NBA · Sportswriter "Mans Up" about Linsanity (page 1)

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/21204...

The Linsanity is over, and the truth is Jeremy Lin just isn't that great
by Greg Doyel

Jeremy Lin isn't who we thought he was.

I say that with some regret, some embarrassment -- and all certainty. He's not what we thought he was last year, when we thought he was a special player. Turns out he was a regular player on a special streak, and there's no shame in that. He had the best streak of any new starter in NBA history, becoming the first to average 27.2 points in his first five starts, and to average 20 ppg and seven assists in the same stretch.

The things Jeremy Lin was doing last season defied explanation at the time, and they defy explanation now. Because he's not that guy. I mean, he's not close to that guy. He hasn't been that guy since those first five games, actually. When, in the history of the NBA, has a player's first five starts been -- far and away -- his best five starts? I'm guessing it had never happened until Jeremy Lin came along.
This season in Houston, Lin is averaging 10.3 points and 6.8 assists in 34.4 minutes per game. Those are decent numbers. They're average, though his shooting accuracy (37.7 percent from the floor) and turnovers (3.1 per game) aren't average. Those numbers are awful.

It's Tebow all over again, is what it is. Remember how Tim Tebow had that mystifyingly wonderful run with the Denver Broncos last season, taking over as starter on a team that was 1-4, then winning seven of the next eight games? Of course you remember. The world was talking about Tebow last winter, just as the world was talking about Jeremy Lin a few months later.

It's instructive to remember what happened next -- to both players. The Broncos were so grateful to Tebow, so thrilled with the way he rescued the 2011 season and led the team to the playoffs and threw for 316 yards to beat the Steelers in the first round, that they acquired Peyton Manning. And then traded Tebow to the Jets, where he has languished all season. One year after the magic of 2011, Tebow can barely get on the field for one of the worst teams, with one of the statistically worst quarterbacks, in the league.

As for Lin? The Knicks were so grateful for the tens of millions of dollars he injected into the franchise -- through ticket and apparel sales, and the completion of a cable deal because New Yorkers wanted to see this guy on TV -- that they let him walk as a free agent. Watched him sign with the Houston Rockets for a creatively written, but still affordable, $25 million over three years.

Got nothing for him.

What were the Knicks thinking? Probably something like this:

Jeremy Lin isn't who everyone thought he was.

In hindsight, the signs were there. In his first 10 games as a starter, Lin averaged 24.6 points and 9.2 assists and shot 49.7 percent from the floor. MVP stuff.

In his next seven games, Lin's production dropped to 15.6 ppg and 7.7 apg. Starter stuff.

In his last nine games of the season? Another drop: 13.6 ppg and 5.9 apg. And in those final 16 games, his shooting dropped more than 10 percentage points, from 49.7 percent to 39.3 percent. Abysmal stuff.

Jeremy Lin isn't who we thought he was.

More accurately, he wasn't who we wanted him to be. We wanted him to be Superman, this unlikely Taiwanese-American hero from the Ivy League who wasn't offered scholarships by any Division I schools, wasn't drafted by any NBA teams, then was released by the Warriors and Rockets before being picked up by the Knicks and demoted to the D-League. Eventually the Knicks brought him back to New York and used him in an emergency. You know what happened next: NBA history books will remember it as Linsanity.

I'll remember it as something that defies explanation, Tebow on hardwood, a guy overachieving not just for one afternoon but for game after game after game. It was supernatural and I bought into it, urging the NBA to give Lin an All-Star spot and then making fun of the Knicks for letting him go to the Rockets.

Do I regret any of that? Not really. Not at all. At the time of the All-Star break, Lin was the hottest story in the NBA -- the hottest story not named "LeBron" in years. He belonged in that All-Star game. As for the other story, the one chiding the Knicks for being the Knicks, what can I say? I got duped by Lin, but lots of us got duped.

This is LeBron's fault, of course.

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat were the first to throw cold water on the dream that was Lin-sanity, playing Lin after his first 10 historic starts and holding him to eight points on 1-of-11 shooting. Lin handed out three assists and had eight turnovers. That miserable game was a fluke -- Lin hasn't put up such poor numbers since -- but no more of an aberration than his wondrous first few weeks.

Jeremy Lin isn't the 1-for-11 shooter the Heat made him out to be last Feb. 23 -- but he's not the 27.6 ppg scorer of his first five starts, either. Last season he was the greatest story ever told.

Sequels are always a disappointment.

*pop corn*

This article isn't anything breaking news. Linsanity has been dead and gone for a while now.

Linsanity can never, and will never, surface in Houston for that Rockets franchise. Seems like a pretty good person outside the game of basketball, but not even Lin himself can ever re-live Linsanity. Maybe in a movie it can be re-visited. A Rudy type of story. Still doesn't make Rudy out to be a Ray Lewis type of talent or anything. Lin can never live up to his hype of Linsanity and/or his overall contract in which he signed (due to Linsanity). Not to state the obvious, but Linsanity is dead. It's over and done with; it's now memories of the past.

This was a special story about an undrafted, Asian underdog, plaing basketball inside of the mecca; while putting up numbers and wins at the same time (at first). This was a feel good story for all Americans. A feel good story for anyone who has love for the history of basketball. A feel good story for global basketball. A role model for billions of people. Full support from the underdawgs. It was a nice little run for an unknown basketball player.

But then reality hits. A vetern PG in Felton has proven that he's the right PG to lead a win now type of team. Our window isn't 5-7 years, and Lin is very raw with little to no experience. Not a lick of postseason experience. Has never shown the ability to play a full season. Would he crack under pressure come playoff basketball against Miami? All we seen (as a fan base) was a small sample size of excitement and production, which just so happened inside of Madison Square Garden. The world's most famous arena. Millions of Asian's inside the heart of New York. The perfect storm for a Jeremy Lin to be created. Captured the hearts of Manhattan/New Yorkers/Sports media/sports world.

Thankful for Raymond Felton. Lin is no Yao Ming. May sell jerseys and tickets, but he'll never be considered one of the great PG's around. I believe Houston's franchise just made a mistake. Time will tell, but I'm just thankful for Raymond Felton, Jason Kidd and even Pablo over Lin.

So 25 games is a fluke yet Linsanity is officially over after 14 games siiigh

gunsnewing wrote:So 25 games is a fluke yet Linsanity is officially over after 14 games siiigh

Hey, the Media "giveth" & the Media will surely "taketh" away.

Linsanity isn't about the media. I can bring up some old Linsanity threads

gunsnewing wrote:So 2510 games is a fluke yet Linsanity is officially over after 1431 games siiigh

*Fixed*
14.6pts 39.3fg% 6.8asst over last 16 games 2011-12
10.3pts 37.7fg% 6.5asst over first 15 games 2012-13

In hindsight, the signs were there. In his first 10 games as a starter, Lin averaged 24.6 points and 9.2 assists and shot 49.7 percent from the floor. MVP stuff.
In his next seven games, Lin's production dropped to 15.6 ppg and 7.7 apg. Starter stuff.
In his last nine games of the season? Another drop: 13.6 ppg and 5.9 apg. And in those final 16 games, his shooting dropped more than 10 percentage points, from 49.7 percent to 39.3 percent. Abysmal stuff.

Anji wrote:

gunsnewing wrote:So 2510 games is a fluke yet Linsanity is officially over after 1431 games siiigh

*Fixed*
14.6pts 39.3fg% 6.8asst over last 16 games 2011-12
10.3pts 37.7fg% 6.5asst over first 15 games 2012-13

In hindsight, the signs were there. In his first 10 games as a starter, Lin averaged 24.6 points and 9.2 assists and shot 49.7 percent from the floor. MVP stuff.
In his next seven games, Lin's production dropped to 15.6 ppg and 7.7 apg. Starter stuff.
In his last nine games of the season? Another drop: 13.6 ppg and 5.9 apg. And in those final 16 games, his shooting dropped more than 10 percentage points, from 49.7 percent to 39.3 percent. Abysmal stuff.

Before he was injured against Dallas (he still played many games after that) you could see he was actually explosive. So, the last 16 games stat you list is skewed a bit. His shot was never great, but was ok, but a pretty good finisher. He had great court vision and passing ability, I don't think he lost that. But being that he isn't back 100% physically yet, I just don't think we will see Lin excel as he depends on his athleticism. He is getting some of his explosiveness back. Why has it taken so long? I think he was playing way above where he normally played physically wise, it is just a long road back.

I just think considering he isn't back physically (I know it's been a long time), it is too soon to say anything.

he's got no left, can't shoot, is a turnover machine, and shuts it down at 85 percent in the playoffs.... yet guys like Bonn thinks he's underpaid at a $15 million a season (and Melo is overpaid)

SupremeCommander wrote:he's got no left, can't shoot, is a turnover machine, and shuts it down at 85 percent in the playoffs.... yet guys like Bonn thinks he's underpaid at a $15 million a season (and Melo is overpaid)

I thought a short contract at $8 mil/year was a reasonable gamble. I may be dead wrong in this case. Statistical analyses (like all analyses) will be wrong in individual cases, even though they work best in the long-run. I also predicted last year's win total exactly right and have been very close each of the previous years. Statistical approaches will work best with a large sample of players (like evaluating a full team) over a large sample of games.

He's still recovering from surgery. Give him 4-7 season to fully heal.

AnubisADL wrote:He's still recovering from surgery. Give him 4-7 season to fully heal.

I know you're joking but he does look much less explosive. I'm not being a Kool-aid drinker here - he may heal with time or he may have bad knees that will get worse and worse over time.

skeng wrote:

+1 really not that hard to figure out what happen. Put Lin in LA and him being 100% and see what happens.

I really don't understand why there's so many people here insistent on badmouthing Lin.

HE does not have to be "LinSane" to live up to his contract. 8mil a year is not crazy money. Lawson gets like 10mil. Is he average? Average is about the 15th best.

He got paid for potential.

He got paid to out bid the knicks.

He got paid because of the unique situation of being a 2nd round pick and a free agent.

He sat becasue it was reported even Dolan didn't want him to play.

At 85% he was not better than what Shump and Davis were giving us at that moment.

At 85% he was not going to make that big a difference under Woodys less than Linsonic style.

He is over paid for potential and its 14 games into his new contract. We gonna do this after each game?

Lin Year to Date PG Rankings

30th in AST/TO ratio at 2.20
14th in AST per game at 6.50
13th in total assists with 97
8th in turnovers per game at 2.9
9th in total turnovers with 44
30th in PPG at 10.3 per game
31st in FG% .377
38th in 3PT % .250
5th in SPG with 2.07
4th in RPG with 4.50

Of course there is still a ton of games left and I expect that his FG% and 3PT% will improve as the season progresses. I expected him to turn the ball over more but he's been ok.

As of right now there is really no argument that the Knicks did not make the right move in going with Felton over Lin, especially at the price the Knicks would have had to pay.

I'm definately interested to see where he ranks at the ASB.

Still think he'll turn into a more-than-serviceable player and I'm hoping that he does. But doesn't this put to bed--at least--the complaint of "we let him walk for nothing!" Is there a remote chance we'd be able to trade that back-loaded contract if Lin is playing at this current level (or higher)?

Felton's dismal Nets performance non-withstanding, so far the guy has done very well for us.

Lin just isn't that good he was spectacular for 8 games and then was just ok I'm not surprised, in this league you get exposed if you're not the real deal rather quickly because of scouting reports etc

I personally thinks Lin needs the Knicks as much as we needed him last year. Things are not always black and white, I would not have minded having Lin come off the bench behind kidd and felton. I don't care much for it now since I think Prigi Smalls will be perfecto ff the bench to play PNR with Amare. Imagine all those open looks prig got Cope, but instead its Amare against the second unit of another team.

I think its time to stop piling on Lin. The guy helped us get to the playoffs last season. He should get more respect around here then he has been getting. I hope he develps a jumper and becomes a solid PG in this league.