Will the Rockets make a trade before the start of the season

[victorhe]

How is Lin a bad defender? In the playoff, if you ever watched the game, he shuts down Lillard in the most crucial 4th quater of the last game, and when he is on the bench, the Portland's pg scored on Rox and won the game. I don't think anyone defended Lillard better than Lin in the playoff series.

I know you want the proof, here you go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0zfwuGyKHU

[RollingWave]

defensive RAPM

Harden : -2.6
Lin: 0.1

(note, on average the smaller the position the lower their defensive impact is suppose to be, which shouldn't be a shocker. so position adjusted this looks like a even bigger difference.)

per 100 possession defensive +/- last year on vs off

Harden : on 107.4, off 106.8
Lin : On 105.9, off 108.7

(note that 2/3 of Lin's minutes last year was played WITH Harden. )

There are plenty of issues with Lin, but saying that he's a bad defender is ridiculous, he's pretty much the only Rockets perimeter player that was actually executing the team's defensive scheme on a consistent basis. (this include Beverley btw, who has tremendous numbers in iso defense but a below average one in non-iso situations.)

[MR_EE]

Lin is no PB..that's for sure. Harden's offense makes up for his defensive shortcomings. Not sure the same can be said of Lin.

[RollingWave]

Lin is no PB..that's for sure. Harden's offense makes up for his defensive shortcomings. Not sure the same can be said of Lin.

From a synergy # POV, Beverley is probably the single best isolation defender in the league, however his # in defending spot ups / post ups / pick and roll are generally all worse than Lin and those are pretty much backed up by the eye test, the postup aspect is fairly obvious, Lin is a much sturdier guy in general, the spot up is perhaps the most interesting since the difference was quite considerable, and backedup by the observation that Lin got over the screen on a much more consistent basis than Beverley, which would also be abit surprising that means the two's P&R number is similar since Beverley generally went under screen much more, but because he is so good in iso defense the general sum is better, but probably make him a bit more suspect to being game planned against in playoff context with such obvious diversion in his strength and weakness. (see Damian Lillard going completely off )

Yes, the odd thing with Lin was that last year his defense was actually quite good, it's the offense that was not really particularly useful in the context of the team. At least relative to what you would think a guy like him should bring anyway. For whatever reason he struggle to find a consistent role in the context of the Rockets offense, perhaps due to he need to switch between on and off ball a lot played a role or his own adjustment in becoming a bit more risk averse probably didn't help.

Lin wasn't "good" in the context of what you want from a 8m guy, but many seem to be way too optimistic in assuming that league average production for 2000 min is somehow irrelevant and easy to replace. it's not. The list of guys who were significantly worse in a RPM context with very significant minutes last year was staggering. some guys would be thoroughly surprising (Affalo, Caledron, Evan Turn, Eric Gordon, Tyreke Evans to name a few higher paid guys)

[moofs]

The list of guys who were significantly worse in a RPM context with very significant minutes last year was staggering. some guys would be thoroughly surprising (Affalo, Caledron, Evan Turn, Eric Gordon, Tyreke Evans to name a few higher paid guys)

Afflalo indeed had a pretty bad year last year.
With Gordon, Turner and Evans, that should be expected by now.

Calderon was OK though...

[MKL]

So many rumors of getting another PG. First Bledsoe and now Sessions.

[moofs]

So many rumors of getting another PG. First Bledsoe and now Sessions.

At least we only have 53m in committed salary.
Or 61, with Nick Johnson and Cisco still unlisted, and Gee, Hopson, Covington, and Powell on the books.

[MKL]

Not Sessions, but Jason Terry.

Game changer!

[BaYBaller]

Ugh. I hate Terry from his Mavs days. If he wasn't expiring and we didn't get those picks I would totally be blasting this deal.

[inquisitive]

just play 20 games or so and see where they are before considering trading anyone....i think Terry will help being a spot up shooter...it will be fine.