With the rumors of a Keith Bogans pickup and Jared Jeffries coming back from injury soon, this may be Jeremy's last week suited up for Knicks. However, there is a glimmer of hope with Toney Douglas bothered by a bruised shoulder.
Lin is the only guard who drives to the rim most of the time. Maybe he's not a fit for this team. It's mostly just perimeter shooters camped around Melo and Amare. And maybe that's the way Coach D'Antoni wants it to be played.
They will need Lin's roster spot for Baron Davis when he gets back. And the team will probably sign another free agent. So it's inevitable that Jeremy will get waived, it's a just a question of when, and where does he go next ...
I don't think that Lin's playing time is predicated on the status of other players. I get the feeling that teams want Lin to be able to run an offense and spearhead a defense. Unlike most young players who can't stay on the court because they get attacked on defense, Lin is a terrific defender who is still learning how to run an NBA offense. Point guards and small combo guards are like NFL quarterbacks. It takes years to learn how to run an offense, no matter how good the player is. Aside from shoot first second and third guys like Derrick Rose or Chris Paul or Deron Williams, true point guards have a steep learning curve. Let's not forget that 2 time league MVP Steve Nash was completely ineffective as a young player in Phx and in his initial Dallas years. And if we want to go farther back, NBA all star and #2 overall pick Kenny Anderson actually had a worse rookie season than Jeremy Lin did! Should Lin be waived by the Knicks, I hope that Utah picks him up and does what they did with Illini teammates Dee Brown and Deron Williams: send him to Spokane WA for private 1on1 tutoring with the ultimate pass first point guard John Stockton.
It doesn't matter how injured the other guards are. The coach will just play Shumpert, Bibby, Fields, etc. for longer minutes to pick up the slack. This team has a lot of guards on the roster.
JLin's minutes depend on how much confidence the coach has in his game. And so far, it doesn't look like much. Garbage time in 25+ point blowout games is all he is getting here.
They made it clear from the beginning that Lin is not part of the Knicks' long term plans, and they totally believe Baron Davis will come back healthy and able to be a starter ( He's been injury prone and overweight for years ).
So maybe they aren't playing Jeremy Lin because he's not supposed to be staying anyway. Why help a player who will go to another team soon ?
D'Antoni prefers playing 7-8 players a game, you could see that from the Suns days. The real problem for Lin I think is that Mike is NOT a defensive minded coach. He really would have had much more opportunity to showcase his game had he played for a coach like Jeff Van Gundy, Jerry Sloan, or Greg Popovich.
It doen't matter who is the coach; JL would be on the fringe (15/16th) spot of any NBA team as long as his turnover issue not solved. One upside is he left bayarea behind on God's mission pursuing basketball; that would speedup weaning and converting boy to man.
"D'Antoni prefers playing 7-8 players a game, you could see that from the Suns days. The real problem for Lin I think is that Mike is NOT a defensive minded coach."
Actually D'Antoni would play 8-11 players when he was coach of the Suns. The reason being that his run-n-gun offense required fresh legs, so he had to sub players in more often.
Also, they do play defense, like the Spurs, it was more of a zone defense that packs the paint, but gives up a lot of 3's. The reason being that they can push the ball on a fast break when the opposing team misses a 3 pointer. Long rebounds lead to easy points in transition.
Tony Douglas playing 7 minutes with an injured shoulder, in the first half.
So much for the hope that the Coach would somehow let Jeremy replace an injured point guard. D'Antoni looks like a coach who would rather have a veteran limping around the court than a young, undrafted newbie.
I think Jeremy should pursue a career in coaching if his playing career doesn't pan out. The amount of wear and tear your body goes through is very high, banging bodies day in and day out.
I think it's too early to think about retirement, he's only 24 y.o. Maybe he should consider playing in Europe for a while. Get some experience under his belt.
During the offseason, several Italian teams wanted to sign him to a guaranteed contract. Knowing what we know now .... maybe it would have been a better choice than sitting on the bench.
Almost every guy that makes the NBA can score, including Jeremy Lin. However, not every guy that makes the NBA can distribute. That's why hobbled distributors like Baron Davis and Mike Bibby are so valued while great scorers but so-so distributors like Toney Douglas see their minutes come and go. If I were Mike Dantoni, I'd look at Jeremy Lin and ask myself if Lin could make my gameplan run. Can Lin defend? Absolutely, better than most. Can Lin score. Absolutely, especially in the paint. Can Lin get the team into its offensive sets? Hard to say, as the ballhandling needs tremendous work but the willingness to pass and cut are there. So if I were Dantoni or any other coach that had Lin in the NBA, I would have question marks about him until the ballhandling issue is solved.
Mike Bibby and Toney Douglas are outside shooters. They don't need to run sets specifically for them, they can just camp outside the 3-point line and hit open shots when the defense collapses on Amare and Melo.
If JLin was playing, they need to run plays specifically for him, so he can get into the lane and dish. Which they are hesitant to do because he hasn't been on the team long, and he's not part of their long term plans. He's a fill-in until Baron Davis comes back.
Realistically speaking just watching him play, it just doesn't seem like he will make it to the NBA. He lacks the handles, and he can't really finish in the lane. His defense isn't that good actually. He has quick hands, and can anticipate passing lanes, but his 1 on 1 D isn't that good. His D reminds me of Chris Mullin's D actually.
To be a successful NBA bench player he really has to find a specific skill that he can do really really well. Is he going to be like a Bruce Bowen type of guard and make a living by just playing D? Answer is no His D isnt that good and he doesnt have the size. Will he be a leandro barbosa type, a microwave off the bench? His shooting isnt that good, and he can't seem to finish in the lane good enough either. Also, he lacks the confidence of a scorer. Can he be like a derek fisher, a floor leader who manages the game well? His floor leadership is seriously lacking at this moment, and I dont see it improving. Jeremy Lin needs to find his identity fast or he is going to run out of chances.
All of those points are true. On the other hand, many other young point guards struggle with those same problems and eventually turn out pretty good. For example, Toronto's Jerryd Bayless is a good player who has played for several teams. He has become a solid rotation player, though not a star. Houston's Goran Dragic is still trying to figure it out after all the years in the NBA. Jj Barea was in and out of minor leagues before ending up on the Wolves. None of those players are traditional playmakers, yet they make just enough good decisions to play in the NBA. We here all believe in Jeremy Lin. I have faith that he will eventually learn and excel at the NBA game. It may take him a while, and there are other more highly touted players who never figured it out (like Antonio Daniels or Rumeal Robinson or Marcus Banks).
Interesting thought came across tonight that I wanted to share. Back in 2001, I was playing an Asian basketball league in the SF Bay Area. The league was a draft format and I got picked up by one of the captains. My team was solid and we ended up winning the league title that season. What I didn't realize until later was I was playing with a fairly well known (at least among Asian-American ballers) player.
The player's name was Conant Chi. He was about 5'11" / 6" tall. He was a deadly shooter but liked to make semi-fancy but good passes to teammates. But it went a little beyond that. Conant had played high school ball in SF, played JC ball at City College of SF and Division II ball at UC Davis.
After his college stint, Conant continued to played in amateur tournaments and apparently impressed some scouts at the "North American Chinese Invitational Basketball Tournament" (held every memorial day). This led to a PROFESSIONAL basketball stint in Taiwan for a few years. By the time, I met him, he had returned from Taiwan and had slowed down a bit (he's about 43 now, so would have been 32 or so when I met him). But all those who knew him when he was younger said he was a great player.
For those of us who play Asian ball, the top ball players like Conant and others are pretty well known about the Asian b-ball circuit. But Conant's rep extended beyond the Asian circuit. I was at work some years after playing with Conant talking basketball to two African-American co-workers. Both guys were from SF and played ball in high school. In fact, one of the guy's team played against Gary Payton and his Skyline team in the California State Championships.
Somehow, I had mentioned Conant and BOTH guys remembered him. They simply remembered him a great ball player. I admit I was surprised they knew him. In retrospect, all of them were around the same age so I probably shouldn't be surprised.
My point? There's a lot of people who say Jeremy doesn't get respect as a ball player. That may be true in some circles. However, I think in the Bay Area (with a large number of Asians around and play ball), that is less so. I think the lack of "respect" falls into many factors: Some areas don't have a lot of Asians so minimal exposure to guys who play ball. Then there's the fact that Asians (beside Yao, etc) don't play college / NBA in great numbers.
With Jeremy, this will change over time. Hopefully more Asians will get into playing ball and respect will come. :)
Hopefully, Jeremy gets another chance soon. It seems doubtful the Knicks will keep him past Feb. 10 when his contract becomes guaranteed. Still, the compressed schedule seems to make a deep bench necessary. Even the Warriors look like they'll need help at PG with Jenkins still a question mark and Curry out for longer than expected. Not to wish bad luck on anyone else, just think and believe Lin will continue to work hard and be ready. If he isn't able to stick with an NBA team, I would hope he'd go to the D-League rather than Overseas.
Lin is the only guard who drives to the rim most of the time. Maybe he's not a fit for this team. It's mostly just perimeter shooters camped around Melo and Amare. And maybe that's the way Coach D'Antoni wants it to be played.
ReplyDeleteThey will need Lin's roster spot for Baron Davis when he gets back. And the team will probably sign another free agent.
So it's inevitable that Jeremy will get waived, it's a just a question of when, and where does he go next ...
Eric maynor is out for the year as a Thunder. LIN should get traded to the Thunder right now~
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Lin's playing time is predicated on the status of other players.
ReplyDeleteI get the feeling that teams want Lin to be able to run an offense and spearhead a defense. Unlike most young players who can't stay on the court because they get attacked on defense, Lin is a terrific defender who is still learning how to run an NBA offense.
Point guards and small combo guards are like NFL quarterbacks. It takes years to learn how to run an offense, no matter how good the player is. Aside from shoot first second and third guys like Derrick Rose or Chris Paul or Deron Williams, true point guards have a steep learning curve. Let's not forget that 2 time league MVP Steve Nash was completely ineffective as a young player in Phx and in his initial Dallas years. And if we want to go farther back, NBA all star and #2 overall pick Kenny Anderson actually had a worse rookie season than Jeremy Lin did!
Should Lin be waived by the Knicks, I hope that Utah picks him up and does what they did with Illini teammates Dee Brown and Deron Williams: send him to Spokane WA for private 1on1 tutoring with the ultimate pass first point guard John Stockton.
It doesn't matter how injured the other guards are. The coach will just play Shumpert, Bibby, Fields, etc. for longer minutes to pick up the slack. This team has a lot of guards on the roster.
ReplyDeleteJLin's minutes depend on how much confidence the coach has in his game. And so far, it doesn't look like much. Garbage time in 25+ point blowout games is all he is getting here.
They made it clear from the beginning that Lin is not part of the Knicks' long term plans, and they totally believe Baron Davis will come back healthy and able to be a starter ( He's been injury prone and overweight for years ).
So maybe they aren't playing Jeremy Lin because he's not supposed to be staying anyway. Why help a player who will go to another team soon ?
D'Antoni prefers playing 7-8 players a game, you could see that from the Suns days. The real problem for Lin I think is that Mike is NOT a defensive minded coach. He really would have had much more opportunity to showcase his game had he played for a coach like Jeff Van Gundy, Jerry Sloan, or Greg Popovich.
ReplyDeleteIt doen't matter who is the coach; JL would be on the fringe (15/16th) spot of any NBA team as long as his turnover issue not solved.
ReplyDeleteOne upside is he left bayarea behind on God's mission pursuing basketball; that would speedup weaning and converting boy to man.
Hans said...
ReplyDelete"D'Antoni prefers playing 7-8 players a game, you could see that from the Suns days. The real problem for Lin I think is that Mike is NOT a defensive minded coach."
Actually D'Antoni would play 8-11 players when he was coach of the Suns. The reason being that his run-n-gun offense required fresh legs, so he had to sub players in more often.
Also, they do play defense, like the Spurs, it was more of a zone defense that packs the paint, but gives up a lot of 3's. The reason being that they can push the ball on a fast break when the opposing team misses a 3 pointer. Long rebounds lead to easy points in transition.
"Eric maynor is out for the year as a Thunder. LIN should get traded to the Thunder right now"
ReplyDeleteNah, the Thunder already have 2 more backup PGs: Reggie Jackson (1st round draft pick) and Royal Ivey.
Tony Douglas playing 7 minutes with an injured shoulder, in the first half.
ReplyDeleteSo much for the hope that the Coach would somehow let Jeremy replace an injured point guard. D'Antoni looks like a coach who would rather have a veteran limping around the court than a young, undrafted newbie.
I think Jeremy should pursue a career in coaching if his playing career doesn't pan out. The amount of wear and tear your body goes through is very high, banging bodies day in and day out.
ReplyDeleteI think it's too early to think about retirement, he's only 24 y.o. Maybe he should consider playing in Europe for a while. Get some experience under his belt.
ReplyDeleteDuring the offseason, several Italian teams wanted to sign him to a guaranteed contract. Knowing what we know now .... maybe it would have been a better choice than sitting on the bench.
Almost every guy that makes the NBA can score, including Jeremy Lin.
ReplyDeleteHowever, not every guy that makes the NBA can distribute. That's why hobbled distributors like Baron Davis and Mike Bibby are so valued while great scorers but so-so distributors like Toney Douglas see their minutes come and go.
If I were Mike Dantoni, I'd look at Jeremy Lin and ask myself if Lin could make my gameplan run. Can Lin defend? Absolutely, better than most. Can Lin score. Absolutely, especially in the paint. Can Lin get the team into its offensive sets? Hard to say, as the ballhandling needs tremendous work but the willingness to pass and cut are there.
So if I were Dantoni or any other coach that had Lin in the NBA, I would have question marks about him until the ballhandling issue is solved.
Mike Bibby and Toney Douglas are outside shooters. They don't need to run sets specifically for them, they can just camp outside the 3-point line and hit open shots when the defense collapses on Amare and Melo.
ReplyDeleteIf JLin was playing, they need to run plays specifically for him, so he can get into the lane and dish. Which they are hesitant to do because he hasn't been on the team long, and he's not part of their long term plans. He's a fill-in until Baron Davis comes back.
Realistically speaking just watching him play, it just doesn't seem like he will make it to the NBA. He lacks the handles, and he can't really finish in the lane. His defense isn't that good actually. He has quick hands, and can anticipate passing lanes, but his 1 on 1 D isn't that good. His D reminds me of Chris Mullin's D actually.
ReplyDeleteTo be a successful NBA bench player he really has to find a specific skill that he can do really really well. Is he going to be like a Bruce Bowen type of guard and make a living by just playing D? Answer is no His D isnt that good and he doesnt have the size. Will he be a leandro barbosa type, a microwave off the bench? His shooting isnt that good, and he can't seem to finish in the lane good enough either. Also, he lacks the confidence of a scorer.
Can he be like a derek fisher, a floor leader who manages the game well? His floor leadership is seriously lacking at this moment, and I dont see it improving. Jeremy Lin needs to find his identity fast or he is going to run out of chances.
All of those points are true.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, many other young point guards struggle with those same problems and eventually turn out pretty good. For example, Toronto's Jerryd Bayless is a good player who has played for several teams. He has become a solid rotation player, though not a star. Houston's Goran Dragic is still trying to figure it out after all the years in the NBA. Jj Barea was in and out of minor leagues before ending up on the Wolves. None of those players are traditional playmakers, yet they make just enough good decisions to play in the NBA.
We here all believe in Jeremy Lin. I have faith that he will eventually learn and excel at the NBA game. It may take him a while, and there are other more highly touted players who never figured it out (like Antonio Daniels or Rumeal Robinson or Marcus Banks).
Interesting thought came across tonight that I wanted to share. Back in 2001, I was playing an Asian basketball league in the SF Bay Area. The league was a draft format and I got picked up by one of the captains. My team was solid and we ended up winning the league title that season. What I didn't realize until later was I was playing with a fairly well known (at least among Asian-American ballers) player.
ReplyDeleteThe player's name was Conant Chi. He was about 5'11" / 6" tall. He was a deadly shooter but liked to make semi-fancy but good passes to teammates. But it went a little beyond that. Conant had played high school ball in SF, played JC ball at City College of SF and Division II ball at UC Davis.
After his college stint, Conant continued to played in amateur tournaments and apparently impressed some scouts at the "North American Chinese Invitational Basketball Tournament" (held every memorial day). This led to a PROFESSIONAL basketball stint in Taiwan for a few years. By the time, I met him, he had returned from Taiwan and had slowed down a bit (he's about 43 now, so would have been 32 or so when I met him). But all those who knew him when he was younger said he was a great player.
For those of us who play Asian ball, the top ball players like Conant and others are pretty well known about the Asian b-ball circuit. But Conant's rep extended beyond the Asian circuit. I was at work some years after playing with Conant talking basketball to two African-American co-workers. Both guys were from SF and played ball in high school. In fact, one of the guy's team played against Gary Payton and his Skyline team in the California State Championships.
Somehow, I had mentioned Conant and BOTH guys remembered him. They simply remembered him a great ball player. I admit I was surprised they knew him. In retrospect, all of them were around the same age so I probably shouldn't be surprised.
My point? There's a lot of people who say Jeremy doesn't get respect as a ball player. That may be true in some circles. However, I think in the Bay Area (with a large number of Asians around and play ball), that is less so. I think the lack of "respect" falls into many factors: Some areas don't have a lot of Asians so minimal exposure to guys who play ball. Then there's the fact that Asians (beside Yao, etc) don't play college / NBA in great numbers.
With Jeremy, this will change over time. Hopefully more Asians will get into playing ball and respect will come. :)
Hopefully, Jeremy gets another chance soon. It seems doubtful the Knicks will keep him past Feb. 10 when his contract becomes guaranteed. Still, the compressed schedule seems to make a deep bench necessary. Even the Warriors look like they'll need help at PG with Jenkins still a question mark and Curry out for longer than expected. Not to wish bad luck on anyone else, just think and believe Lin will continue to work hard and be ready. If he isn't able to stick with an NBA team, I would hope he'd go to the D-League rather than Overseas.
ReplyDelete