27 replies to this topic

[Rahat Huq]

New York is now 8-15, three games back in the loss column of the 10-12 8th seeded Bucks. Cleveland is also ahead of the Knicks at 8-13. The Nets and Raptors both sit at 8-16.

[Rahat Huq]

The Knicks won last night with a huge performance from Jeremy Lin. I hope he's not able to spur some sort of turnaround. Right now, they're at 9-15 with Milwaukee at 10-13 on a two-game losing streak.

Worst, I can't see the 15-9 Magic keeping things together if they trade Howard.

Going to have to really keep our fingers crossed on these developments. While this won't be a popular opinion, the outcome of that Knicks pick holds far more weight for the future of the Houston Rockets than their own win-loss record. If they somehow land the 6th pick, you're looking at the team's first chance to draft a blue-chip prospect since the Yao draft. And if they themselves miss the playoffs, keeping their own pick, you'd have the chance to combine the two picks to move up even further.

If the Rockets got, for instance, #14 and #6, how far could that move them up? Would they hold onto both of those picks? What if #14 and #6 was enough to move them up to trade for #3. If that happened, in hindsight, would you be glad the team missed the playoffs?

[Sir Thursday]

I'm liking having this pick. It means when I'm watching League Pass I can always flip over the the Knicks game during the ad breaks and cheer for the other team . Plus it gives me reasons to watch teams like Milwaukee and Cleveland who otherwise I would pretty much never see play.

Unfortunately, I can't see the Knicks not making the playoffs still. The East is just not deep enough. New York will make some shortsighted deal at the deadline that gets them a PG for the rest of the season but screw them over in the long term, and then cruise in as the 7th seed (despite having a worse record than the Rockets). That's my prediction. Of course, I'd love to be proved wrong !

ST

[Rahat Huq]

I'm liking having this pick. It means when I'm watching League Pass I can always flip over the the Knicks game during the ad breaks and cheer for the other team . Plus it gives me reasons to watch teams like Milwaukee and Cleveland who otherwise I would pretty much never see play.

Unfortunately, I can't see the Knicks not making the playoffs still. The East is just not deep enough. New York will make some shortsighted deal at the deadline that gets them a PG for the rest of the season but screw them over in the long term, and then cruise in as the 7th seed (despite having a worse record than the Rockets). That's my prediction. Of course, I'd love to be proved wrong !

ST

Jeremy Lin's recent explosion doesn't help. How ironic would it be if the guy the Rockets cut was the reason we lost out on a lottery pick?

I can't see the Knicks missing the playoffs but it atleast gives us something else to cheer for.

[Dan G]

Damnit Jeremy Lin is totally screwing us. He had another good game tonight and helped the Knicks win without Melo and Stoudemire. I give him props for taking his opportunity and shinning but I sure do wish he could have done it with a team other than the Knicks. I hate the Lakers but I would have even accepted him going there and doing well over helping the Knicks find an identity at the PG position. The only two things I can hope for now are for Baron Davis to come back and steal Lin's spot and then suck it up until Lin gets the starting PG position permanently or for Lin to finally come back down to earth.

[Rahat Huq]

This is an absolute disaster.

[Kade]

"Daryl Morey regrets Jeremy Lin cut" < per espn

You think? Not saying Lin will end up producing at that level (when Melo comes back I don't see it) but I am getting a bit tired of Morey. A stat head can be great but you have to spend with that to win (see RedSox as example). You can't run an organization like the A's where it's always about getting the best bang for your buck. That will get you into the postseason (see A's again) but never will get you a championship.

I wonder if Morey feels like he can't tank or trade off the better players and instead has to live up to his rep in getting value players. You can't win 12 games in the postseason with that blueprint. It's never been done and never will be done.

It's clear that any superstar in the NBA won't come to Houston and teams aren't willing to trade up and coming super stars so they must do this in the draft.

Wouldn't it be fitting if Lin is the main reason that gets the Knicks up and running and ends up costing us a potential #6 or so pick. Ugh.

[Sir Thursday]

While I'm not completely sold on this reasoning, it should be pointed out that Lin hasn't really had a tough test yet. The Nets are a terrible team (albeit with a very good player at PG), the Jazz are, IIRC, near the bottom of the league in PG defence, and Washington are Washington, no more explanation needed.

The Knicks next two games are against the Lakers (not great PG defence, but a better team than any Lin has faced so far) and Minnesota (Rubio is a pretty decent defender, and Minny are a decent team this year as we've already found out). I'm going to wait and see what happens in those two games before I lose all hope of getting that lottery pick.

ST

[Kade]

Morey needs to take a big hit on this. For a guy who thinks he can get value bargain type players, to miss on a guy who dropped 38 pts and 7 dimes now on the Lakers on prime time espn and has a better 4 game stretch than anyone I can remember in a while from the Rockets, it's indefensible. Now, Lin will be the spark that will eliminate a potential great draft pick from the Knicks.

I really hope someone can interview Morey and question what a F up move he made and I don't want to hear about too many PG. Our backup doesn't come close to Lin to this point a guy who had no problem almost dropping 40 on a Lakers team who knew about his hype and you know wanted to end it but couldn't.

[Dan G]

Morey needs to take a big hit on this. For a guy who thinks he can get value bargain type players, to miss on a guy who dropped 38 pts and 7 dimes now on the Lakers on prime time espn and has a better 4 game stretch than anyone I can remember in a while from the Rockets, it's indefensible. Now, Lin will be the spark that will eliminate a potential great draft pick from the Knicks.

I really hope someone can interview Morey and question what a F up move he made and I don't want to hear about too many PG. Our backup doesn't come close to Lin to this point a guy who had no problem almost dropping 40 on a Lakers team who knew about his hype and you know wanted to end it but couldn't.

Look I don't see why everyone is blaming Morey for missing out on Linsanity. First off the Knicks got extremely lucky Baron Davis got hurt again or they too would have missed out Linsanity as they would have waived him had Davis came back. All the other teams in the NBA had their chance as well but failed to see Lin's potential. Not to mention Lin had done nothing like he is doing with the Knicks before even in his collegiate career so unless you have a crystal ball, NO ONE was going to foresee what he is doing now.

We failed to get our opportunity to see it because we just happened to have two really good point guards and a 1/4 of a point guard (Flynn) all under contract. Had god forbid, Lowry and Dragic went down with injuries, we would have given Lin a shot and we could have seen what he could do, and if I'm not mistaken Lin did play some minutes in a preseason game and did well but the fact remains that we already have two good point guards on the team and another pseudo point guard under contract, so we were forced to waive Lin when we signed Dalembert.

And really like Rahat has been saying, the deal isn't really about Lin as it is as much as it is about the draft pick and how Lin going to New York is helping them become respectable again, which hurts that draft pick. And all this is pretty much caused because New York got lucky that Baron was hurt and the other point guards were Flynnesque.

[FelixPR]

Morey needs to take a big hit on this. For a guy who thinks he can get value bargain type players, to miss on a guy who dropped 38 pts and 7 dimes now on the Lakers on prime time espn and has a better 4 game stretch than anyone I can remember in a while from the Rockets, it's indefensible.

Lowry's best 4 game stretch this season: 24pts/7.5asts/6.5rebs 88% FT 50% 3PT 43%FG (This including 3 great games and one decent game) (3-1 record. W over Portland, WSH, SAC. L to SA)
Lin's current run: 28.5PTs/8asts/3.75rebs 77% FT 29%3PT 58%FG (4-0 record. W over WSH, UTH, NJ and LA)

I call it selective ignorance to say that no Rockets player has been on a equal 4 game tear. I won't belittle what Lin has done but let's not forget the circumstances that dictate every start and stat. Lin has been performing great and he has been able to carry the offense for that Knicks team. However, it is a different situation with the Rockets where Lowry has more scorers and even so he still managed to score 24pts per game in that 4 game stretch. Things will be mighty different once Melo and STAT return because they are players that need to mesh. Lowry's earning his stats in the system and with a complete team. There is no clue how Lin will continue to perform w/o those two nor is there any idea how his stats will even out once Melo and STAT return.

Now, Lin will be the spark that will eliminate a potential great draft pick from the Knicks.

The consensus for this Knick pick has been up and down. At the start of the season or even before, people already gave up on the pick. A lot of people assumed that Melo and STAT would co-exist and carry that team to the playoffs. Now that they have shown great weakness, several Rockets fans got a little hope for the pick. "Hey, maybe we can actually get a good position in the draft". Lin's playing is simply deflating the glimmer of hope and expectations people had once the Knicks started to suck. There were not a lot of people who were even paying mind to that pick before the season started. Now that the pick may be low or within the realistic expectations people had from last season, people are all up in arms. "Oh noes, the pick we didn't believe in before but believe in now since the Knicks suck has been losing value!" Give me a break.

It is a crying shame that the pick may not work out for the team but I'm not going to blame Morey for it.

I really hope someone can interview Morey and question what a F up move he made and I don't want to hear about too many PG. Our backup doesn't come close to Lin to this point a guy who had no problem almost dropping 40 on a Lakers team who knew about his hype and you know wanted to end it but couldn't.

Nobody knew what Lin could do. Nobody in the league could predict how Lin, the player, would react and perform on a specific team with a specific system. The Knicks were ready to cut Lin before he started off his run. The Rockets are strong at the PG position. There was no way Lin was going to perform the same way with this team as he has done with the Knicks. Knicks have a different team (lacking depth and scorers) a different offensive system and just a different makeup for the team.

There is no clue to how Dragic could have performed in the same situation Lin is. Aside from different teams, Dragic simply won't get that chance to be in the same situation. The reason being that Lowry is a better PG than Lin and Dragic. There is no Lowry in front of Lin with the Knicks. There is Lin with a Chandler, Fields and a injured Baron, Melo and MIA STAT.

There is also the issue with contracts and signings. Dalembert is more useful to this team than Lin is. Sometimes you have to look at the whole picture. The Rockets team did not need a 4th PG when the chance to sign a viable Center appeared.

This is Lin's chance to shine but it has taken a stroke of luck from three teams to get here. The Rockets had to let him go because we have a strong PG duo. The Warriors let him go and that is on them. The Knicks were lucky that Baron Davis got injured and Lin was their last resort. Nobody could have predicted that. Maybe Lin would have performed the same way for us but for that to happen Lowry and Dragic would have to go down. Let's add Martin and Scola to that as well. Four injured players to put Lin in the same situation that the Knicks are in.

It is absurd that this is even an issue. Would it have been great to have Lin as our third PG? Sure, better him than Flynn but that was not feasible. And even so, if the Rockets did have Lin as their 3rd PG he would have not performed the same way. Hell, he probably would have not even been given the chance to do so. Is that on Morey to visualize every conceivable scenario where a player can perform to their highest potential? Maybe but it is a tall order. And even if Morey had know that Lin would perform this way, what was he suppose to do? Rework the entire team and system to put him in that scenario? If Lin can continue to perform over an extended stretch of time and with a complete team then we could analyze the situation better.

It is like if T-Will is let go and starts tearing it up on the Wizards. Are we suppose to blame Morey for that? No. I wouldn't. We know T-Will has skills but he has an attitude to go with it. Just because a player can light up on a depleted and crappy team means he can do the same anywhere else. Things like this need time to evaluate it properly taking into consideration how and why the players is performing that way. It could be a change of scenery, could be a by-product of a specific offensive system or it could be the players surrounding them. It could be more things, a combination a things, or none of them.

[Favian Pua]

We might have to rename this thread as the Jeremy Lin tracker.

[FelixPR]

We might have to rename this thread as the Jeremy Lin tracker.

Done and done.

[Rahat Huq]

Done and done.

lol.

[TwistedNematic]

Hey guys, there's really no need to worry. I suspect big chemistry problems when amare and melo come back. Best case scenario is the Knicks go undefeated in the absence of their stars and then lose a game or two due to melo shooting 0-10. Knicks fans are so short sighted they will demand a trade and by the end of the season Jared Jeffries will be the number two scorer on the squad. Long story short: Knicks fans arrogance and impulsiveness will ruin the team this year.

It almost never works out for teams when a player starts to shine while another player is injured.

[Kade]

Incredible, this kid is a star! Just put 27 and hit the game winner on a 3pt shot. Bet Morey threw a brick at his TV.

Don't like that he causes TO but he's young...he hit 7-11 2-3PM, 11 ast, 1 stl and didn't even have Melo. I'll be shocked if they aren't a playoff team now and an actual treat to make some noise.

[Kade]

FYI: On Colin Cowherd's show today is going to interview Kevin McHale in regars to Lin (not playing/letting him go, etc.)

[Rahat Huq]

FYI: On Colin Cowherd's show today is going to interview Kevin McHale in regars to Lin (not playing/letting him go, etc.)

Did you catch the interview? I'm curious to hear what was said.

[Kade]

Good think Kobe isn't owner of the Rockets!

Kobe: I'd fire everybody who missed Jeremy Lin

The biggest thing to me is how everybody missed it...They all would be fired if I was owning a team. I hear this stuff, 'It came out of nowhere.' I think it's a load of [garbage]. You can't play that well and just come out of nowhere. There has to be something there and everybody missed it. So heads would roll [if I was owner].

http://content.usato.../1#.T00ZLnl62Sp