Analysis
Lin and Yang: Why Choose One Point Guard When You Can Have Two?
As fans debate over who should start at point guard — Jeremy Lin or Patrick Beverley — Jeff says the Rockets will be fine with a heavy dose of both.
A lot is being made over the fact that Jeremy Lin leads all NBA point guards in true shooting percentage through the first handful of games this season. Conversely, Patrick Beverley, the named starter, has had a rough go of it so far, fighting through a rib injury and some poor shooting. As those who spend any time at all on message boards like the one here at ClutchFans can attest, those who like Lin are more than a tad miffed.
Way back before some of our younger fans even knew what basketball was (or were born, God help me, I’m old), the Rockets suffered through a similar point guard controversy, if our current conundrum even reaches the level necessary to be called such. In the early ’90s, Kenny Smith — known to most as “The Jet” on TNT’s gold standard hoops pregame show — was entrenched as the starter for the Rockets. He was a stellar outside shooter though his defense left something to be desired.
Late in the 1993 draft, the Rockets took a talented if undisciplined young guard named Sam Cassell. For most of his rookie year, he sat on the bench, the third point guard behind Smith and Scott Brooks (yes, the coach of the Thunder, youngster). By playoff time, Cassell was pushing Smith for minutes as the team went on to back-to-back titles.
During those two seasons, there were plenty of discussions among fans as to who should start. Whenever Smith went through a slump, the younger, more charismatic (if alien-like) Cassell’s name was mentioned in sports columns and on sports talk radio shows as the guy who should be starting. Cassell and Smith managed to co-exist right up until Cassell was dealt as part of a package of players to Phoenix in exchange for Smith’s now broadcast partner Charles Barkley.
Fast forward to this season and a similar quandary faces Rockets fans. Beverley is a talented defender, a terribly important skill in a conference that features Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Ricky Rubio, Tony Parker and others at the position. Lin is a creative offensive talent with an improved jump shot. Both are playing significant minutes so far this season, often on the floor at the same time.
As Paul McCartney said in response to his own statement about how some people like to fill the world with silly love songs, I say, “What’s wrong with that?”
Increasingly in the NFL, teams are utilizing two running backs. Granted, in football, wear and tear is a not insignificant factor with running backs beaten up on nearly every carry. But, just as important is the need to provide a change of pace for your offense and keep the defense guessing. In Lin and Beverley, the Rockets have unique players who actually complement one another. Sure, it would be great to have one guy with Beverley’s defensive prowess and Lin’s ability to get to the basket, but failing that, why not utilize both guys in the roles that best suit them?
While the early season “Twin Towers” experiment may have been mostly a failure, the “Twin Minis” lineup has not. Beverley and Lin play well off one another and seem to have good chemistry in those smaller lineups.
In fact, the Rockets have fewer turnovers and a better plus-minus number with lineups featuring Lin and Beverley than they do with those that don’t. Like the Howard-Asik pairing, it won’t work all the time. Matching up against bigger guards is a problem, but for fairly long stretches, they have proved they can certainly hold their own.
Plus, nothing is wrong with competition. These are young players who are battling one another every day in practice. That cannot possibly be a bad thing.
More importantly, neither seem concerned with their roles as players. They recognize what each does well and they appreciate it. This is exactly how team chemistry is supposed to work. Assuming the Rockets can continue to get production out of both players and use them to their strengths, and if Beverley and Lin are comfortable with it, there isn’t any reason to think this cannot continue as is for the foreseeable future.
The Rockets managed to win a pair of titles with a point guard “controversy.” I’m guessing this year’s version will manage, too.
Analysis
Rockets are throwing an awesome House Party, but how long will it last?
Danuel House has all the love from Houston right now, but will he stay here beyond this season?
Analysis
Conspiracy Theories Be Damned – Just Enjoy The Game
With national media railing on Dwight Howard and local Rockets fans speculating on the locker room and Jeremy Lin, Jeff says let’s relax and watch this team grow
Despite problems showing on both ends of the floor, the Rockets are 4-2 with potential for more
I’m not a big fan of hyperbole in much of anything, least of all sports. Overly simplified explanations for problems or successes are almost always inaccurate when it comes to the intricacies of performance and they almost always create expectations that are unfair of both the performer and the fan.
For the Rockets fan, the diehard who reads ClutchFans and watches every game with great intensity, this generates a kind of duality that is difficult to resolve. In this case it is the macro versus the micro, and both are a problem.
The Macro
The macro is epitomized by current sports culture as driven by highlight reels. Before ESPN, fans, writers and others only had their personal observations from watching games, box scores and reports from other broadcasters/journalists on which to base their assertions about a player or team. For the most part, they stuck with what they saw, fearing that if they went only by a box score or, for journalists, stories they didn’t write, they might sound like an idiot — at least for those who cared about sounding intelligent.
Today, with highlights splattered across networks and the Internet, and every news outlet, blog and gossip column digging for the tiniest morsel of dirt, everyone is an expert, except they aren’t.
I respect the opinions of some national commentators, but for the most part their narratives are based out of little more than some highlights and a handful of observations. Take LeBron James. For years, he was killed by the national media for not being a winner. He gave up the ball too often in the waning moments — because being unselfish is akin to being soft — and he couldn’t lead. Put him on a loaded Heat team and he wins a title. Now, he’s obviously a winner.
Nevermind the fact that his numbers across the board didn’t change from his time in Cleveland. Nevermind that he still deferred at times in critical situations. Now, he’s one of the true greats because he “learned how to win.” Or maybe he just learned that he needed other winners around him to win. Of course, even that “decision” was met with stultifying scrutiny until he got his ring.
In similar fashion, the collective jaw drop by national media members at Dwight Howard choosing Houston over LA would be comical if it didn’t fit neatly into their narrative about Howard the player. Like LeBron’s exit from Cleveland, Howard was met with derision because he dared to leave the vaunted Lakers. At least with James, the argument was over HOW he exited rather than why. For Howard, the discussion becomes his fear and insecurity when, in truth, he picked a better team if not a more glamorous city. No one argues his game must improve, but the myth that a player must have Kobe-like intensity to win a championship is nonsense. Unfortunately, it is one of the primary driving forces behind the public’s perception of Howard as a player.
The Micro
On the other end of the spectrum is the dissection of every tiny detail, the micro. I don’t mean intelligent analysis from brilliant minds of the game or even the study of quantitative metrics. For me, the micro is more about scrutiny based on the tiniest detail, the best example which is what I call “camera face.” This is the moment when a person is caught on camera for a few seconds or even a single frame and how fans and pundits extrapolate from there. One smile in the wrong moment — during a bad loss, for example. One glare. One mouthed curse word. That’s all it takes for a player or coach to be judged as soft or mean or uninterested or dispassionate or whatever other negative terms might be applied.
Instead of a rational dialogue about the entirety of a player’s game, we get a wealth of conspiracy theories and conjecture. It is understandable that the average fan would not have the time to study film and take the time to gain insight into how the game is played. It is also reasonable to believe that most people will never have the level of expertise necessary to work in sports. It’s why I cut even seasoned writers slack because, despite devoting a large amount of their lives to the game, much of what they do is report on what they see, not study every nuance and become experts on the motion offense or individual player tendencies.
Yet, there is a great desire it would seem by fans and casual observers to apply a sort of Occam’s Razor approach to sports analysis. If there is a rumor of players bickering in the locker room, the entire team is in turmoil and that two-second shot during the game is proof. It is the same overreaction that causes people to want to bench players after a single game or fire coaches in midseason for a losing streak.
But that kind of fandom is as old as sport itself (people just watched in person before the cameras were beaming hi-def signals into our homes). A newer phenomena is how this information is disseminated and legitimized by the Internet. Just as the web fuels the fires of the ridiculous (conspiracy theories) and the untoward (sex scandals), a single rumor started on a message board can go from outlandish to implausible to possible to a legitimate theory with little or no actual fact to back it up. It’s analysis paralysis spread into the realm of legitimate thought and it can be infuriating.
Years ago, a friend of mine who worked in sports media told me that we will never know what really goes on behind closed doors, in locker rooms, in meeting rooms, in training rooms. That inner sanctum is guarded like Google’s search algorithm or the codes to missile silos. It is sacred to players and coaches because of the privacy it affords them both from gawking fans and the prying eyes of the media. Still, we speculate.
Solving the Conundrum
Unfortunately, the whole thing frustrates the hell out of me, not just because the behavior of both ends of the spectrum is annoyingly pervasive, but also because I don’t have the answers either. Maybe Howard is too jovial. Maybe there are rifts between players that are only spoken of in hushed tones behind closed doors. Maybe winning and losing is simple or maybe it is ridiculously complicated. I don’t know.
But, I do know that, despite a really disturbing loss to the Lakers Thursday night, the Rockets are 4-2 and a mess on the floor. That indicates to me they have the talent to beat most teams they should (even Miami lost to Philadelphia already) and will struggle to figure out how to win against good teams, at least for now. They are better than we think and worse than we think too. Truly, we don’t know who they are at this point. It’s too early in the season.
If 30 games from now, the defense still looks out of sync and the offense is stagnant, well, I’ll consider the possibility that Howard hates our point guards or that he smiles too much. Maybe I’ll lend some credence to the critics and bend an ear to the conspiracy theorists. For now at least, I’m just going to enjoy watching some basketball.
Analysis
Rockets can not trade their 2011 draft pick
There have been several columns and reports, most recently one by ESPN Insider, that mention the Rockets potentially including their 2011 first round draft choice in a trade.
Analysis
The Unsung Hero: Chuck Hayes shuts down Amar’e Stoudemire
It was pointed out by mario713 of our Rockets forum that Chuck Hayes was the player of the game Sunday against the Knicks, but the highlight reel didn’t reflect that at all.
Chuck Hayes filled his role to perfection Sunday night against the Knicks
It was pointed out by mario713 of our Rockets forum that Chuck Hayes was the player of the game Sunday against the Knicks, but the highlight reel didn’t reflect that at all.
Very good point. We mentally make note of the smooth offensive plays or flashy defensive plays, but solid, hard-nosed defense — the kind Chuck Hayes brings — goes largely unrewarded by the fans and ignored by the replays.
Not this time.
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Analysis
You Spin Me Right Round, Baby: Why Poor Defensive Rotations are Killing the Rockets
We’ve all been spoiled. During the Rudy Tomjanovich era, the Rockets didn’t have the best athletes or even the best one-on-one defenders (a certain center excepted), but they played lock down defense. When Jeff Van Gundy manned the ship, the team had an odd mix of players, none of whom were particularly big (another center excepted) or overly athletic, yet they were consistently one of the best defensive teams in the NBA.
Even Flo Rida plays defense.
We’ve all been spoiled. During the Rudy Tomjanovich era, the Rockets didn’t have the best athletes or even the best one-on-one defenders (a certain center excepted), but they played lock down defense. When Jeff Van Gundy manned the ship, the team had an odd mix of players, none of whom were particularly big (another center excepted) or overly athletic, yet they were consistently one of the best defensive teams in the NBA.
Now that Rick Adelman is in charge, we have better athletes and more size than we’ve had in some time, yet our defense is abysmal. Why is that?
Playing defense in the NBA is about more than one-on-one defense, especially in the post-hand-check era. To be a good defensive team, you have to know how to rotate to the correct spot on the floor and close out on the shooter – in essence, to help out on the guy that is open even if he isn’t your man. It’s been a while since we have witnessed a Houston Rockets team so poor at both.