Clean wrote:I am browsing through the old game threads during the Lin era and man I forgot exactly how bad the team was that he lead. He made Novak , Jefferies, Fields and Billy Walker seem decent. Look at where those players are in their careers now.

Most fun I had watching the Knicks since the Ewing days. Next to that was when Amere was dropping 30 a night....aaaahhhh, the memories!!!

nehemiah wrote:Sorry for the long post, but this is from one of the very current threads from the Rockets forum. You can say "never a top 5 PG" when it's been proven again and again in this league that you can't predict the future. Or, even the facts like below, prove his performance this year deserves some serious consideration:

(by poster Phi Slamma Jamma of Clutchfans)
I'm not going to get caught up in conspiracy theories and I'm not here to talk about who should start and should not start.

What I want to talk about is the improvement in the play of Jeremy Lin, as demonstrated through statistics.

Most Rockets fans -- including LOF -- would probably agree that Jeremy Lin had several issues, if not more, that he wanted to work on this past offseason. Among those issues were:

* Defense
* Three-point shooting
* Turnovers

The early returns are in. And they're looking good.

First of all, Lin currently has a PER of 19.0. That is approximately #53 in the NBA among all players who have played 100 or more minutes this season. There are 175 players in the NBA who have played 100+ minutes this season, which means Lin is in the top third of all such players in the NBA in PER.

Lin's PER puts him #10 among point guards in the NBA for players who have played 100 or more minutes this season. The players ahead of Lin at the position are, in order of PER best to worst: Chris Paul; Isiah Thomas; Stephen Curry; Mike Conley; Damian Lillard; Tony Parker; Ty Lawson; Michael Carter-Williams; and John Wall.

Secondly, defense. Even given the team-wide debacle that was the Clippers game, Lin's current Defensive Rating following the Lakers contest is 099.1. Last year, that figure was 104.0.

Here are Lin's Defensive Ratings by game this season:

CHA -- 091.8
DAL -- 082.3
UTH -- 091.9
LAC -- 145.9
POR -- 088.1
LAL -- 093.0

The Clippers game, then, is clearly the aberration in those statistics.

To give an idea of how a 099.1 Defensive Rating looks (lower number is better), the best defensive point guard in the league last year, Mike Conley, had a number of 095.1. With the Clippers game tossed out of the stats, Lin's Defensive Rating would be 89.4 or so. And he held Jose Calderon and Jamaal Tinsley scoreless in back-to-back games so far this year.

Additionally on the defensive front, in two of the Rockets' better defensive runs this season -- against Portland in the third quarter and against the Lakers in the third quarter -- Lin was on the court rather than on the bench.

Third, three-point shooting. Lin is currently tied with Omri Casspi at 43.8% (both are 7-of-16) from three-point range to lead the Rockets.

Fourth, turnovers. Lin's Per 36 Minutes turnover rate is currently 3.4. That is ranked about #28 of 38 point guards in the NBA this season who have played 100+ minutes. So, there's still work to be done there. And, Lin's rate last year Per 36 was 3.2. But, his PER last year was also just 14.9. Meaning, you probably can handle 0.2 more TO's Per 36 if you are also getting +4.1 in PER.

What's good about Lin as regards turnovers is that the issue no longer seems to be a glaring one for him. All of these point guards, each good players, have higher TO/36 numbers than Lin this season (all have played 100+ minutes, too):

Chris Paul
Deron Williams
Kyrie Irving
Stephen Curry
Derrick Rose

As I have noted in several posts on the board, last year was the only year of Lin's career that he had a negative (On Court - Off Court) rating. Which means that the team was better with him off the court. I thought that number was an anomaly likely due to his recovery from the knee surgery, among other things. And so far this season, that looks to be the case.

Here are Lin's (On Court - Off Court) ratings for his career (numbers from NBA.com):

2010-11 = +04.9
2011-12 = +04.4
2012-13 = -02.7
2013-14 = +05.2 (6 games)

Unlike last year, then, Lin is having a positive net effect when he is on the floor for the team in the statistics.

Lin also leads the team in Assists Per 36 Minutes with a 4.8 figure.

He leads the team, as well, with a 67% True Shooting figure, and is drawing 6.9 Free Throw Attempts Per 36 Minutes despite having only a 19.9% Usage Rate.

Finally, Lin leads the team with 1.736 Points Per Field Goal Attempt. That figure is #5 in the entire NBA.

So, very promising returns early this season for Jeremy Lin. Hopefully he can continue his strong production as the team moves forward. And hopefully as the season moves along, the turnover rate can become even better.

Great information there. I don't need the stats to say he is a great floor leader. I really think having his brain out there running things would have increased our chances for a championship. Even a rookie like Nate Wolters is smarter than Felton. (I like Felton, but think he should be a backup.)

ShellTopAdidas wrote:

Clean wrote:I am browsing through the old game threads during the Lin era and man I forgot exactly how bad the team was that he lead. He made Novak , Jefferies, Fields and Billy Walker seem decent. Look at where those players are in their careers now.

Most fun I had watching the Knicks since the Ewing days. Next to that was when Amere was dropping 30 a night....aaaahhhh, the memories!!!

Good times, though my personal favorite was the end of the 1999 season and the playoffs- loved that we went from struggling team, to stepping up when it mattered, watching Camby emerge etc.

Typical MSG sh!t show. That was a fun player to watch and root for. But lets focus on the good. We have Chris Smith

fishmike wrote:Lin would be our best guard right now, period end of story. Lets recap: MSG publicly courts Steve Nash while Lin is a free agent. Lin is rumored to have a contract with Houston, but nothing has been presented to the league yet. Woody says "we will match anything." Lin's agent presents the contract and MSG declines.

Typical MSG sh!t show. That was a fun player to watch and root for. But lets focus on the good. We have Chris Smith

I hated that we were going after 40yr old Nash at the time and trading Shumpert!

Bonn1997 wrote:People forget that last year was basically Lin's rookie season and he was coming off knee surgery.

yea, as I said, lin was a dynamic player, something we haven't had in years.. plus honestly came across as a good guy. he was easy to root for.. and I liked him and shumpert as a duo..

for us, the pain of losing Lin will only grow with time

fishmike wrote:

playa2 wrote:

Clean wrote:I am browsing through the old game threads during the Lin era and man I forgot exactly how bad the team was that he lead. He made Novak , Jefferies, Fields and Billy Walker seem decent. Look at where those players are in their careers now.

Hmmm I was under the impression it was Mike Danphoney and his gimmick offense that made avg players appear better than they really are. see STEVE BLAKE 19 /8/3 VS Timberwolves with nobody playing with him FOR THE FAKERS

so gimmicky that Woody runs a less effetive version of it and MDA's team defended better, but yea... keep at that

I noticed whenever Lin goes up against great point gods, his play has been mediocre at best.

Or how about playoff pressure basketball. I'm happy for him he got paid, he should do well when teams are so focused on the other 2 bigs stars on the team Harden-D.HOWARD.