Juany8: The Houston coaches are amongst the worst in the league

Really? Should their record be better than it is? If it weren’t the future HOFer if he is coached properly Jeremy Lin in the spotlight, would we be talking about this?

Harden’s averaging 39 minutes? there’s something else Houston needs to fix, he can’t do that all year as the main guy and hold up.

And Parsons averages 38 minutes a game! They clearly lean on their “Big Four” too much, but their bench is really, really, really bad, so it is hard to blame them too much.

Juany8:
The Houston coaches are amongst the worst in the league, but think about what you’re asking for a sec. You’re telling the coaches of the Rockets to run pick and rolls with Lin instead of Harden. I don’t care how good Linsanity was, Harden is going to become the best overall pick and roll guard in the league one day. It’s actually a little similar to the little argument between Chandler and Amar’e, in that you can’t be running the pick and roll with him at the same time. Now Amar’e is better than Chandler, but Chandler is still an incredible pick and roll player so he gets put outside. Lin IS NOT a great pick and roll player, playing pick and roll all the time would simply make him a competent player. There is not a huge difference to running the pick and roll with either Stoudemire and Chandler, there is a gulf of difference between running it with Harden or Lin

Since your Houston fan, doesn’t every team have second option? How can Harden run the offense every play? Let be realistic there should be enough 2nd fiddle opportunities for Lin. Looking at Knicks where Melo averages almost 20 FGA out total 81 FGA per game. That 25% offense, but there 75% that’s divided by rest of team. Heck our 2nd fiddle Felton average 14.3 FGA which 17.6% of attempts.

I look at stat in OKC game Lin was 3-7 in 41 minutes of play, but Daequan Cook was 7-17 in 38 minutes.
I understand he shooting horrible with TS% = 0.456, but he was coming off a good game. You figure with Parson out that he be given more chances, but instead the shots went to Cook. So Juany8 what happen, they didn’t run any PNR for Lin? He did play freakin 41 minutes.

massive: (Quote)

massive:
I have to question coaching on the Lin/Harden dynamic. If Lin is not a good off-ball player, why would you play him off ball for a decent amount of time? That’s stupid, especially when James Harden is much better shooting the ball and driving against rotation. Teams will give Jeremy Lin much less defensive pressure than they will James Harden, so why not allow Jeremy Lin to penetrate into the lane and then pass the ball to Harden? Doc Rivers wouldn’t move Rajon Rondo off the ball so James Harden could create, would he? We all saw how bad the Knicks did when D’Antoni tried to turn Melo into a play-maker, so why is it okay to try to make Jeremy Lin into an off-ball scorer?

It is by no means acceptable for Jeremy Lin to be playing this bad, but when the coaching staff misuses a player, you can’t put it entirely on Lin.

The Houston coaches are amongst the worst in the league, but think about what you’re asking for a sec. You’re telling the coaches of the Rockets to run pick and rolls with Lin instead of Harden. I don’t care how good Linsanity was, Harden is going to become the best overall pick and roll guard in the league one day. It’s actually a little similar to the little argument between Chandler and Amar’e, in that you can’t be running the pick and roll with him at the same time. Now Amar’e is better than Chandler, but Chandler is still an incredible pick and roll player so he gets put outside. Lin IS NOT a great pick and roll player, playing pick and roll all the time would simply make him a competent player. There is not a huge difference to running the pick and roll with either Stoudemire and Chandler, there is a gulf of difference between running it with Harden or Lin

Robert Silverman: Are you kidding? His article was terribly written. And contradictory. No one’s saying that Lin’s playing well right now, but using a 15 game sample to invalidate a 26 game sample makes no sense. And saying that a big reason that Lin succeeded is because no one was defending him b/c they preferred to cover the Knicks other players is just plain ridiculous.

All of these points are acccurate, although one could argue that he’s using a 27 game sample to invalidate a 14 game sample.

Robert Silverman: Are you kidding? His article was terribly written. And contradictory. No one’s saying that Lin’s playing well right now, but using a 15 game sample to invalidate a 26 game sample makes no sense. And saying that a big reason that Lin succeeded is because no one was defending him b/c they preferred to cover the Knicks other players is just plain ridiculous.

I’m serious. I don’t want to be the worst writer here anymore. So I figure if we get Marc to come over…

Brian Cronin:
Harden plays so many minutes that there’s only nine minutes when he is not on the court, so starting/coming off the bench shouldn’t really matter much. Although it is true that they should stagger their minutes better so those nine minutes that Harden is off the court don’t come with Lin off the court, as well (Lin is averaging 34 minutes himself).

Harden’s averaging 39 minutes? there’s something else Houston needs to fix, he can’t do that all year as the main guy and hold up.

Thomas B.:
I’d like to extend to Marc Lamont an invitation to write for Knickerblogger.net.My God, he is the smartest person I think I’ve ever known.It is exactly what I’ve been telling the Linites.Lin is overrated!Waaaaaaaay overrated.

Are you kidding? His article was terribly written. And contradictory. No one’s saying that Lin’s playing well right now, but using a 15 game sample to invalidate a 26 game sample makes no sense. And saying that a big reason that Lin succeeded is because no one was defending him b/c they preferred to cover the Knicks other players is just plain ridiculous.

Z-man: So in the spirit of fairness, when Felton plays poorly, will you blame his coach or teammates? How long are you, RS, and others going to make excuses for Lin? Why shouldn’t his play be subject to the same scrutiny as every other PG in the league?

My point isn’t that Jeremy Lin should be given a pass for playing terrible basketball. My point is that making Jeremy Lin play off-ball makes him worse. It is widely acknowledged that Steve Nash played poorly within the Princeton offense because it took away his strength as a play-maker. Why can’t I make the same argument for Jeremy Lin, who is best when initiating offense and not playing a catch-and-shoot role?

I am only trying to say that Jeremy Lin’s dismal playing should not be placed entirely on him. The coaching should take some of the flak. If the Knicks’ coaching staff tried to turn Raymond Felton into a volume scoring guard like Derrick Rose, I would criticize them too.