38 replies to this topic

[Red94]

New post: Charlotte Bobcats @ Houston Rockets on February 2, 2013.

[phaketrash]

Just to counter the Lin comment lol: while I agree that the coaching staff does not see Lin as the 2nd option behind Harden, many fans do, hence the frustration. Even if they agree that Lin is not the 2nd best player right now on the team, they'd like to fully see his potential. Heck, Parsons plays a Lot more minutes than Lin. I like Parsons, I want him to grow, but I can say the same of Lin. I don't care much for developing Douglas' game haha.

Not saying I rage when Lin sits in the 4th, just playing a bit of devil's advocate lol.

[vbg]

I completely agree that Lin is not the second best player on the team. But I really do think that Lin should be the second option to initiate the offense after Harden. Not Parsons or Delfino. Lin is much better at creating against a set defense than either Parsons or Delfino. Our SFs are very strong after the ball is kicked out to them or swung to them.

[timetodienow1234567]

Starting 5 based on terms of Defense
1) Asik
2) Parsons
3) Lin
4) Patterson
5) Harden

Harden is our worst defender and without Asik we would be losing almost every game. Lin

[timetodienow1234567]

Lin is also not a great defender. If we do eventually go after a PF, we need one who plays solid defense so we can have 2 bigs that protect the rim.

[thejohnnygold]

Ha, just posted something on this in a different thread...seems relevant here as well so, if ya'll don't mind the re-post, here is one opinion on Lin's minutes. It suggests his conditioning is the culprit...

QUOTE:

It's true, we are on the outside looking in and have no idea what the reasons are.....for all we know Lin's conditioning isn't good enough. Maybe McHale sits him so that he can go strong for the last 8-10 minutes. I know most teams rest the starters a the beginning of the fourth for this reason....Again, maybe Lin just needs more rest than most....I believe this is the first time he has played starter minutes for this duration.

Once again, let's look at some numbers:

EDIT: wow, those stats were formatted when I posted them, must have gotten jumbled ...I will try to fix.

EDIT 2: sorry, couldn't fix...will post links. Focus on the splits between wins and losses and the splits for "days off"

Jeremey Lin's Stats

Toney Douglas' Stats

Looking at # of days rest, Lin definitely shows signs of not having the proper conditioning. It is drastic, really. On the other hand, Douglas seems to do best when "in a rhythm" and playing games close together.

For Lin, not much changes except for his fg% and one extra assist in wins vs. losses. I would venture a guess that he is more involved with "leading" the offense in the "wins" which increases his productivity and effectiveness. The minutes seem to be irrelevant--perhaps it is his role that is the difference maker....

Douglas' numbers are similar to Lin's except that in the "wins" he shoots a little more and assists a little less.

Presuming McHale knows this, I will try to watch and see if the substitution patterns reflect this knowledge in the future.

END QUOTE

[feelingsupersonic]

Starting 5 based on terms of Defense
1) Asik
2) Parsons
3) Lin
4) Patterson
5) Harden

Harden is our worst defender and without Asik we would be losing almost every game. Lin

Not sure if that list is in some kind of order but I am pretty sure Patrick Patterson is generally accepted as a good defensive player. Lin and Harden are definitely the weak spots in the Rockets starting 5. I don't think anyone would even argue that Lin is an average defender.

[Sir Thursday]

Yeah, going to have to echo FS here. One of the reasons the Rockets staff like Patterson so much is because he is an exceptionally reliable team defender. The Rockets track successful rotations as one of their proprietary stats, and I'm sure I remember reading that Patterson came out top in that category by a fair margin. To be honest I'd probably put him above Parsons, who is a good one-on-one defender but has a tendency to gamble a bit too much and get caught out of position from time to time.

Lin does have areas where he is decent defensively. I've been very impressed with his performance when the opposition have tried to post him up - even when a bigger guy gets switched out on him he is often able to hold his own. Also, both he and Parsons do a decent job of knowing when to slough of their man to give the double team. But he's still lacking in the lateral quickness necessary to stay in front of fast point guards, and there are an abundance of those in the NBA that he has to guard.

So yeah, if I were ranking the team on defence, it would probably go something like:

1) Asik
2) Patterson
3) Parsons
4) Lin
:
:
5) Harden

ST

[feelingsupersonic]

If I had to set tiers I would actually put Asik in tier by himself and so on:

Best: Asik

Very good: Patterson (team defense), Parsons (man defense)

Under average to poor: Harden (could probably be better but his defense is secondary to his offense/still an early stage where he is developing his offense, some form of defense will come later so have patience, see Kobe, LeBron, Durant), Lin (unfortunately lacks physical attributes to keep up with many point guards as Sir Thursday noted and thus finds himself in many mismatches)

[Jeby]

Agree with what vbg wrote below. I think there is a little bit of ambiguity about what a "second option" is. Lin is not the second best guy on the team at putting the ball in the hoop. That's Parsons. But he is clearly second best at initiating the offense, and continues to get better. Plays that used to end in jump-passes are beginning to evolve more toward Lin keeping his dribble alive, circling under the hoop, and kicking out.
On defense, I don't think Lin's problems have anything to do with his atheticism. It has to do with strategy and technique. Strategy-wise he gambles on playing passing lanes and baiting his man into deep shots instead of trying to just keep his man in front of him (which is actually the right strategy on a guy like Walker, despite last game). In terms of technique, he consistently overplays whichever direction he thinks his man is going, and then gets burned by the crossover. I think his problem is overreaction rather than slow reaction.

[amacbrooks12]

I agree with everyone that Harden's defense is terrible, but I dont see why. He is very strong, quick, has good hands, and is quite the athlete. That means the only reason why he plays bad defense is because lack of effort. Harden can be a decent/good defender if he wanted to, but it seems that he wants to save all his energy for offense. However, I don't really think its a serious issue. As long as he keeps doing what he has been doing on the offensive end, I am happy

[myjohnlai]

It is so obvious that Houston does not deserve to have Lin. Trade him to the Lakers and have him come back and kick your butt.

[myjohnlai]

First 4 minutes of the game: 3 assists 1 rebound 2 points a couple of steals.
Lin is on fire.
What do you have to say about this?

[myjohnlai]

Bench Asik and Lin. McFail!!!

[Red94]

New post: Houston Rockets 109, Charlotte Bobcats 95 - Rockets made to work hard for their win

[thejohnnygold]

It is so obvious that Houston does not deserve to have Lin. Trade him to the Lakers and have him come back and kick your butt.

First 4 minutes of the game: 3 assists 1 rebound 2 points a couple of steals.
Lin is on fire.
What do you have to say about this?

Bench Asik and Lin. McFail!!!

Dude you're right! Tell you what....I'll trade you Lin for Howard straight up--I mean it's fair--they're both stars. Then Lin can make us pay for benching him....

[thenit]

#Johnlai

I only saw the 1st quarter had something else going on. Lin had a great 1st Quarter 2-2 4 points, 2 reb, 6 assist, but based on the box score and reading the recap, It seems that he cooled down. Parsons was also lighting it up and cooled down. Trading Lin is not an option unless we trade him for another star pg, which will never happen in the nba.

It was a neccessary win and I am happy Harden got his triple-double. I have been one of the harsh critics of him, but this kind of proves me somewhat right with that if he wants to rebound he can. Like that he said that he tried to impact the game outside his scoring tonight, love to see more of that.

[tigger]

Wow, in terms of defense, so much FAIL here.

Lin is actually the second best defender after Asik, stats prove this and so does the eye test. Parsons D HAS FALLEN OFF THIS YEAR. Jason Friedman has even mentioned this. It's probably due to his increased role on offense. HOU fans overrate Parsons to death. He looks consistent because he plays near 40 minutes. When the coaching staff has complete trust in you and lets you play through your mistakes while giving you close to 40 min a game, OF COURSE YOU'RE GOING TO LOOK MORE CONSISTENT. What I find funny is that he travels at least once a game, tries and fails at taking the last shot (see Wed's game against the Nuggets) and turns the ball over quite a bit when he plays PG.

So no, Parsons D has not been better than Lin's. But yeah, keep saying that bruh bruh.

[phaketrash]

@tigger

Hm, I dont know. To say parsons d has dropped this yr sounds believable, but I dont know if lin has better d., maybe lin has to guard more fast pgs while outside of a handful of sfs, they aren't as amazing (relative to the pg crop) but for me, lin doesn't beat the eye test. /shrugs

I like parsons a lot tho. Go look at his numbers, and yes guys increased minutes. I am very impressed by what he brings, esp. How he moves without the ball. For 900k? A steal. So hard to upgrade the sf spot because of that.

[rockets best fan]

Wow, in terms of defense, so much FAIL here.

Lin is actually the second best defender after Asik, stats prove this and so does the eye test. Parsons D HAS FALLEN OFF THIS YEAR. Jason Friedman has even mentioned this. It's probably due to his increased role on offense. HOU fans overrate Parsons to death. He looks consistent because he plays near 40 minutes. When the coaching staff has complete trust in you and lets you play through your mistakes while giving you close to 40 min a game, OF COURSE YOU'RE GOING TO LOOK MORE CONSISTENT. What I find funny is that he travels at least once a game, tries and fails at taking the last shot (see Wed's game against the Nuggets) and turns the ball over quite a bit when he plays PG.

So no, Parsons D has not been better than Lin's. But yeah, keep saying that bruh bruh.

Wow, in terms of defense, so much FAIL here.

Lin is actually the second best defender after Asik, stats prove this and so does the eye test. Parsons D HAS FALLEN OFF THIS YEAR. Jason Friedman has even mentioned this. It's probably due to his increased role on offense. HOU fans overrate Parsons to death. He looks consistent because he plays near 40 minutes. When the coaching staff has complete trust in you and lets you play through your mistakes while giving you close to 40 min a game, OF COURSE YOU'RE GOING TO LOOK MORE CONSISTENT. What I find funny is that he travels at least once a game, tries and fails at taking the last shot (see Wed's game against the Nuggets) and turns the ball over quite a bit when he plays PG.

So no, Parsons D has not been better than Lin's. But yeah, keep saying that bruh bruh.

I was going to leave this thread alone until that comment. lin couldn't guard a fire hydrant. his defense is terrible. he can't stay in front of quick guards which the nba is full of. this is why he does not finish 4th quaters sometimes. that and the fact he can't buy a 12 foot jumper on most nights. lin is average on his good days and stinks on his bad days. right now he's about 60/40 on good days and bad days. lin did a interview recently and admitted himself he wasn't playing star caliber basketball. as for any eye test...if you can't see the player I just mentioned then you are bias in favoring lin. I want lin to susceed, but he has not shown up to this point what he did in NY. I say the jury is still out. I am going to give him till years end, but he better get busy.