arguably the best defensive center in the league and your defensive rating gets WORSE than it was last year.

DMo plays a lot of minutes, contributes...then gets sent back to the bench. How long before McHale gets rid of the TJones experiment?

The Rockets have a LOT of pieces...but McHale has no idea where to place them.

[marcusaurelius]

What separates players in the nba in the long run is how hard they work to improve themselves. Some people get a big contract and get lazy. Lin just never looked like one of those guys.

While he has had his ups and downs, I always thought he would turn it around because he is a hard worker. If he wasn't a hard worker, and very determined, he wouldn't be here.

Being a starter or sixth man doesn't matter, it is about helping the team win. I would bet money that that is Lin's attitude.

The question shouldn't really be about Lin. It should be about whether McHale is competent enough to figure out who should be starting, and if he can figure out how to hold a big lead in the 4th quarter when the game was won. So far, McHale isn't looking too good. But maybe he can turn it around.

[MKL]

I like stats, so lets look at the gameflow graph from the previous game

http://popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gamef ... ame=HOUDAL

The game wasn't about Jeremy Lin or Asik, they didn't affect the gameflow in any meaningful way. No major changes in the plus minuses.

The biggest difference was in the 4th quarter collapse, Dwight went 1 for 5 fg. Harden goes 1 for 4 fg. Parsons not contributing going 0 for 1 in 9 minutes.

On the other side, Dirk and Vince alternating goes 8 for 9 fg. Sometimes shooting over tiny Beverley. Monte going 3 for 4 fg.

Rockets choked. It was an epic 4th quarter collapse, pretty much snatching defeat from victory. I don't even know how it could be replicated again. 15 points nose dive in the 4th quarter.

Like I said, I don't know if Jeremy would have made much difference, I doubt it. But, I don't think the bench could have played any worse defense. Also note that Harden played 42+ minutes. It might explain the effort on defense.

This loss is on McHale, or that Carlisle is just that much better of a coach. But if you want to look on the bright side, McHale is better than Jason Kidd. Nets gameflow graph is ridiculously bad, it hurts to look at it.

[moofs]

The biggest difference was in the 4th quarter collapse, Dwight went 1 for 5 fg. Harden goes 1 for 4 fg. Parsons not contributing going 0 for 1 in 9 minutes.

On the other side, Dirk and Vince alternating goes 8 for 9 fg. Sometimes shooting over tiny Beverley. Monte going 3 for 4 fg.

Rockets choked. It was an epic 4th quarter collapse, pretty much snatching defeat from victory. I don't even know how it could be replicated again. 15 points nose dive in the 4th quarter.

Honestly, From that it kinda looks like this was one of those situations that just happens when you're dealing with odds and percentages.
The rockets won't typically shoot 2-10.
The mavs won't typically shoot 11-13.
Those two things will even less typically happen at the same time.

Just don't blame it on McHale. McHale is the greatest coach of all time and whatever he does is the best thing any coach ever did. If he said we should bench Howard and play Ronnie Brewer at center for 48 minutes it would always be the right choice. Morey needs to quintuple McHales salary, then quadruple that, so we don't risk losing the greatest asset in NBA history. This year alone, the Rockets have 8 more wins when he coaches than when he doesn't coach, so over an 82 game season, that's almost 51 wins. Since the Rockets should be a 55 win team to begin with, that means they could win 106 games this year!!!!! McHale is better than McDonalds, Justin Bieber, Akon, and Tammy Wynette COMBINED omg!!!!
McHale for COY, 2013-2027.

- Moofs, MOF since forever omg

[moofs]

I came out from atwixt me mum's nethers wearing naught but a green #32 turtleneck and a smile.

[Nebula1]

Grantland article on Lin from 11/19

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/10002562/the-rerise-jeremy-lin


Jeremy Lin, Again

The meaning of Linsanity 2.0
By Jay Caspian Kang on November 19, 2013


On Thursday night, Jeremy Lin stood in the visitor's locker room of a familiar building surrounded by a throng of New York City reporters whom he must have vaguely recognized. The reporters asked Lin how it felt being back in the city and all the usual revenge-narrative questions, and Lin did what Lin always does — he was polite and noncommittal and thanked everyone and talked about how he was happy that the Rockets had beaten the Knicks. Patrick Beverley, who now starts ahead of Lin as Houston's point guard, sat across the way, a towel draped over his lap. He seemed amused by the whole spectacle, although not in any malicious or snarky way. "I'm just glad I don't have a locker anywhere near his," he said. When Chandler Parsons came out of the shower, he corralled a Rockets team employee. "You gotta help me out," Parsons said. The team employee gathered up all the bass in his voice and began edging his way through the mass of bodies and recorders and cameras to Parsons's locker, adjacent to Lin's.

The scene, while lively, almost felt like a chore for the gathered press. Jeremy Lin's return to Madison Square Garden is still a story, albeit one with diminishing returns. On Thursday night, even the fans couldn't muster up too much enthusiasm for Lin's return. There were a few boos when he went to the foul line or checked in at the scorer's table and certainly more Asian dudes than one would usually find at Madison Square Garden in mid-November.