fdr2012 wrote:dantian wrote:The fact with Lin and Rockets is, their team plays much better letting the "shaky" Lin handle the ball and direct the offense, i.e. the main facilitator. Harden and the whole team's efficiency improved a lot, despite Lin's "unimpressive" personal stats filling his role. That tells you the story here: Lin is a natural PG with the sense for strategically relevant spacing on the court. This is a rare talent most PG newbies don't have. If he keeps it while improving his handling, shooting and passing steadily, he will be more than fine as a starting caliber NBA PG.
The fact is that Lin has gotten worse since last season at just about every aspect. His FG% is worse, his scoring is down, his 3PT% is down, and even his FT% is down. The only thing Lin is doing slightly better is TOs. Everything else is the same or worse, yet people here continue to talk about him "improving". I guess you can always see what you want to see. Too bad you can't make up the numbers to fit your homers' agenda.
Lin certainly hasn't improved as much as I'd have liked or expected. He still isn't great driving left, he's become more passive in the offense, he makes too many errant passes and his jump-shot has regressed.
But his numbers aren't entirely reflective of his ability. Deron struggled this season because Avery's offense turned him into an off-guard and he received PNRs very sparingly, as they preferred to run post-ups with Brook or literally just dribble around on the perimeter and pass it around like a hot potato aimlessly. The moment he got fired Deron got his PNRs back and he's doing spectacularly.
In the Rockets the half-court offense they had marginalised Lin's role even more so. He was relegated to spot-up threes while it was initiated by the wings. When the Rockets weren't running they were stinking, and I mean they were really, really stinking. Harden ISOs all day and Parsons and Delfino had no idea what to do. McHale even had Toney Douglas running point calling for screens while Lin stood at the elbows and had to blow by his man using his first step.
It's taken them a while but they've finally started letting Lin run more of the offense and eased on having Patterson camping at the other corner spotting up. The last four games the Rockets have looked much more organised, and when you see Lin sitting Harden doesn't seem very comfortable running the point at all, it really is day and night.
Also he doesn't have Tyson Chandler to pass it to, he's got Omer Asik. At least one or two of Lin and Harden's turnovers per game are because Asik has just fumbled a really easy pass, he does that a ridiculous amount of times, the dude has stone hands.
