I just don't know what to think of Orlando this year. They look like the worst team in the league for a week and then they're kicking ass and taking names. I guess that's what happens when you basically live or die by the 3s.
Originally Posted by The Bad Guy:
36 turnovers in 7 games really matters very little. The guy has the ball in his hands roughly 35 minutes each night. Of course he's going to have turnovers, all PGs do.
Both his scoring rate and his turnover rate are a product of his high usage rate. All will go down when Carmelo returns.
Originally Posted by :
The offensive production, how he runs the offense and the pick and roll are impressive. The wins are ultimate.
Oh, no doubt. But only one of the wins is against a team with a record above .500. Yet another similarity with Tebow and the Broncos' run...they weren't actually beating good teams.
Originally Posted by :
Saying this isn't going to last is foolish. He's a smart basketball player, who's got the keys to a very friendly PG offense.
Saying it's going to last based on seven games is more foolish than anything else. The NBA has a long history of guys who went on hot shooting streaks to emerge out of obscurity before fading again. The media hype is enormous right now, but this is still the definition of a small sample size.
And yes, there's a reason this guy was ignored by NBA talent evaluators for the last two years...he wasn't that good in college against very poor competition.
Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY:
I think people look at the difference in a team when a player is on it and when they are not. Both of the guys you are capping on were huge difference makers for their team. Will Tebow ever be Peyton and will Lin ever be Jordan, of course not. Will both probably have decent careers in the league, probably. Personally I think Lin has a better chance of remaining a starter and suring up his issues. Lin needs more playing time to work through his issue. I never did understand why people can't stand these type of players. They are unique and difference makers.
I don't have an issue with Lin at all (and I would agree that he has the skills to be a good PG provided he can remain efficient and take care of the ball). I'm just preaching caution. He might not actually be the Knicks' savior after all when teams figure out how to better play him and his hot shooting goes away.
There's a great tendency for people to get carried away about runs like this when we really don't know a damn thing yet about what he's made of.
Originally Posted by KC_Connection:
Both his scoring rate and his turnover rate are a product of his high usage rate. All will go down when Carmelo returns.
Think you should read this article: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...n.knicks/index.
Very well written. His production is going to go down. He's not going to score 25+ a night. But he's going to be instrumental in getting the team W's, and I bet he does it in an exciting way. He seems to be a really smart player. I think yesterday was a prime example of an understanding that if you're going to cut his lanes, he's going to be a distributor. If you're not going to respect him, he's going to slash on you. His usage rate will depend on how teams play him.
Originally Posted by :
Oh, no doubt. But only one of the wins is against a team with a record above .500. Yet another similarity with Tebow and the Broncos' run...they weren't actually beating good teams.
I'm interested in seeing how he reacts to press defense, and a shutdown defensive PG. He's a very good ballhandler in the halfcourt offense, but think they might wear him down if they force him to go fullcourt. But there's a big difference. The Knicks aren't relying on gimmicks to win. The Broncos were winning games in spite of their QB (until the 4th quarter). The Knicks are winning because of their QB. The Broncos were winning by playing backwards (in an aerial league, they're asking their QB not to pass). The Knicks are winning because they're playing better team basketball. It's not just one guy playing better. It's a lot of guys playing better within their roles.
I don't think that's necessarily a credit to Lin being great. I think it shows that the Knicks were missing an enormous piece to this puzzle and it really hurt their players. But also... from a leadership standpoint in how his teammates respond to him, and the way he diagnosis a play... it's something he has in droves that many PGs do not. In terms of using the pick and roll, he has been absolutely outstanding, and that's not an easy thing to do.
Originally Posted by :
Saying it's going to last based on seven games is more foolish than anything else. The NBA has a long history of guys who went on hot shooting streaks to emerge out of obscurity before fading again. The media hype is enormous right now, but this is still the definition of a small sample size.
You can't judge his shooting by what he did in college. Like Tebow, he made enormous corrections in his mechanics. Unlike Tebow, his shot looks like an NBA shot whereas Tebow still can't pass for shit and his mechanics are still jacked. He's not going to stay that hot as an outside shooter, but yesterday's game proves he's not going to have to.
His ability to slash is very legit. More impressive than anything is his smarts in how he uses his body and angles to get a makeable short range shot. He's going to be dangerous as a slasher even if you cut off his lanes. And if you cut off his lanes, we saw yesterday, you are leaving Stoudemire and Chandler wide open. So yes, I think his ability to slash into the lane is going to make him a matchup nightmare.
Originally Posted by :
And yes, there's a reason this guy was ignored by NBA talent evaluators for the last two years...he wasn't that good in college against very poor competition.
You hate to throw race into the equation, but you can't deny that it played into it a little bit. Basketball is different from football. You can't really simulate real games until you play on the field. You can learn a lot about basketball players by how they play in D-leagues, play in practice 5-on-5's, etc.... There was enough of a sample for teams to know what he had.
Anybody who analyzes stats should know that it's absurd to be using stats accumulated over a tiny seven game sample size to project the future of any player (in any sport). It would be like saying that because Chris Shelton hit 9 HR over his first 13 games in the 2006 MLB season that he was going to turn into the next Albert Pujols.
It's really hard to understand why this guy bothered writing the article when the next seven games could completely change everything about his percentages (and therefore everything he thinks he knows about Lin's production). I would agree that he has the skills to be a legitimate NBA guard, but looking at the stats right now for some kind of real meaning is a pointless exercise.
Originally Posted by :
You can't judge his shooting by what he did in college. Like Tebow, he made enormous corrections in his mechanics. Unlike Tebow, his shot looks like an NBA shot whereas Tebow still can't pass for shit and his mechanics are still jacked. He's not going to stay that hot as an outside shooter, but yesterday's game proves he's not going to have to.
I can't say I watched Lin enough in college to know whether his shot changed. Nor do I see how anybody could have if they weren't going to Harvard at the time.
Also...single games don't prove things about players. Entire seasons of production do.
Originally Posted by :
His ability to slash is very legit. More impressive than anything is his smarts in how he uses his body and angles to get a makeable short range shot. He's going to be dangerous as a slasher even if you cut off his lanes. And if you cut off his lanes, we saw yesterday, you are leaving Stoudemire and Chandler wide open. So yes, I think his ability to slash into the lane is going to make him a matchup nightmare.
Yes, he can certainly slash effectively. But a bit of that is because teams are respecting his shot right now. If that stops falling (and from what we know about him, it will), things may change a bit in that regard.
Originally Posted by :
You hate to throw race into the equation, but you can't deny that it played into it a little bit. Basketball is different from football. You can't really simulate real games until you play on the field. You can learn a lot about basketball players by how they play in D-leagues, play in practice 5-on-5's, etc.... There was enough of a sample for teams to know what he had.
What do I care what race he is? It makes no difference to evaluating him as a basketball player.
Adrian Wojnarowski, who usually has a pretty good read on things... with an article that'll get people buzzing. LeBron's comments were for a reason. He says LeBron is laying the groundwork to possibly opt out of his Miami contract and return to Cleveland after the 2013-2014 season. His sources say LeBron has floated the idea to Dan Gilbert through a third party... but Gilbert hasn't responded to him.
Pekovic out of nowhere is turning into a legit threat. If they had a real shooting guard, they'd be legitimately dangerous to good teams. They're already very competitive most nights.
Dirk moved into the NBA’s all-time top 10 for most points scored for one team. He just passed Dominique Wilkins (23,292 points). Dirk now has 23,294 career points with the Mavericks. He joins an illustrious list of NBA players in terms of scoring dominance for one team. Dirk is now behind K. Malone, M. Jordan, K. Bryant, H. Olajuwon, J. Havlicek, R. Miller, J. West, K. Abdul-Jabbar and P. Ewing on the list.
