The big question is, will Harden play? And if he does play, will he be strong enough to play his usual ball-dominant role or will he defer to Lin?
The Bulls are a good defensive team. However, their PG position is not their strong suit with Rose out. Lin should have the advantage at PG again against Kirk Hinrich and Nate Robinson.
The Jazz game was confusing. With the news Harden was sick, it seemed like an obvious opportunity for Lin to take over. After all, Lin torched pretty much the same Jazz team for 28 last season. Indeed, Lin was aggressive looking for his own scores in the 1st half of the game. His points were up - and they were pretty points. Lin dialing up his offense was an easy choice with Harden laboring and dazed, but it was progress nonetheless.
In the 2nd half of the game, the news Harden would not play seemed to guarantee Lin would revive the commanding Knicks version of himself. But instead of clarifying his role in Harden's absence as expected, Lin's role became confused in the 2nd half. He was pulled prematurely in the 3Q, and when he returned to start the 4Q, Lin played off the ball. Most disconcerting was a play where Daquean Cook had to emphatically call over a seemingly reluctant Lin to take the ball from Cook.
The other big question is, how will the Rockets coaches use Lin? He should outclass the Bulls replacement PGs. But, with Harden out of the way, Lin should have been relentlessly attacking the Jazz PGs, creating his own scores and making plays for his teammates, throughout the last game.
Hopefully, tonight, we'll see more play like Lin's throwback 1st half of the Jazz game and less play like the confused 2nd half of the game.
Hinrich has been a prolonged shooting slump. Robinson though I am a bit worried about - he has been shooting the three pretty well (.444 this season) and if Lin overhelps like he has been doing in the past few games I fear Robinson might have a career night from the perimeter.
Something to watch for: Are the Rockets other guards, especially Douglas, playing help defense the same way as Lin? In other words, Lin may just be following coach's orders when it looks like he's overhelping.
Last season, some of the criticism of Lin's defense was warranted, particularly his lapses in on-the-ball defense and bad technique getting over screens, but he also looked bad at times when he was switching as ordered and the help on his man was poor (Stoudemire was the worst offender). Lin's defense looked a lot better last season after Woodson replaced D'Antoni and the team played better defense over-all.
just because he put up 28 on jazz last season doesn't he should've/would've put up 28 this season, even if he was completely healthy.
completely different system and completely different jeremy lin. he didn't beat jazz playing 1 on 5 last year - he played within the system and so did everyone else.
right now, he's in a different system that 1)decreases his usage rate, and 2)has new teammates who are also trying to learn the system, and 3)coming off of surgery. he's 100% but his explosiveness still hasn't come back yet and the only thing to do to get it back is to play ball and give it time.
linsanity numbers will NEVER happen in the current system that have him shooting 10-13 times a game. he'll have to shoot at 70% just to score 20pts! his ceiling in this system is jkid numbers... 15-18pts, 9-10assists, 5 rbs, 3 stls. these are awesome numbers if it does come to that.
There is NO BASIS for Eric's fantasy that Lin had trouble defensively for the Knicks last year.
With Lin, the Knicks were #5 in the entire NBA for defense. Before Lin showed up to save the season, the Knicks were nowhere near that good on defense.
I think Lin's defense has improved this season compared to last season, particularly his on-the-ball defense. He's better with screens, too. My point was that Lin's defense was better than reputed last season, and the perception that it was bad was due in large part to the Knicks defensive system under D'Antoni, which called on Lin to switch everything. When you switch and your help is bad, that makes you look bad.
When Woodson took over, he straightened out the team defense and Lin's defense looked better along with it. Similarly, Lin may look like he's overhelping as a Rocket because that's the way he's been ordered to play defense, just like he looked like he was overswitching under D'Antoni because that's what he was ordered to do. The way to find out whether to blame Lin or his coaches is to pay more attention to how the other Rockets guards, especially Douglas, are playing defense.
fighton1999, true, the current system has Harden playing a role similar to Lin's Linsanity role with Lin in a lesser ole. But with Harden out, it stood to reason that Lin would take over for Harden for the rest of the game. That didn't happen; if anything, the reverse happened. As for his Rockets vs Knicks teammates, that was the game Anthony pulled his groin. I don't think the quality of the Knicks line-up that night was better than the Rockets line-up against the Jazz. The Rockets needed Lin to step up in Harden's absence as much as the Knicks needed Lin to step up in Anthony's absence. You're right that Lin's role was different for the Knicks. Yet Lin's role should have changed, if only for 1 night, when Harden was out sick. It didn't.
The biggest culprit for Lin looking bad on switches was Stoudemire, who would literally stand and watch as Lin's man dribbled past him on a straight line to the basket or take an extra dribble into an open jump shot.
The Rockets frontcourt is taking grief for subpar rebounding and defense, outside of Asik, but their offense is coming along faster than expected. The Bulls veteran frontcourt will be a test for them.
The Rockets should have the advantage against the Bulls backcourt, though. Hinrich and Hamilton should not be able to compete on even terms with Lin and Harden.
I'm hoping Asik will have a good game. Lin need to be more aggressive with or without harden. I think one great game will pull him out of his shooting slump. I know its still early in the season and Lin and harden are still struggling on whatever roles their coaching staff has assigned to them but if they want to make it to the play-off they will need to beat teams like the Bulls.
And it's apparent that Lin has not regained the confidence he lost ever since the Nits' gave the then new head coach the permission to marginalize him.
My prediction is the Blazers by 3 points, based on them having won the last two match ups, as well just beating the better Bulls.
The Blazers' confidence is bolstered by those games and the coach is drawing up a lot of plays for Lillard and Batum.
And look at how much coaching makes the big difference: The Bobcats were 1-3 to start (Rockets were 2-2), but the coach turned things around.
If they can't beat the Bulls on rebounds, they are going to have to shoot a lot more efficiently to reduce the number of rebounds to fight for and to reduce turnovers. It will be very tough.
Interestingly, the rebound rate differential between Bulls and Rockets (51.6 vs 51.5) is just .1 so it will be close. I hope.
ztrta: "And it's apparent that Lin has not regained the confidence he lost ever since the Nits' gave the then new head coach the permission to marginalize him."
Remember when Woodson handed the ball to Lin in the 4Q of the 76ers game, against a tough defense, though he had shot 1-11 through 3Qs, with all the Knicks stars sharing the floor? Lin was pretty darn confident carrying the Knicks to a win that night, one of the last games he played for them.
Woodson didn't marginalize Lin. He did, however, ease the burden on Lin by changing Lin's role from his heaviest-use MVP Nash role in D'Antoni's system to a more traditional PG role.
From the start of this season, Lin has been handling the ball in the 1st parts of games for McHale/Sampson. The problem is that the ball has been taken away from Lin down the stretch of games. The biggest difference between Woodson's use of Lin and McHale/Sampson's use of Lin is that for Woodson, Lin kept control of the ball at PG when the game was on the line with the authority to call his own number.
Lin was plenty confident playing for Woodson, enough so that he turned what was almost his worst game of the season into one of his best games of the season. Given Lin's improvement in the PG-specific areas that Woodson values most highly in his PGs, I imagine Woodson's confidence in Lin would have continued into this season.
Example. Some Lin fans blame Woodson for hinting that Lin might return for the Heat series last season (Woodson didn't actually say anything atypical), but that showed Woodson - far from marginalizing Lin - believed in Lin so much that he believed even a hobbled Lin could make a difference for the Knicks against the play-off-mode Heat. Scrubs aren't thought of like that.
Maybe, as Clara has speculated, Lin's confidence that he had when playing for D'Antoni and Woodson was shaken when the team he wanted, the Knicks, declined to match the Rockets 25/3 offer, but that wasn't Woodson's fault.
Lin's confidence was most likely hurt when the Rockets traded for Harden right before the season started and then summarily gave Harden what had been Lin's ball-controlling, team leader role.
Far from marginalizing Lin, Woodson - in only 7 games - crafted a working model for the proper way to use Lin outside of D'Antoni's system. It's a shame that the Rockets coaches have declined to apply it.
By the way Eric, Lin is averaging more points for the Rockets this season than he is for Woodson's Knicks.
11 ppg for Houston is way better than 0 ppg for NY.
But because you're a Knick homer who blindly approves of everything they do, you think Woodson has been a better coach this season than Sampson has been for Lin.
Your problem is that Lin has not been a productive Knicks AT ALL this season - and Woodson's flawless coaching is the main reason why!
KHuang, it's hard to judge based only on a head-to-head stats comparison given that Lin played only 7 games for Woodson, and those 7 games included blow-outs and Lin's injury, not to mention adjusting to a new system.
When he didn't need to rely on Lin, Woodson was resting Lin more to help him recover from Lin's wearing and tearing 'Secretariat' load under D'Antoni. And I wonder if there was concern about Lin's knee behind the scenes before he was finally pulled in his last game for the Knicks.
However, those 7 games showed a lot about Lin's developing role under Woodson. We all watched the games. We saw how Woodson used Lin at PG, especially in the area of games that I'm most critical of McHale/Sampson's use of Lin - down the stretch of games with the game on the line.
Can you even imagine Woodson treating his PG Lin like McHale and Sampson have treated Lin in game-closing situations?
Seriously, it's already 11 games into the regular season and his 3 point shooting is still bad.
Now I've heard from some people that Jeremy Lin's shooting coach is actually Doc Scheppler. With all due respect to this guy but seriously, other than being a girl high school basketball coach with a few State Championships under his belt, does he have any record of working with NBA players ? What are some of his other credentials ? Someone commented that Jeremy Lin's shooting form is way off & is more suited for girls, is this true ?
I just don't understand, why can't Lin get a good shooting coach with a good track record in the NBA like Dave Hopla (Ray Allen Shooting Coach) ?
Just look what the knicks did during the off-season.
Knicks hire Hopla as an assistant coach http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/knicks/post/_/id/25053/knicks-hire-hopla-as-assistant-coach
And the result ?
New York Knicks Have Improved Offensively and Defensively http://www.rantsports.com/nba/2012/11/08/new-york-knicks-have-improved-offensively-and-defensively/
Excerpt : With the addition of new shooting coach Dave Hopla, the Knicks’ 3-point shooting ranks second at 45.3-percent, a big improvement from their 21st-ranked 33.6-percent from last year. They also rank third in free throw shooting, making 82.7-percent of their attempts improving from their 22nd-ranked 74.1-percent last season.
Seriously, if the Knicks as a whole can improve on their shooting just over the off-season with the help of Dave Hopla, I don't see why Jeremy Lin can't do it. Unless you're telling me that Jeremy Lin is a slow learner.
And on top of all this, I believe Dave Hopla is also a Christian himself and he spoke quite highly of Jeremy: http://www.davehopla.com/2012/02/jeremy-lin/
If Jeremy can't hire Dave Hopla as his shooting coach (assuming Dave Hopla's contract with the Knicks prevents him from doing so - if there is actually such a thing) or if Jeremy is afraid he might "offend" Doc Scheppler, then at least he should buy some of his videos here: http://www.davehopla.com/blog/videos.php
And My God, who is your trainer ? Josh Fan ? Who on earth is that guy ? I'm not dissing him but my God, Jeremy, you're not in high school anymore, you're in the NBA already. Get a good coach & dedicated shooting coach already cause if you don't, I don't think you'll ever gonna come out of your shooting slump.
totally agree. Lin is so loyal, which is good, but in this case, someone needs to tell LIN that this can't be personal. Can't have your homies as your coach. Lin needs to hire a legit shooting coach that works with NBA Players, he needs to workout with elite fitness coaches that specializes in nba players like how wade works with tim grover (jordans coach).
And he's proven that he also improved Toronto's overall shooting in 2007 (from 30% to 40% 3PT shooting in just 3 months) http://www.davehopla.com/about-dave/
Not sure if Houston as a shooting coach with the same track record. Houston can always bring him in as a consultant. Perhaps offer him a *poison pill* contract to steal him from the Knicks :)
Lin traveled with his friend-trainer, Josh, to Asia, and during the preseason he said that "I've never trained this hard before" (explaining some stiffness I guess, but that actually indicated imbalance in training).
Lin worked with Sparta in the previous offseason, which made the huge difference. So many NBA players work with the best trainers and shooting coachs during offseason. And Lin hasn't done that. He could also have cut down the Asian trip by half.
I think Lin's summertime conditioning and endurance work were SUPERB.
Lin stepped into training camp ready to play big minutes. He's been averaging 30+ and has stayed free of injury. I am all in approval there.
I haven't been enamored of Doc Scheppler's jump shot form that he taught to Lin, but I do respect Scheppler's basic principles and training methods. And it seems Lin trained extremely hard in Doc's methods.
I completely disagree with the notion that Jeremy Lin was la-da-da-ing around Asia. The guy trained 4-6 hours daily over there, which is the same as what star NBA players are doing. If anything, I feel Lin may have trained TOO HARD and thus set back the full healing of his knee!
I never questioned how hard Lin trained during the offseason (I stated that he said he'd never trained that hard before).
Lin DID NOT train with one of the best; he trained with his friend trainer (unlike the previous offseason before his breakout). The same thing with a shooting coach..... The results speak for themselves.
It makes a big difference who you train and coach with..... Just look at the Knicks! I haven't read much about the Knicks since they hired Hakeem full time for post up work, so I had no idea.... But the Knicks also hired one of the best 3-point shooting coach! The Knicks' secret is really their ASSISTANT COACHES!!! They being in the big market probably have better *conditioning* trainers as well.
I didn't see the Knicks game the other day; I knew they would win big against the Hornets.... but it's at least the 2nd time that Felty was 5 from downtown. He was 5 of 6 !!! He was not known for that; his other teammates are much better with 3's.
I agree, there's a reason why trainers like Doc Scheppler and Josh Fan are helping Lin for free, or very cheap. It's because they aren't that good, and don't understand how to train NBA level athletes. They using Lin as a stepping stone to get into the pro-trainer market, when they don't have enough experience.
Lin needs to stop going to his "friends" and instead find professional help. He should not risk his NBA career just to save a couple bucks. I'm sure that his Taiwanese parents are advising him to save his money and settle for less ... but you get what you pay for, and his health is not something to be cheap with.
Lin has improved in other areas of his game, though.
With all this talk of his personal shooting coach and physical trainer, you know Lin DOES play for an NBA team with presumably its own world-class, basketball-specific trainers and coaches.
There was no lock-out this past off-season, so Lin has been with the team staff for months. I doubt Lin has been in a cocoon for the whole time in the Rockets facilities only training with his personal entourage. What are the Rockets doing to help Lin?
I'm sure Lin isn't a big spender and is saving money for the right reasons like charity work that he wants to devote to more when he retires (He is so different in that he doesn't spend big on houses or vices like jewelry, women, clubbing, drug, liquor, etc.).
However, I'm not sure he's trying to save money on training; I just don't think re realized how much not all trainers and shooting coaches are equal - so why not give the jobs to his friends and mentors. I'm sure Lin's current trainers are very good - just NOT at the highest level that NBA players need.
A vast majority of NBA players never truly have offseasons: Year after year, they train with the best conditioning and shooting coaches during the offseason (they have very short vacations) - just like Lin did for the past 2 offseasons. The NBA players' training starts before the teams' training camps.
I agree, but it's not like Lin is following a Shaq-like strategy of coming into camp out of shape then using the regular season like pre-season to tune up.
I don't know if Lin's knee would be recovering faster with better training. But generally, the Rockets staff should have had Lin long enough by now to address whatever deficiences he had with his personal training.
A late reply to @KHuang's comment about McHale and Sampson. I admire your optimism and your enthusiasm about McHale and Sampson. From my understanding you believe that they are doing their best to teach JLin to be a complete player. In a way you are telling us that JLin is the coaches' favorite that's why him and only him get the special treatment and not anyone else. I don't know about McHale's intention just yet but Sampson is not out to mold JLin into a complete player. I just have this gut feeling that Sampson doesn't want JLin to rise to the occasion. The last 3 games have convinced me that Sampson either fear Linsanity re-occur or just straight up being a "racist". Everytime, JLin got in a groove, Sampson always disrupted his mojo by benching him. I know that he made mistakes here and there but who wouldn't? JHarden, CP, Asik and company made mistakes after mistakes but Sampson just give them a pad on the back and tell them to keep fighting. JLin made a mistake, "sit your Asian ass down". Well, at least that's what I felt he was saying in his head. So for you to tell me that Sampson is a genius got me to write this comment. Of course I can't change your opinion but of all the people here, I thought you can detect and sense racism easily. I'm a fan of your posts and comments on this site. Your basketball knowledge is impressive. But I finally disagree with your comment on Sampson. I don't think he has what it takes to be a NBA coach, and definitely he's not sticking his limps out there for JLin. All JLin has to do is making shots. Other than his poor shooting, I don't see there's anything wrong with his game that need to be taught.
OK, let's say Sampson is indeed a racist and McHale has no idea how to handle Jeremy Lin. Let's also say that Sampson indeed wants to make Jeremy Lin his Asian whipping boy.
Fine then! Jeremy Lin gets PREFERENTIAL criticism. Every little mistake he makes is magnified, every little positive thing he does goes unnoticed, every minute on the floor he has to be playing perfect basketball.
And that's a BAD thing?
I've been Asian whipping boy my whole life in multiple fields. Sometimes it's gotten the better of me and forced me out, which I was always grateful for in retrospect. Other times I took it full blast head on, and it molded me into becoming a far better and tougher guy than all the other students who were coddled!
While Sampson is whipping away on Lin to satisfy his possible racial bias, guess what else is NOT happening? James Harden is still bricking and causing more turnovers than Lin ever did during Linsanity!!! Omer Asik indeed has trouble catching the ball, let alone finishing. Toney Douglas is showing why NY was so eager to dump him. Chandler Parsons is getting lit up like Lite Brite, plus he doesn't shoot or dribble that well. I could go on and on about the guys who AREN'T getting coached because the coaches have chosen to focus on coaching Lin!!!
Lin has to earn everything. That's also great. These supposedly racist coaches are setting the foundation for Lin to weather any type of adversity and play through any kind of condition. When Lin emerges victorious from this crucible, he'll be a hardened warrior who knows the game inside and out and can play well in any situation.
I made racism WORK for me. Lin is doing exactly the same.
See, with this analyst, I agree with you completely. I believe that JLin will do whatever it takes to be great. Of course he will embrace this opportunity to work on his game. Regardless of Sampson's intention, JLin will just work hard and improve his game. But to say that Sampson wants to mold JLin into a better player is something that I fail to see. I don't know.
No real point continually yelling racism if it doesn't really even matter. It just sours the mood and builds resentment between the coach and the player. :/
Anyway. If Lin's knee is really not 100% (see one of the comments below), a lot of Sampson's decisions can easily be explained as needing to protect Lin's body. Think about it. How would you help him get into game mode without risking his knees further? There's hardly anything "safer" in basketball than shooting threes in a corner.
It makes no sense to excuse Lin's performance on his bad knees and then damn the coaching staff for playing Lin like an injured/recuperating player, much less assume all of Sampson's decisions are motivated by racism. I must admit I criticised Sampson a couple of times in the last two game threads for weird substitution patterns but I was operating on the assumption that Lin's knees were nearly 100%.
It does sound like Lin's slowly getting closer to full fitness, though not "peak" fitness.
I disagree with KHuang in that confidence and mentality has a lot to do with success in the NBA. I wouldn't want a mean coach in practice, regardless of what the coach says.
Lets hope Lin comes around - I've never doubted he will, but now I don't know how much.
It looks like he's not going to improve greatly this season as I'd thought; hopefully next year. Next offseason he still needs to train with one of the best in both areas - keep up with NBA Joneses. For one thing, work on his vertical leap again and make those easier layups.
"The good friends he left behind, Steve Novak and Iman Shumpert, keep him updated with their texts.
"Is it 100 percent healthy?" Lin said before pausing again. "It's fine, I guess. There's a little bit more I can still get back as far as jumping and explosiveness. ... But I'm closer than I've ever been and I'm really excited."
"I didn't have a decision," Lin said. "But I have a lot of peace about everything just because I know God doesn't make mistakes. This isn't the first time in my life that things have gone differently from what I anticipated."
So we know who were the closest friends from the Knicks (Novak and Shump) and by his own admission his knee is not 100% (he's not the one to make excuses) and he believes his time in Houston is not a mistake since God has a plan for him. Keep your faith, folks!
I'm sure the non-100% knee condition played into the coaches' consideration not to play him as the primary ball handler besides trying to see if Harden can also be a primary PG.
And it's reassuring that they trusted him more in the past 3 games as the primary ball handler and to attack the basket indicating his knee health is improving.
Houston coaches is caught in a tight spot to not overplay JLin to endanger his future and having to play him to get the offensive rhythm going.
We are reminded how Asik and JLin are the most crucial pieces now because they do not have any reliable backup center (defensively) and veteran backup PG.
Hopefully this will silence the flamers here who keep claiming that Lin was 100% and needed to grow balls or learn and understand this or that. I dont mean to be a smartass but me and lots of other people here were saying many times that Lin was not yet 100% while some were claiming that they could "deduce" from the footage that he was. I was starting to doubt myself. Is my new TV too big? Does everything just look slower on it? tststs
Lin fans can use the knee excuse all season. Seriously you really can. I'm a lin fan and won't. It's so weak. Are we assuming his opponents are 100%? They're out there playing and so is lin. His shooting is his shooting. I hope it improves. If his knee is hurting he should sit. Real talk
I think Lin still lacks some explosiveness and a quick first step which helps to explain his lack of effectiveness around the rim.
But I think the main reason for his poor jumpshot is lack of confidence (him passing up all those damned shots makes it quite obvious) and somewhat wonky mechanics that don't suit him, and the knees aren't really a big part of that.
i'm not a big fan of excuses, but I guess, it could explain some of the nuances which is affecting his game. Though, again, i hate excuses, but at least if this is true, it gives me hope that Lin will eventually get back to this old self.
i personally don't think confidence is an issue. to me it's more indecision. he and his teammates are learning a new system. things don't look fluid at all because they're thinking about what to do with the ball.
jeremy wants to be a pass-first point guard and therefore he's thinking about where to go with the ball rather than how to score. but i think that's coming around. he's looking to get his teammates shots. but if nothing is there and the ball comes back to him he'll look to score.
again, they're all still trying to figure out what their roles are and for jeremy, it's a matter of knowing when to get the ball to the player with the best position to score, vs. when to attack and score himself.
When Harden is out, Lin should be more aggressive as a scorer and playmaker. Even if Harden's role is set as the Rockets' Lebron, then Lin should be the Rockets' Wade, not Chalmers. But putting that aside, I agree that Lin doesn't need to pile up Linsanity-volume points to do his job as Rockets PG.
What's concerning, though, is the trend of the ball being taken out of Lin's hands in key parts of games. He can't decide to make plays for others nor score with the game on the line when he's not being given the PG touches to do so.
If others are out with injury or shoot bad because their wrists hurt its ok to use the injury as excuse. If Lin is hurt you as self proclaimed Lin fan wont excuse him because that would be weak... yeah totally makes sense.
Other than you - I know how injuries can effect people. I follow peoples injuries and I dont judge about players if they are not 100%. I excused Melo when he had wrist trouble, I excused Tyson Chandler when he had wrist trouble, I excused Tony Douglas after shoulder surgery, I was worried when Kobe was about to quit because of his knees...
You can go on and ignore JLins knee. Just keep claiming that Lin doesnt penetrate as effective like he did because its all in his head - not his knee. Mind over matter - knee trouble shouldnt bother an NBA player. Its just basketball - who needs knees in this sports :)
We who use the knee excuse only say that Lin is not 100% - therefor we cant expect 100% performance from Lin right now. That goes for penetration and that goes for jump shots...
What guys like Wildathrill claim is -> excuses are weak - therefor injuries dont matter. Chances are that he blames handicaped people for walking funny, too.
In pro sports people are not always 100% - true. But why do anouncer bother making comments how he or she is coming from surgery/injury/recovery bla bla?
"I've started [36] games now, and that's not even half a season," Lin said. "I think that's something I need to remember. ... I have to be patient with myself, and understand there's been a lot of change in my life and with this Houston team. We can't expect it all to fall into place. It's going to take some time."
Good point. It's underestimated that Lin changing teams in the formative stage of Lin's development as a starting PG would have a bigger effect than if Lin was a seasoned veteran free agent. Lin had built up a familiarity and comfort level with his Knicks coaches, teammates, and system, and just his life in NYC as a Knick, and would have built on that foundation in the next stage of his development.
It's hard to measure how much tearing down the solid foundation Lin had with the Knicks and starting over with new coaches, teammates, system, and a new life in Houston, and then injecting Harden into the mix, has affected Lin's development.
The problem is, this team is taking way too many shots from the outside instead of going strong to the hoop. This leaves them vulnerable in transition defense. Before Sampson, the Rockets were holding opponents to under 93 ppg. Now they are giving up well over 100 points, 110 points etc. Because they can't control the tempo or the flow opponents are shooting 60% and above. That's unacceptable defense.
Lin is not at 100% and then you got the opponents throwing double teams and playing hard defense on him because they don't want to get embarrassed by him. Then add the fact that he's learning a new shooting form and the coach isn't letting him run the PNR like they said they would. when LIn passes the ball to a wide open teammate for an easy the miss every time. Then.you have Harden always wanting the ball and the coach demands you give it.up.to him eventhough there's someone else open. When Lin is trying to lead a comeback the coach benches Lin for TD.who is always the reason for the team trailing behind. The offensive is always disrupted and they cant get into a flow when you got too many young players trying to put on a one man show because they don't understand its better to keep passing then throwing up a contested shot.
BUT like I said many times. LIN IS NOT 100%, WAIT UNTILL HE GETS HIS EXPLOSIVENESS BACK. HEA QUIKNESS. HES ACCELERATION AND QUICK FIRST STEP. IT WILL COME BACK EVENTUALLY. THEN HE WILL ATTACK CONSTANTLY AND NOT HESITATE AN OPEN SHOT And WILL START MAKING MORE SHOTS.
Do JLin's fan think that Lin should stop with these type of interviews? The ESPN article just creates a target on Lin for others to prove that he's full of sh*t believing he'll be an all star someday. I always believe action speak louder than words.
What's wrong with Lin wanting to be an All Star one day?
Lots of players want to be All Stars. They talk about it openly. So should Lin.
If you think that somehow that'll invite criticism on Lin, then you don't understand how the racist American media works. Lin is going to get FLAMED whether he makes the All Star team or not.
Similarly, the bullseye on Lin's back won't get any bigger by him saying that. Players go after Lin super hard because they hate the Asian guy. No chamge there.
Lin should just be himself. There's no need for him to be a submissive Asian guy cowering in fear of other nonAsian races!!!
Nope. Nothing wrong with what he said and no, i would NOT want him to be a hermit and fear the press. if ian o'conner, a reputable reporter from ESPN wants to talk to him for 10min, why the hell not??
if people are gonna hate him, they're gonna hate him regardless of whether he talks to the press or not. interview of not, the target is already there on his back.
i actually thought it was good of Jeremy to talk about all-star status as something in the future and not something he should immediately be granted.
the reality is if everyone in china voted like they did for Yao, Jeremy will be the highest voted player. with Yao you could easily justify his being in the all-star (although not deserving the top voted) but Jeremy's numbers, don't really warrant them right now.
if he does get all the votes but doesnt have great numbers then he'll be again criticized for being nothing more than having popular appeal with little talent.
i think this was sort of his appeal to everyone to give him time and vote for him when he can prove he deserves it and even he's making the admission that now is not that time. i don't doubt he'll get there, sooner than later, but we do got to give him a break.
If Jeremy Lin gets voted in the All-Star game I don't think he will attend to it if his performance isn't up to PAR. That's just the type of guy he is.
But I still believe that it's up to Lin fans to vote for him or not as they have all the right to do so. It's not up to anyone to say they should or shouldn't.
Like some of you are saying he will always have a target on his back. So it really doesn't matter if he gets the majority of votes or not.
I disagree. If Lin is voted in as all-star starter, and he's healthy enough to play, he will play, because to do otherwise would disrespect all the fans who voted for him. After all, with fans voting, the all-star game is billed as for the fans.
However, Lin probably would graciously accept a limited role and/or minutes in the all-star game if he believes another all-star PG is more deserving.
Folks, it's to the point that JLin has no worries about criticism. Why worry about them? BIG DEAL, someone said this, or someone said that. After a while, it's all meaningless jibberish. Lin is getting paid good money to do a job. His focus is 100% on improving.
Say all that you want...that includes Stephen A, or the garbage Knicks media. They are all irrelevant.
BTW, if Lin is voted to the All Star Game, I'd be thrilled. And who gives a hoot about the other jealous players, etc. Face it, the reality is they're just not as popular. If they have a problem with that, go talk to Stern. End of story.
Now let's all watch a little Linsanity tonight against the Bulls! I'll be happy with a little dose here and there tonight. Full blown Linsanity is coming, slowly but surely.
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The big question is, will Harden play? And if he does play, will he be strong enough to play his usual ball-dominant role or will he defer to Lin?
ReplyDeleteThe Bulls are a good defensive team. However, their PG position is not their strong suit with Rose out. Lin should have the advantage at PG again against Kirk Hinrich and Nate Robinson.
The Jazz game was confusing. With the news Harden was sick, it seemed like an obvious opportunity for Lin to take over. After all, Lin torched pretty much the same Jazz team for 28 last season. Indeed, Lin was aggressive looking for his own scores in the 1st half of the game. His points were up - and they were pretty points. Lin dialing up his offense was an easy choice with Harden laboring and dazed, but it was progress nonetheless.
In the 2nd half of the game, the news Harden would not play seemed to guarantee Lin would revive the commanding Knicks version of himself. But instead of clarifying his role in Harden's absence as expected, Lin's role became confused in the 2nd half. He was pulled prematurely in the 3Q, and when he returned to start the 4Q, Lin played off the ball. Most disconcerting was a play where Daquean Cook had to emphatically call over a seemingly reluctant Lin to take the ball from Cook.
The other big question is, how will the Rockets coaches use Lin? He should outclass the Bulls replacement PGs. But, with Harden out of the way, Lin should have been relentlessly attacking the Jazz PGs, creating his own scores and making plays for his teammates, throughout the last game.
Hopefully, tonight, we'll see more play like Lin's throwback 1st half of the Jazz game and less play like the confused 2nd half of the game.
Hinrich has been a prolonged shooting slump. Robinson though I am a bit worried about - he has been shooting the three pretty well (.444 this season) and if Lin overhelps like he has been doing in the past few games I fear Robinson might have a career night from the perimeter.
DeleteSomething to watch for: Are the Rockets other guards, especially Douglas, playing help defense the same way as Lin? In other words, Lin may just be following coach's orders when it looks like he's overhelping.
DeleteLast season, some of the criticism of Lin's defense was warranted, particularly his lapses in on-the-ball defense and bad technique getting over screens, but he also looked bad at times when he was switching as ordered and the help on his man was poor (Stoudemire was the worst offender). Lin's defense looked a lot better last season after Woodson replaced D'Antoni and the team played better defense over-all.
Lin's defense looked better to you last season just because he was wearing a Knicks uniform, Eric.
DeleteHowever, your attempt to flame Lin for wearing a Rockets uniform had failed YET AGAIN.
The stats indicate Lin is vastly superior on defense this year, and he was amazing last year.
Lin is your enemy because he's the Knicks enemy.
just because he put up 28 on jazz last season doesn't he should've/would've put up 28 this season, even if he was completely healthy.
Deletecompletely different system and completely different jeremy lin. he didn't beat jazz playing 1 on 5 last year - he played within the system and so did everyone else.
right now, he's in a different system that 1)decreases his usage rate, and 2)has new teammates who are also trying to learn the system, and 3)coming off of surgery. he's 100% but his explosiveness still hasn't come back yet and the only thing to do to get it back is to play ball and give it time.
linsanity numbers will NEVER happen in the current system that have him shooting 10-13 times a game. he'll have to shoot at 70% just to score 20pts! his ceiling in this system is jkid numbers... 15-18pts, 9-10assists, 5 rbs, 3 stls. these are awesome numbers if it does come to that.
There is NO BASIS for Eric's fantasy that Lin had trouble defensively for the Knicks last year.
DeleteWith Lin, the Knicks were #5 in the entire NBA for defense. Before Lin showed up to save the season, the Knicks were nowhere near that good on defense.
Statistics expose lies.
KHuang,
DeleteI think Lin's defense has improved this season compared to last season, particularly his on-the-ball defense. He's better with screens, too. My point was that Lin's defense was better than reputed last season, and the perception that it was bad was due in large part to the Knicks defensive system under D'Antoni, which called on Lin to switch everything. When you switch and your help is bad, that makes you look bad.
When Woodson took over, he straightened out the team defense and Lin's defense looked better along with it. Similarly, Lin may look like he's overhelping as a Rocket because that's the way he's been ordered to play defense, just like he looked like he was overswitching under D'Antoni because that's what he was ordered to do. The way to find out whether to blame Lin or his coaches is to pay more attention to how the other Rockets guards, especially Douglas, are playing defense.
fighton1999, true, the current system has Harden playing a role similar to Lin's Linsanity role with Lin in a lesser ole. But with Harden out, it stood to reason that Lin would take over for Harden for the rest of the game. That didn't happen; if anything, the reverse happened. As for his Rockets vs Knicks teammates, that was the game Anthony pulled his groin. I don't think the quality of the Knicks line-up that night was better than the Rockets line-up against the Jazz. The Rockets needed Lin to step up in Harden's absence as much as the Knicks needed Lin to step up in Anthony's absence. You're right that Lin's role was different for the Knicks. Yet Lin's role should have changed, if only for 1 night, when Harden was out sick. It didn't.
Ain't nothing wrong with D'Antoni's defensive coaching, Eric.
DeleteDuring Linsanity, the Knicks were #1 in the entire NBA defensively. Then your guy Carmelo Anthony tanked the Knicks into losing.
Don't blame D'Antoni for Carmelo's tanking just because Carmelo is still a Knick and DAntoni isn't.
KHuang,
DeleteThe biggest culprit for Lin looking bad on switches was Stoudemire, who would literally stand and watch as Lin's man dribbled past him on a straight line to the basket or take an extra dribble into an open jump shot.
Rebounding is the key. Watch out for the Noah , Gibson and Boozer. They are physical.
ReplyDeleteI forgot about that: Asik is facing his old team.
DeleteThe Rockets frontcourt is taking grief for subpar rebounding and defense, outside of Asik, but their offense is coming along faster than expected. The Bulls veteran frontcourt will be a test for them.
The Rockets should have the advantage against the Bulls backcourt, though. Hinrich and Hamilton should not be able to compete on even terms with Lin and Harden.
I'm hoping Asik will have a good game. Lin need to be more aggressive with or without harden. I think one great game will pull him out of his shooting slump. I know its still early in the season and Lin and harden are still struggling on whatever roles their coaching staff has assigned to them but if they want to make it to the play-off they will need to beat teams like the Bulls.
DeleteEric,
DeleteBut Harden has the flu, albeit a tad better.
And it's apparent that Lin has not regained the confidence he lost ever since the Nits' gave the then new head coach the permission to marginalize him.
My prediction is the Blazers by 3 points, based on them having won the last two match ups, as well just beating the better Bulls.
The Blazers' confidence is bolstered by those games and the coach is drawing up a lot of plays for Lillard and Batum.
And look at how much coaching makes the big difference: The Bobcats were 1-3 to start (Rockets were 2-2), but the coach turned things around.
If they can't beat the Bulls on rebounds, they are going to have to shoot a lot more efficiently to reduce the number of rebounds to fight for and to reduce turnovers. It will be very tough.
DeleteInterestingly, the rebound rate differential between Bulls and Rockets (51.6 vs 51.5) is just .1 so it will be close. I hope.
ztrta: "And it's apparent that Lin has not regained the confidence he lost ever since the Nits' gave the then new head coach the permission to marginalize him."
DeleteRemember when Woodson handed the ball to Lin in the 4Q of the 76ers game, against a tough defense, though he had shot 1-11 through 3Qs, with all the Knicks stars sharing the floor? Lin was pretty darn confident carrying the Knicks to a win that night, one of the last games he played for them.
Woodson didn't marginalize Lin. He did, however, ease the burden on Lin by changing Lin's role from his heaviest-use MVP Nash role in D'Antoni's system to a more traditional PG role.
From the start of this season, Lin has been handling the ball in the 1st parts of games for McHale/Sampson. The problem is that the ball has been taken away from Lin down the stretch of games. The biggest difference between Woodson's use of Lin and McHale/Sampson's use of Lin is that for Woodson, Lin kept control of the ball at PG when the game was on the line with the authority to call his own number.
Lin was plenty confident playing for Woodson, enough so that he turned what was almost his worst game of the season into one of his best games of the season. Given Lin's improvement in the PG-specific areas that Woodson values most highly in his PGs, I imagine Woodson's confidence in Lin would have continued into this season.
Example. Some Lin fans blame Woodson for hinting that Lin might return for the Heat series last season (Woodson didn't actually say anything atypical), but that showed Woodson - far from marginalizing Lin - believed in Lin so much that he believed even a hobbled Lin could make a difference for the Knicks against the play-off-mode Heat. Scrubs aren't thought of like that.
Maybe, as Clara has speculated, Lin's confidence that he had when playing for D'Antoni and Woodson was shaken when the team he wanted, the Knicks, declined to match the Rockets 25/3 offer, but that wasn't Woodson's fault.
Lin's confidence was most likely hurt when the Rockets traded for Harden right before the season started and then summarily gave Harden what had been Lin's ball-controlling, team leader role.
Far from marginalizing Lin, Woodson - in only 7 games - crafted a working model for the proper way to use Lin outside of D'Antoni's system. It's a shame that the Rockets coaches have declined to apply it.
More Knicks garbage from Eric.
DeleteThe Knicks treated Lin shabbily.
Eric's Knicks homerism is a major league FAIL!
By the way Eric, Lin is averaging more points for the Rockets this season than he is for Woodson's Knicks.
Delete11 ppg for Houston is way better than 0 ppg for NY.
But because you're a Knick homer who blindly approves of everything they do, you think Woodson has been a better coach this season than Sampson has been for Lin.
Your problem is that Lin has not been a productive Knicks AT ALL this season - and Woodson's flawless coaching is the main reason why!
By the way, Lin's 11 ppg (and climbing) under Sampson is not far off from the 14 ppg he got under Eric's favorite coach Woodson.
DeleteEven though Lin is averaging 0.0 points for Mike Woodson this season, there is plenty of room for improvement for Lin and the Rockets coaches.
Oops: I meant Cara, not Clara. Apologies.
DeleteKHuang, it's hard to judge based only on a head-to-head stats comparison given that Lin played only 7 games for Woodson, and those 7 games included blow-outs and Lin's injury, not to mention adjusting to a new system.
DeleteWhen he didn't need to rely on Lin, Woodson was resting Lin more to help him recover from Lin's wearing and tearing 'Secretariat' load under D'Antoni. And I wonder if there was concern about Lin's knee behind the scenes before he was finally pulled in his last game for the Knicks.
However, those 7 games showed a lot about Lin's developing role under Woodson. We all watched the games. We saw how Woodson used Lin at PG, especially in the area of games that I'm most critical of McHale/Sampson's use of Lin - down the stretch of games with the game on the line.
Can you even imagine Woodson treating his PG Lin like McHale and Sampson have treated Lin in game-closing situations?
Jeremy Lin needs to find another shooting coach.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, it's already 11 games into the regular season and his 3 point shooting is still bad.
Now I've heard from some people that Jeremy Lin's shooting coach is actually Doc Scheppler. With all due respect to this guy but seriously, other than being a girl high school basketball coach with a few State Championships under his belt, does he have any record of working with NBA players ? What are some of his other credentials ? Someone commented that Jeremy Lin's shooting form is way off & is more suited for girls, is this true ?
I just don't understand, why can't Lin get a good shooting coach with a good track record in the NBA like Dave Hopla (Ray Allen Shooting Coach) ?
Just look what the knicks did during the off-season.
Knicks hire Hopla as an assistant coach
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/knicks/post/_/id/25053/knicks-hire-hopla-as-assistant-coach
And the result ?
New York Knicks Have Improved Offensively and Defensively
http://www.rantsports.com/nba/2012/11/08/new-york-knicks-have-improved-offensively-and-defensively/
Excerpt :
With the addition of new shooting coach Dave Hopla, the Knicks’ 3-point shooting ranks second at 45.3-percent, a big improvement from their 21st-ranked 33.6-percent from last year. They also rank third in free throw shooting, making 82.7-percent of their attempts improving from their 22nd-ranked 74.1-percent last season.
Seriously, if the Knicks as a whole can improve on their shooting just over the off-season with the help of Dave Hopla, I don't see why Jeremy Lin can't do it. Unless you're telling me that Jeremy Lin is a slow learner.
And on top of all this, I believe Dave Hopla is also a Christian himself and he spoke quite highly of Jeremy:
http://www.davehopla.com/2012/02/jeremy-lin/
If Jeremy can't hire Dave Hopla as his shooting coach (assuming Dave Hopla's contract with the Knicks prevents him from doing so - if there is actually such a thing) or if Jeremy is afraid he might "offend" Doc Scheppler, then at least he should buy some of his videos here: http://www.davehopla.com/blog/videos.php
And My God, who is your trainer ? Josh Fan ? Who on earth is that guy ? I'm not dissing him but my God, Jeremy, you're not in high school anymore, you're in the NBA already. Get a good coach & dedicated shooting coach already cause if you don't, I don't think you'll ever gonna come out of your shooting slump.
totally agree. Lin is so loyal, which is good, but in this case, someone needs to tell LIN that this can't be personal. Can't have your homies as your coach. Lin needs to hire a legit shooting coach that works with NBA Players, he needs to workout with elite fitness coaches that specializes in nba players like how wade works with tim grover (jordans coach).
DeleteHopla has a very impressive credential indeed!
DeleteAnd he's proven that he also improved Toronto's overall shooting in 2007 (from 30% to 40% 3PT shooting in just 3 months)
http://www.davehopla.com/about-dave/
Not sure if Houston as a shooting coach with the same track record. Houston can always bring him in as a consultant. Perhaps offer him a *poison pill* contract to steal him from the Knicks :)
@Hungryman Cheong
DeleteLin traveled with his friend-trainer, Josh, to Asia, and during the preseason he said that "I've never trained this hard before" (explaining some stiffness I guess, but that actually indicated imbalance in training).
Lin worked with Sparta in the previous offseason, which made the huge difference. So many NBA players work with the best trainers and shooting coachs during offseason. And Lin hasn't done that. He could also have cut down the Asian trip by half.
I think Lin's summertime conditioning and endurance work were SUPERB.
DeleteLin stepped into training camp ready to play big minutes. He's been averaging 30+ and has stayed free of injury. I am all in approval there.
I haven't been enamored of Doc Scheppler's jump shot form that he taught to Lin, but I do respect Scheppler's basic principles and training methods. And it seems Lin trained extremely hard in Doc's methods.
I completely disagree with the notion that Jeremy Lin was la-da-da-ing around Asia. The guy trained 4-6 hours daily over there, which is the same as what star NBA players are doing. If anything, I feel Lin may have trained TOO HARD and thus set back the full healing of his knee!
I never questioned how hard Lin trained during the offseason (I stated that he said he'd never trained that hard before).
DeleteLin DID NOT train with one of the best; he trained with his friend trainer (unlike the previous offseason before his breakout). The same thing with a shooting coach..... The results speak for themselves.
It makes a big difference who you train and coach with..... Just look at the Knicks! I haven't read much about the Knicks since they hired Hakeem full time for post up work, so I had no idea.... But the Knicks also hired one of the best 3-point shooting coach! The Knicks' secret is really their ASSISTANT COACHES!!! They being in the big market probably have better *conditioning* trainers as well.
I didn't see the Knicks game the other day; I knew they would win big against the Hornets.... but it's at least the 2nd time that Felty was 5 from downtown. He was 5 of 6 !!! He was not known for that; his other teammates are much better with 3's.
I mean Felty's other teammates are *ALSO* much better with 3's since they hired Hopla.
DeleteI agree, there's a reason why trainers like Doc Scheppler and Josh Fan are helping Lin for free, or very cheap.
DeleteIt's because they aren't that good, and don't understand how to train NBA level athletes. They using Lin as a stepping stone to get into the pro-trainer market, when they don't have enough experience.
Lin needs to stop going to his "friends" and instead find professional help. He should not risk his NBA career just to save a couple bucks. I'm sure that his Taiwanese parents are advising him to save his money and settle for less ... but you get what you pay for, and his health is not something to be cheap with.
Lin has improved in other areas of his game, though.
DeleteWith all this talk of his personal shooting coach and physical trainer, you know Lin DOES play for an NBA team with presumably its own world-class, basketball-specific trainers and coaches.
There was no lock-out this past off-season, so Lin has been with the team staff for months. I doubt Lin has been in a cocoon for the whole time in the Rockets facilities only training with his personal entourage. What are the Rockets doing to help Lin?
@ABC Baller,
DeleteI'm sure Lin isn't a big spender and is saving money for the right reasons like charity work that he wants to devote to more when he retires (He is so different in that he doesn't spend big on houses or vices like jewelry, women, clubbing, drug, liquor, etc.).
However, I'm not sure he's trying to save money on training; I just don't think re realized how much not all trainers and shooting coaches are equal - so why not give the jobs to his friends and mentors. I'm sure Lin's current trainers are very good - just NOT at the highest level that NBA players need.
@Eric,
DeleteA vast majority of NBA players never truly have offseasons: Year after year, they train with the best conditioning and shooting coaches during the offseason (they have very short vacations) - just like Lin did for the past 2 offseasons. The NBA players' training starts before the teams' training camps.
ztrta,
DeleteI agree, but it's not like Lin is following a Shaq-like strategy of coming into camp out of shape then using the regular season like pre-season to tune up.
I don't know if Lin's knee would be recovering faster with better training. But generally, the Rockets staff should have had Lin long enough by now to address whatever deficiences he had with his personal training.
jeremy lin training with hopla makes a lot of sense. someone who knows jeremy or jeremy's agents please bring this idea up to them.
DeleteA late reply to @KHuang's comment about McHale and Sampson. I admire your optimism and your enthusiasm about McHale and Sampson. From my understanding you believe that they are doing their best to teach JLin to be a complete player. In a way you are telling us that JLin is the coaches' favorite that's why him and only him get the special treatment and not anyone else. I don't know about McHale's intention just yet but Sampson is not out to mold JLin into a complete player. I just have this gut feeling that Sampson doesn't want JLin to rise to the occasion. The last 3 games have convinced me that Sampson either fear Linsanity re-occur or just straight up being a "racist". Everytime, JLin got in a groove, Sampson always disrupted his mojo by benching him. I know that he made mistakes here and there but who wouldn't? JHarden, CP, Asik and company made mistakes after mistakes but Sampson just give them a pad on the back and tell them to keep fighting. JLin made a mistake, "sit your Asian ass down". Well, at least that's what I felt he was saying in his head. So for you to tell me that Sampson is a genius got me to write this comment. Of course I can't change your opinion but of all the people here, I thought you can detect and sense racism easily. I'm a fan of your posts and comments on this site. Your basketball knowledge is impressive. But I finally disagree with your comment on Sampson. I don't think he has what it takes to be a NBA coach, and definitely he's not sticking his limps out there for JLin. All JLin has to do is making shots. Other than his poor shooting, I don't see there's anything wrong with his game that need to be taught.
ReplyDeleteHere's how it goes, ihoopsalot.
DeleteOK, let's say Sampson is indeed a racist and McHale has no idea how to handle Jeremy Lin. Let's also say that Sampson indeed wants to make Jeremy Lin his Asian whipping boy.
Fine then! Jeremy Lin gets PREFERENTIAL criticism. Every little mistake he makes is magnified, every little positive thing he does goes unnoticed, every minute on the floor he has to be playing perfect basketball.
And that's a BAD thing?
I've been Asian whipping boy my whole life in multiple fields. Sometimes it's gotten the better of me and forced me out, which I was always grateful for in retrospect. Other times I took it full blast head on, and it molded me into becoming a far better and tougher guy than all the other students who were coddled!
While Sampson is whipping away on Lin to satisfy his possible racial bias, guess what else is NOT happening? James Harden is still bricking and causing more turnovers than Lin ever did during Linsanity!!! Omer Asik indeed has trouble catching the ball, let alone finishing. Toney Douglas is showing why NY was so eager to dump him. Chandler Parsons is getting lit up like Lite Brite, plus he doesn't shoot or dribble that well. I could go on and on about the guys who AREN'T getting coached because the coaches have chosen to focus on coaching Lin!!!
Lin has to earn everything. That's also great. These supposedly racist coaches are setting the foundation for Lin to weather any type of adversity and play through any kind of condition. When Lin emerges victorious from this crucible, he'll be a hardened warrior who knows the game inside and out and can play well in any situation.
I made racism WORK for me. Lin is doing exactly the same.
See, with this analyst, I agree with you completely. I believe that JLin will do whatever it takes to be great. Of course he will embrace this opportunity to work on his game. Regardless of Sampson's intention, JLin will just work hard and improve his game. But to say that Sampson wants to mold JLin into a better player is something that I fail to see. I don't know.
DeleteIt doesn't matter what Sampson thinks.
DeleteTo a large extent, it doesn't even matter what Sampson DOES.
Jeremy Lin has an agenda. He can take what he needs and eject the rest. Lin is being paid $5 million this year to be hated on!
Lin needs to improve his shooting and toughness. In a twisted way, racist Sampson is helping Lin do those things!
Lin is going to excel, and the racists will help him!
@ihoopsalot
DeleteNo real point continually yelling racism if it doesn't really even matter. It just sours the mood and builds resentment between the coach and the player. :/
Anyway. If Lin's knee is really not 100% (see one of the comments below), a lot of Sampson's decisions can easily be explained as needing to protect Lin's body. Think about it. How would you help him get into game mode without risking his knees further? There's hardly anything "safer" in basketball than shooting threes in a corner.
It makes no sense to excuse Lin's performance on his bad knees and then damn the coaching staff for playing Lin like an injured/recuperating player, much less assume all of Sampson's decisions are motivated by racism. I must admit I criticised Sampson a couple of times in the last two game threads for weird substitution patterns but I was operating on the assumption that Lin's knees were nearly 100%.
It does sound like Lin's slowly getting closer to full fitness, though not "peak" fitness.
I disagree with KHuang in that confidence and mentality has a lot to do with success in the NBA. I wouldn't want a mean coach in practice, regardless of what the coach says.
DeleteSee ztrta, I had several Bob Knight style coaches when I was coming up.
DeleteI'm USED to tough training!
Eventually you learn to block out the garbage and focus on what your doing. It's called MENTAL TOUGHNESS, of which Lin already has plenty!
Lets hope Lin comes around - I've never doubted he will, but now I don't know how much.
DeleteIt looks like he's not going to improve greatly this season as I'd thought; hopefully next year. Next offseason he still needs to train with one of the best in both areas - keep up with NBA Joneses. For one thing, work on his vertical leap again and make those easier layups.
http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/story/_/id/8658809/houston-rockets-jeremy-lin-believes-an-nba-all-star?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
ReplyDeleteThe ones from ESPN must be ashamed of themselves.
DeleteWhat more important is the knee is still not 100% as we suspected that's the reason why his shot is not there yet
Interesting tidbits. Thanks, spotless.
Delete"The good friends he left behind, Steve Novak and Iman Shumpert, keep him updated with their texts.
"Is it 100 percent healthy?" Lin said before pausing again. "It's fine, I guess. There's a little bit more I can still get back as far as jumping and explosiveness. ... But I'm closer than I've ever been and I'm really excited."
"I didn't have a decision," Lin said. "But I have a lot of peace about everything just because I know God doesn't make mistakes. This isn't the first time in my life that things have gone differently from what I anticipated."
So we know who were the closest friends from the Knicks (Novak and Shump) and by his own admission his knee is not 100% (he's not the one to make excuses) and he believes his time in Houston is not a mistake since God has a plan for him. Keep your faith, folks!
So this should be the reason he's not the ball handler ... At least i hope that...
DeleteI'm sure the non-100% knee condition played into the coaches' consideration not to play him as the primary ball handler besides trying to see if Harden can also be a primary PG.
DeleteAnd it's reassuring that they trusted him more in the past 3 games as the primary ball handler and to attack the basket indicating his knee health is improving.
Houston coaches is caught in a tight spot to not overplay JLin to endanger his future and having to play him to get the offensive rhythm going.
We are reminded how Asik and JLin are the most crucial pieces now because they do not have any reliable backup center (defensively) and veteran backup PG.
Hopefully this will silence the flamers here who keep claiming that Lin was 100% and needed to grow balls or learn and understand this or that. I dont mean to be a smartass but me and lots of other people here were saying many times that Lin was not yet 100% while some were claiming that they could "deduce" from the footage that he was. I was starting to doubt myself. Is my new TV too big? Does everything just look slower on it? tststs
DeleteIf things are like that i must be the first to apologize to them. Hope things will get better soon for jeremy and the whole team
DeleteLin fans can use the knee excuse all season. Seriously you really can. I'm a lin fan and won't. It's so weak. Are we assuming his opponents are 100%? They're out there playing and so is lin. His shooting is his shooting. I hope it improves. If his knee is hurting he should sit. Real talk
DeleteI think Lin still lacks some explosiveness and a quick first step which helps to explain his lack of effectiveness around the rim.
DeleteBut I think the main reason for his poor jumpshot is lack of confidence (him passing up all those damned shots makes it quite obvious) and somewhat wonky mechanics that don't suit him, and the knees aren't really a big part of that.
i'm not a big fan of excuses, but I guess, it could explain some of the nuances which is affecting his game. Though, again, i hate excuses, but at least if this is true, it gives me hope that Lin will eventually get back to this old self.
Deletei personally don't think confidence is an issue. to me it's more indecision. he and his teammates are learning a new system. things don't look fluid at all because they're thinking about what to do with the ball.
Deletejeremy wants to be a pass-first point guard and therefore he's thinking about where to go with the ball rather than how to score. but i think that's coming around. he's looking to get his teammates shots. but if nothing is there and the ball comes back to him he'll look to score.
again, they're all still trying to figure out what their roles are and for jeremy, it's a matter of knowing when to get the ball to the player with the best position to score, vs. when to attack and score himself.
fighton1999,
DeleteWhen Harden is out, Lin should be more aggressive as a scorer and playmaker. Even if Harden's role is set as the Rockets' Lebron, then Lin should be the Rockets' Wade, not Chalmers. But putting that aside, I agree that Lin doesn't need to pile up Linsanity-volume points to do his job as Rockets PG.
What's concerning, though, is the trend of the ball being taken out of Lin's hands in key parts of games. He can't decide to make plays for others nor score with the game on the line when he's not being given the PG touches to do so.
@Wildathrill:
DeleteIf others are out with injury or shoot bad because their wrists hurt its ok to use the injury as excuse. If Lin is hurt you as self proclaimed Lin fan wont excuse him because that would be weak... yeah totally makes sense.
Other than you - I know how injuries can effect people. I follow peoples injuries and I dont judge about players if they are not 100%. I excused Melo when he had wrist trouble, I excused Tyson Chandler when he had wrist trouble, I excused Tony Douglas after shoulder surgery, I was worried when Kobe was about to quit because of his knees...
You can go on and ignore JLins knee. Just keep claiming that Lin doesnt penetrate as effective like he did because its all in his head - not his knee. Mind over matter - knee trouble shouldnt bother an NBA player. Its just basketball - who needs knees in this sports :)
To make myself clear:
DeleteWe who use the knee excuse only say that Lin is not 100% - therefor we cant expect 100% performance from Lin right now. That goes for penetration and that goes for jump shots...
What guys like Wildathrill claim is -> excuses are weak - therefor injuries dont matter. Chances are that he blames handicaped people for walking funny, too.
In pro sports people are not always 100% - true. But why do anouncer bother making comments how he or she is coming from surgery/injury/recovery bla bla?
"I've started [36] games now, and that's not even half a season," Lin said. "I think that's something I need to remember. ... I have to be patient with myself, and understand there's been a lot of change in my life and with this Houston team. We can't expect it all to fall into place. It's going to take some time."
ReplyDeleteGood point. It's underestimated that Lin changing teams in the formative stage of Lin's development as a starting PG would have a bigger effect than if Lin was a seasoned veteran free agent. Lin had built up a familiarity and comfort level with his Knicks coaches, teammates, and system, and just his life in NYC as a Knick, and would have built on that foundation in the next stage of his development.
DeleteIt's hard to measure how much tearing down the solid foundation Lin had with the Knicks and starting over with new coaches, teammates, system, and a new life in Houston, and then injecting Harden into the mix, has affected Lin's development.
You're TROLLING AGAIN, Eric.
DeleteClaiming that Lin is so weak that he can't recover from the Knicks ejecting him is just haterade!
Just because the racist NY tabloids are flaming Lin doesn't mean you can walk onto this site and flame his manhood.
Stop flaming Lin.
KHuang, did you read the Lin quote that pz posted?
DeleteOf course I have.
DeleteLin is incredibly strong mentally. Not even your Knicks and their anti Asian hateful tabloids can get into Lin's head.
Besides, Lin's already way ahead of the career ceiling you predicted for him: 3rd guard!
I predicted Lin's ceiling as Nash if he continues to progress on the trajectory he showed as a Knick.
DeleteFloor as Delonte West (without the psychological instability) if he regresses.
And if Lin plateaus, meaning neither progression nor regression, then Lin's game as is profiles as a Manu/(OKC)Harden game-changing combo 3rd guard.
Add: My Nash-Manu/Harden-West scale for Lin was based on last season.
DeleteThis season, Lin's game has made progress in PG-specific areas, however the SG side of Lin's combo game seems to have backslid somewhat.
The problem is, this team is taking way too many shots from the outside instead of going strong to the hoop. This leaves them vulnerable in transition defense. Before Sampson, the Rockets were holding opponents to under 93 ppg. Now they are giving up well over 100 points, 110 points etc. Because they can't control the tempo or the flow opponents are shooting 60% and above. That's unacceptable defense.
ReplyDeletetrue. I'm never a big believer in a team that shoots many 3 point shots. Live by the three, die by the three.
DeleteIncreased outside shooting from the Rockets big men should open up the floor for Lin's driving game.
Deletethibs vs. sampson?
ReplyDeleteheh, we all know how this will end.
Lin is not at 100% and then you got the opponents throwing double teams and playing hard defense on him because they don't want to get embarrassed by him. Then add the fact that he's learning a new shooting form and the coach isn't letting him run the PNR like they said they would. when LIn passes the ball to a wide open teammate for an easy the miss every time. Then.you have Harden always wanting the ball and the coach demands you give it.up.to him eventhough there's someone else open. When Lin is trying to lead a comeback the coach benches Lin for TD.who is always the reason for the team trailing behind. The offensive is always disrupted and they cant get into a flow when you got too many young players trying to put on a one man show because they don't understand its better to keep passing then throwing up a contested shot.
ReplyDeleteBUT like I said many times. LIN IS NOT 100%, WAIT UNTILL HE GETS HIS EXPLOSIVENESS BACK. HEA QUIKNESS. HES ACCELERATION AND QUICK FIRST STEP. IT WILL COME BACK EVENTUALLY. THEN HE WILL ATTACK CONSTANTLY AND NOT HESITATE AN OPEN SHOT And WILL START MAKING MORE SHOTS.
Do JLin's fan think that Lin should stop with these type of interviews? The ESPN article just creates a target on Lin for others to prove that he's full of sh*t believing he'll be an all star someday. I always believe action speak louder than words.
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with Lin wanting to be an All Star one day?
DeleteLots of players want to be All Stars. They talk about it openly. So should Lin.
If you think that somehow that'll invite criticism on Lin, then you don't understand how the racist American media works. Lin is going to get FLAMED whether he makes the All Star team or not.
Similarly, the bullseye on Lin's back won't get any bigger by him saying that. Players go after Lin super hard because they hate the Asian guy. No chamge there.
Lin should just be himself. There's no need for him to be a submissive Asian guy cowering in fear of other nonAsian races!!!
Nope. Nothing wrong with what he said and no, i would NOT want him to be a hermit and fear the press. if ian o'conner, a reputable reporter from ESPN wants to talk to him for 10min, why the hell not??
Deleteif people are gonna hate him, they're gonna hate him regardless of whether he talks to the press or not. interview of not, the target is already there on his back.
why? a confident player is always a plus.
DeleteLin didn't say he should or would be an all-star this season or even on his current contract.
DeleteIt was a good article.
i actually thought it was good of Jeremy to talk about all-star status as something in the future and not something he should immediately be granted.
Deletethe reality is if everyone in china voted like they did for Yao, Jeremy will be the highest voted player. with Yao you could easily justify his being in the all-star (although not deserving the top voted) but Jeremy's numbers, don't really warrant them right now.
if he does get all the votes but doesnt have great numbers then he'll be again criticized for being nothing more than having popular appeal with little talent.
i think this was sort of his appeal to everyone to give him time and vote for him when he can prove he deserves it and even he's making the admission that now is not that time. i don't doubt he'll get there, sooner than later, but we do got to give him a break.
If Jeremy Lin gets voted in the All-Star game I don't think he will attend to it if his performance isn't up to PAR. That's just the type of guy he is.
ReplyDeleteBut I still believe that it's up to Lin fans to vote for him or not as they have all the right to do so. It's not up to anyone to say they should or shouldn't.
Like some of you are saying he will always have a target on his back. So it really doesn't matter if he gets the majority of votes or not.
I disagree. If Lin is voted in as all-star starter, and he's healthy enough to play, he will play, because to do otherwise would disrespect all the fans who voted for him. After all, with fans voting, the all-star game is billed as for the fans.
DeleteHowever, Lin probably would graciously accept a limited role and/or minutes in the all-star game if he believes another all-star PG is more deserving.
Folks, it's to the point that JLin has no worries about criticism. Why worry about them? BIG DEAL, someone said this, or someone said that. After a while, it's all meaningless jibberish. Lin is getting paid good money to do a job. His focus is 100% on improving.
ReplyDeleteSay all that you want...that includes Stephen A, or the garbage Knicks media. They are all irrelevant.
BTW, if Lin is voted to the All Star Game, I'd be thrilled. And who gives a hoot about the other jealous players, etc. Face it, the reality is they're just not as popular. If they have a problem with that, go talk to Stern. End of story.
Now let's all watch a little Linsanity tonight against the Bulls! I'll be happy with a little dose here and there tonight. Full blown Linsanity is coming, slowly but surely.
Enjoy!
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