Some good news coming out about JLin's recovery. He's ready to go:
"He's gone through his rehab process, so he's back running and moving, like we expected him to be," said Woodson, who will travel to Las Vegas in early July to watch Lin participate with the USA Men's Select Team. "Our doctors did a tremendous job on the surgery and our therapy people putting things back in place. So he will be ready to go, at full go [this season]."
I really dislike the idea of Woodson be the coach for Kiniks and for Jeremy(if he re-signs Knicks) although most of you opine that Woodson's system is good for Jeremy's development.
I have been reading critiques not only about how Jeremy can't fit well with Melo but also with A'mare. Both af them are on the list of the league's top scorers, so Jeremy in comparison isn't at par with them and thus he is expected to score less. But I really hate to see Jeremy's ppg going down (: .Now that he is back to the Bay Area, I hope he can improve his shooting tremendously in order to shut Woodson up if he choose to shoot instead of pass the ball to that big two.
Given a full pre-season and season, and health for both, Lin and Anthony should develop into a dynamic duo under Woodson.
One, as the point guard, Lin will have the ball in his hands, though he's asked to be more of a conventional PG under Woodson. Two, while Anthony is temperamental, a scorer first, and he's not a point forward, he's a willing and skilled passer for his position - if he's getting his touches. Three, on or off the ball, Lin is still one-two with Anthony as the best playmaker and creative scorer on the team. When Anthony needs/wants help, which he will (the 'big three' fad is based on NBA stars seeking help), the ball will find Lin as the second option; then, when the ball has returned to him, Lin will do what comes naturally - with Woodson's support. (See Woodson's comments in the 76ers game where Woodson gave Lin the greenlight in the 4Q even though Lin went 1-11 in the 1st 3 Qs.) If Anthony fails to get in better shape, then there will be more nights where the game will be in Lin's hands.
Stoudamire won't be in Lin's way, besides his odd inability to catch Lin's passes. Stoudamire is a big man who finishes on plays others make for him, so his scoring touches do not come at Lin's expense. Stoudamire's problems are his health and his frontcourt mates are better than him in both ways he scores. On pick-and-rolls, Chandler is a better option. In the mid-range, Anthony is a better option.
Recall that Steve Nash didn't get his own team until his 9th season. By then, Nash was fully developed as a mature play-off tested veteran. Lin won't need that long to season, but like Nash, Lin would benefit from more development and solid play-off experience before he's given his own team.
Lin as a 23-year-old converting from SG to PG still has weaknesses as a PG. He will have ample opportunity to work on his weak areas as a conventional PG under Woodson, and yes, as Anthony's sidekick. Next season, the Knicks should be a top-5 play-off team with a core of Anthony, Lin, Chandler, and Stoudamire, which means they should make it to the second round, which means at least 8 play-off games for Lin.
After 1-2 more seasons as a Knick, Lin should be ready for his own team. The Knicks can even try to time it so that they can choose in 3-4 years whether to give the team to Lin and build around him.
I hope so, Eric. Your analysis sounds very comforting...to wait for 3-4 years to see that Jeremy has a team(Knicks or others) build around him may cause me slight agony.
I actually think that Jeremy Lin will seize full control of the Knicks next season if they elect to keep him.
In the NBA, the basketball finds its ways to the players that can produce. Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire are great scorers, but they are strictly scorers and not shot creators. Lin is the only guy on the Knicks who can create those shots, and he has amply demonstrated that as he goes so do the Knicks.
The Knicks without Lin can win in the regular season. But in the playoffs where a single guy can never beat anybody by himself, Lin becomes incredibly valuable. A healthy Knicks team with Lin at the top of his game would be tough for any NBA opponent to go against.
Unlike Eric, I completely disagree that Jeremy Lin has to have perfect point guard skills to be the best player at his position. There is no such thing as a point guard without weaknesses, at least not in the history of the NBA. Lin only has to have enough skill to get the job done on the court, and he already has that.
The standard I use for Lin isn't 'perfect point guard skills'; the standard I use is the Steve Nash Mavs-to-Suns developmental arc, except accelerated.
My view of Lin is he's already an above-average NBA PG who's proven his clutchness in the regular season but still unproven in the post-season. His strengths are stronger than his weaknesses are weak, but he does have weaknesses as a PG. Top teams, and moreso top teams in the play-offs like the Heat and Celtics, relentlessly expose and exploit weaknesses in their opponents. Woodson drew the wrath of many Lin fans by limiting Lin's freedom to show off his strengths relative to D'Antoni, but Woodson did so to limit the exposure to Lin's weaknesses.
The idea is for Lin to reduce his weaknesses in order to get back the freedom to show off his strengths and, next time, impose his will on the Heat like he already can against lesser teams. If Woodson won't give Lin the freedom to fully shine once Lin has strengthened his game, then it will be time for Lin to leave the Knicks and find a team that will give him the freedom, just as Nash left the Mavs as the border-line all-star PG of a perennial play-off team in order to become an MVP with the Suns.
It takes time and it's not easy for an up-and-coming player to take over a team with bigger stars, even if the player has all the indicators of a rising star. See Bryant-O'Neal, Nash-Nowitzki, Marbury-Garnett, Rondo-Garnett/Allen/Pierce, Parker-Duncan/Ginobili. It helps the rising star when the bigger stars dim due to age, but Anthony won't get old for a while. Stoudamire won't eclipse Lin's star anymore than he eclipsed Nash's star.
I expect Lin will win, gain valuable play-off experience, strengthen his game, and become a border-line all-star with the Knicks, like Nash did with the Mavs. But eventually, Lin and the Knicks will face the same choice faced by Nash and the Mavs: whether to commit to Lin as the team's centerpiece or as a Pippen-esque star sidekick.
Sooner or later, the Knicks will realize that Lin is a centerpiece and not a role player like Scottie Pippen (I consider Pippen the most overrated player in NBA history).
Some of the holes in Lin's game wouldn't look so bad if he had another guard on the team that was good enough to start in the NBA. Lin is no Rajon Rondo whose much more limited game is covered up by the three Hall of Famers that he shares the court with.
I think Lin's game is tailor made for NBA playoff basketball. I actually think he'll raise his game when the playoffs come around.
For the first time in his NBA career, Lin will start the season with a guaranteed spot on an NBA roster. Factor in training camp and a somewhat sympathetic coaching staff and we might be looking at an All Star PG next year.
I wonder if Jeremy will keep working out at Sparta Science like he did last summer. It seems more logical that he needs to work with a trainers and doctors who are familiar with his knee condition. In that case maybe he should stay in New York so he can work out with the team staff.
Sparta did a decent job on his body, but he wasn't in the best shape coming into the NBA. I'd like to see him gain some chiseled abs and chest like Chris Paul.
I openly wonder how many top NBA players take performance enhancing drugs to enhance their careers.
At the NCAA level, everybody knows that PEDs are an integral part of the sport. I would imagine that at the NBA level, drug use is at least as high.
Jeremy Lin does not appear to me to have used those drugs. Let's hope he stays away from them.
I have a friend from Chicago that knew people that worked with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in Chicago when they were winning championships. Supposedly Jordan and Pippen were very well versed on how to use PEDs. After all, it was at the University of North Carolina where Michael Jordan discovered that his body responded to steroids much better than the avg basketball player did.
PEDs can help muscles, but can they help joints? Lin could use more muscle to impose his will on defense and offense, and apply the beatings rather than take them, but his knees are a bigger concern.
I won't get into the reasons why but yes 100% they help.
I'll bet that Jeremy Lin woukd be even more dominant if the 70% (Derrick Rose and Charles Oakley estimations) ot NBA players that use PEDs stopped using them.
Yeah, you have to wonder when you see guys like D-Wade, Rondo, and Westbrook who are about Jeremy's size, but are freakishly athletic. They frequently out jump and outrebound every big man on the floor .... why is that ?
Well, I see Jeremy Lin outjumping and outrebounding big men too.
That's a big reason why I was so excited about his game when he was dominating in the NCAA and summer league.
Certainly Jeremy Lin had ample athleticism to compete with anybody and make All Star plays. For example, nobody in today's game is quicker to the ball than Lin is.
PEDs in the NBA is the issue that most people strangely don't talk about. While Major League Baseball and the NFL to a lesser degree have been the focus of PEDs, the NBA has escaped scrutiny.
It would be interesting to find out which "superstars" both past and present have been taking PEDs. It might cause people to view certain players and their legacy in an entirely new (and negative) light just like how Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, and even Lance Armstrong have faced.
Both NBA and NCAA basketball are awash in doping and EVERYBODY knows it.
You see players today zipping around the court in a way they could not in the 70s and 80s, and steroid use was rampant back then too.
The NBA has the weakest drug testing policy in all of pro sports. Because PEDs are constantly evolving, the current PED tests are never enough to keep up with the ever "improving" technology.
I firmly believe that if the NBA was PED free and free of biased officiating, the on court basketball product would look drastically different.
In fact, I have a funny suspicion that the game would pick up speed and all 5 players on the court would have to have a complete skill set just to be able to compete. Guys would have to actually play instead of using brute strength to bend the rules. I think that less defense would be played simply because nonjuiced guys cannot lock down on people as easily. Scores like 156-135 would be more common and the games would be far more entertaining for the general public!
Players know to cycle out their PED usage to avoid the far more stringent Olympic testing. But keep in mind that designer drugs often come with designer masking methods. No drug test can catch everything.
I remember a NFL draft combine where they TOLD the draftees that drug testing was going to be performed. Most of the draftees took the drugs anyway and tested positive.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSome good news coming out about JLin's recovery. He's ready to go:
ReplyDelete"He's gone through his rehab process, so he's back running and moving, like we expected him to be," said Woodson, who will travel to Las Vegas in early July to watch Lin participate with the USA Men's Select Team. "Our doctors did a tremendous job on the surgery and our therapy people putting things back in place. So he will be ready to go, at full go [this season]."
(whoops...here is the full link below)
http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/story/_/id/7973249/new-york-knicks-general-manager-expects-re-sign-jeremy-lin
I really dislike the idea of Woodson be the coach for Kiniks and for Jeremy(if he re-signs Knicks) although most of you opine that Woodson's system is good for Jeremy's development.
ReplyDeleteI have been reading critiques not only about how Jeremy can't fit well with Melo but also with A'mare. Both af them are on the list of the league's top scorers, so Jeremy in comparison isn't at par with them and thus he is expected to score less. But I really hate to see Jeremy's ppg going down (: .Now that he is back to the Bay Area, I hope he can improve his shooting tremendously in order to shut Woodson up if he choose to shoot instead of pass the ball to that big two.
Given a full pre-season and season, and health for both, Lin and Anthony should develop into a dynamic duo under Woodson.
DeleteOne, as the point guard, Lin will have the ball in his hands, though he's asked to be more of a conventional PG under Woodson. Two, while Anthony is temperamental, a scorer first, and he's not a point forward, he's a willing and skilled passer for his position - if he's getting his touches. Three, on or off the ball, Lin is still one-two with Anthony as the best playmaker and creative scorer on the team. When Anthony needs/wants help, which he will (the 'big three' fad is based on NBA stars seeking help), the ball will find Lin as the second option; then, when the ball has returned to him, Lin will do what comes naturally - with Woodson's support. (See Woodson's comments in the 76ers game where Woodson gave Lin the greenlight in the 4Q even though Lin went 1-11 in the 1st 3 Qs.) If Anthony fails to get in better shape, then there will be more nights where the game will be in Lin's hands.
Stoudamire won't be in Lin's way, besides his odd inability to catch Lin's passes. Stoudamire is a big man who finishes on plays others make for him, so his scoring touches do not come at Lin's expense. Stoudamire's problems are his health and his frontcourt mates are better than him in both ways he scores. On pick-and-rolls, Chandler is a better option. In the mid-range, Anthony is a better option.
Recall that Steve Nash didn't get his own team until his 9th season. By then, Nash was fully developed as a mature play-off tested veteran. Lin won't need that long to season, but like Nash, Lin would benefit from more development and solid play-off experience before he's given his own team.
Lin as a 23-year-old converting from SG to PG still has weaknesses as a PG. He will have ample opportunity to work on his weak areas as a conventional PG under Woodson, and yes, as Anthony's sidekick. Next season, the Knicks should be a top-5 play-off team with a core of Anthony, Lin, Chandler, and Stoudamire, which means they should make it to the second round, which means at least 8 play-off games for Lin.
After 1-2 more seasons as a Knick, Lin should be ready for his own team. The Knicks can even try to time it so that they can choose in 3-4 years whether to give the team to Lin and build around him.
I hope so, Eric. Your analysis sounds very comforting...to wait for 3-4 years to see that Jeremy has a team(Knicks or others) build around him may cause me slight agony.
DeleteI actually think that Jeremy Lin will seize full control of the Knicks next season if they elect to keep him.
DeleteIn the NBA, the basketball finds its ways to the players that can produce. Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire are great scorers, but they are strictly scorers and not shot creators. Lin is the only guy on the Knicks who can create those shots, and he has amply demonstrated that as he goes so do the Knicks.
The Knicks without Lin can win in the regular season. But in the playoffs where a single guy can never beat anybody by himself, Lin becomes incredibly valuable. A healthy Knicks team with Lin at the top of his game would be tough for any NBA opponent to go against.
Unlike Eric, I completely disagree that Jeremy Lin has to have perfect point guard skills to be the best player at his position. There is no such thing as a point guard without weaknesses, at least not in the history of the NBA. Lin only has to have enough skill to get the job done on the court, and he already has that.
The standard I use for Lin isn't 'perfect point guard skills'; the standard I use is the Steve Nash Mavs-to-Suns developmental arc, except accelerated.
DeleteMy view of Lin is he's already an above-average NBA PG who's proven his clutchness in the regular season but still unproven in the post-season. His strengths are stronger than his weaknesses are weak, but he does have weaknesses as a PG. Top teams, and moreso top teams in the play-offs like the Heat and Celtics, relentlessly expose and exploit weaknesses in their opponents. Woodson drew the wrath of many Lin fans by limiting Lin's freedom to show off his strengths relative to D'Antoni, but Woodson did so to limit the exposure to Lin's weaknesses.
The idea is for Lin to reduce his weaknesses in order to get back the freedom to show off his strengths and, next time, impose his will on the Heat like he already can against lesser teams. If Woodson won't give Lin the freedom to fully shine once Lin has strengthened his game, then it will be time for Lin to leave the Knicks and find a team that will give him the freedom, just as Nash left the Mavs as the border-line all-star PG of a perennial play-off team in order to become an MVP with the Suns.
It takes time and it's not easy for an up-and-coming player to take over a team with bigger stars, even if the player has all the indicators of a rising star. See Bryant-O'Neal, Nash-Nowitzki, Marbury-Garnett, Rondo-Garnett/Allen/Pierce, Parker-Duncan/Ginobili. It helps the rising star when the bigger stars dim due to age, but Anthony won't get old for a while. Stoudamire won't eclipse Lin's star anymore than he eclipsed Nash's star.
I expect Lin will win, gain valuable play-off experience, strengthen his game, and become a border-line all-star with the Knicks, like Nash did with the Mavs. But eventually, Lin and the Knicks will face the same choice faced by Nash and the Mavs: whether to commit to Lin as the team's centerpiece or as a Pippen-esque star sidekick.
Add: Wade's star was able to eclipse Lamar Odom quickly, but Odom wasn't meant to be a centerpiece.
DeleteAdd2: Pippen-esque should be Pippen-LEVEL.
DeleteSooner or later, the Knicks will realize that Lin is a centerpiece and not a role player like Scottie Pippen (I consider Pippen the most overrated player in NBA history).
DeleteSome of the holes in Lin's game wouldn't look so bad if he had another guard on the team that was good enough to start in the NBA. Lin is no Rajon Rondo whose much more limited game is covered up by the three Hall of Famers that he shares the court with.
I think Lin's game is tailor made for NBA playoff basketball. I actually think he'll raise his game when the playoffs come around.
For the first time in his NBA career, Lin will start the season with a guaranteed spot on an NBA roster. Factor in training camp and a somewhat sympathetic coaching staff and we might be looking at an All Star PG next year.
I wonder if Jeremy will keep working out at Sparta Science like he did last summer. It seems more logical that he needs to work with a trainers and doctors who are familiar with his knee condition. In that case maybe he should stay in New York so he can work out with the team staff.
ReplyDeleteSparta did a decent job on his body, but he wasn't in the best shape coming into the NBA. I'd like to see him gain some chiseled abs and chest like Chris Paul.
If Jeremy gain some chiseled abs and chest like Chris Paul, I can imagine many of his female fans will go even more crazy over him.
DeleteLin might need STEROIDS to get Chris Paul's abs and chest.
Deletehint hint about Paul.
go find Tim Grover!
ReplyDeleteI openly wonder how many top NBA players take performance enhancing drugs to enhance their careers.
ReplyDeleteAt the NCAA level, everybody knows that PEDs are an integral part of the sport. I would imagine that at the NBA level, drug use is at least as high.
Jeremy Lin does not appear to me to have used those drugs. Let's hope he stays away from them.
I have a friend from Chicago that knew people that worked with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in Chicago when they were winning championships. Supposedly Jordan and Pippen were very well versed on how to use PEDs. After all, it was at the University of North Carolina where Michael Jordan discovered that his body responded to steroids much better than the avg basketball player did.
PEDs can help muscles, but can they help joints? Lin could use more muscle to impose his will on defense and offense, and apply the beatings rather than take them, but his knees are a bigger concern.
DeleteAbsolutely PEDs help joints.
DeleteI won't get into the reasons why but yes 100% they help.
I'll bet that Jeremy Lin woukd be even more dominant if the 70% (Derrick Rose and Charles Oakley estimations) ot NBA players that use PEDs stopped using them.
Yeah, you have to wonder when you see guys like D-Wade, Rondo, and Westbrook who are about Jeremy's size, but are freakishly athletic. They frequently out jump and outrebound every big man on the floor .... why is that ?
DeleteWell, I see Jeremy Lin outjumping and outrebounding big men too.
DeleteThat's a big reason why I was so excited about his game when he was dominating in the NCAA and summer league.
Certainly Jeremy Lin had ample athleticism to compete with anybody and make All Star plays. For example, nobody in today's game is quicker to the ball than Lin is.
PEDs in the NBA is the issue that most people strangely don't talk about. While Major League Baseball and the NFL to a lesser degree have been the focus of PEDs, the NBA has escaped scrutiny.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to find out which "superstars" both past and present have been taking PEDs. It might cause people to view certain players and their legacy in an entirely new (and negative) light just like how Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, and even Lance Armstrong have faced.
Both NBA and NCAA basketball are awash in doping and EVERYBODY knows it.
DeleteYou see players today zipping around the court in a way they could not in the 70s and 80s, and steroid use was rampant back then too.
The NBA has the weakest drug testing policy in all of pro sports. Because PEDs are constantly evolving, the current PED tests are never enough to keep up with the ever "improving" technology.
I firmly believe that if the NBA was PED free and free of biased officiating, the on court basketball product would look drastically different.
In fact, I have a funny suspicion that the game would pick up speed and all 5 players on the court would have to have a complete skill set just to be able to compete. Guys would have to actually play instead of using brute strength to bend the rules. I think that less defense would be played simply because nonjuiced guys cannot lock down on people as easily. Scores like 156-135 would be more common and the games would be far more entertaining for the general public!
PEDs widely used in NBA to enhance performance? Really? It's cheating and it's unacceptable!!! This revelation kills all the fun!
DeleteWill the Olympics drug testing catch PED use by Team USA members and non-American NBA players on their national teams?
DeleteProbably not.
DeletePlayers know to cycle out their PED usage to avoid the far more stringent Olympic testing. But keep in mind that designer drugs often come with designer masking methods. No drug test can catch everything.
I remember a NFL draft combine where they TOLD the draftees that drug testing was going to be performed. Most of the draftees took the drugs anyway and tested positive.