What Does It All Mean? – Grantland’s Jay Caspian Kang examines what to make of Jeremy Lin’s transition from sports icon to pretty good player:
More importantly, the enthusiasm seems to be back — despite his modesty in interviews and his Christian, clean-cut image, the best Jeremy Lin is actually an irrational-confidence guy. You want him to believe that he deserves to have the ball in his hands and that he can score on anyone. If he can merge the gunner Jeremy Lin with this new version that seems content to play off of Harden, there’s no reason to think he couldn’t earn out the remainder of his average salary, regardless of how heavy the hit might be in the last year of his poison-pill contract.
Of course, that was written before Lin’s no-show against Dallas.
Post Posts – Hardwood Paroxysm bounces off of this NBA.com article about Olajuwon’s comments about Dwight Howard’s post play.
One of the main reasons Dwight chose Houston was because of the rare opportunity he had to learn from two of the best post-players in NBA history in Kevin McHale and Hakeem Olajuwon. However, there are a couple of issues with that: 1) McHale can’t spend all his time with Dwight because, well, he’s the head coach and 2) Olajuwon isn’t even in Houston right now. He’s at his home in Jordan, watching the Houston Rockets on TV, sighing every time Dwight throws up one of his patented hook shots. Even though the two spent hours together in the off-season, trying to refine his post-game, it’s easy for Dwight to go back to what he’s comfortable with because he’s been doing it for nine straight years.
Of course, that was also written before Howard’s excellent post performance…that was squandered against Dallas.
Fire Up The Trade Machine – Kevin Pelton (ESPN Insider) looks at potential trade candidates for Omer Asik, and lists Ryan Anderson, Ersan Ilysasova, Paul Millsap, Thaddeus Young, and Jeff Green. He also dedicates a segment of his article to Terrence Jones, arguing that he may develop into a better complement to Howard than any of those guys:
The key for the 21-year-old is producing on a consistent basis. In his first three extended outings this season, Jones missed a combined 15 of his 24 shot attempts. But the Rockets have gotten enough production from Jones and Omri Casspi, who has thrived next to Howard against second units in smaller lineups, that they could potentially trade Asik for a draft pick and hold off the decision on a power forward until later on.
Sure, do whatever. Just don’t blow another game to Dallas.
Rick Popovich – Rick Carlisle did a hilarious Greg Popovich impersonation at half time last night. Chris Broussard walked right into it with closed-ended questions, so kudos to Carlisle for making him pay. Carlisle knows how to make you pay. Right, Rockets fans? To heck with this, I’m going to bed.
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