JDR720 wrote:Im not sure i get the uproar over Lin's minutes. he is playing 22mpg thats comparable to what most top backup PG's get.
Livingston 20mpg
Schroder 23mpg
Mills 21mpg
Context. Those guys are on winning teams flushed with talent and at the top of their conference, even considered contenders.
Lin is not on such a team with the Hornets. The Hornets don't have the luxury of under-utilizing or idling talent. So it's frustrating to see him sidelined when we know he has the ability to take over games and help the team win.
In the Bulls game, he was playing good defense and starting to make his shots and get into the groove when he was pulled. With the subbing pattern, there's not much time for a rhythm player like him to warm up. And even when he's playing very well or even Linsanity level like the Knicks game, he still didn't have the opportunity for more minutes and thus more impact to help the team, due to the subbing pattern (they literally could not find a way to give him more than 21 minutes even when he was playing at an elite level despite giving him the full fourth quarter with no rest breaks -- that's a problem with minutes distribution).
We saw that the lack of minutes nearly result in a loss in the Knicks game. And it did result in the loss in the Bulls game, with him pulled just as he was warmed up. The Hornets needed someone like him in closing games because of his ability to draw fouls at the end of games. When closing games, his aggression usually ramps up with the intensity and pressure, which means he's able to drive and draw fouls to stop the clock. A valuable skill in a closer. That Bulls game may have ended differently.
The Knicks had a name for him during Linsanity: "Mr. Fourth Quarter." No matter how he played the rest of the game, good or bad, he always kicked it into another gear when closing games in the fourth quarter. They've often seen him play poorly and then redeem himself and pull out the win at the end. As a matter of fact, the Raptors game-winner during Linsanity was one such game. He played rather uninspired for much of the game (with the Knicks trailing the Raptors for the majority of the game), but then turned the almost certain loss into a win with back to back good possessions and then hit the game winner.
That's not an isolated performance, he did that sort of thing often enough, elevating his play into an elite gear in the closing minutes of a game, that the Knicks fans gave him the name "Mr. Fourth Quarter." He continued to have games like that even after Linsanity.
He's a rhythm player who isn't getting the minutes to get into rhythm. He's said that the fourth quarter and closing games is what he lives for, the time when he has the most fun and his play becomes best. It's a mentality that goes back to his high school days, with his high school coach saying that Lin used to come into practice and not take things seriously because he was bored due to the lack of stakes for his competitive fire, but always played up to the competition and moment. The bigger the game, the better he played. It's how his underdog Palo Alto team beat California powerhouse Mater Dei, and we saw it during Linsanity with Mr. Fourth Quarter.
That Bulls game that the Hornets just lost was winnable. And he was pulled just as he was hitting his shots and getting into rhythm. It's frustrating to see the team lose. In the closing minutes (when you're no longer worried about being pulled for fouls due to bad calls or offensive fouls from being too aggressive, and everything on the line), with his groove on, he would have drove aggressively and manufactured free throws. That's a closer skill for freezing the clock that every team needs.
I say free Mr. Fourth Quarter. You saw him in the Knicks game. He didn't get a chance to appear in the Bulls game because he was pulled. And the subbing pattern of him coming last in and first out, with too few minutes is not helping a rhythm player like him.
Also, Livingston/Schroder/Mills did not sign a below market value contract with the expectation of more playing time as Lin seems to indicate in his statements about his conversations with Cliff. They are on winning teams that have enough talent to cut down on the need for them and their minutes, and are top tier teams and/or contenders. The Hornets on the other hand can't afford to squander or mismanage available talent like Lin, due to their razorthin margin of making the playoffs in the first place.
I want the team to win, and giving Lin more minutes (instead of subbing him last in/first out) helps the team's prospects. Lin playing 15 to 20 minutes, maxing out at 21min even with an MVP performance because there's no room for more minutes due to the late subbing despite him playing the full fourth quarter with no rest, does not.
Lin pulled off a triple double off the bench in Houston in less than 30 minutes. Only the third player to do so in NBA history since the 1985-1986 season. He did it with 29 minutes that game.
He won't even have the chance to do that here with the Hornets. As we saw, due to the subbing patterns, even if he played great and Cliff gave him the rest of the minutes in the game with zero rest breaks, he maxed out at 21 minutes. That's a problem, and hurts the team's chances to win when you mismanage and squander talent.
I believe Lin needs more playing time if the Hornets want to win. With the current subbing patterns, that's impossible as we saw when he maxed out at 21 minutes even playing extremely well and closing.
