Although Lin is almost an afterthought in an offense that is now built for James Harden, the amount of attention he gets from the media is still aplenty, and that was again the case heading into Friday’s game against the Knicks.
Unfortunately, most of the attention he gets these days is in a negative light.
Case in point, Chris Sheridan shared his thoughts on why the loss of Lin was “good riddance” for the Knicks, and Moke Hamilton explained why he believes Lin was fool’s gold for New York. You’ll find plenty more in the bulletin as well.
Truth be told, “Linsanity” isn’t going to reappear anytime soon. Not with the ball out of his hands most of the time, and not with a coach (at least in the interim) that trusts Toney Douglas more than his starting point guard in crunch time.
One thing to keep in mind is the fact that in addition to adjusting to a new style of play, Lin had also been dealing with a slow recovery process from the arthroscopic knee surgery that ended his campaign last season. His ability to finish at the rim – which was a big part of what made him successful last season – has not been there this season, which is a contributing factor to his poor field goal percentage – he is shooting just 34.8 percent, down from the 44.6 percent from last season.
The good news is that he has recently said the knee is at its strongest point since the surgery, which should help him perform at a higher level down the line. At the very least, it will slow down all the critics that have jumped all over his poor start to the young season.
Onto other relevant stories from Friday:
Brandon Roy is dangerously close to having to get knee replacement, but made his comeback in an attempt to find himself, according to Jason Quick of The Oregonian: “He explains that he has degenerative arthritis, which erodes and eventually eliminates cartilage, with the same precision and ease that came to define his run of three consecutive All-Star appearances. And with the calm that made him one of the game’s best finishers, he explains that his knees have reached Level III arthritis. There are only four stages. “Level IV,” Roy says fearlessly, “is when you get a knee replacement.” So why do this? He doesn’t need the money. He doesn’t want the attention. He doesn’t need the validation. Why risk his long-term health? Why endure the pain? Why? Two reasons, Roy says. When he walked away from the Blazers and the NBA, he felt it wasn’t on his terms. And as a result he lost himself. This comeback, then, is not about rediscovering glory, or proving doubters wrong. He is searching for himself. Searching for peace.”
Kevin Ding of The Orange County Register explains why it’s so important to have players buy into a system: “Kobe Bryant put all three coaches in context recently by saying there is one broad commonality between D’Antoni and Jackson (and, by implication, not Brown): Bryant said both D’Antoni and Jackson are skilled in their ways of “not micro-managing the team.” Brown believed just as strongly in his basic defensive blueprint as D’Antoni does in his offensive one, but Brown’s overall confidence in what he knew just didn’t translate into trust in him from his players. D’Antoni might sound like a slick salesman at times, but you know that he totally believes in his product. It’s just the latest demonstration of how the most important thing about coaching a professional sports team is being able to inspire.”