Some late night reading:
How can anyone pick Danny Green for Most Improved? This is the kind of bias that Jeremy is up against and will have to fight over and over.
Which players are leading NBA award races? - ESPN
A nice top five list:
Five Most Popular Christian Athletes in America: Jeremy Lin | Gospelherald.net-Chinese Christian News Online
Lin and Rubio reading, sort of deep and twisted:
Stories, Not Buildings: The Rise and Fall of Lin and Rubio | Hardwood Paroxysm
Actually, I can understand people not picking Jeremy for Most Improved.
ReplyDelete1) His regular-season ending injury limited the number of games he played this year. There were only 26 (maybe 27) games in which he played heavy minutes.
2) Some people believe that a 2nd-year player shouldn't win Most Improved. Even the most NBA-ready players need time to adjust to NBA competition, playbooks, scheduling. So their "improvement" owes mostly to experience and comfort, not boosting their skill-level.
3) Jeremy barely played his rookie year, so we don't really know how much he "improved" this year. While he definitely made big strides, us J-Lin fans know that he was always better than the Warriors gave him credit for.
That said, Jeremy would still get my vote because his sophomore leap was SO colossal and epic. Pekovic would be my very close #2 choice, losing out to J-Lin because he was already a quality rotation player by the end of his rookie year.
Let other players take it. This award is not important and actually somewhat an unlucky one. Most winners are not elite players and actually stop improving after winning it. I will be happy if he wins it but won't be disappointed if not.
ReplyDeleteLin winning as many awards as possible is good for Lin, good for Lin's fans and good for the NBA. So I disagree with you on that part. Also, plenty of guys who won "most improved" have maintained their performance and gotten even better. Some guys take awhile to adapt to the NBA game, and when they do, they never look back.
DeleteAs a Lin fan, I almost don't really care too much if he wins this award or not. The narrative so far has been how he's gone unnoticed many times and after given the chance has been able to prove himself. This is a bit different than the narrative of watching someone who everyone had seen play enough minutes previous season(s) and then witnessed how he improved compared to before.
ReplyDeleteSaying Jeremy improved since last year somewhat justifies him going undrafted, being cut from teams, and returning to the D-League because obviously before (if you go with this theory) he wasn't that good but somehow miraculously since the time he was cut by the rockets to the Knicks vs Nets has improved.
I'll stick the original narrative that he was unnoticed, had to go against stereotyping, and was never given a decent chance. The award would have to be named 'Most Unnoticed Player'.
Agree.
Delete"Saying Jeremy improved since last year somewhat justifies him going undrafted, being cut from teams, and returning to the D-League because obviously before (if you go with this theory) he wasn't that good but somehow miraculously since the time he was cut by the rockets to the Knicks vs Nets has improved."
DeleteActually, no. It really does only mean that Lin got better, something that Lin himself freely acknowledges. Guys do improve, which is why this award exists in the first place.
Also, good thing you aren't Jeremy Lin's agent. Denying Jeremy Lin's capacity for past and future improvement would make giving Lin the $5 million exception next year and a $70 million long term deal the year after ridiculous. Such an investment would be better spent on a guy who is actually going to keep getting better.
What a lot of us believe is that though Jeremy Lin improved in his 2nd year, he wasn't so incapable in his 1st year to be unworthy of NBA rotation minutes.
DeleteEven in garbage time, Lin put up gaudy stats that many of us noticed. Thus seeing him become a rotation player was a surprise to NBA scouts and media types but not to us here.
I do not consider the $5 million exception to already be Lin's. A lot can happen in the offseason for Lin NOT to be signed.
I'm REALLY glad that unknown is NOT Jeremy Lin's agent.
DeleteAgents should not count their chickens before they're hatched, especially since Lin might not even be in NY next year to collect that $5 million exception.
Unknown I disagree with you man. First off Jeremy was a highly undervalued player who was never given the chance until circumstances allowed him to and then was able to prove he is worth way more. This is not a candidate for Most Improved.
DeleteYou can't even argue that it was his due to recognition of his improvement that he was given all these minutes. No, it was more like he had a break out game against the Nets and a desperate D'Antoni with no other PG decided to start him. That's reality.
Not being Most Improved also doesn't mean he's not worthy of any mid level exception. Any amount is worth what the player can prove he can produce, not what people think he could produce given his rate of improvement.
Second, there really was no steady or even slow measurable improvement in Jeremy's stats. Of course he's improved, but it's still hard to argue on paper for Jeremy who hasn't even played a full season's worth of games compared to other players who have more games under their belt and have more improved stat columns to show for it.
Last, no one's saying just because Jeremy doesn't quite fit the definition of what the 'Most Improved' player award represents that it then means he doesn't have the capacity to improve. We're just saying this isn't the year he improved, it was the year he finally got noticed. There's a huge difference.
With the way Lin's 2nd season has come and gone, I don't know if I want the Knicks to cut him or keep him.
ReplyDeleteI sense the good in you. You'd prefer Lin play for the Suns. Tell me I'm wrong! :)
DeleteThe Knicks will keep him. The Knicks don't have a point guard remember? Baron Davis is injured (again) and not very good when he is healthy (which is never) and his contract runs out at the end of the year. Bibby? More of the same. Tony Douglas? Yeah ... right. Not only will the Knicks keep Lin (they'd pay the $5 million and consider it a bargain) but they will also need to go out and acquire a veteran backup point guard from someplace.
DeleteWhat Lin fans want isn't good for the Knicks, and the Knicks is who Lin plays for. Sorry but that's the reality.
Of course I'd rather see Lin play for the Suns than the Knicks, ninjae.
DeleteThat said, Unknown is right. The Knicks already have their PG in Lin. On paper, Lin is right for the Knicks and the Knicks are right for Lin.
As well as Woodson has used Lin this year, I still have doubts about whether he will play Lin even as a rotation backup next season. That is my biggest concern, and I hope that I'm wrong. I do not like to see highly producing players like Lin sitting behind lower producing guys.
I have no idea what is going to happen with Lin next season.
"I still have doubts about whether he will play Lin even as a rotation backup next season."
DeleteLin will get the $5 million exception next season. You have been following the NBA long enough to know the ramifications of that: guys only get the $5 million exception when they have publicly proven that they can play, and if a guy has public proven that he can play, a coach will be held accountable to the GM, owner, media and fans if a $5 million dollar man isn't getting minutes.
It was easy for coaches to get away with not playing Lin in the past because no one knew who he was (not literally but you know what I mean) and he wasn't making any money (again, not literally but in context). But things are different now, and if Woodson wants to keep his job - and trust me, he does - he is going to have to play Lin. This is nothing like Pat Riley's refusing to play Charlie Ward because Riley didn't agree with the decision to draft him.
I want to be in agreement with you.
DeleteHowever, weird things can happen in basketball. Jeremy Lin's career has been filled with weirdness (not his fault). For all we know, he might not even be a Knick next year.
If there's one thing I'm learning about Lin, it's that his basketball ability is predictable but his career path is not.
ya ... i agree with you that his ability is predictable but his career path is not. Dont' forget that knicks owner Dolan is an very unpredictable guys and he always has questionable decision. However, I think Lin has already announced to the world that "He is a qualified NBA player". Now, I wish he can come back stronger (improving his jumpshoot/3 pt,ball handling and etc) to crash their (ppl who overlook him) glasses.
DeleteIf Jeremy Lin came back next year, I don't think he will be as popular as during the height of Linsanity. He was one of the most popular celebrities in the world.
ReplyDeleteMost of it was because he was new, and exciting to watch. Next time around, he won't be a new sensation, and he probably won't be as exciting playing under Woodson's system.
Idk, it's a double edged sword. Knicks, and a lot of teams want him for his popularity .... but obviously he won't be as famous as when he first started. Unless he does something out of the ordinary like Lamar Odom or Tiger Woods ... which we don't want.
I disagree. I don't think we've seen to what extent JLIN's popularity can grow. I think the novelty may wear off but the marketing machine will only want more and more. JLIN is money.
Deletei completely disagree too. it will entirely depend on how he performs and if he can ultimately win rings. before the mess, tiger was a worldwide sensation because of his uniqueness but also because he kept winning. i dont think the new fans Jeremy has acquired all around the world would be satisfied with just this season, but they want to see more of him achieving greater things. Knicks fans maybe only see him in this light if he moves on to another team, but I'd say the majority of Jeremy's fans aren't necessarily Knicks fans and will follow him to whatever team he moves on to.
Delete"If Jeremy Lin came back next year, I don't think he will be as popular as during the height of Linsanity. He was one of the most popular celebrities in the world."
DeleteThat is wrong. In athletics, you get more fans the longer and better you play. As difficult as it might be for you guys to believe, a lot of people haven't seen Lin play yet, and many more haven't seen him play more than once or twice. The more people who see him play at a high level - and sustain that play - the more fans he will get. And allow me to say it: a lot of people who were caught up in Linsanity weren't NBA fans, just like a lot of Tebowmania types weren't NFL fans. (Of course, Lin is a much better NBA player than Tebow is an NFL one; just comparing the fans of the two, not the players.) But let Lin lead the NBA in assists next season (for example) and that will make fans out of a lot of the more involved NBA watchers, who need more than Lin's half-season to be convinced. (These are the types who ago were saying that Michael Jordan would never amount to anything unless he developed a reliable jumpshot. Which Jordan, incidentally, did by the way).
The number of "haters" will increase too, by the way. (Regarding Michael Jordan count me in: I could never stand the guy and still can't.) But so long as he keeps playing great, his fans will far surpass the haters.
Jeremy Lin should definitely be The Most Improved Player over Pekovic (2nd) and Danny Green (3rd or 4th). Despite having much improved stats, they are still role players, not leading stars of their teams. Jeremy Lin is (was) the LEADER of the NY Knicks, the player with the ball in his hands at the end of games. Not only that, but the Knicks won mainly because of Lin. Danny Green plays for a Spurs team that is stacked with veteran depth with an established core. Pekovic had Kevin Love, and Rubio to help out.
ReplyDeleteJeremy Lin had no help on his team, especially when Melo and Stoudemire were out. He was the driver in winning those games.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHuh? I didn't make that comment, whatever it was. Must have been another "unknown." Feel free to compare IP addresses to prove it.
Delete