Jacksonity......or the Knick thread
- Thread starter Rocco Graziosa
- Start date
No, they kind of used that today already: VaLINtine's Gift, referring to Amar'e coming back.
I'll guess Lin-gendary!
Didn't get to see the game, but the live blog makes it sounds outrageous.
What about "Linsurmountable!"
What about "Linsurmountable!"
I agree that the Crouching Tiger reference is a clunker. But the word play in the second reference, putting a double meaning to MSG, is pretty good. I've never heard that one before.
A lot of the TO he is getting is trying to run the pick and roll with Chandler. Chandler has stone cold hands if they are not above his hand. I have absolutely no clue why Amare spent time on the court last night because he clearly wasn't 100%.
That was a straight up Jimmy Chitwood isolation. The NBA needs this....love or hate the Knicks. This kid single-handedly has people talking about the NBA.
So while Lin is the obvious mega-story, the reason NY has been able to come back late on the road the last two games is their strong defense down the stretch. MIN only scored 11 points in the 4th the previous games, and TOR only got 12 last night.
Last night, TOR had six possessions from 3:09 remaining until Lin tied it on the 3 point play at 1:05 and couldn’t even get a shot off the rim:
3 steals by Shumpert
2 blocks by Chandler
1 where Kleiza got a phantom foul call (the replay showed that he was literally not touched but stumbled on his own) and hit 1 of 2 FTs
Last night, TOR had six possessions from 3:09 remaining until Lin tied it on the 3 point play at 1:05 and couldn’t even get a shot off the rim:
3 steals by Shumpert
2 blocks by Chandler
1 where Kleiza got a phantom foul call (the replay showed that he was literally not touched but stumbled on his own) and hit 1 of 2 FTs
Held up by an Asian woman? Hot!
I'm not a big basketball guy obviously but what a great story. The look back over to D'Antoni who just waves and apparently says go for it was pretty neat.
One thing I don't get though -- he hit the shot with 0.5 seconds left. At that point, a whole bunch of people came on the court, including a bunch of Knicks bench players, coaches or whatever. Couldn't they have been given a technical or something? The game wasn't over. Why were they on the court? Is that allowed?
Shumpert really is a fantastic defender. He reminds me a little bit of Tony Allen, though not quite as strong. He pressures the ball as well as anybody in the league and slashes well on the offensive end. If he ever develops a reliable jump shot, he's going to be a great player.
TOR called an immediate timeout so they could get the ball at half court.
Tony Allen is the benchmark I've been using also for his defensive play. Interestingly, someone just posted both their numbers so far this year, points allowed per play (from Synergy, a pay site), and Shumpert is outperforming Allen so far this year:
Shump / Tony Allen
Overall: 0.74 vs. 0.88
Iso: 0.53 vs. 0.71
PNR BH: 0.83 vs. 0.73
Post-up: 0.56 vs. 1.38
Spot-up: 0.78 vs. 1.04
Off-screen: 1.05 vs. 1.12
Handoff: 0.92 vs. 0.15 (Very small sample – 12 plays)
Yeah, I'm certainly not holding my breath.
The odd thing about Shumpert though, is that it looks like he has decent form and a good touch, and he very rarely misses badly, he just misses very often. He also (most likely) leads the league is missed dunks. I think D'Antoni has been getting on him about it, and I expect him to stop trying to dunk in traffic as often, and hopefully that'll improve his shooting percentage around the rim. At the very least, he recognizes that he's not a good shooter yet, and has stopped shooting as often as he was early in the season.
To be fair, being unable to go to your left is not an insurmountable obstacle in becoming an NY sports hero.
I would say that if you gave Lin the same number of shots as Chris Paul that their charts would look very similar...He just doesn't have enough shots yet so there's obviously more shots on the right side.
Is anyone in sports, a bigger story then Jeremy Lin? The only guy that is as hot as him is Ndjokevic.
Maybe, but you can't argue with his production. If they keep giving him the right and he's ripping guys apart, why should he go to the left? I like to think NBA scouts are smart enough to figure out that he doesn't go to the left, so chances are Toronto tried to force him left, but it just didn't work. Sometimes things that look like glaring weaknesses are not always so, hell, Rondo can't hit a shot outside 10 feet but that hasn't stopped him from being one of the leagues top PGs.
I can draw a chart of where a gimpy Stoudamire loves to live. Want to guess where that chart would show?
Lin's distribution of shots is far, far down my list of concerns over the Knicks. What are they, you ask?
- Amare Stoudemire is not the same player offensively, and he's even worse defensively. He has no lift, and looks stiff as a board. Its unclear if all the added weight (muscle, to be fair) is impeding him, if its general deterioration, or if its his back. But this is not anywhere close to a max player right now, and its not a "system" or "fit" issue.
- Lin has bigger concerns than his predilection to go right--he'll wear down the way opponents are getting physical with him, especially at the minutes he's playing. Jose Calderon abused the guy last night. Thankfully, they had Shumpert to come in and lock him down, but that will be an issue moving forward against good 1's.
- Melo/Lin/STAT chemistry. If you need more information on this, I'm sure Skip Bayless is talking about it.
- Is Baron Davis ever playing? We could use him.
- Outside shooting from the backcourt. Lin is not a reliable spot up shooter yet, and neither are Fields or Shumpert.
Amare looked awesome against the Bulls before his brother was killed (34 and 11), although Boozer seems to bring out the player in everyone (Bosh woke up against him in the playoffs last year also). I feel better about Amare than I did a few weeks ago, I'm sure he didn't do much of anything basketball-related for a week, so let's give him a few games to get back into the flow.
I hope you're right. I'm going tonight--I can't remember the last time I was this jacked up for an in-person...anything, really.
Of course, with what Lin is doing to ticket prices, I might not eat for a week. But this thing is going to end, probably soon, and being at the Garden tonight will be worth the arm and leg if even just for the first quarter.
This needs more recognition.
Lin reminds me a little bit of Sam Cassell. Same sort of herky jerky offensive game that allows him to be effective despite less-than-ideal quickness and shooting ability. Uses his size well to get his shot off.
Obviously, Sam Cassell is an all-star and was a great player in the league for a long time; I'm in no way suggesting that Lin is or ever will be as good.
I am, however, suggesting that Lin immediately adopt Sam's celebration dance.
Interesting story about a guy in Oregon, who predicted three years ago that Lin could do something like this:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204880404577225562995441868.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204880404577225562995441868.html
I didn't get to see the game, but when the Knicks play Chandler, Jeffries, Walker/Novak, Schumpert, and Lin, they are a VERY good defensive team. Lin may not be a great on the ball defender, but he certainly has great anticipation, and I think he is averaging close to two steals a game.
The fact that Lin prefers to go right and almost exclusively dribbles with his right hand isn't news. People could see this from game 1. He's been attacking teams that overplay him by splitting the double team and heading down the middle of the lane.
BTW - interesting article on how to run the P'n'R - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/sports/ncaabasketball/coach-uses-lin-as-model-for-teaching-pick-and-roll.html
Yeah, was just going to post something similar from Bloomberg:
Knicks 'Linsanity' Has Stat Geeks Saying Told You So
Even though the points were down, this was one of his better games, save for a stretch late where he had 3 quick turnovers. This was the first time I saw him play the role of pure point guard and not look to score first, and the results were good. The scoring was spread out well; Landry led the team with 15, Novak and Walker had 14 a piece, and four other guys scored double figures.
On the turnovers: It's been pointed out a couple of times that he has more turnovers in his first 6 starts than any player since sometime in the 1977-78 season, and while that's obviously not a great thing, it's also a bit misleading. He's had the ball in his hands pretty much all game every game, so while the number of turnovers seems unusually high, his turnover rate is actually a very decent 17.73%. Here's how that stacks up against some of the best PGs in the league:
Kidd 31.64%
Nash 24.40%
Rubio 22.74%
Rondo 22.43%
Wall 19.80%
Lowry 19.28%
Lin 17.73%
Williams 17.70%
Westbrook 16.92%
Irving 16.87%
Conley 15.98%
Rose 12.74%
Paul 11.87%
Once Anthony comes back and he and Lin are splitting some possessions, and if Baron Davis ever plays minutes off the bench, Lin's raw turnover numbers will likely drop pretty significantly.
Random note: Fields had more rebounds than Chandler + Stoudemire combined last night. Don't see that often.
The Kings are an awful team, but Lin's game is very adaptive. He seems very capable offensively of making a big pass or taking a big shot, and he has the basketball IQ to know which one is necessary in each situation.
The Kings are an awful team, but Lin's game is very adaptive. He seems very capable offensively of making a big pass or taking a big shot, and he has the basketball IQ to know which one is necessary in each situation.
So went to the game last night and there's a couple thoughts:
D'Antoni is doing a good job protecting Lin. He's having a great deal of trouble when guarded by quick, aggressive point guards who can pressure the ball effectively, including Isaiah Thomas last night (who, by the way, was booed unmercifully every time he touched the ball--poor kid). As soon as D'Antoni saw this, he put Shumpert back in. It begs the question of what will happen when Lin faces the Rondos of the world.
The difference he makes with the offense on the court is stunning. Of course you can see the difference generally on TV. Its the little things you see in person--guys knowing what spots to be in, cutting, filling lanes with the expectation of getting the ball, body language.
Every time Lin touched the ball the Garden hummed with anticipation, as if everyone in the place just took a collective deep breath in order to let a yell out. And when he makes a play, the reaction borders on religious devotion. Its amazing.
There were, by my unofficial assessment, several times more Lin shirts and jerseys than anyone else including Carmelo. Batshit crazy.
Also, I sat next to four wise guys straight out of central casting--drinking jack and cokes the whole time, picking on the couple sitting in front of us, talking about rats. I couldn't understand how the one sitting directly next to me didn't know who Lin was. Turned out that he just got out of prison and coming to the game was part of his crew's way of celebrating his return. Fun times in the Garden.
D'Antoni is doing a good job protecting Lin. He's having a great deal of trouble when guarded by quick, aggressive point guards who can pressure the ball effectively, including Isaiah Thomas last night (who, by the way, was booed unmercifully every time he touched the ball--poor kid). As soon as D'Antoni saw this, he put Shumpert back in. It begs the question of what will happen when Lin faces the Rondos of the world.
The difference he makes with the offense on the court is stunning. Of course you can see the difference generally on TV. Its the little things you see in person--guys knowing what spots to be in, cutting, filling lanes with the expectation of getting the ball, body language.
Every time Lin touched the ball the Garden hummed with anticipation, as if everyone in the place just took a collective deep breath in order to let a yell out. And when he makes a play, the reaction borders on religious devotion. Its amazing.
There were, by my unofficial assessment, several times more Lin shirts and jerseys than anyone else including Carmelo. Batshit crazy.
Also, I sat next to four wise guys straight out of central casting--drinking jack and cokes the whole time, picking on the couple sitting in front of us, talking about rats. I couldn't understand how the one sitting directly next to me didn't know who Lin was. Turned out that he just got out of prison and coming to the game was part of his crew's way of celebrating his return. Fun times in the Garden.
So, in the wackiness of watching all these games I admit to trying to think of nicknames and variations of "lin" phrases.
How's this
Carmelo/Lin/Amare
Ca-li-mare
How's this
Carmelo/Lin/Amare
Ca-li-mare
Also, I'd just like to point out that the Knicks are playing the worst team in the NBA on Friday and the cheapest seat available on Stubhub is $160 dollars. Meanwhile, next Wednesday if anybody wants to go see possible future Net Dwight Howard play the Nets, tickets are available for $1.98. And if you're busy that night, you can check out the Clippers a week later for $6.00 or the Pacers in March for $0.02.
Now, I'm sure ticket prices will jump for the Nets when they move to Brooklyn, and that Howard will drive the price up if he ends up there too, but New York is definitely the Knicks' town.
Now, I'm sure ticket prices will jump for the Nets when they move to Brooklyn, and that Howard will drive the price up if he ends up there too, but New York is definitely the Knicks' town.
http://knickerblogger.net/finally-a-definitive-answer-on-jeremy-lins-contract-status/
