I am getting greedy. Going to ask Lin to jump off from the FT line and dunk.
Actually, I would want to see Lin play within himself, not get injured again, and show up for all 82 games. And stay in NBA for 15 years. And become a great NBA coach to develop talented young Asian American players like himself.
I actually would like him to slow down a bit. Keep playing his normal game...while his body gets stronger and develop slowly over time. His 4th or 5th season in the NBA would be filled with much more athleticism of him due to coming up slowly ...and thus we'll get more dunk highlights.
Lin is so freakin awesome. I watched the jump 50 times or so. I cant help but think... why do broad jumpers participate in the olympics and get gold medals and stuff when they cant even run with a ball and dunk it as they jump? JLin does it!
All that broad jumpers do is jump into a sandbox. How can you call something like that a sports career?
He must have had a break-through with his leg power recently. He's looking MUCH more confident and this dunk is obviously part of it. So is the much improved shooting. I'm expecting big things from him the rest of the season.
If Houston could just get to the 6th, or especially 5th seed, in the west, they could make so much noise in the play-offs. If they jel at the right time, this team has tons of potential to shock people, largely due to how much Lin is underestimated.
I wish they could get Milsap or Josh Smith. They'd be contenders with either of those players.
Well, looking at the standings and remaining schedule, there's no way Houston can get the 5th seed. So 6th seed it is. Unless there is an epic collapse in Houston's play, like from injury, 6th seed should be a lock, in my opinion. Margin of victory is highly predictive, and Houston's has them at the 6th seed.
So, the question is, can Houston beat the Clippers?
Absolutely no, the Rockets cannot beat the Clippers.
Even if the Rockets played great, the NBA referees would never let Lin's Rockets upset the Clippers.
Still, the young Rockets should have been nowhere near playoff contention this season.
Lin got SLAMMED in the racist press as a player who would lead Houston to a league worst NBA record. Instead, Lin has slam dunked the critics with Houston winning way more games than anybody expected.
I did predict a possible 50 wins before the Harden trade, and I have tempered my expectations since because of Harden's unwillingness to play defense. Anywhere between 40 and 50 games seems realistic to me.
Regarding Lin's physical condition, I posted back in Sept that Lin needs until Feb/2013 to be near 100%. Average recovery time for Knee surgery is about one year.
Still want Lin to play wisely and don't risk injuries.
On another topic, Lin's short mental lapses on the court could be attributed to the frequent hard fouls and blows to the head. If these lapses become more frequent, then he should really be concerned. Routine MRI scans on his brain might not be a bad idea. I am saying all this because I am still troubled by the two uncharacteristic turnovers in the 4th Q after Lin had 8 assist and 10+ points in the first half. I guess that was vs New Orleans a week ago.
"Lakers File Complaint With The NBA About Hard Fouls On Howard... You can see in the video below that the foul on Howard wasn't even that hard of a foul." http://www.hoopsvibe.com/nba-news-and-rumors/articles/170547-lakers-file-complaint-about-hard-fouls-on-howard
Hahahaha.... The Rockets never ever even blink about a certain young player who is frequently hammered in the head by opponents and who is also always illegally blocked by the cheating Miami Heat (in the last 3 meetings, Lin wasn't allowed enough space to "change direction" per one of the league's rules on blocking fouls on an offensive player). It's obvious that Lin is only one of a relatively few who doesn't cheat with PEDs, yet they whine about the freakish looking veteran? SMH LOL.
Lin might as well start wearing a head protective gear every game now. Even more, there should be sensory devices in the hear gear to record all the hits to the head, the forces of the blow, etc. This will show how differently Lin is being refereed without bias. There is then unequivocal data to back the claim up.
Lin can become a pioneer in professional sports safety.
NFL definitely should have devices in the helmet to record all the forces of collisions...but the outcome of such a implementation might be a Non-contact Football League.
Hahaha. Funny..... All the good players - or most - are deliberately elbowed, which is so dangerous. Even my wimpy elbow is a lethal weapon. The league must crack the elbowing down. I think, in reality, Lin is a little bit more hard or flagrant fouled than other players, but his fans like us notice it more. Still a bit more (which I feel is due to "The Asian kid isn't going to outplay me" attitude) is a lot coming from the NBA athletes.
Yeah, dunk more and get on the sports highlights more. Lin needs more sports media coverage. Next time Lin fouls out on those bogus phantom touches, the media hopefully will broadcast the touching fouls in Lin's defense. Bball fans wants to see more of Lin on the court flying from end to end, not sedentary gluteal muscle exercises on the bench.
I am not NBA expert, can anyone tell me, how difficult to run from coast to coast and dunk it like jeremy lin did last night? (we even ignore the block and steal). Running with full speed for such distance and still having the explosive leg power to do the dunk, it is amazing, but how often does it happen in NBA? Dunk happens all the time, but something like this?
Unlike most big scorers or dunkers, Lin really commits himself defensively to challenging shots and chasing players around screens.
I'll bet that if Lin played no defense like James Harden, he'd dunk more frequently and with more height.
I myself am not that big a fan of dunking, but it's nice to see Jeremy Lin able to dunk the ball when an athletic opponent like Garcia is challenging his layup attempt.
LinFanOnly, in b-ball, there's two footed leapers and there's one-footed running leaper. Lin is a one footed running leaper. That's why all of his dunks are coming from drives and getting off on 1 foot...and never short distances where he's jumping off of both feet. He's 6'3. His head is hovering around 9'3 at his best dunks. So that's about 3 feet or 36 inch vertical. That itself is an excellent vertical.
I think 90% of all PG/SG/SF can sprint coast to coast and dunk.
Cut figure in half if you take dribbling in traffic into consideration. He didn't have an open lane but dribbled past like 3-4 guys even before the half court line.
Cut that in half again if you figure in dunking over a decent defender.
Cut that in half again if that defender is over 4" taller than you.
And, cut that in half again if you figure in the fatigue Lin already experienced at the time of the game.
I think I am left with a 5% figure.
In my own experience, not that I could dunk, but even in my prime, it's not that hard to go coast to coast but it's extremely difficult to maintain composure while dribbling the ball past so many defenders while doing so. The dribbling part is more taxing on the stamina while sprinting through traffic.
It's Lin's initial acceleration after the block that stands out in my mind that makes the coast-to-coast hammer possible. It allowed him to multitask with the dribble, weave, windup, and final hammer to raise our eyebrows.
With some exceptions, it takes a point guard body to do that, but unlike many point guards Lin can also leap off of one-foot high enough to throw it down.
Lol, I've never even seen Yao Ming do that. That's kind of like a Kobe or LeBron highlight move. Maybe the next time Lin is standing in the corner and his defender sags off him, Lun can cut baseline for an alleyoop dunk.
Perhaps Lin did hear that comment on the court and served up a facial to the commentator with an unathletic all-in-one block, steal and dunk, if there is ever such a thing.
Agree, MT ... systematic bias for home team, not against Lin. Lin was just a way for him to get 4-8pts more for home team. Sad NBA doesn't fix this or measure this and exert some discipline like fines, etc. Or even just better their refs by publishing weekly rankings and drop last 10% each quarter to keep improve the base.
to those commenting on lin's block/dunk, there should be NO steal credited imho. since it is a block, this was a shot attempted. the kings did not regain possession for him to steal the ball. i cannot find the nba rule book on this, but here's the fiba rules about regaining possession after a block:
"A shot that is blocked and recovered without the ball going dead will be recorded as a rebound to the player who first recovers the ball immediately after the blocked shot. Remember that the ball does not have to hit the rim or backboard for a rebound to be credited." http://www.fiba.com/asp_includes/download.asp?file_id=554
according to the espn play-by-play, lin was credited with a defensive rebound after the block. therefore, it appears that he received all the stats he was supposed to.
@etane i agree. that is why i don't think lin should be credited with a steal.
just for reference, the reason i even mention this is because there have been multiple comments (rox@kings 2nd half, postgame, and this post) saying he should have been credited with a block, steal, dunk in that one possession.
Isn't it a little odd to spend your time insulting people in a forum specifically for a particular player for being biased toward that player?
Yes, we're biased to Jeremy Lin here.
Now, if you want to discuss whether individual propositions are true or not, that makes sense. For example, a couple of people thought Lin deserved a steal on this play. I, and I imagine most people, did not, but I don't feel the need to weigh in on every issue.
You, however, felt the need to insult the entire forum because of a couple of peoples' opinion.
So, was your insult a clear observation of the truth or did you make a worthless and antagonistic generalization? If you are very concerned about truth and accuracy, perhaps you should leave the worthless generalizations at the door.
Hey Etane ... People are just talking. Not many are wearing a distortion headset. I'd still give Lin a Block-steal, because it was just nice to see him strip it from the guy and take it on a run. It wasn't a classic ejection ... sort of like a rip out of the guys hands. It's fun, and who cares how it's stat-ted up esp. if it leads to name-calling. We get mistakes in stats all the time with Lin, so I don't care if it's done right or not, just that he does great plays, improves, and doesn't get hurt. I read lots of comments I don't agree with or I think are overtones, but I'm not the boss of anyone so it's just talk about someone we like.
Outside this forum, people have their heads filled with endless hours of anti Asian male programming in the racist media.
A lot of people subconsciously absorb that garbage and thus see Jeremy Lin as this loser player who must be criticized every time he does something good.
Also, those same people accuse us Lin fans here of being "delusional". They think that Lin fans follow Lin just because he's Asian and make excuses for him having game when in reality he has none.
Yet on this forum, you have a HIGHLY ELITE set of viewers who have watched pro basketball all their lives and know who can play who can't. Many of these elite viewers know that media hype doesn't imbue guys with game that have none. These elite viewers here also know that media criticism often does not match up with what is actually happening on the court.
Jeremy Lin is a player that the highly elite viewers here can appreciate. I myself appreciate Lin from a basketball purist standpoint, and I could care less about his race because I didn't even follow Yao Ming due to what I thought were flawed and overtrained offensive post mechanics by Yao. I follow Lin because his play satisfies the hoopz purist within me, and for that I get called many names including "delusional" the way Etane has many times here.
I don't watch TV or follow the media. Thus my brain is not filled with anti Asian haterade. I just see Lin as a guy who keeps making the right basketball plays. If he were not Asian, I'd be here posting about him anyway!
Oh, and, I am sorry for calling you delusional in the past. I think you're an interesting person with interesting points of views and life experiences.
Going forward, I will try harder to focus my attacks only on what you write instead of at you personally.
Etane, I'm sorry I didn't fall for your RACE BAITING.
I'm not going to flame Margaret Cho so that you can say that Asians hate each other, which has been a tired and recurring goal of yours.
You lie about being Asian, Etane, and you do not understand Asian mentalities. You don't seem to be learning anything about us Asias either, despite your repeated attempts to flame us.
Houston RocketsVerified account @HoustonRockets @sam_amick Asik was +38 and Lin was +37 against Golden State last week. Did we mention that rematch is tomorrow in Cali? Should be fun!! 11:54 AM - 11 Feb 13
I thought Greg got demoted because he's an oaf on defense. One thing that he couldn't do is to keep his 250lb body between him and the guy he's defending.
So, I was expecting to see some catch and dunks in the highlights. But, instead, I see lots of post moves and rebounds during the first half of the highlights.
Maybe McHell finally taught Greg some post moves and sent him down to DL to work on them.
It turns out that McHale was legitimately trying to shake Greg Smith out of a weeklong funk.
While McHale would not say that Greg Smith was loafing, McHale did say that Smith was not playing with the right focus and energy. McHale tried to snap Greg Smith out of his funk for a week, but nothing was working.
Greg Smith will do his stint in the D-league and then return - thankfully!
Etane, your feeble atrempts to insult the intelligence of people here are PATHETIC.
How dumb can you make yourself look, trying to insinuate that we Lin fans here are too stupid to understand why McHale sent Greg Smith to the D League?
"The Rockets may have tied the NBA record for three pointers made in a single game with 23, but the Warriors inability to connect from deep was equally as rare. Given the score [140-109], season percentages would forecast the Rockets outscoring the Warriors 40.18 to 25.51 from distance, but they held a 60 point advantage from 23 feet 9 inches. GS gets the eighth most points from distance per game, but all three starters who played 30+ minutes and attempted a three pointer for Houston [Jeremy Lin, James Harden, and Chandler Parsons] made more triples individually than the Warriors made as a team."
Lin is right on track to reach where we hoped he would be by the All Star Game Break. Something was sorely wrong with his knee and/or the quality of his Asia tour conditioning/training and/or his mental preparation entering the season. Maybe it was simply getting over the Knicks and getting used to a completely new organization in the Rockets with new players/coaches/Harden...
But now he has it back together again, more or less. Really he's been ok since about Thanksgiving, but his shot is coming around finally now for whatever reason and that makes him dangerous. Plus he's playing way more aggressively and he is now playing in such a way that makes it hard for the coaches to bench him without feeling real heat from the media if he continues his level of play. It's easy to shrug off what are perceived as delusional Asian Lin fans but it's not ok if it's coming from the media.
I was not surprised at all by the dunk. I've been wondering what's taken him so long to do something like that because he did stuff like that in college. I thought he just lost his vertical after college with the knee injuries adding up, but he looks like he still has a bit left. Lin has the ability to dunk with 2 hands in traffic, so when I see that, I'll know the guy is 100% back.
Sadly, dunking on people will get Lin more clout in the NBA than almost anything else he can do. Flash = substance in the NBA. Getting buckets = clout/fame/skill/respect. Lin has been doing a lot of things lately that indicate he is figuring himself out and figuring out his team and figuring out how to keep himself relevant and indispensable to his team. In short, he is figuring out how to excel.
Lin is still raw and learning the game as evidenced by fouling out last night. Yes the refs are biased and horrible, but Lin probably should have taken his foot off the gas pedal especially on foul #5 and let that go for a layup. Once Lin got foul #5, Thomas was smart enough to abuse a Lin with 5 fouls by getting off a 3 pointer where he knew Lin was not going to jump again, and then drew that last foul on Lin (yes it was bogus) to not only knock Lin out but get free throws out of it as well.
Also, there is definitely something going on behind the scenes with Lin. After the ridiculous limited playing time against Portland, you could see the clear mechanical subbing pattern by Mchale to make sure Lin got a steady dose of play time but for the fouls against Sac.
In fact, I thought Beverly should have stayed in about a minute or 2 longer in 4Q and that Lin should have come in with 7-8 minutes in that game based on the lead and how well Beverly/the team was doing at the time. Usually our gripe here is that Mchale holds Lin out too long or subs him out too early when the team is about to make a run with Lin and/or stinking it up without Lin in there.
Still I'll take Lin getting too many minutes over Lin getting too few anytime.
Up to a few years after my knee surgery, my vert/speed would be good on some days and gone on other days. I hope, going forward, Lin doesn't experience the same inconsistencies as I did.
Etane: I agree ... people have no clue what a micro-tear on a meniscus looks like and how painful it can be. Clicking knees and all even after arthro ...
professional sportsmen has better rehab routine than most us :). Yeah it took me close to 2 yrs to recover to a state that I would want to be. although it was not 100%.
JLIN SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS Fan: " it was terrible... he looked back at me when i said it too.... pretty sad... next time he comes im asking him to put "To Jay" so i can get a better signature... lmao... harden was a no signer as usual."
"ha im not surprised... the linsanity hit him quick. im just happy the guy signs.. hes basically pulling a blake griffin with the changed shit sig..."
smh .. saying "that was awful" after getting a signature
I might be an exception but I don't understand the significance of getting autographs. If time allows, pictures would be great. But autographs, I can falsify any signature without much effort.
Wouldn't it be better to wish the player good luck, do a high-five?
Sometimes I hate the attitude of fans, demanding autographs and photo ops, etc, like JLin owes them. And if they get turned down, they say bad things such as "Linsanity has gotten to his head" or something. The poor guy probably gets surrounded by fans requesting for autographs and photos everywhere he goes. I think JLin is a pretty nice person, but there must be days that he doesn't want to interact with the fans (ie: aftar a game loss or exhaustion etc). He's human too. Fans should be more considerate.
But, the "fan" can't get full value for that autographed photo on the open market. That's why he's pissed.
How often do fans bring 8"x11" color photos of players to games to sign? The guy is obviously a hocker. And, Lin probably signed his photos for like the 10th time this season.
True, any pro memorabilia collector will ask for NBA paperwork to verify the authenticity of an autograph. Without that paperwork ... even Michael Jordan's autographed #23 shoes would be worth only a few hundred bucks.
Lin was also robbed of a couple free throws, how many times did the announcers say "Lin gets bumped, no foul" ?
Especially that fast break near the end of the 3rd where Jimmer Fredette fouled him going to the basket, but they called it on the floor. Should have been 2 FT's.
It's not as bad in other games, but apparently the NBA really wants to prop up Sacramento Kings as a viable market ... perhaps to get Seattle to pay more ??
I can't disagree with your speculation as the NBA/refs often have their own motives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XmeA5VmhX4
I can't agree nor disagree with the reason is for propping up the Kings as Lin has been getting raw calls all season. This is just the first time Lin got taken out of the game entirely.
"I can see the Rockets making a run as they have the coup of the season with the acquisition of James Harden and believe they need one more star. Though Omer Asik has been a big prize, the Rockets didn’t even really know what they had and quietly had talked about moving Asik. Of course, the issue would be whether Howard wants to play in Houston for the sign and trade. Howard gives up perhaps $30 million if he leaves the Lakers as a free agent instead of resigning where he can get a raise on his current $19.5 million salary or go back to the ceiling and about a $16 million to $17 million starting salary. How about Asik, Jeremy Lin back with Mike D’Antoni and some young, athletic players like Chandler Parsons and Donatas Montiejunas? Though the Lakers certainly wouldn’t want to trade Howard to the Western Conference."
Kobe's contract is over after next year. One year of dealing with Kobe would be tolerable as long as he is NOT resigned and/or sign and traded.
I think Lin can generally do what he does in Houston on the Lakers because he is much more dynamic at his age and size than Nash at almost 40. It'll be similar to the Rox and Kobe will pass to Lin as long as he trusts Lin's ability.
Harden is a much better teammate though and has been pretty darn good with Lin lately.
I think either way Lin can play ball for real so he will be fine.
The funny thing is if the idiotic Rockets made such a trade soon, the Lakers would probably creep into the playoffs and take the 8th spot with Nash (PG) Lin (SG) Kobe (SF) Clark (PF) and Gasol (C) and with Asik, Parsons, TD, and maybe G Smith or Dmo/Jones off the bench. Or they can bring Lin off the bench as super 6th man and start Parsons at the 3. I prefer Lin start of course, but just saying, it could work...
Or they could trade Howard for the entire Houston starting 4 minus Harden along with some other rookie throw ins. Could you imagine Parsons, Lin, Asik, PPat, with Meeks, Nash, Blake, mixed in off the bench? It'd be a neat old/young starter/bench mix. Not quite Denver, but it's be neat and the young "bench" would really push those old dog laker starters.
I think if I was the Lakers, I'd do that in a heartbeat. But I'm not the Lakers....
Harden has been playing very well with Lin as you've said. And, coincidentally, Kobe has been stepping up in the ball dishing department. He's been at or close to double digit dishes during the last 10 games.
Both are showing they are capable of moving the ball instead of being black holes of late. Is this a coincidence? Hmmm...
Jeremy Lamb, Terrence Jones among 5 players who might move By Joe Kaiser | ESPN Insider
A number of potential trades bubbled to the surface of the NBA's rumor mill this week, which is to be expected given how close we are to the league's Feb. 21 trade deadline.
On Thursday, ESPN's Marc Stein reported a potential deal with Chicago and Toronto involving a Carlos Boozer-for-Andrea Bargnani swap, and on Friday, ESPN's Chris Broussardreported that Charlotte and Brooklyn were talking about a Ben Gordon-for-Kris Humphriesdeal. Other reports in recent days have Brooklyn showing interest in Josh Smith, according to Broussard, and Milwaukee targeting J.J. Redick, per Stein.
And earlier in the week, Chris Sheridan of SheridanHoops.com mentioned that San Antonio and Utah could be on the verge of a deal centered around Al Jefferson.
While it's easy to focus on the big-name centerpieces of such rumored deals, guys such as Marc Gasol and Nikola Vucevic have proved in recent years that sometimes the lesser-known, unproven players can make just as big of an impact (and at a cheaper rate).
So who are the players that fit that description this season? Which promising first- or second-year guys might be made available by playoff-caliber teams if it means landing the guy who can push them deep into the playoffs? What players have yet to scratch the surface on their vast potential and could break out on a different roster?
Here is a look at some of the top young players on contending teams who could end up being involved in a trade-deadline deal this season:
Jeremy Lamb | SG | Oklahoma City Thunder
Lamb Lamb has played only 64 minutes this season on a Thunder roster brimming with talent, and his chances for playing time have been very limited thanks to the presence of Kevin Martin and Thabo Sefolosha ahead of him on the depth chart. Still, there's a reason Houston selected him No. 12 overall last summer before shipping him to OKC in the James Harden deal: Lamb is a versatile wing with a long wingspan who can shoot, defend and become a key piece to a winning team.
The question is whether that will happen with the Thunder, which may be better off resigning the efficient Martin after the season and using Lamb in a deal for a center. Phoenix could be a good trade partner, since it has the prized big man to offer -- Marcin Gortat -- and a big need at the shooting guard position.
Harris The Bucks passed on re-signing Carlos Delfino over the summer and entered the season with the 20-year-old Harris as their starting small forward, a big indication that the team believed in the versatile forward out of Tennessee. But Harris quickly fell out of favor with former coach Scott Skiles due to his struggles as a team defender and his inability to mesh well offensively with theBrandon Jennings-Monta Ellis backcourt.
A change of environment could be just what he needs to emerge as a starter in the league, and Milwaukee may be willing to make that happen for the right deal. However, Mike Dunleavy and Marquis Daniels are both free agents after the season and may not return, so Harris could be in line for a bigger role if he's still with the Bucks in 2013-14.
Nando de Colo | PG | San Antonio Spurs
De Colo With de Colo and Patty Mills, there's a bit of a logjam behind Tony Parker at point guard, and San Antonio could look to unload one of the two in a deal for a big man. For a number of reasons, the 25-year-old de Colo could have more appeal.
He stands 6-foot-5, 5 inches taller than Mills, and in limited opportunities this season has shown to be a creative distributor and capable shooter. Having played professionally in France and Spain for seven seasons before joining the Spurs, he's already more polished than most NBA rookies, and while he will never pass Parker on the depth chart in San Antonio, he could be a guy other teams target.
John Henson | PF | Milwaukee Bucks
Henson The Bucks like what they have in their 2012 lottery pick, that being a long, lanky rebounder and shot-blocker with some offensive game around the basket. In addition, Henson probably has just as good a chance at being the team's future at power forward as Ersan Ilyasova.
So why even consider trading him now? Because Ilyasova is the one with the big contract and thus the one currently getting the bulk of the minutes, which could very well continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. On the flip side, Henson is someone Milwaukee can keep around on a bargain rookie contract through 2015-16, so they'll probably only consider dealing him if it means bringing back an All-Star-caliber talent in return. Maybe someone like a Danny Granger, perhaps?
Others: Jordan Hamilton (Denver), Evan Fournier (Denver), Timofey Mozgov (Denver), Alec Burks (Utah), Jared Cunningham (Dallas), Fab Melo (Boston), Patty Mills (San Antonio)
'James Harden never gave us a chance to revel in the one-year anniversary of Linsanity because he's having the best February of anyone not named LeBron or Tony Parker. And the Rockets, following his bearded lead, are blitzing teams again to jump to eighth in average point differential (plus-3.0).'
The bearded one improving especially in the rebounds and dish category, surprisingly.
The heavy minutes Harden has been playing is catching up. We need to find a way to preserve Harden's body. The next thing we now, it may be a serious injury right in the middle of a the playoff chase. The good thing is the coaching staff has the All-Star break to figure out how to lessen the load off of Harden.
Can we beat GSW without Harden? If the Spurs game was any indication...I'll be counting down with @psalm!
Sure Lin can beat GSW w/o Harden if his teammates show up to play, wilc.
This Harden thing could be huge. If Harden goes down due to heavy minutes and Lin plays great, the "Fire McHale" chants will resume due to him misusing his players.
I certainly don't wish for it because I'd like to see HOU goes to the playoff but McHale usage of Harden and Parsons has been too much.
"I'll do a little bit of recruiting during the All-Star break, but my main focus is on just trying to get this team focused on every single game, every practice...I can't worry about who we want to recruit and things like that. ... For the most part, we're trying to make the playoffs." ---
But while free-agents-to-be Dwight Howard of the Lakers, Andrew Bynum of the 76ers and Josh Smith of the Atlanta Hawks could be coming his way, Harden said he doesn't have a specific player in mind on top of his personal priority list.
"I don't because if I did have a guy (like that), I'd be texting him every single day," Harden said.
Specifically, Harden said he has no relationship with Howard.
"Like I said, if I did, I'd be texting him every single day," he said. "Dwight, (Clippers free agent-to-be) Chris Paul, Bynum, all of them."
This is so sad. The media overrates player to player recruitment. Sure, it helps if Harden is friend's with a guy the Rockets are targeting but at the end of the day, it's about money. Player X isn't going to HOU because he's friends with Harden, it's bc he got paid.
Mchale: clapped 5 or 6 times. He usually only claps one time on made shots. My take? Mchale is an oversized NBA fan. He sees the obvious and as a former star player, he uses his own subjective eye test. Lin dunking and overwhelming people, hitting open shots, and making incredible play time and time again with limited ugly plays and dumb turnovers mixed in is the only way to win over Mchale. I believe it will take another season or so, but Mchale will come around. Mchale is not overtly racist or a Lin hater. He just isn't open minded and needs to see it for himself to believe.
Finch: silently smacked his hands between his notes like "F*** Yeah!" Nuff said.
JB Bickerstaff: did some sly quick right hand slide on his notepad/folder. Can't tell if it was a good or bad reaction, but it was some type of reaction to Lin's play.
This is my own speculation but Sampson probably put all his chips into the "pro-Harden, anti-Lin" basket, since he was the first one that benched Lin for the entire 4th quarter at a game when McHale was on leave. Maybe he thought if he sided with Harden, he would be the next Head Coach if McHale gets fired (like Woodson when Dantoni left). I think he knows that his job is hanging by a thread at this point since JLin is playing much better. And since he had already burned the bridge as far as his relationship with JLin is concerned, his only hope is Harden being the as selfish as Melo (who wants JLin gone). Too bad. I think Harden likes to play with Jeremy XD
Some of us have complained about McHale's "weird" substitution patterns. Let me off a quick hypothesis on what McHale could be doing.
Box score stats don't capture much of what a player can do to affect wins and losses. Because box scores are kept, players will tend to maximize box scores first, wins second, since box scores are how they get fame and pay. If box scores don't incentivize winning behavior perfectly there's a gap. I believe Lin falls into this gap; I think he purely wants to win rather than fill up box scores. For example, before some time in the 1970s, turnovers were not kept officially. After turnovers started being kept, TOs went down around the league. What gets measured gets done.
Wins are measured in point differential, plus/minus. How a player affects plus/minus is literally his effect on winning and losing. The only problem with measuring players by plus/minus is that there are other players on the court with who affect it, both on your team and your opponents.
Over the years, statistical methods have been refined to improve the accuracy of plus/minus in evaluating players. The state of the art in the public domain is Regularized Adjusted Plus Minus[1].
We know Morey likes plus/minus:
"One well-known statistic the Rockets’ front office pays attention to is plus-minus, which simply measures what happens to the score when any given player is on the court. In its crude form, plus-minus is hardly perfect: a player who finds himself on the same team with the world’s four best basketball players, and who plays only when they do, will have a plus-minus that looks pretty good, even if it says little about his play. Morey says that he and his staff can adjust for these potential distortions — though he is coy about how they do it — and render plus-minus a useful measure of a player’s effect on a basketball game. A good player might be a plus 3 — that is, his team averages 3 points more per game than its opponent when he is on the floor. In his best season, the superstar point guard Steve Nash was a plus 14.5. At the time of the Lakers game, Battier was a plus 10, which put him in the company of Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett, both perennial All-Stars. For his career he’s a plus 6. “Plus 6 is enormous,” Morey says. “It’s the difference between 41 wins and 60 wins.” He names a few other players who were a plus 6 last season: Vince Carter, Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady."
We also know from that paragraph that Morey uses advanced analysis to make the plus/minus more meaningful. I'm pretty sure his art is ahead of RAPM.
We know that Morey is science minded. One way to increase the resolution of plus/minus is to give it more data. Playing lots of different line-ups against many different teams gives you the most information to plug into your regression analysis. Over time, you home in on the best lineups, but it can take quite awhile for your confidence scores to be high enough to stop experimenting. In our case, the equation their trying to solve is so vast that they could never have enough confidence.
In the play-offs, don't be surprised to see a much more regular and sane looking rotation.
-----
An alternate theory I don’t necessarily buy but lingers when I’m feeling more conspiracy-theorist is that Morey knows exactly what he has in Lin and wants to keep other teams from demanding him in a trade for another big piece, a trade which Morey is in full gear to make happen over the next year and a half. I’ve read a lot of Morey’s technical comments about Lin’s game and, other than Lin fans, he seems to be the only one who recognizes all the subtler aspects. If you’ve appreciated it, Morey has recognized it already. Sometimes Morey sounds like a LOF. ;)
[1] Last year's table shows why I think Paul Millsap or Josh Smith would make Houston a contender.
Oh, we also know that Morey's +/- analysis must be pretty good because he continually wins trades with other teams, continually unearths better-than-expected gems off the backs of other teams' benches, and he predicted with uncharacteristic certainty before the season that the Rockets would make the play-offs, something very few other analytics outlets did pre-season, many claiming we'd be fighting for a top 5 spot in the draft.
Sort of, other than the "Rox use Lin in the blah blah" part because "using Lin" comprises more than substitution pattern and I'm only discussing substitution pattern here.
And, true you didn't explicitly say the substitution pattern is good or bad. But, I believe, it's effectively your unstated premise because no one would be interested in the substitution pattern, including yourself, unless it is especially good or especially bad.
And, I think we know what the consensus is on that matter.
Although, I think February has been a rather good month in those regards.
So basically morey is adjusting rotations to generate permutations of lineups and matchups in real time to glean some obscure metric based on his advanced models?
Hmm I want to say bs (no offense enormous respect for you MT) cause I don't believe in morey and coaching (mainly coaches) but what you proposed explains a lot of the strange actions throughout this season so far.
Morey definitely will benefit from the experimentation of multiple lineup to see which pieces would be valuable trading pieces or are worth keeping.
But if that were true, unfortunately that would also mean that Harden as the PG is at the center piece of this lineup because all other players are replaceable pieces. And that's not exactly good news for Lin in the long term.
After the Rockets big win in MSG, there was definitely a big change of featuring Lin more as the PG leading to the 10-2 win streak then 0-7 losing streak where Harden went ISO again. There was definitely a change in team strategy here that will influence the RAPM, even the Assist-to-TO ratio.
While I agree that the multiple lineup is valuable for Morey to check how valuable his players are, I disagree with the conspiracy theorist that Morey controlled McHale so much downplay Lin usage so other teams won't ask for Lin.
I fully believe that the losing streak forced McHale to feature Lin as the PG so Harden ISO can still be a threat. If Morey is smart, he'd better do his RAPM-like analysis separately between Harden or Lin as the main PG.
The biggest problem is still out there, McHale is stubborn to stick to his all-players-as-PG system and Harden is the main PG. He and Sampson still have mental block that to see that Lin is more valuable as a PG to break down defense with dribble-penetration and give open looks to the shooters including Harden. The main problem is just stubbornness to the flawed system.
So there a method to the madness that is McHale's weird substitutions? I hope that is the case because what is the alternative? That McHale is just an incompetent coach who doesn't trust JLin? If this happened just at the beginning of the season, I may be more inclined to believe so, but half the season is already over. If you are serious about making the playoffs, will you still be experimenting with your lineup that way? Wouldn't you want your starting PG to get comfortable playing with the team and develop some chemistry?
The random benching is disruptive and create an aura of uncertainty on a game by game basis. If it was all part of the plan, wouldn't the coaches or Morey tell the players that? JLin seemed unhappy at the benching. I doubt he knows anything about that. What about Harden? Why isn't he benched for the entire quarter to see what kind of stats Morey can use?
I think it's plain to us JLin fans that it's really idiotic to bench him. There's no doubt that JLin is the best PG on that team and he's clutch, so in our minds we must find some sort of reason to McHale's madness. But sometimes, the reason could be much simpler. McHale doesn't trust JLin and treats him as a rookie. Some viewers said they saw McHale "coaching" (or yelling) JLin a lot more than other players on the side of the court.
As for Morey, I don't think he micromanages the coaching and how it's done. I think the rotations are decided by the coaching staff. However, Morey might have been forced to intercept by Les regarding JLin's playing time.
Like I posted in the other thread, McHale is a Bobby Knight disciple. He preaches a motion offense that wants the players to pinball the basketball around the court and make quick decisive aggressive plays when the pass cannot be made. This is actually exactly the same as what Mike Woodson does jn NY.
In this Sacramento game, Lin's play was more like what McHale was looking for in his motion scheme. Lin would get the ball, make quick decisive moves, and pass off or shoot. He didn't probe the defense much and was extremely efficient offensively. Thus we saw some approval signs from McHale.
Here's the problem. Sacramento is a WEAK team that cannot defend Jeremy Lin with any player. Lin can make those quick decisive Bobby Knight moves against Sacramento's poor defense, but Lin cannot make those moves against committed traps by good teams. Lin has to stall and probe the defense for openings, and that enrages McHale because he wants the action to go go go.
What irritates me about coaches that preach the motion scheme is that a truly PURE motion scheme is not opposed to stalling, probing, or isolation. There are many instances where a great defense shuts down great offenses and the only way to break down the defense is to throw the ball to one guy and let him create.
Jeremy Lin is a creative player who often is forced by defenses to become a halfcourt isolation player. If McHale can't handle that, he needs to go back to his Celtic roots and remember that he himself was mainly an isolation superstar as a player!
No Etane, I specifically meant "isolation" player and not "decision maker".
In a pure Bobby Knight motion scheme, all players are decisionmakers. Knight himself described it as very simple in that a player either sets a screen, makes a cut, passes the ball, or shoots. And it's snap fast judgments, no ball holding.
McHale is using that Knight motion scheme with the same insistence that Lin make those snap decisions. However, the wicked traps applied to Lin by the good teams have sealed off his driving lanes and blocked out the passing targets.
Just to pass the ball to a guy, Lin is forced to probe the defense and see if he draws a double team. Usually he does, and then he immediately passes to the open guy. But more and more, Lin's dribble probes are resulting in Lin being the guy with the best scoring opportunity. Lin is taking those opportunities and scoring even though his first inclination is to pass the way McHale wants him to.
McHale doesn't seem to recognize how the traps are affecting Lin, and that causes consternation for McHale's motion tendencies. Yet Lin produces, so McHale has to play Lin and turn his head when Lin puts the ball on the floor.
Lin probing, faking, juking, and penetrating with the basketball to elicit a response from the defensive traps? ISOLATION BASKETBALL is what Lin is playing.
Ah, so when Lin is penetrating and forcing the defense to collapse on him before Lin kicks the ball out for his teammates, that is called isolation basketball. Sorry, I guess that term is new to me. I keep relating what pre-February Harden does as ISOLATION BASKETBALL. Semantics.
He never wants the ball to be sticky on 1 player and it keeps being passed around.
I wish there would be 1 brave reporter who dare to ask him, "Why is the ball so sticky on Harden at the end of 4th quarter?" McHale probably answers, "Well, he is our best sticky player!"
As usual, you seek to twist my words for your own nefarious ends, Etane.
That's to be expected from a guy like you who calls this entire board "delusional".
James Harden does not pound the ball, dribbling in place feinting and leaning, searching for the gaps. He grabs the ball, sizes up his single defender, and makes quick decisive moves to score. He usually ends up going by one or two additional guys who are flatfooted on the other side of the court watching Jeremy Lin. Thus Harden is a TRUE MOTION PLAYER who appears to be playing selfish isolation basketball to people like Etane who don't understand Knight's motion offense.
Jeremy Lin, on the other hand, faces FAR MORE defensive coverage than Harden. He often gets by his man, but then two or more players collapse on him while an additional player waits in the periphery to pick off his passes. Unlike Harden who waltzes by stationary help defenders keeping their attention on Lin, Lin has to JUMBLE those defenders before he can fully commit to his moves. So in a sense Lin is breaking the Knight motion scheme by pounding the rock and stalling the flow of the ball by ISOLATING HIMSELF from not just his teammates, but the offense.
McHale is probably irritated with Lin the way Mike Woodson was. Woodson openly hinted in the press that Lin was a selfish point guard who needed to pass the ball to other players instead of looking for his own shot. But Lin faced severe traps in NY too, though not as ferocious as the ones he faces now. Lin is probably pissing off his coaches with his iso ball, but there is no other way for Lin to break the traps simply to get the ball to people!
McHale's substitution patterns are VERY predictable.
He gets irritated with Lin for seesawing in the midrange against the traps, even though Lin is usually producing. McHale then subs in the reserve, and the traps disappear as McHale happily watches his motion scheme. But then McHale suddenly realizes that his team has fallen behind and POOF, Lin's back in to save the game despite McHale's motion misgivings.
James Harden may advance the ball slowly in the 4th and take the shots himself, but he's actually running the motion scheme. Harden is either barreling into defenders, catching inside cutters for passes, or dishing off to his favorite perimeter target in Lin. Since Harden NEVER draws the defensive coverage that Lin does, Harden doesn't seesaw with the dribble like a yo yo, probing defenses for reactions. That would be WASTING TIME to McHale, and he's lash into Harden if Harden back dribbled against the double team or pounded the rock in place as teammates scrambled to open spots. Thus Harden is a TRUE MOTION PLAYER.
Harden runs the motion because he doesn't get the nasty traps that Lin gets. He also needs Lin in order to win games, as McHale has noticed. That's why Lin and Harden get played together.
Racist referees, Bobby Knight motion offense, TRUE MOTION PLAYER, and Morey's alleged substitution patterns are complete absurdity. Strip away the whimsical notions and conspiracy theories and focus on the fundamentals, basketball fundamentals. You want an anecdote from Kevin McHale of the importance of watching from the bench, or even benching a player:
April 17, 1984
"One thing that sets McHale apart as a pro is that most players his size who have any potential at all are given the opportunity to become starters. And before entering the NBA, Kevin had been a starter, both for Minnesota, and for the United States team that Bobby Knight coached to a gold medal in the 1979 Pan American Games.
Asked if the possibility of becoming Boston's Sixth Man had ever crossed his mind when the Celtics made him their first draft pick in 1980, McHale replied: ''The only thing I was thinking about at the time was what it would take for me to make the ball club. I wasn't even concerned about being a regular. Of course I knew about the Celtics' Sixth Man tradition and particularly about Havlicek. But my only goal was to make sure that I got a spot on the roster.''
What probably triggered McHale's Sixth Man role with the Celtics, rather than any preconceived notions by then coach Bill Fitch to employ him that way, was Boston's front line of Robert Parish, Larry Bird, and Cedric Maxwell. They were all too good at their jobs to be displaced.
But most every time Fitch decided to bring Kevin in off the bench, the Celtics either added to their lead or made a run at whatever team was ahead of them. When it became obvious that this was no mere coincidence, McHale was regularly assigned the specialty role.
''Once I learned what my role was I also discovered there are some benefits to coming off the bench that you don't get as a starter,'' Kevin told me. ''For example, just sitting there watching can help you acquire a feel for the way the game is going. It's like you can begin to gear your thinking ahead of time to whatever the team needs at the moment, whether it's scoring, rebounding, or just working hard on defense. I had my taste of starting when I was in college and it was good, but now I don't need it."
Jeremy is a young player and there's still a learning curve. Why are people so alarmed when the coach constantly talks to Jeremy during games? If you believe being coached is a negative, they you seriously need to have your head examined. The point guard position is a difficult position to play. Kevin McHale is allowing Jeremy to watch and absorb and as he said "acquire a feel for the game." So please stop will all of the nonsense.
To see a pure example of Bobby Knight's motion offense played to perfection, watch the 1984 Olympic vs NBA game in which Michael Jordan's collegiate amateurs beat an NBA All Star team with Magic and Isiah among other star NBA playersz
Knight's scheme differs slightly from McHale's in that the college Olympians use more feinting and probing, just like what Jeremy Lin does. Knight seemed to understand that sometimes the only way to keep the ball moving is to draw some defensive coverage and then move the ball.
Knight is the legendary master of the motion offense. McHale and Woodson use it too, but they don't GET IT the way Knight did. Not surprisingly, Knight's favorite PG Isiah Thomas who also is a motion offense coach did not think highly of Lin either.
Why are you here on a Lin fan looking to flame people? Don't you realize that a lot of people here RESENT racists like you and will fire back on your Lin hating butt?
Racist trolls like you and Etane, Asa, are so easy to predict.
You're here to degrade all things Asian, Lin and his fans.
Your hope is that you will stir up American anti Asian racism to beat the Asians here into submission. That doesn't work here, as you both have found out on many occasions.
Understand this, Etane and Asa. The more you troll Lin's followers, the more RESOLUTE they will be in resisting your flaming. We will retaliate in force.
You feed off negative energy of people fighting each other. You seek to fan the flames of hatred and then sit back to enjoy the show with a poorly disguised "who me" attitude.
We will always fight because I am your counterpart. As much as you want to hurt people here, I want to help them. You want to hurt me and I want to help you. We understand each other all too well, as we are natural born enemies.
But do stop lying about being Asian. You aren't convincing at all. You're not going to split the Asian community against itself, not when you overtly demonstrate such racial bias and utter ignorance of Asian lifestyles.
You entertain me too, Etane. We entertain each other.
Actually, I'd rather entertain you than fight you. I am TERRIFIC at entertaining people. I am actually honored that I entertain you.
I don't know that Animal Farm is one of your favorite novels, nor do I mind that it is. Just understand that real life often is far more nuanced and balanced than the Orwellian vision you are seeking to apply to this forum.
In real life, people like you and I would maintain a respectful distance from one another. This Lin forum draws the extremes of people together.
By the way, you needn't resort to race baiting to get my attention. You want me, simply ASK. I'll even play the fool for you, if it fits my greater need of improving my quality of life.
Yeah, but then he seem fine with Taiwanese-American, and says he's Chinese [ethnically.] Maybe it's less-controversial [politically] to use Asian-American..? [Less divisive.] He's also one of the few Asian-Americans to achieve a certain level of prominence in mainstream culture, and he may want this group to have some representation out there. ---
Yah Via I remember there was an interview I saw on youtube perhaps it was you who originally linked it where the reporter was baiting Jeremy to answer whether he's Chinese or Taiwanese. He answered he's Asian American.
Knowing you, Via, you'd probably find that video again within 5 minutes.
Thanks for the link, via. Good interview with Jer.
One thing I noticed during warm up yesterday was how great Lin was shooting the ball. He was making 4-5 threes in a row at one point - never hitting the rim. His stroke looked much more fluid - not that awkward, high arc shot he was doing early in the season.
It is nice to Jeremy improving the weakest part of his game this season. The way he is shooting right now, this recent improvement in his shot definitely is not a fluke.
I'm kind of nervous for tomorrow's game. His shot's been falling, he's playing with more confidence...it can't be a fluke. Please God, don't let it be a fluke.
I think he'll be fine. I read that his parents and friends are going to be at the game and we know he tends to do well with a good audience (and of course I bet most of the fans there are going to support him :)
"What, then does it mean that the Rockets thrive when Lin struggles? The easy answer, of course, is that he isn’t struggling in those games. In fact, higher turnovers may signify when he’s playing better."
In losses, Lin gets effectively trapped. He handles the ball less, so lower usage for Lin means lower turnovers. James Harden is usually left free to roam in those losses, so he handles the ball more and gets more turnovers.
In wins, Lin is able to beat the traps more frequently to make plays for himself and others. His usage goes up and thus so do his turnovers. Lin's high usage cuts into Harden's usage, but since Lin is producing for Harden it doesn't hurt but actually helps Harden's statline.
Omer Asik is the prime inside passing target for both Lin and Harden. In wins, Omer Asik is able to get to the rim and finish. In losses, Omer Asik is defended effectively enough to force him to make decisions and that's when his turnovers rise.
I wish he'd dunk it two hand on those. Two-handed dunks off one foot look the most effortless and graceful on fast breaks in my opinion.
ReplyDeletethat would be very mean on 6'7" Garcia
DeleteHe took off right at the bottom of the jump ball circle!
ReplyDeleteI am getting greedy. Going to ask Lin to jump off from the FT line and dunk.
DeleteActually, I would want to see Lin play within himself, not get injured again, and show up for all 82 games. And stay in NBA for 15 years. And become a great NBA coach to develop talented young Asian American players like himself.
He picked up the ball at the Free Throw line!
DeleteI actually would like him to slow down a bit. Keep playing his normal game...while his body gets stronger and develop slowly over time. His 4th or 5th season in the NBA would be filled with much more athleticism of him due to coming up slowly ...and thus we'll get more dunk highlights.
DeleteLin is so freakin awesome. I watched the jump 50 times or so. I cant help but think... why do broad jumpers participate in the olympics and get gold medals and stuff when they cant even run with a ball and dunk it as they jump? JLin does it!
DeleteAll that broad jumpers do is jump into a sandbox. How can you call something like that a sports career?
BTW: Hes done it before
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOPF4T7IoOo
hahaha, thats horizontal jump and not vertical. LOL
DeleteCOAST TO COAST
Delete[Surprised not much art coming out on this fr Taiwan...Lunar New Year rush, maybe.]
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ReplyDeleteHe must have had a break-through with his leg power recently. He's looking MUCH more confident and this dunk is obviously part of it. So is the much improved shooting. I'm expecting big things from him the rest of the season.
ReplyDeleteIf Houston could just get to the 6th, or especially 5th seed, in the west, they could make so much noise in the play-offs. If they jel at the right time, this team has tons of potential to shock people, largely due to how much Lin is underestimated.
I wish they could get Milsap or Josh Smith. They'd be contenders with either of those players.
Well, looking at the standings and remaining schedule, there's no way Houston can get the 5th seed. So 6th seed it is. Unless there is an epic collapse in Houston's play, like from injury, 6th seed should be a lock, in my opinion. Margin of victory is highly predictive, and Houston's has them at the 6th seed.
DeleteSo, the question is, can Houston beat the Clippers?
Absolutely no, the Rockets cannot beat the Clippers.
DeleteEven if the Rockets played great, the NBA referees would never let Lin's Rockets upset the Clippers.
Still, the young Rockets should have been nowhere near playoff contention this season.
Lin got SLAMMED in the racist press as a player who would lead Houston to a league worst NBA record. Instead, Lin has slam dunked the critics with Houston winning way more games than anybody expected.
I did predict a possible 50 wins before the Harden trade, and I have tempered my expectations since because of Harden's unwillingness to play defense. Anywhere between 40 and 50 games seems realistic to me.
Regarding Lin's physical condition, I posted back in Sept that Lin needs until Feb/2013 to be near 100%. Average recovery time for Knee surgery is about one year.
DeleteStill want Lin to play wisely and don't risk injuries.
On another topic, Lin's short mental lapses on the court could be attributed to the frequent hard fouls and blows to the head. If these lapses become more frequent, then he should really be concerned. Routine MRI scans on his brain might not be a bad idea. I am saying all this because I am still troubled by the two uncharacteristic turnovers in the 4th Q after Lin had 8 assist and 10+ points in the first half. I guess that was vs New Orleans a week ago.
50 wins is highly unlikely since there isn't much certainty from the inside and out but hey Lin has a rap sheet of proofing doubters wrong
DeleteLets see what kind of princess treatment the refs have in store for cp3 & gang
Delete"Lakers File Complaint With The NBA About Hard Fouls On Howard... You can see in the video below that the foul on Howard wasn't even that hard of a foul." http://www.hoopsvibe.com/nba-news-and-rumors/articles/170547-lakers-file-complaint-about-hard-fouls-on-howard
DeleteHahahaha.... The Rockets never ever even blink about a certain young player who is frequently hammered in the head by opponents and who is also always illegally blocked by the cheating Miami Heat (in the last 3 meetings, Lin wasn't allowed enough space to "change direction" per one of the league's rules on blocking fouls on an offensive player). It's obvious that Lin is only one of a relatively few who doesn't cheat with PEDs, yet they whine about the freakish looking veteran? SMH LOL.
Lin might as well start wearing a head protective gear every game now. Even more, there should be sensory devices in the hear gear to record all the hits to the head, the forces of the blow, etc. This will show how differently Lin is being refereed without bias. There is then unequivocal data to back the claim up.
DeleteLin can become a pioneer in professional sports safety.
NFL definitely should have devices in the helmet to record all the forces of collisions...but the outcome of such a implementation might be a Non-contact Football League.
Hahaha. Funny..... All the good players - or most - are deliberately elbowed, which is so dangerous. Even my wimpy elbow is a lethal weapon. The league must crack the elbowing down. I think, in reality, Lin is a little bit more hard or flagrant fouled than other players, but his fans like us notice it more. Still a bit more (which I feel is due to "The Asian kid isn't going to outplay me" attitude) is a lot coming from the NBA athletes.
DeleteYeah, dunk more and get on the sports highlights more. Lin needs more sports media coverage. Next time Lin fouls out on those bogus phantom touches, the media hopefully will broadcast the touching fouls in Lin's defense. Bball fans wants to see more of Lin on the court flying from end to end, not sedentary gluteal muscle exercises on the bench.
ReplyDeleteI am not NBA expert, can anyone tell me, how difficult to run from coast to coast and dunk it like jeremy lin did last night? (we even ignore the block and steal).
ReplyDeleteRunning with full speed for such distance and still having the explosive leg power to do the dunk, it is amazing, but how often does it happen in NBA? Dunk happens all the time, but something like this?
Excellent question.
DeleteActually, it's harder than it looks.
Unlike most big scorers or dunkers, Lin really commits himself defensively to challenging shots and chasing players around screens.
I'll bet that if Lin played no defense like James Harden, he'd dunk more frequently and with more height.
I myself am not that big a fan of dunking, but it's nice to see Jeremy Lin able to dunk the ball when an athletic opponent like Garcia is challenging his layup attempt.
KHuang did you just call Garcia athletic?
DeleteYes, Francisco Garcia is athletic.
DeleteI wouldn't call him an exceptional athlete by NBA standards, but he has enough athleticism to play in the league.
LinFanOnly, in b-ball, there's two footed leapers and there's one-footed running leaper. Lin is a one footed running leaper. That's why all of his dunks are coming from drives and getting off on 1 foot...and never short distances where he's jumping off of both feet. He's 6'3. His head is hovering around 9'3 at his best dunks. So that's about 3 feet or 36 inch vertical. That itself is an excellent vertical.
DeleteI think 90% of all PG/SG/SF can sprint coast to coast and dunk.
DeleteCut figure in half if you take dribbling in traffic into consideration. He didn't have an open lane but dribbled past like 3-4 guys even before the half court line.
Cut that in half again if you figure in dunking over a decent defender.
Cut that in half again if that defender is over 4" taller than you.
And, cut that in half again if you figure in the fatigue Lin already experienced at the time of the game.
I think I am left with a 5% figure.
In my own experience, not that I could dunk, but even in my prime, it's not that hard to go coast to coast but it's extremely difficult to maintain composure while dribbling the ball past so many defenders while doing so. The dribbling part is more taxing on the stamina while sprinting through traffic.
It's Lin's initial acceleration after the block that stands out in my mind that makes the coast-to-coast hammer possible. It allowed him to multitask with the dribble, weave, windup, and final hammer to raise our eyebrows.
DeleteWith some exceptions, it takes a point guard body to do that, but unlike many point guards Lin can also leap off of one-foot high enough to throw it down.
To do it at the speed he did it at is very difficult. I can do it in practice running about half speed at Lin's height.
ReplyDeleteLol, I've never even seen Yao Ming do that. That's kind of like a Kobe or LeBron highlight move. Maybe the next time Lin is standing in the corner and his defender sags off him, Lun can cut baseline for an alleyoop dunk.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pctMowuZik
DeleteYAO MING!
The funniest thing was that the commentator was saying that Lin was "not as fast as you'd like to see in a point guard" in that highlight.
ReplyDeleteJeremy Lin blocked the ball under his hoop. He then outran every single player on both teams for the dunk, beating them all from baseline to baseline!
Perhaps Lin did hear that comment on the court and served up a facial to the commentator with an unathletic all-in-one block, steal and dunk, if there is ever such a thing.
DeleteActually the commentator said that on a different highlight where Lin drove and made a scoop shot.
DeleteJLIN HOOP AND HARM
DeleteI always said -> LIN=SPEEDY GONZALES!
ReplyDeleteI prefer the other rodent, mighty mouse.
Delete"Jeremy is here to save the game!"
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdIev12fCPs
Since Lin is considered an underdog and lots of NBA players look like thugs and criminals:
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEVsRLhet2k
LOL yes Underdog is much more suitable.
DeleteIndeed Etane, you WANT Lin to be stepped on because of his race.
Deleteso darn predictable you are.
Can NBA outsource referee job to asia? Lol
ReplyDeleteIf only we have someone or something that will always be there to defend Lin
Outsourcing? Yeah, they should do that.
Delete---------
I'd like to repost what I posted in the previous thread...
per Solidz75, referee #44 is the one making those bogus foul calls in ROX-SAC game...
did some googling...
referee #44 = Eli Roe (Referees for the 2012-2013 season).
he is #1 of TOP 6 HOMER REFEREES IN THE NBA.
---------
How can such refs be allowed to keep their jobs?
This is actually good news. As I've mentioned, never attribute to malice that which can properly be explained by incompetence.
DeleteEli Roe isn't racist, he's just an idiot. This is empowering because it means you don't have to expect Lin to face that level of stupidity every game.
Agree, MT ... systematic bias for home team, not against Lin. Lin was just a way for him to get 4-8pts more for home team. Sad NBA doesn't fix this or measure this and exert some discipline like fines, etc. Or even just better their refs by publishing weekly rankings and drop last 10% each quarter to keep improve the base.
DeleteI disagree with the assertion that NBA refs are not racist.
DeleteStatistical studies have amply demonstrated that NBA refs consistently call games in favor of white players.
We can all SEE Lin being bashed and cheated every game by the refs. RACISM.
to those commenting on lin's block/dunk, there should be NO steal credited imho. since it is a block, this was a shot attempted. the kings did not regain possession for him to steal the ball. i cannot find the nba rule book on this, but here's the fiba rules about regaining possession after a block:
ReplyDelete"A shot that is blocked and recovered without the ball going
dead will be recorded as a rebound to the player who first
recovers the ball immediately after the blocked shot.
Remember that the ball does not have to hit the rim or backboard for a rebound to be credited." http://www.fiba.com/asp_includes/download.asp?file_id=554
according to the espn play-by-play, lin was credited with a defensive rebound after the block. therefore, it appears that he received all the stats he was supposed to.
I didn't see a King take possession of the ball after the block.
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Delete@etane i agree. that is why i don't think lin should be credited with a steal.
Deletejust for reference, the reason i even mention this is because there have been multiple comments (rox@kings 2nd half, postgame, and this post) saying he should have been credited with a block, steal, dunk in that one possession.
You will find that people in this forum are just as likely to be effected by a reality distortion field as people in other forums are. Group think.
DeleteBut you're above bias, right, @Etane? ;)
DeleteWould love for you to point them out for me. = D
DeleteIsn't it a little odd to spend your time insulting people in a forum specifically for a particular player for being biased toward that player?
DeleteYes, we're biased to Jeremy Lin here.
Now, if you want to discuss whether individual propositions are true or not, that makes sense. For example, a couple of people thought Lin deserved a steal on this play. I, and I imagine most people, did not, but I don't feel the need to weigh in on every issue.
You, however, felt the need to insult the entire forum because of a couple of peoples' opinion.
So, was your insult a clear observation of the truth or did you make a worthless and antagonistic generalization? If you are very concerned about truth and accuracy, perhaps you should leave the worthless generalizations at the door.
When you start distorting reality to bend towards your own bias, that is called a sickness.
DeleteBTW, are you the defender of the forum? You must be the hero archetype.
DeleteMichael, stop bothering Etane. Someone said he just broke up with his Gf. He's in bad mood!
DeleteLydia, will you take me back? I promise not to post on Carmelo fan sites anymore.
DeleteHey Etane ... People are just talking. Not many are wearing a distortion headset. I'd still give Lin a Block-steal, because it was just nice to see him strip it from the guy and take it on a run. It wasn't a classic ejection ... sort of like a rip out of the guys hands. It's fun, and who cares how it's stat-ted up esp. if it leads to name-calling. We get mistakes in stats all the time with Lin, so I don't care if it's done right or not, just that he does great plays, improves, and doesn't get hurt. I read lots of comments I don't agree with or I think are overtones, but I'm not the boss of anyone so it's just talk about someone we like.
DeleteOutside this forum, people have their heads filled with endless hours of anti Asian male programming in the racist media.
DeleteA lot of people subconsciously absorb that garbage and thus see Jeremy Lin as this loser player who must be criticized every time he does something good.
Also, those same people accuse us Lin fans here of being "delusional". They think that Lin fans follow Lin just because he's Asian and make excuses for him having game when in reality he has none.
Yet on this forum, you have a HIGHLY ELITE set of viewers who have watched pro basketball all their lives and know who can play who can't. Many of these elite viewers know that media hype doesn't imbue guys with game that have none. These elite viewers here also know that media criticism often does not match up with what is actually happening on the court.
Jeremy Lin is a player that the highly elite viewers here can appreciate. I myself appreciate Lin from a basketball purist standpoint, and I could care less about his race because I didn't even follow Yao Ming due to what I thought were flawed and overtrained offensive post mechanics by Yao. I follow Lin because his play satisfies the hoopz purist within me, and for that I get called many names including "delusional" the way Etane has many times here.
I don't watch TV or follow the media. Thus my brain is not filled with anti Asian haterade. I just see Lin as a guy who keeps making the right basketball plays. If he were not Asian, I'd be here posting about him anyway!
Joe: Thanks. I forgot about the gray area.
DeleteKhuang, what about anti asian female? margaret cho is only funny with the gender confused crowd and can never make it on prime time sitcom, right?
DeleteEtane, I don't watch enough TV to have watched any Margaret Cho.
DeleteYou've watched her.
I have not, so I have no opinion good or bad of her.
Oh, and, I am sorry for calling you delusional in the past. I think you're an interesting person with interesting points of views and life experiences.
DeleteGoing forward, I will try harder to focus my attacks only on what you write instead of at you personally.
Where there's Etane, there's drama.
DeleteEtane, we need to stop analyzing and START FIGHTING.
DeleteYou are not here to analyze basketball. You are here to flame people.
Drop the fake nice talk. Notice how everybody here knows that you HATE US ALL??,
Etane, I'm sorry I didn't fall for your RACE BAITING.
DeleteI'm not going to flame Margaret Cho so that you can say that Asians hate each other, which has been a tired and recurring goal of yours.
You lie about being Asian, Etane, and you do not understand Asian mentalities. You don't seem to be learning anything about us Asias either, despite your repeated attempts to flame us.
Do tell, what is Asian MENtality?
Deletehe took off from the striped half circle near the free throw line........lol nasty!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmIuHdeL_vk
ReplyDeleteWith ease since college. His legs are about 100% now.
Houston RocketsVerified account
ReplyDelete@HoustonRockets
@sam_amick Asik was +38 and Lin was +37 against Golden State last week. Did we mention that rematch is tomorrow in Cali? Should be fun!!
11:54 AM - 11 Feb 13
JLIN'S +37 VS GSW, ASIK
DeleteScheduling for the playoffs: who has the easiest path?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteDavid Hinojosa @hinojosa_david
ReplyDeleteRoyce White's first practice with the @rgvvipers tonight is closed to the media.
10:02 AM - 11 Feb 13
TrueHoop TV: Royce White rapid fire
DeleteGREG SMITH HIGHLIGHTS IN THE DL
ReplyDelete[Smith averaged 5.5 points and 4.0 rebounds in 13.9 minutes with the Rox this season.]
DeleteI thought Greg got demoted because he's an oaf on defense. One thing that he couldn't do is to keep his 250lb body between him and the guy he's defending.
DeleteSo, I was expecting to see some catch and dunks in the highlights. But, instead, I see lots of post moves and rebounds during the first half of the highlights.
Maybe McHell finally taught Greg some post moves and sent him down to DL to work on them.
I mean between the guy he's defending and the basket.
DeleteIt turns out that McHale was legitimately trying to shake Greg Smith out of a weeklong funk.
DeleteWhile McHale would not say that Greg Smith was loafing, McHale did say that Smith was not playing with the right focus and energy. McHale tried to snap Greg Smith out of his funk for a week, but nothing was working.
Greg Smith will do his stint in the D-league and then return - thankfully!
He lost focus like when he goes up for a dunk and gets rejected by the rim?
DeleteFrom what McHale was saying, it appears that Greg Smith has hit the "rookie wall".
DeleteApparently Smith was a bit of a zombie around the team. McHale wanted Smith to get his mojo back.
Etane, your feeble atrempts to insult the intelligence of people here are PATHETIC.
DeleteHow dumb can you make yourself look, trying to insinuate that we Lin fans here are too stupid to understand why McHale sent Greg Smith to the D League?
Sources: Nets covet Josh Smith
ReplyDelete[Quora]
DeleteNBA Trade Deadline (February 2013): Could Josh Smith be the second best player on a Championship team?
Info on last GSW meeting:
ReplyDelete"The Rockets may have tied the NBA record for three pointers made in a single game with 23, but the Warriors inability to connect from deep was equally as rare. Given the score [140-109], season percentages would forecast the Rockets outscoring the Warriors 40.18 to 25.51 from distance, but they held a 60 point advantage from 23 feet 9 inches. GS gets the eighth most points from distance per game, but all three starters who played 30+ minutes and attempted a three pointer for Houston [Jeremy Lin, James Harden, and Chandler Parsons] made more triples individually than the Warriors made as a team."
[Hickory-High]
Lin is right on track to reach where we hoped he would be by the All Star Game Break. Something was sorely wrong with his knee and/or the quality of his Asia tour conditioning/training and/or his mental preparation entering the season. Maybe it was simply getting over the Knicks and getting used to a completely new organization in the Rockets with new players/coaches/Harden...
ReplyDeleteBut now he has it back together again, more or less. Really he's been ok since about Thanksgiving, but his shot is coming around finally now for whatever reason and that makes him dangerous. Plus he's playing way more aggressively and he is now playing in such a way that makes it hard for the coaches to bench him without feeling real heat from the media if he continues his level of play. It's easy to shrug off what are perceived as delusional Asian Lin fans but it's not ok if it's coming from the media.
I was not surprised at all by the dunk. I've been wondering what's taken him so long to do something like that because he did stuff like that in college. I thought he just lost his vertical after college with the knee injuries adding up, but he looks like he still has a bit left. Lin has the ability to dunk with 2 hands in traffic, so when I see that, I'll know the guy is 100% back.
Sadly, dunking on people will get Lin more clout in the NBA than almost anything else he can do. Flash = substance in the NBA. Getting buckets = clout/fame/skill/respect. Lin has been doing a lot of things lately that indicate he is figuring himself out and figuring out his team and figuring out how to keep himself relevant and indispensable to his team. In short, he is figuring out how to excel.
Lin is still raw and learning the game as evidenced by fouling out last night. Yes the refs are biased and horrible, but Lin probably should have taken his foot off the gas pedal especially on foul #5 and let that go for a layup. Once Lin got foul #5, Thomas was smart enough to abuse a Lin with 5 fouls by getting off a 3 pointer where he knew Lin was not going to jump again, and then drew that last foul on Lin (yes it was bogus) to not only knock Lin out but get free throws out of it as well.
Also, there is definitely something going on behind the scenes with Lin. After the ridiculous limited playing time against Portland, you could see the clear mechanical subbing pattern by Mchale to make sure Lin got a steady dose of play time but for the fouls against Sac.
In fact, I thought Beverly should have stayed in about a minute or 2 longer in 4Q and that Lin should have come in with 7-8 minutes in that game based on the lead and how well Beverly/the team was doing at the time. Usually our gripe here is that Mchale holds Lin out too long or subs him out too early when the team is about to make a run with Lin and/or stinking it up without Lin in there.
Still I'll take Lin getting too many minutes over Lin getting too few anytime.
Up to a few years after my knee surgery, my vert/speed would be good on some days and gone on other days. I hope, going forward, Lin doesn't experience the same inconsistencies as I did.
DeleteEtane: I agree ... people have no clue what a micro-tear on a meniscus looks like and how painful it can be. Clicking knees and all even after arthro ...
Deleteprofessional sportsmen has better rehab routine than most us :). Yeah it took me close to 2 yrs to recover to a state that I would want to be. although it was not 100%.
Delete[Sports figures are human too...]
ReplyDeleteJLIN SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS
Fan: " it was terrible... he looked back at me when i said it too.... pretty sad...
next time he comes im asking him to put "To Jay" so i can get a better signature... lmao...
harden was a no signer as usual."
"ha im not surprised... the linsanity hit him quick. im just happy the guy signs..
hes basically pulling a blake griffin with the changed shit sig..."
Hee hee.
DeleteLin is HUMAN. GOOD.
I was beginning to wonder if he also got 100% on all his math tests too.
smh .. saying "that was awful" after getting a signature
DeleteI might be an exception but I don't understand the significance of getting autographs. If time allows, pictures would be great. But autographs, I can falsify any signature without much effort.
Wouldn't it be better to wish the player good luck, do a high-five?
Most of the time you can tell who the fans are from those who are at games to get autographs in order to sell them on ebay or at memorabilia shows.
Deleteyeah, so sad but that's capitalism when there's demand for it.
Deletehaha...that was funny..geez..what is that..haha..
DeleteSometimes I hate the attitude of fans, demanding autographs and photo ops, etc, like JLin owes them. And if they get turned down, they say bad things such as "Linsanity has gotten to his head" or something. The poor guy probably gets surrounded by fans requesting for autographs and photos everywhere he goes. I think JLin is a pretty nice person, but there must be days that he doesn't want to interact with the fans (ie: aftar a game loss or exhaustion etc). He's human too. Fans should be more considerate.
Deleteat least lin signs! didn't the same person said Harden was no signer as usual?!
Deletethat's better, even if it's a bad sign! right?! fans have to understand he's in rush to go!
DeleteBut, the "fan" can't get full value for that autographed photo on the open market. That's why he's pissed.
DeleteHow often do fans bring 8"x11" color photos of players to games to sign? The guy is obviously a hocker. And, Lin probably signed his photos for like the 10th time this season.
True, any pro memorabilia collector will ask for NBA paperwork to verify the authenticity of an autograph. Without that paperwork ... even Michael Jordan's autographed #23 shoes would be worth only a few hundred bucks.
DeleteCould be worse... 1:15
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOPt47Jyzpc
"The Suns also have shown interest in a bigger splash for Utah’s Al Jefferson or Gordon Hayward."
ReplyDeleteLin was also robbed of a couple free throws, how many times did the announcers say "Lin gets bumped, no foul" ?
ReplyDeleteEspecially that fast break near the end of the 3rd where Jimmer Fredette fouled him going to the basket, but they called it on the floor. Should have been 2 FT's.
Well, that's a constant. A couple of no calls on Lin. And, a couple of phantom calls against Lin.
DeleteMcHell and refs are Linsanity kryptonite.
It's not as bad in other games, but apparently the NBA really wants to prop up Sacramento Kings as a viable market ... perhaps to get Seattle to pay more ??
DeleteI can't disagree with your speculation as the NBA/refs often have their own motives.
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XmeA5VmhX4
I can't agree nor disagree with the reason is for propping up the Kings as Lin has been getting raw calls all season. This is just the first time Lin got taken out of the game entirely.
Possibilities are always there in any sports as proven thru out all other sports as well.
Delete[Marc Stein Power Rankings]
ReplyDeleteKnicks trail Rockets in Power Rankings
If not Los Angeles, where might Howard end up?
ReplyDelete"I can see the Rockets making a run as they have the coup of the season with the acquisition of James Harden and believe they need one more star. Though Omer Asik has been a big prize, the Rockets didn’t even really know what they had and quietly had talked about moving Asik. Of course, the issue would be whether Howard wants to play in Houston for the sign and trade. Howard gives up perhaps $30 million if he leaves the Lakers as a free agent instead of resigning where he can get a raise on his current $19.5 million salary or go back to the ceiling and about a $16 million to $17 million starting salary. How about Asik, Jeremy Lin back with Mike D’Antoni and some young, athletic players like Chandler Parsons and Donatas Montiejunas? Though the Lakers certainly wouldn’t want to trade Howard to the Western Conference."
McHell would salivate at the idea of trading Lin et al for Howard.
DeleteNot sure how Kobe and Lin would mesh. He's more of a prima donna than Melo ever was.
Kobe's contract is over after next year. One year of dealing with Kobe would be tolerable as long as he is NOT resigned and/or sign and traded.
DeleteI think Lin can generally do what he does in Houston on the Lakers because he is much more dynamic at his age and size than Nash at almost 40. It'll be similar to the Rox and Kobe will pass to Lin as long as he trusts Lin's ability.
Harden is a much better teammate though and has been pretty darn good with Lin lately.
I think either way Lin can play ball for real so he will be fine.
The funny thing is if the idiotic Rockets made such a trade soon, the Lakers would probably creep into the playoffs and take the 8th spot with Nash (PG) Lin (SG) Kobe (SF) Clark (PF) and Gasol (C) and with Asik, Parsons, TD, and maybe G Smith or Dmo/Jones off the bench. Or they can bring Lin off the bench as super 6th man and start Parsons at the 3. I prefer Lin start of course, but just saying, it could work...
DeleteOr they could trade Howard for the entire Houston starting 4 minus Harden along with some other rookie throw ins. Could you imagine Parsons, Lin, Asik, PPat, with Meeks, Nash, Blake, mixed in off the bench? It'd be a neat old/young starter/bench mix. Not quite Denver, but it's be neat and the young "bench" would really push those old dog laker starters.
I think if I was the Lakers, I'd do that in a heartbeat. But I'm not the Lakers....
Harden has been playing very well with Lin as you've said. And, coincidentally, Kobe has been stepping up in the ball dishing department. He's been at or close to double digit dishes during the last 10 games.
DeleteBoth are showing they are capable of moving the ball instead of being black holes of late. Is this a coincidence? Hmmm...
they do share the same agent...
DeleteESPN Insider: Young players who could be traded
ReplyDeleteJeremy Lamb, Terrence Jones among 5 players who might move
By Joe Kaiser | ESPN Insider
A number of potential trades bubbled to the surface of the NBA's rumor mill this week, which is to be expected given how close we are to the league's Feb. 21 trade deadline.
On Thursday, ESPN's Marc Stein reported a potential deal with Chicago and Toronto involving a Carlos Boozer-for-Andrea Bargnani swap, and on Friday, ESPN's Chris Broussardreported that Charlotte and Brooklyn were talking about a Ben Gordon-for-Kris Humphriesdeal. Other reports in recent days have Brooklyn showing interest in Josh Smith, according to Broussard, and Milwaukee targeting J.J. Redick, per Stein.
And earlier in the week, Chris Sheridan of SheridanHoops.com mentioned that San Antonio and Utah could be on the verge of a deal centered around Al Jefferson.
While it's easy to focus on the big-name centerpieces of such rumored deals, guys such as Marc Gasol and Nikola Vucevic have proved in recent years that sometimes the lesser-known, unproven players can make just as big of an impact (and at a cheaper rate).
So who are the players that fit that description this season? Which promising first- or second-year guys might be made available by playoff-caliber teams if it means landing the guy who can push them deep into the playoffs? What players have yet to scratch the surface on their vast potential and could break out on a different roster?
Here is a look at some of the top young players on contending teams who could end up being involved in a trade-deadline deal this season:
Jeremy Lamb | SG | Oklahoma City Thunder
Lamb
Lamb has played only 64 minutes this season on a Thunder roster brimming with talent, and his chances for playing time have been very limited thanks to the presence of Kevin Martin and Thabo Sefolosha ahead of him on the depth chart. Still, there's a reason Houston selected him No. 12 overall last summer before shipping him to OKC in the James Harden deal: Lamb is a versatile wing with a long wingspan who can shoot, defend and become a key piece to a winning team.
The question is whether that will happen with the Thunder, which may be better off resigning the efficient Martin after the season and using Lamb in a deal for a center. Phoenix could be a good trade partner, since it has the prized big man to offer -- Marcin Gortat -- and a big need at the shooting guard position.
Terrence Jones | PF | Houston Rockets
Jones
Jones passed up a sure shot at the NBA lottery in 2011 and returned to Kentucky for his sophomore season. It proved to be a wise move in some regards -- UK blitzed the field on its way to the 2012 NCAA national championship -- but it cost him in terms of his draft stock. He slipped all the way to Houston at pick No. 18 last summer, and the combo forward has yet to work his way into the Rockets' rotation. He did make the D-League's All-Star team, though, averaging 18.8 points and 9.4 rebounds in 15 games with the Tulsa 66ers, and his upside remains high.
It's no secret that Houston would like to upgrade at the 4 spot, and including Jones in a package for Atlanta's Josh Smith is one scenario that would make a lot of sense.
Tobias Harris | SF | Milwaukee Bucks
DeleteHarris
The Bucks passed on re-signing Carlos Delfino over the summer and entered the season with the 20-year-old Harris as their starting small forward, a big indication that the team believed in the versatile forward out of Tennessee. But Harris quickly fell out of favor with former coach Scott Skiles due to his struggles as a team defender and his inability to mesh well offensively with theBrandon Jennings-Monta Ellis backcourt.
A change of environment could be just what he needs to emerge as a starter in the league, and Milwaukee may be willing to make that happen for the right deal. However, Mike Dunleavy and Marquis Daniels are both free agents after the season and may not return, so Harris could be in line for a bigger role if he's still with the Bucks in 2013-14.
Nando de Colo | PG | San Antonio Spurs
De Colo
With de Colo and Patty Mills, there's a bit of a logjam behind Tony Parker at point guard, and San Antonio could look to unload one of the two in a deal for a big man. For a number of reasons, the 25-year-old de Colo could have more appeal.
He stands 6-foot-5, 5 inches taller than Mills, and in limited opportunities this season has shown to be a creative distributor and capable shooter. Having played professionally in France and Spain for seven seasons before joining the Spurs, he's already more polished than most NBA rookies, and while he will never pass Parker on the depth chart in San Antonio, he could be a guy other teams target.
John Henson | PF | Milwaukee Bucks
Henson
The Bucks like what they have in their 2012 lottery pick, that being a long, lanky rebounder and shot-blocker with some offensive game around the basket. In addition, Henson probably has just as good a chance at being the team's future at power forward as Ersan Ilyasova.
So why even consider trading him now? Because Ilyasova is the one with the big contract and thus the one currently getting the bulk of the minutes, which could very well continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. On the flip side, Henson is someone Milwaukee can keep around on a bargain rookie contract through 2015-16, so they'll probably only consider dealing him if it means bringing back an All-Star-caliber talent in return. Maybe someone like a Danny Granger, perhaps?
Others: Jordan Hamilton (Denver), Evan Fournier (Denver), Timofey Mozgov (Denver), Alec Burks (Utah), Jared Cunningham (Dallas), Fab Melo (Boston), Patty Mills (San Antonio)
[艾芾生]
'James Harden never gave us a chance to revel in the one-year anniversary of Linsanity because he's having the best February of anyone not named LeBron or Tony Parker. And the Rockets, following his bearded lead, are blitzing teams again to jump to eighth in average point differential (plus-3.0).'
ReplyDeleteThe bearded one improving especially in the rebounds and dish category, surprisingly.
Jason Friedman @JasonCFriedman
ReplyDeleteJames Harden (sore left knee) not practicing today. Officially listed as day-to-day.
2:27 PM - 11 Feb 13
Jason Friedman @JasonCFriedman
DeleteToney Douglas (hip) also held out of practice today.
2:33 PM - 11 Feb 13
Linsanity watch is ticking ...
DeleteThe heavy minutes Harden has been playing is catching up. We need to find a way to preserve Harden's body. The next thing we now, it may be a serious injury right in the middle of a the playoff chase. The good thing is the coaching staff has the All-Star break to figure out how to lessen the load off of Harden.
DeleteCan we beat GSW without Harden? If the Spurs game was any indication...I'll be counting down with @psalm!
Sure Lin can beat GSW w/o Harden if his teammates show up to play, wilc.
DeleteThis Harden thing could be huge. If Harden goes down due to heavy minutes and Lin plays great, the "Fire McHale" chants will resume due to him misusing his players.
I certainly don't wish for it because I'd like to see HOU goes to the playoff but McHale usage of Harden and Parsons has been too much.
They need Harden. Hope he's okay to play tomorrow.
DeleteJames Harden enters break with Rockets hot, recruiting
ReplyDelete"I'll do a little bit of recruiting during the All-Star break, but my main focus is on just trying to get this team focused on every single game, every practice...I can't worry about who we want to recruit and things like that. ... For the most part, we're trying to make the playoffs."
---
But while free-agents-to-be Dwight Howard of the Lakers, Andrew Bynum of the 76ers and Josh Smith of the Atlanta Hawks could be coming his way, Harden said he doesn't have a specific player in mind on top of his personal priority list.
"I don't because if I did have a guy (like that), I'd be texting him every single day," Harden said.
Specifically, Harden said he has no relationship with Howard.
"Like I said, if I did, I'd be texting him every single day," he said. "Dwight, (Clippers free agent-to-be) Chris Paul, Bynum, all of them."
This is so sad. The media overrates player to player recruitment. Sure, it helps if Harden is friend's with a guy the Rockets are targeting but at the end of the day, it's about money. Player X isn't going to HOU because he's friends with Harden, it's bc he got paid.
DeleteLin dunk coaches' reactions:
ReplyDeleteMchale: clapped 5 or 6 times. He usually only claps one time on made shots. My take? Mchale is an oversized NBA fan. He sees the obvious and as a former star player, he uses his own subjective eye test. Lin dunking and overwhelming people, hitting open shots, and making incredible play time and time again with limited ugly plays and dumb turnovers mixed in is the only way to win over Mchale. I believe it will take another season or so, but Mchale will come around. Mchale is not overtly racist or a Lin hater. He just isn't open minded and needs to see it for himself to believe.
Finch: silently smacked his hands between his notes like "F*** Yeah!" Nuff said.
JB Bickerstaff: did some sly quick right hand slide on his notepad/folder. Can't tell if it was a good or bad reaction, but it was some type of reaction to Lin's play.
Sampson: NO REACTION. ICE COLD....
This is my own speculation but Sampson probably put all his chips into the "pro-Harden, anti-Lin" basket, since he was the first one that benched Lin for the entire 4th quarter at a game when McHale was on leave. Maybe he thought if he sided with Harden, he would be the next Head Coach if McHale gets fired (like Woodson when Dantoni left). I think he knows that his job is hanging by a thread at this point since JLin is playing much better. And since he had already burned the bridge as far as his relationship with JLin is concerned, his only hope is Harden being the as selfish as Melo (who wants JLin gone). Too bad. I think Harden likes to play with Jeremy XD
DeleteHouston Rockets' Putrid Defense Continues to Outweigh Offensive Brilliance
ReplyDeleteSome of us have complained about McHale's "weird" substitution patterns. Let me off a quick hypothesis on what McHale could be doing.
ReplyDeleteBox score stats don't capture much of what a player can do to affect wins and losses. Because box scores are kept, players will tend to maximize box scores first, wins second, since box scores are how they get fame and pay. If box scores don't incentivize winning behavior perfectly there's a gap. I believe Lin falls into this gap; I think he purely wants to win rather than fill up box scores. For example, before some time in the 1970s, turnovers were not kept officially. After turnovers started being kept, TOs went down around the league. What gets measured gets done.
Wins are measured in point differential, plus/minus. How a player affects plus/minus is literally his effect on winning and losing. The only problem with measuring players by plus/minus is that there are other players on the court with who affect it, both on your team and your opponents.
Over the years, statistical methods have been refined to improve the accuracy of plus/minus in evaluating players. The state of the art in the public domain is Regularized Adjusted Plus Minus[1].
We know Morey likes plus/minus:
"One well-known statistic the Rockets’ front office pays attention to is plus-minus, which simply measures what happens to the score when any given player is on the court. In its crude form, plus-minus is hardly perfect: a player who finds himself on the same team with the world’s four best basketball players, and who plays only when they do, will have a plus-minus that looks pretty good, even if it says little about his play. Morey says that he and his staff can adjust for these potential distortions — though he is coy about how they do it — and render plus-minus a useful measure of a player’s effect on a basketball game. A good player might be a plus 3 — that is, his team averages 3 points more per game than its opponent when he is on the floor. In his best season, the superstar point guard Steve Nash was a plus 14.5. At the time of the Lakers game, Battier was a plus 10, which put him in the company of Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett, both perennial All-Stars. For his career he’s a plus 6. “Plus 6 is enormous,” Morey says. “It’s the difference between 41 wins and 60 wins.” He names a few other players who were a plus 6 last season: Vince Carter, Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady."
We also know from that paragraph that Morey uses advanced analysis to make the plus/minus more meaningful. I'm pretty sure his art is ahead of RAPM.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWe know that Morey is science minded. One way to increase the resolution of plus/minus is to give it more data. Playing lots of different line-ups against many different teams gives you the most information to plug into your regression analysis. Over time, you home in on the best lineups, but it can take quite awhile for your confidence scores to be high enough to stop experimenting. In our case, the equation their trying to solve is so vast that they could never have enough confidence.
DeleteIn the play-offs, don't be surprised to see a much more regular and sane looking rotation.
-----
An alternate theory I don’t necessarily buy but lingers when I’m feeling more conspiracy-theorist is that Morey knows exactly what he has in Lin and wants to keep other teams from demanding him in a trade for another big piece, a trade which Morey is in full gear to make happen over the next year and a half. I’ve read a lot of Morey’s technical comments about Lin’s game and, other than Lin fans, he seems to be the only one who recognizes all the subtler aspects. If you’ve appreciated it, Morey has recognized it already. Sometimes Morey sounds like a LOF. ;)
[1] Last year's table shows why I think Paul Millsap or Josh Smith would make Houston a contender.
http://stats-for-the-nba.appspot.com/ratings/2012.html
DeleteSo, let me put it in a different manner of spin.
DeleteRox use Lin in the least effective manner is so:
1) They can get more data on different match ups.
2) Morey is a LOF.
Did I read you correctly?
Oh, we also know that Morey's +/- analysis must be pretty good because he continually wins trades with other teams, continually unearths better-than-expected gems off the backs of other teams' benches, and he predicted with uncharacteristic certainty before the season that the Rockets would make the play-offs, something very few other analytics outlets did pre-season, many claiming we'd be fighting for a top 5 spot in the draft.
Delete@Etane,
DeleteArgh! Not you again!
Sort of, other than the "Rox use Lin in the blah blah" part because "using Lin" comprises more than substitution pattern and I'm only discussing substitution pattern here.
Yes it's me again.
DeleteAnd, true you didn't explicitly say the substitution pattern is good or bad. But, I believe, it's effectively your unstated premise because no one would be interested in the substitution pattern, including yourself, unless it is especially good or especially bad.
And, I think we know what the consensus is on that matter.
Although, I think February has been a rather good month in those regards.
So basically morey is adjusting rotations to generate permutations of lineups and matchups in real time to glean some obscure metric based on his advanced models?
DeleteHmm I want to say bs (no offense enormous respect for you MT) cause I don't believe in morey and coaching (mainly coaches) but what you proposed explains a lot of the strange actions throughout this season so far.
Morey may be a genius?
If you watched/read Moneyball, there it is explained how data is directly applicable to managing a baseball team.
DeleteBasketball has so much more intangibles that makes it hard to directly apply data to making management decisions.
Interesting proposition, @michael.
DeleteMorey definitely will benefit from the experimentation of multiple lineup to see which pieces would be valuable trading pieces or are worth keeping.
But if that were true, unfortunately that would also mean that Harden as the PG is at the center piece of this lineup because all other players are replaceable pieces. And that's not exactly good news for Lin in the long term.
After the Rockets big win in MSG, there was definitely a big change of featuring Lin more as the PG leading to the 10-2 win streak then 0-7 losing streak where Harden went ISO again. There was definitely a change in team strategy here that will influence the RAPM, even the Assist-to-TO ratio.
While I agree that the multiple lineup is valuable for Morey to check how valuable his players are, I disagree with the conspiracy theorist that Morey controlled McHale so much downplay Lin usage so other teams won't ask for Lin.
I fully believe that the losing streak forced McHale to feature Lin as the PG so Harden ISO can still be a threat. If Morey is smart, he'd better do his RAPM-like analysis separately between Harden or Lin as the main PG.
The biggest problem is still out there, McHale is stubborn to stick to his all-players-as-PG system and Harden is the main PG. He and Sampson still have mental block that to see that Lin is more valuable as a PG to break down defense with dribble-penetration and give open looks to the shooters including Harden. The main problem is just stubbornness to the flawed system.
*The main problem is just coaches stubbornness to stick to the flawed system.
DeleteSo there a method to the madness that is McHale's weird substitutions? I hope that is the case because what is the alternative? That McHale is just an incompetent coach who doesn't trust JLin? If this happened just at the beginning of the season, I may be more inclined to believe so, but half the season is already over. If you are serious about making the playoffs, will you still be experimenting with your lineup that way? Wouldn't you want your starting PG to get comfortable playing with the team and develop some chemistry?
DeleteThe random benching is disruptive and create an aura of uncertainty on a game by game basis. If it was all part of the plan, wouldn't the coaches or Morey tell the players that? JLin seemed unhappy at the benching. I doubt he knows anything about that. What about Harden? Why isn't he benched for the entire quarter to see what kind of stats Morey can use?
I think it's plain to us JLin fans that it's really idiotic to bench him. There's no doubt that JLin is the best PG on that team and he's clutch, so in our minds we must find some sort of reason to McHale's madness. But sometimes, the reason could be much simpler. McHale doesn't trust JLin and treats him as a rookie. Some viewers said they saw McHale "coaching" (or yelling) JLin a lot more than other players on the side of the court.
As for Morey, I don't think he micromanages the coaching and how it's done. I think the rotations are decided by the coaching staff. However, Morey might have been forced to intercept by Les regarding JLin's playing time.
I still think it's Mchale doing "flow watching".
DeleteLike I posted in the other thread, McHale is a Bobby Knight disciple. He preaches a motion offense that wants the players to pinball the basketball around the court and make quick decisive aggressive plays when the pass cannot be made. This is actually exactly the same as what Mike Woodson does jn NY.
In this Sacramento game, Lin's play was more like what McHale was looking for in his motion scheme. Lin would get the ball, make quick decisive moves, and pass off or shoot. He didn't probe the defense much and was extremely efficient offensively. Thus we saw some approval signs from McHale.
Here's the problem. Sacramento is a WEAK team that cannot defend Jeremy Lin with any player. Lin can make those quick decisive Bobby Knight moves against Sacramento's poor defense, but Lin cannot make those moves against committed traps by good teams. Lin has to stall and probe the defense for openings, and that enrages McHale because he wants the action to go go go.
What irritates me about coaches that preach the motion scheme is that a truly PURE motion scheme is not opposed to stalling, probing, or isolation. There are many instances where a great defense shuts down great offenses and the only way to break down the defense is to throw the ball to one guy and let him create.
Jeremy Lin is a creative player who often is forced by defenses to become a halfcourt isolation player. If McHale can't handle that, he needs to go back to his Celtic roots and remember that he himself was mainly an isolation superstar as a player!
Khuang, I would change your last paragraph from half court isolation player to half court decision maker. I think there's a difference.
DeleteAnother thing Khuang, I think it's more apt to describe what McHell is doing as "flow disrupting" rather than "flow watching". = D
DeleteNo Etane, I specifically meant "isolation" player and not "decision maker".
DeleteIn a pure Bobby Knight motion scheme, all players are decisionmakers. Knight himself described it as very simple in that a player either sets a screen, makes a cut, passes the ball, or shoots. And it's snap fast judgments, no ball holding.
McHale is using that Knight motion scheme with the same insistence that Lin make those snap decisions. However, the wicked traps applied to Lin by the good teams have sealed off his driving lanes and blocked out the passing targets.
Just to pass the ball to a guy, Lin is forced to probe the defense and see if he draws a double team. Usually he does, and then he immediately passes to the open guy. But more and more, Lin's dribble probes are resulting in Lin being the guy with the best scoring opportunity. Lin is taking those opportunities and scoring even though his first inclination is to pass the way McHale wants him to.
McHale doesn't seem to recognize how the traps are affecting Lin, and that causes consternation for McHale's motion tendencies. Yet Lin produces, so McHale has to play Lin and turn his head when Lin puts the ball on the floor.
Lin probing, faking, juking, and penetrating with the basketball to elicit a response from the defensive traps? ISOLATION BASKETBALL is what Lin is playing.
Ah, so when Lin is penetrating and forcing the defense to collapse on him before Lin kicks the ball out for his teammates, that is called isolation basketball. Sorry, I guess that term is new to me. I keep relating what pre-February Harden does as ISOLATION BASKETBALL. Semantics.
DeleteIn his own words, McHale is "sticky-watching".
DeleteHe never wants the ball to be sticky on 1 player and it keeps being passed around.
I wish there would be 1 brave reporter who dare to ask him, "Why is the ball so sticky on Harden at the end of 4th quarter?"
McHale probably answers, "Well, he is our best sticky player!"
As usual, you seek to twist my words for your own nefarious ends, Etane.
DeleteThat's to be expected from a guy like you who calls this entire board "delusional".
James Harden does not pound the ball, dribbling in place feinting and leaning, searching for the gaps. He grabs the ball, sizes up his single defender, and makes quick decisive moves to score. He usually ends up going by one or two additional guys who are flatfooted on the other side of the court watching Jeremy Lin. Thus Harden is a TRUE MOTION PLAYER who appears to be playing selfish isolation basketball to people like Etane who don't understand Knight's motion offense.
Jeremy Lin, on the other hand, faces FAR MORE defensive coverage than Harden. He often gets by his man, but then two or more players collapse on him while an additional player waits in the periphery to pick off his passes. Unlike Harden who waltzes by stationary help defenders keeping their attention on Lin, Lin has to JUMBLE those defenders before he can fully commit to his moves. So in a sense Lin is breaking the Knight motion scheme by pounding the rock and stalling the flow of the ball by ISOLATING HIMSELF from not just his teammates, but the offense.
McHale is probably irritated with Lin the way Mike Woodson was. Woodson openly hinted in the press that Lin was a selfish point guard who needed to pass the ball to other players instead of looking for his own shot. But Lin faced severe traps in NY too, though not as ferocious as the ones he faces now. Lin is probably pissing off his coaches with his iso ball, but there is no other way for Lin to break the traps simply to get the ball to people!
McHale's substitution patterns are VERY predictable.
DeleteHe gets irritated with Lin for seesawing in the midrange against the traps, even though Lin is usually producing. McHale then subs in the reserve, and the traps disappear as McHale happily watches his motion scheme. But then McHale suddenly realizes that his team has fallen behind and POOF, Lin's back in to save the game despite McHale's motion misgivings.
James Harden may advance the ball slowly in the 4th and take the shots himself, but he's actually running the motion scheme. Harden is either barreling into defenders, catching inside cutters for passes, or dishing off to his favorite perimeter target in Lin. Since Harden NEVER draws the defensive coverage that Lin does, Harden doesn't seesaw with the dribble like a yo yo, probing defenses for reactions. That would be WASTING TIME to McHale, and he's lash into Harden if Harden back dribbled against the double team or pounded the rock in place as teammates scrambled to open spots. Thus Harden is a TRUE MOTION PLAYER.
Harden runs the motion because he doesn't get the nasty traps that Lin gets. He also needs Lin in order to win games, as McHale has noticed. That's why Lin and Harden get played together.
LOL I was trying to be nicer to you, Khuang, but after your post I think we've officially entered the reality distortion zone.
DeleteJeremy = isolation player
Harden = true motion player
Gotcha in your Animal Farm world maybe.
Racist referees, Bobby Knight motion offense, TRUE MOTION PLAYER, and Morey's alleged substitution patterns are complete absurdity. Strip away the whimsical notions and conspiracy theories and focus on the fundamentals, basketball fundamentals. You want an anecdote from Kevin McHale of the importance of watching from the bench, or even benching a player:
DeleteApril 17, 1984
"One thing that sets McHale apart as a pro is that most players his size who have any potential at all are given the opportunity to become starters. And before entering the NBA, Kevin had been a starter, both for Minnesota, and for the United States team that Bobby Knight coached to a gold medal in the 1979 Pan American Games.
Asked if the possibility of becoming Boston's Sixth Man had ever crossed his mind when the Celtics made him their first draft pick in 1980, McHale replied: ''The only thing I was thinking about at the time was what it would take for me to make the ball club. I wasn't even concerned about being a regular. Of course I knew about the Celtics' Sixth Man tradition and particularly about Havlicek. But my only goal was to make sure that I got a spot on the roster.''
What probably triggered McHale's Sixth Man role with the Celtics, rather than any preconceived notions by then coach Bill Fitch to employ him that way, was Boston's front line of Robert Parish, Larry Bird, and Cedric Maxwell. They were all too good at their jobs to be displaced.
But most every time Fitch decided to bring Kevin in off the bench, the Celtics either added to their lead or made a run at whatever team was ahead of them. When it became obvious that this was no mere coincidence, McHale was regularly assigned the specialty role.
''Once I learned what my role was I also discovered there are some benefits to coming off the bench that you don't get as a starter,'' Kevin told me. ''For example, just sitting there watching can help you acquire a feel for the way the game is going. It's like you can begin to gear your thinking ahead of time to whatever the team needs at the moment, whether it's scoring, rebounding, or just working hard on defense. I had my taste of starting when I was in college and it was good, but now I don't need it."
Jeremy is a young player and there's still a learning curve. Why are people so alarmed when the coach constantly talks to Jeremy during games? If you believe being coached is a negative, they you seriously need to have your head examined. The point guard position is a difficult position to play. Kevin McHale is allowing Jeremy to watch and absorb and as he said "acquire a feel for the game." So please stop will all of the nonsense.
To see a pure example of Bobby Knight's motion offense played to perfection, watch the 1984 Olympic vs NBA game in which Michael Jordan's collegiate amateurs beat an NBA All Star team with Magic and Isiah among other star NBA playersz
DeleteKnight's scheme differs slightly from McHale's in that the college Olympians use more feinting and probing, just like what Jeremy Lin does. Knight seemed to understand that sometimes the only way to keep the ball moving is to draw some defensive coverage and then move the ball.
Knight is the legendary master of the motion offense. McHale and Woodson use it too, but they don't GET IT the way Knight did. Not surprisingly, Knight's favorite PG Isiah Thomas who also is a motion offense coach did not think highly of Lin either.
Here come the TROLLS, Asa and Etane.
DeleteThese fools don't care about basketball. They are here strictly to FLAME people.
Asa, you don't know anything about Bill Fitch or the kind of coach he was. You are just here to flame Lin and his fans.
BRING IT ON, HATERS!!!
You're a racist too, Asa.
DeleteCome here so I can spank you.
You came here looking for a fight. I will eagerly fight you.
You are by far the most ignorant and profoundly small-minded person I've ever came across on a fan forum.
DeleteAnd you're dumbest and troliesr HATER here, Asa.
DeleteWhy are you here on a Lin fan looking to flame people? Don't you realize that a lot of people here RESENT racists like you and will fire back on your Lin hating butt?
You make yourself a punching bag here, racist.
The only one punching is you. Good night and sleep well.
DeleteRacist trolls like you and Etane, Asa, are so easy to predict.
DeleteYou're here to degrade all things Asian, Lin and his fans.
Your hope is that you will stir up American anti Asian racism to beat the Asians here into submission. That doesn't work here, as you both have found out on many occasions.
Understand this, Etane and Asa. The more you troll Lin's followers, the more RESOLUTE they will be in resisting your flaming. We will retaliate in force.
Etane, I know why you're here.
DeleteYou feed off negative energy of people fighting each other. You seek to fan the flames of hatred and then sit back to enjoy the show with a poorly disguised "who me" attitude.
We will always fight because I am your counterpart. As much as you want to hurt people here, I want to help them. You want to hurt me and I want to help you. We understand each other all too well, as we are natural born enemies.
But do stop lying about being Asian. You aren't convincing at all. You're not going to split the Asian community against itself, not when you overtly demonstrate such racial bias and utter ignorance of Asian lifestyles.
Khuang: I disagree with Asa. You are not by far the most ignorant and profoundly small-minded person on a fan forum.
DeleteYou are the most delightfully interesting person who can entertain me to no end!
How did you know Animal Farm is one of my favorite novels?
You entertain me too, Etane. We entertain each other.
DeleteActually, I'd rather entertain you than fight you. I am TERRIFIC at entertaining people. I am actually honored that I entertain you.
I don't know that Animal Farm is one of your favorite novels, nor do I mind that it is. Just understand that real life often is far more nuanced and balanced than the Orwellian vision you are seeking to apply to this forum.
In real life, people like you and I would maintain a respectful distance from one another. This Lin forum draws the extremes of people together.
By the way, you needn't resort to race baiting to get my attention. You want me, simply ASK. I'll even play the fool for you, if it fits my greater need of improving my quality of life.
Jeremy Lin goes home, a year after Linsanity
ReplyDeleteIn the article, the author refers to Lin as Taiwanese American which is accurate. But, for PR purpose, doesn't Lin define himself as Asian American?
DeleteYeah, but then he seem fine with Taiwanese-American, and says he's Chinese [ethnically.] Maybe it's less-controversial [politically] to use Asian-American..? [Less divisive.]
DeleteHe's also one of the few Asian-Americans to achieve a certain level of prominence in mainstream culture, and he may want this group to have some representation out there.
---
Mercury News: Jeremy Lin ready for Bay Area homecoming
Rockets ready for anticipated rematch with Warriors
DeleteJLin as role model for Asian-Americans.
DeleteEtane, you damn troll.
DeleteYou're just here to try to set Asian Americans against one another via a Taiwan vs China designation.
NEVER for a second have I believed that your racist ass was Asian. STOP LYING about being Asian, racist.
Yah Via I remember there was an interview I saw on youtube perhaps it was you who originally linked it where the reporter was baiting Jeremy to answer whether he's Chinese or Taiwanese. He answered he's Asian American.
DeleteKnowing you, Via, you'd probably find that video again within 5 minutes.
JLIN'S DIPLOMATIC REPLY.
DeleteRenaissance Men
ReplyDeleteJeremy Lin on bouncing back from adversity while Rockets look to do same as Warriors lie in wait
Thanks for the link, via. Good interview with Jer.
DeleteOne thing I noticed during warm up yesterday was how great Lin was shooting the ball. He was making 4-5 threes in a row at one point - never hitting the rim. His stroke looked much more fluid - not that awkward, high arc shot he was doing early in the season.
It is nice to Jeremy improving the weakest part of his game this season. The way he is shooting right now, this recent improvement in his shot definitely is not a fluke.
I'm kind of nervous for tomorrow's game. His shot's been falling, he's playing with more confidence...it can't be a fluke. Please God, don't let it be a fluke.
DeleteHope GSW's bigs don't try to kill him.
I think he'll be fine. I read that his parents and friends are going to be at the game and we know he tends to do well with a good audience (and of course I bet most of the fans there are going to support him :)
DeleteJeremy Lin, James Harden's Rockets Collide With Stephen Curry, David Lee's Warriors
ReplyDeleteWinning, Losing and Turnovers
ReplyDelete"What, then does it mean that the Rockets thrive when Lin struggles?
The easy answer, of course, is that he isn’t struggling in those games. In fact, higher turnovers may signify when he’s playing better."
via, good article again.
DeleteIn losses, Lin gets effectively trapped. He handles the ball less, so lower usage for Lin means lower turnovers. James Harden is usually left free to roam in those losses, so he handles the ball more and gets more turnovers.
In wins, Lin is able to beat the traps more frequently to make plays for himself and others. His usage goes up and thus so do his turnovers. Lin's high usage cuts into Harden's usage, but since Lin is producing for Harden it doesn't hurt but actually helps Harden's statline.
Omer Asik is the prime inside passing target for both Lin and Harden. In wins, Omer Asik is able to get to the rim and finish. In losses, Omer Asik is defended effectively enough to force him to make decisions and that's when his turnovers rise.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNo sure if this had been posted.
ReplyDeleteKings notes: Lin impressed Smart with toughness on Warriors
Joy, not regret, emanates from Keith Smart on Jeremy Lin’s success