Linsanity: Career high 38

yeah, i think that last part must be driving it. that and they're of similar size. but lin's the better athlete, and nash is the far more skilled player (and was at the same point in development, too).

really, every pg likes to run the pick and roll these days. how many offenses aren't constructed around it?

abeer3 wrote:yeah, i think that last part must be driving it. that and they're of similar size. but lin's the better athlete, and nash is the far more skilled player (and was at the same point in development, too).

really, every pg likes to run the pick and roll these days. how many offenses aren't constructed around it?

Rockets is one team that doesn't run it at all. At most they run pick-and-pop(instead of rolling, you pop that open jumper which means little spacing for the PG) and screen and rolls like a NCAA college team and chucks up 3's. Their offensive system is pretty terrible. Lin is playing horribly, but in a system where he is to sit on the 3 point line and chuck 3's without the ball and no pick and roll, the coaches are making him play AGAINST his strengths imo. Really exploits his mediocre outside shooting.

Honestly, I'm glad we don't have McHale(Rocket's coach) as our coach. Mike Brown was a 100x better coach then McHale would ever be. He looks like he has no idea what he's doing beside ISO Harden, and shoot 3's to stretch the floor and open the lane for him, and his defensive system is a joke. Horrible at directing the offense and the defense, what good does he do? At least that's one team we would never have to worry about though. Especially if they continue believing Harden is a franchise player Biggest joke I've ever seen.

sorry, i wasn't clear: i use the term pick and roll to describe any action coming out of a screen for a ballhandler meant to initiate an offensive set. that's really a lot of what houston has done in games i've watched. and when asik is the screener, it's a roll every time.

i know houston fans hate mchale, but i'm not sure he's that bad. their roster simply isn't that strong. i think he plays offense to the team's strengths by spreading the floor and pushing the tempo. defensively, what can you do with a collection of guys who simply aren't very good on that end (asik is overrated as a defender, as is parsons, the rest are appropriately rated as bad).

i thought mchale did a pretty good job in his coaching stint with minny, actually. houston ran adelman and jvg out of town, and those guys are good coaches. at some point, you have to look at other aspects of your organization, like whoever is driving personnel selection and acquisition.

Asik is a great defender. Parsons and Lin are pretty decent too. Harden's bad/lazy, but that team's defensive problems are similar to ours. They turn the ball over a lot so they give up a lot of easy baskets.

Houston allows more fastbreak points than us. Lol. They also average more turnovers than us.

wait--someone turns the ball over more than the lakers?!

and i don't think asik is the defender he was advertised to be all of last year. i think his team may even be worse, statistically, on that end when he's on the floor.

looks to me like thibs deserves a cut of his salary. he's a very good rebounder, though.

parsons and lin aren't terrible, but they're not plus defenders, either, imo. neither is super quick laterally, but both are smart and get in the right spots.

the rest of the team just aren't defensive players: patterson, morris, harden, delfino...yikes. i suppose toney douglas is a decent defensive player. anyway, point is that you can't get blood from a stone. i don't think it's mchale's fault they can't defend. he's trying to play to their strengths on offense to help minimize/obscure the fact that it's a collection of bad defenders.

abeer3 wrote:wait--someone turns the ball over more than the lakers?!

Yes. I think Houston is last and Lakers are second-to-last.

The Thunder are last