Post#192 » by milesfides » Fri May 30, 2014 10:11 am
Really, pseudo-point guard, average player? Why, because that's what he actually is or that's what McHale made him in Houston? Because when he was the actual point guard of a team, as a Knick in 2011-2012, he still averaged out to a 20 PER, just below of elite PG's. And that number is including his decreased production when Melo came back. So saying Lin is a pseduo-point guard is fine, as long as you dismiss Kyrie Irving and Steph Curry as pseudo-point guards, because they posted about the same PER that year.
And to be honest, saying Lin is best as a sixth man, then saying he's not very good, is ass-backwards thinking. His best statistical year, was with the Knicks (all-star level), then as a starter with Houston, but as a floor spacer next to Harden (14.9 PER, which is considered average), then his worst year was last year's when demoted as a sixth man in favor of defensive Beverly next to Harden (still 14.3 PER). This is all backed up by the fact that Lin's usage plummeted from 28 with the Knicks down to 20 with Houston.
So to say, Lin is best as a sixth man, that's like saying Jodie Meeks is best as a point guard. You're saying Jeremy Lin is the best at what he is the worst at statistically, in the worst basketball situation for him, when he's out of position with two ball-demanding players? That is just illogical. The truth of this is painfully obvious when you look at the reverse: in the six games without Harden, when Lin was allowed to run the team, i.e., actually play point guard, he posted 20 points and 6 assists a game. So he's best as a sixth man and floor spacer? Huh?
To put the nail in the coffin, in the first couple weeks of this season (even with Harden) Jeremy Lin started - and posted a PER of 19. Anybody see a pattern here? Of course McHale benched Lin after that.
Call me crazy, but if he were traded to the Lakers, what do you think Lin's production will be? Especially since the Lakers would actually need another creator and ballhandler. That was the whole idea behind acquiring Nash, to extend Kobe's career by not running him into the ground trying to break down defenses (oops, achilles) and allow Kobe to transition into more of a team player instead of hitting the panic-button hero ball because our point guards just can't do anything. Who else on our team is going to break defenses down? 36-year-old Kobe? Who else is going to will us to victory and hit big shots? Kendall Marshall?
And what's with the tunnel vision with PER? Lin didn't "become average" with Houston. The moment he got to Houston he went through radical changes in his role (all bad), and they hurt his PER because these changes killed his usage and assist rates - but isn't that obvious?
-Yet even at that horrible situation, Lin has worked on his game and managed to up his field goal percentage all around, 2-pointers, 3-pointers, and free-throws, and decreased his turnover rate.
-He attacks and finishes at the rim among the league's best (matching Tony Parker's finishing rate), better than guys like Russell Westbrook.
-His true shooting numbers are higher than Damien Lillard and Kyrie Irving's.
-Became one of the better catch-and-shooters in the NBA, efg% better than Klay Thompson and JJ Reddick.
Put all that together - yeah his PER got worse because he's not playing point guard, he's being forced to be more of a floor spreader, he's coming off the bench, etc. But I'd argue this: he's even a better player than he was during Linsanity, because he worked on his game.
Hey look, I'm fine with people looking at Lin as just a means to get Asik and perhaps another asset from Houston in what is essentially a gap year for us. Just because you don't like him, the way he looks, whatever. But don't make that statistical argument, because it doesn't hold water.
Dismissing Lin's 38 points on the Lakers by saying it was on Fisher? That's just selective and prejudiced. Fish only played 24 min that night, Blake was there too. But why not dismiss Kobe's 81 with that logic by saying it was on broken down Jalen Rose who retired a year later? How about the fact that Lin was the best player on the floor on that night, and that included Kobe Bryant? Do we really have to go down this road to point out your selective bias?
How about 25, 7, and 5 on Deron Williams?
How about 23 and 10 on John Wall?
How about 20 and 8 on Ricky Rubio, icing game winning free throws?
How about 27 and 11 in a shootout with Calderon, with the game-winning three w/ 5 sec left?
How about 19 and 13 on Kyrie Irving?
How about 28 and 8 on Devin Harris and Earl Watson?
How about 28 and 14 on Kidd and Terry and the defending champs?
All victories, by the way. And most of those teams were gunning for them in a playoff-like intensity.
How about the first player in NBA history to score 20 and 7 in each of his five first starts? How about the fifth player in the last 15 years to score 28, 14 and 5 steals in a game?
On and on. I don't want to be up at night going through stats. But when people dismiss what Jeremy Lin did and does as a point guard - I have to call b.s.
And even beyond stats, making guys like Novak, Fields, and Chandler legit offensive threats? How about their stats? They don't matter? How about the basic definition of a good point guard, making your teammates better, winning games that you're not supposed to win, and being fearless with big plays and gamewinners? How about that? That doesn't matter? That doesn't calculate into what makes a player?
I don't "love" Jeremy Lin. I'm just a guy who loves basketball on the internet. I love Anthony Davis, I'd take him over anybody if I were to start a team today. I love Andrei Kirilenko, I think he's the third best defender of the last decade. I love Russell Westbrook, I would take him over Durant.
But don't tell me Jeremy Lin is an average player or a sixth man or a pseudo-point guard because of the crap that's going on in Houston. I have to try to sort that out, sorry. And maybe I did a poor job. Maybe I sound like a Jeremy Lin "lover." Maybe I didn't put up information up there. But at the end of the day, it's always the eye test for me. And I'm just a fan, what do I know? So-
I'll simply leave it to Kobe. Game knows game.
"The biggest thing to me is how everybody missed it. They all would be fired if I was owning a team. I hear this stuff, 'It came out of nowhere.' I think it's a load of [garbage]. You can't play that well and just come out of nowhere. There has to be something there and everybody missed it. So heads would roll [if I was owner]."
-Kobe Bryant on Jeremy Lin
No, I don't love Jeremy Lin. I just didn't miss it.
“OH! Caruso parachutes in! You cannot stop him - you can only hope to contain him!” -Kevin Harlan, LAL-GSW 4/4/19
