We're back with JLin takes and tidbits:
1. Take aways from Orlando? It's hard to describe in words just how far this Jeremy Lin mania has gone. It's just insane. Everywhere you turn you'd see Lin jersey's or T-shirts; Families decked out in Lin-wear, of all race, color, and creed. It was just so awesome to see. There were more Lin jerseys than Kobe, DWade, and LeBron's, combined.
2. Also, Jeremy is always thinking one step ahead. He didn't want any of the spotlight in the Rising Stars game as it only makes him an even bigger target in the 2nd half of the season. He asked for less time not only to rest, but to give others the spotlight.
3. Jeremy had a relaxing day off on Sunday and went fishing around Cocoa Beach.
4. What's my expectations for the 2nd half of the season for JLin and the Knicks?
Worst case: 19 pts 8 assists (all-star level)
Status quo: 22 pts 9 assists (top 5 PG)
Best case: 24 pts 10 assists (MVP level)
Many believe that Jeremy will come back down to earth. I fully expect him to keep up the pace, even exceed it a bit. I'm looking for 23 and 9.5 in his starts for the rest of the season. There will be off nights and his TO's will still be high, but he will produce and the Knicks will get to 40 wins.
5. For those of you who may not know, Charles Jenkins is the guy the Warriors drafted in the 2nd round to basically take Jeremy's spot. With the shortened season, there was no summer to dual it out. Instead, Jeremy practiced for 1 1/2 hours and was cut, all this on the first day of training camp. I heard a lot of the Warrior media types saying they really improved their bench and that Jenkins looked like a player.
Check out his line from tonight and this season:
Starts and goes 0-5 from the field 2pts in 18 minutes.
9 starts 9.2 mpg 2.4 ppg 1.4 apg .6 rpg
I'm not saying that this guy won't be decent down the road, but come on, this is just another incredible miss by Warrior management. Jenkins for Lin, are you kiddin me? By the way, I actually like Mark Jackson as a coach. I think if they had kept Jeremy, Jackson would've given him an opportunity.
6. There's been a lot of talk about Jeremy's physical improvement over the summer. We'll have an interview with one of the trainers he worked with extensively, Dr. Phil Wagner of Sparta Science, coming up.
7. I love this matchup tonight between two of the top young point guards in the NBA. Kyrie Irving is on fire right now and is the leading candidate for Rookie of the Year. Too bad basketball doesn't have the same rule as baseball on minimum playing time to be considered a rookie. If they did, Jeremy would be battling Kyrie for ROY right now.
Check out their PER (Player Efficiency Rating)
JLin 22.33
Kyrie 21.23
Regarding #4: I actually hope his ppg go down and apg go up because hopefully that will mean Melo, Stat, and Lin are gelling which makes for a better team.
ReplyDeleteAs for #5: although I would have loved to have seen this happen at Golden State, Linsanity could only have happened in New York. So I am glad it happened the way it did.
As for #6: I would love to hear how Linsanity has affected Sparta Science's business. I would think there would be a lot of "athletes" banging down their door after seeing what a difference it made for Jeremy.
On #4, I agree with Mr Chuckles. I'd rather see him average in the 15ppg range and around 10 in assists. Melo's and Stat's best asset is scoring. If the Knicks has to rely on 20+ scoring games from JLin, they will have trouble in the playoffs....
DeleteOn #5, I was really looking forward to JLin beating out Jenkins for the backup job in training camp - just to prove Riley/Myers/West wrong. When Lin posted his workout routine video on youtube, I knew he would return after the lock out a better player. Like most Lin fans, I just didn't expect him to be this good this quickly.
On #6, a Doc Scheppler interview would be very intersting too....
I think your #4 is way too optimistic. With baron davis coming back (BTW he actually looks in surprisingly good shape) , I see JLin's minutes coming down, and with melo back Jlin definitely wont be putting up as many points. Oh I forget, Shumpert will be coming back as well.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem with offense, has been a lack of variety in their plays. By now other teams have figured out the JLin Pick n' Roll, and found ways to shut it down. The Knicks need to run other plays and switch it up. Maybe feed the ball down low to Carmelo or Amare and set screens for Lin, Fields to cut to the basket. This will help break down the defense, without having to rely on Lin's dribble penetration each and every time.
ReplyDeletei think ever since lin became starter this knick team has been less selfish winning games with team work and chemistry. carmelo's stats is already down in the games he played with lin which is good because the whole team is involved and it's not just one guy like in the past. i do worry how every play seems to center on lin with the pick and roll and now teams are triple teaming lin. i would like to see plays for lin off the ball more as that should give him a break without having the ball in his hand all the time getting tired and maybe cutting down on the TOs.
DeleteI agree with mr-chuckles. I'd rather see Lin average less pts and more assists. Because that means that the team is better all around. All that matters is that his pts-accounted-for (pts + assisted pts) is at 40+.
ReplyDeleteIf some nights, they aren't double teaming Lin, then he should go ahead and drop 30 pts. But I think most teams will be double teaming and trapping Lin regularly, so he needs to make assists in those situations.
I wonder if now is the first time Jeremy has had to deal with the best basketball coaches and players targeting, planning for, and attacking him. He didn't seem ready for the Nets and Heat's game-planning and aggression that specifically targeted him. The narrative of Jeremy's high school, college, and NBDL careers is that he played in leagues below his talent level and was the best player on his team. Jeremy seems to get bored and careless when the competition is weak - I saw Jeremy get bored playing at Columbia when he did just enough for his Harvard team to win. He played bored against the Kings and Hawks, too. Before the NBA, Jeremy always dominated within his own league and was able to surprise the top players (eg, 2010 summer league and John Wall, UConn and Kemba Walker). In other words, he could coast in most games, punctuated by getting up for big opponents. Jeremy didn't regularly compete on even terms with his true basketball peers and when he faced them, he was always the aggressor. Now that he can't catch them by surprise anymore, the top players are expecting his talent and attacking him for the first time in his basketball life. How will Jeremy adjust? Not learning how to regularly compete with his peers on even terms is a consequence of coming out of the weaker Ivy League rather than a PAC-10 school like Stanford, Berkeley or UCLA. Jeremy now has to learn to compete nightly with his basketball peers at the highest level.
ReplyDeleteJeremy dominated the ball and controlled his teams in high school, college, and the NBDL. During the winning streak when Anthony and Stoudamire were out, Jeremy dominated the ball, was aggressive as a scorer, and controlled the Knicks. Now Jeremy has to defer with all the Knicks stars back in the rotation. Can Jeremy, for the first time in his career, adjust his game to be equally or more productive while being less dominant with the ball and with less control?
I believe Jeremy is really a SG/PG combo guard. He reminds me a lot of SG/PG Jeff Hornacek, a well-regarded, smart, versatile "third" guard on the Suns who didn't succeed as the starting PG for the Sixers. Hornacek eventually flourished as the starting SG and part-time PG with the excellent Stockton-to-Malone 90s Jazz teams. In a 2010 interview, Lin compared his game to Goran Dragic, another SG/PG combo guard.
I'd like to see Lin play some minutes at SG with Baron Davis handling the point. I think playing off the ball would unleash Lin's true NBA position. I believe the best role for Jeremy Lin is playing off the ball and making plays from the wing, with limited minutes running the offense at PG. Though he's impressed with his court vision and floor game, Lin seems most comfortable and effective attacking and scoring. Jeremy played more as a lead guard than point guard in college, and what has become more and more apparent (or reinforced) during the last 11 games is that Jeremy Lin isn't a pure point guard. He's a smart, versatile combo guard with enough PG skills to run the point against bad defenses or back up the PG in limited minutes against good defenses. However, Jeremy's passing and ball-handling abilities simply aren't up to running the point full-time.
We read a lot of what you wrote today the first time a few days ago.
DeleteThere's no neef to repost.
Eric, Jeremy Lin played 12 games in 16 days, heavy minutes almost every game. He was dead tired, that's it.
ReplyDeleteIn college he was regularly double or triple teamed. He didn't get "bored", he is a team player who didn't force shots just to get numbers. Your Hornacek comparison is way off, Lin isn't a shooter, and he's averaged over 9 assists per game through 12 games even as teams have focused on trying to stop him. He's a very promising attacking point guard, only 23 years old, who will continue to get better especially on turnovers.
Playing Lin off the ball is stupid. That takes him away from what he's good at.
ReplyDeleteWell, ALL NBA pgs regularly play off the ball for large parts of the game.
DeleteI think there's nothing wrong with playing Lin off the ball at times. The TOs were down and the Knicks won.
Jeremy Lin handled the ball most of the time and only had 1 turnover with 13 assists. That does not prove your argument that turnovers were down because Lin played off the ball. Lin handled the ball, distributed the ball well as point guard, and wasn't dead tired for once in a long time, and he played well.
Delete@Anonymous - Exactly. Taking the ball out of Lin's hands would be utter stupidity. His turnovers were down because he decided to quit being careless.
DeleteCareless or not, the Knicks look good in the Lin era.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI did not write that Lin playing off the ball was the reason he had low TOs and that's why the Knicks won.
ReplyDeleteLin has been awfully fatigued lately. Plus, his teammates haven't been stepping up. Fatigue and poor teammate play have contributed to turnovers.
I'll still take the turnovers if it means that the Knicks win.
Talking about Charles Jenkins. Just read that and found Jenkins was, once again, a step ahead of JLin. LOL!
ReplyDeletehttp://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/knicks/post/_/id/13189/lin-was-extremely-close-to-playing-in-italy
ESPN is right, sort of.
DeleteCharles Jenkins is probably more likely to play in Italy than Lin is right now.
"...Jeremy would be battling Kyrie for ROY right now."
ReplyDeleteWell if so, Jeremy will have to settle with MIP and a top runner in MVP.
I guess that's all right for all of us here.