(relocating from another thread since my response got long and talked a lot about Jeremy)
jbeachboy wrote:did lin start only with knicks and rockets?
He started 13 games last season for the Hornets due to injuries. Twelve as SG, and one as PG.
His FG% and 3pt% both went up when he was a starter compared to when he came off the bench for the Hornets. Showing that he's a rhythm player and that although he might be able to hack it as sixthman off the bench, he really under performs in that role since he plays worse as 6th man than he does as a Hornets starter. Despite the praise from everyone about how he's excelled in that role off the bench.
The Hornets also had a better winning ratio with him as a starter (8-5, 61.5% win ratio) than their overall season win ratio (48-34, 58.5% win ratio). Showing it wasn't just empty stat-padding but a better winning record for the Hornets when he starts.
His shooting splits coming off the bench vs. starting for the Hornets shows that the narrative that he's best used as a combo guard sixthman off the bench is wrong. He's much better both in terms of his own individual performance and the overal team's win record when he starts.
In the sole game that Kemba was out and Lin was starting PG instead of SG, he also raised his assists to a respectable level. Putting in 24pts/8asst on 7-13 from the field and 2-4 from 3pt in 32 minutes of playing time. Helping the Hornets beat Lebron and the Cavs.
Obviously this is a very small sample size of games last season and subject to other factors that may cause such variations. I really wouldn't read much into it. But it's probably another data point that helped Marks and Atkinson believe Jeremy can do the job as the starting PG for the Nets in this coming season, even though the team isn't expected to win much.
He also started some games for the Lakers, but that deliberate Byron Scott tank job in order to keep the Lakers pick was just such a terrible season all around for everyone in the franchise that there isn't much you can infer from it.
He did start all 82 games in his first year for the Rockets, so he's shown he's able to handle the grind of a full season as a starter of a playoff team. We know he can be the starting PG of a playoff team because he's already been one (not that the Nets will make the playoffs this year). And even after he was benched in the 2nd year with the Rockets so that they could stick Beverley's defense next to a defenseless Harden and because Beverley proved he was unable to run the offense for the bench unit, Jeremy still had games where he started due to injuries.
But I don't really think any of that discussion of the past is relevant right now. What matters is how he can help the Nets going forward. It'll be interesting to see how things get worked out in training camp and over the season.
Kenny is a rookie coach so we don't really know what the exact offensive/defensive schemes will be and how he'll want Jeremy to fit into it. But given all the roles and positions and systems that Jeremy has had to go through over the past few seasons, we know he's adaptable and versatile (by necessity, having to develop different facets of his game and adjust every time he changed teams or roles). When you have a brand new system with an unknown future shape, that versatility and adaptability that Jeremy had developed through his journeying days should come in useful to fit whatever Kenny Atkinson wants out of him.
I think that versatility and adaptability is something that hasn't been discussed as much. His past few season have forced him to grow as a player and develop new aspects of his game, because he keeps moving from one system to another. Even as recently as this past season with the Hornets, you saw new aspects of his game being honed such as the off-ball backdoor cuts in Charlotte.
The Nets are getting a very well-rounded player in many respects (though he does have some areas he can still work on). He's been forced to become one out of necessity because of all these different systems and roles. Old criticisms of "he can't go left", "he can't play off-ball", "he can't play defense", "he can't shoot 3's" (well assuming his new form struggles are over) no longer apply.