yosemiteben wrote:Roy Tarpley wrote:I'm sure it'll all even out in the end but I was really anticipating 30+ minutes/game, not mid-20s.
Our FO made clear he was coming in as a backup. The plan was never to play him 30+ minutes. We literally just extended Kemba, the starting gig is his.
I love having Lin here and honestly don't care if he is getting ten or forty minutes as long as we're winning. I just don't think you can criticize the FO or coaching staff for being less than clear in setting expectations.
YSBen -- I am a fan of your commentary, keep it up.
Regarding your last point, I never said Lin should be the starter. In fact, I stressed my agnosticism here. So let's get that out of the way.
I know that Clifford and Cho didn't promise Lin X number of minutes but it's hard for me to believe that Lin was leaving the horrible Lakers situation and thinking the Hornets situation was better because he'd be getting LESS minutes than on the Lakers, no matter the style of play or coaching. I can't imagine Clifford was promising that Lin would get lots of playing time, which he did promise, but actually mean that Lin would get less than he did on the Lakers. So I'm not criticizing the FO or coaching staff for being unclear, because again no number of minutes were set, but something doesn't seem right.
I'm not persuaded by the "I don't care if he is getting ten or forty minutes as long as we're winning" rhetorical argument. My point is that playing Lin more SHOULD contribute to more winning. Why?
- He gets to the line at a higher rate than anyone on the team, and is shooting 95% FT right now. That's got to come in handy when the team is in a drought and needs to stop the play to regain momentum.
- He's shooting 3PT at a 47% clip, and should average around 36% at the end of the season. That'll help the spacing.
- He's playing pretty solid D right now, so he's not a liability on that end.
- He's one of the few ballhandlers/playmakers on the team, along with Kemba and Batum.
Anyways, not a big deal right now. Again, like I said, I'm sure things will even out in the end. I was just agreeing with a previous commenter who made this same point. Also, since I heard that Clifford likes 9 man rotations, a little surprised that he's going with a 10 man rotation.
Carry on.