steady wrote:Finding that I am irrationally annoyed by Kevin McHale comments on Lin in a NY Post article this morning. What is most annoying is just the idea that McHale is qualified to offer an objective view of Lin. Will never forgot his benching Lin for Beverley in preseason 2013 with apparently no warning to Lin that they were considering this and with the false explanation that Bev outplayed Lin in preseason.
Even though Lin started all 82 games for Rockets his first year, had the third highest win share on the team (behind only Harden and Asik), and was a pivotal part of getting them to playoffs – in year the Rockets were expected to be bottom of League.
But after that first season starting for Rockets, Dwight Howard signed over the summer. Drawn to Rockets sexy new style of play engineered by Lin and Harden. But there was a concern about how touches were going to get allocated between Howard, Harden, Parsons, and Lin, and a decision was made to bench Lin in favor of Beverley, to address that issue, to shore up the defense of first unit (that being Bev’s calling card), and the offense of the second unit (since Bev was incapable of orchestrating an offense, and Lin could). The decision was fine, on the merits, but it was so badly handled. Lin was not given any clue about this possibility at all before training camp, and then McHale tried to sell the decision as Bev outplayed Lin in preseason, which was just patently false. Ugh.
Given that background, and McHale’s rocky tenure at Rockets, selling McHale as the coach that knows the most about Lin’s game ….. Yech. I expect better of Brian Lewis .
I personally believe Mchale and Morey had it out for Lin from the start. However, maybe due to Les Alexander, maybe due to lack of other options in season 1, they let Lin stay as the starter. It had nothing to do with Lin's play which was often stellar after all star break. They just didn't believe in the guy and thought he tried too hard. Morey wanted to prove he was a genius signing Harden and cutting Lin the first time and Mchale wanted anything other than Lin to rely on to keep his job so Harden was a welcome sight to Mchale.
Ironically, Coach Kenny specifically sought out Lin IN ORDER TO FLOURISH IN HIS JOB. Oh the irony.
Mchale gave clear quotes to the press when Lin was in Houston that he felt Lin tried to hard to be a star and should just be a role player happy to be in the league and not try to believe he is as good as Linsanity made him appear. Mchale flat out said it by making references to baseball all the time.
Lin was benched in season 2 not because of defense (yeah I know this is what the Houston media and team claimed), but because he didn't fit as the odd man out mainly on the offensive side of the ball. Despite the fact Lin will likely end up in the Hall of Fame by the end of his career after he cements himself in Brooklyn, the fools in Houston thought Dwight and Parsons were more important to the team than Lin. Morey and Mchale also couldn't believe the gall of Lin to continue to carve out his spot on the team and not completely be Harden's lap dog. They were too blinded by non basketball reasons to see clearly.
Many Lin fans kept saying Lin was better than Beverly or some other PG through the years. Unfortunately, these Lin fans didn't have the right perception to understand it was always a Lin vs. Harden comparison that was relevant. Only the very few knowledgable fans understood this important point. So many Lin fans kept saying he should start because he was better than Beverly - what a poor argument.
No, Lin was and is more impactful than Harden when properly used in a system that harnesses his skills and it will be evident by the end of the season this year.
This year, Lin will finally start showing why people like me have said the for last 4 years that Lin has a greater effect on winning games than James Harden.
Keep an eye on the Nets season record and we'll revisit this post at that time.
