Room to grow

Well, no not really, I mean, Jeremy Lin is still a really good player, but you had to wonder when those turnovers would catch up with him, and I guess they did on this last 89-85 defeat at the hands of an undermanned New Orleans Hornets squad. I mean, on paper they had everything going in, but still, that glaring turnover number in Lin's stat line was something that we needed to really pay attention to. I haven't had much opportunity to review all of Lin's play, but from what I did see, I can tell what his coach Mike D'Antoni is telling him is completely on the dot:

"But at the same time, I was telling (Lin) he’s trying to make the hardest pass out there; he’s trying to make the home run pass."

Not that the home run pass isn't sweet, but let's face it, Jeremy Lin is no Steve Nash, well, optimistically speaking, not yet. I still stand by my comparison of Lin's game to veteran (and highly underrated) PG Tony Parker, who, while playing in a completely different system, plays a style of basketball very similar to our newly discovered Harvard phenom.

The natural answer to Lin's issues is that he needs to calm down, as great as those little highlight reel passes are, he's not going to get those Steve Nash contortion passes, those Penny Hardaway no-look behind the back, or even those Jason Williams street-ball-where-did-that-come-from fancy pants passes every single time. From the footage I was able to review, Lin's biggest problem more specifically from trying to hit those home run passes, is that he's trying to pass through the defense. I recall listening to Deron Williams during the 2004 Beijing Olympics training talking about Jason Kidd, he said the main reason Kidd had all these great passes wasn't because he saw lanes that weren't there, Williams saw all the same lanes, but Kidd was willing to risk those lanes, Nash is of a similar vein, but the difference is, that they were such mercurial passers that they can get away with it a lot of the time, granted Nash averaged at his worst 4.2 turnovers per 36 minutes and Kidd, 3.9, that's still a lot of turnovers. Lin on the other hand is now up to 5.4 turnovers per 36 minutes, that's a new level of not good. I completely understand that D'Antoni runs a high PG usage offense and that Lin is young and getting used to playing at the NBA level, but I also recall turnovers being an issue since Harvard for Lin, he's just finally had enough minutes in the NBA to have it start showing. I mean, 5 turnovers in a single game is already pretty bad, but to be averaging more than 5 across the season (granted he's only played really like 8 games), we've got an issue.

I'm no basketball guru, I don't play or understand the game incredibly well, and I'm not going to claim to be able to fix Lin's issues. I think one of the reasons though, that Lin is having this issue is partially because of his emphasis on keeping a live dribble. When you dribble the ball you have to keep it low, however, to come up for the pass, the straight line is through the defenders, where all those arms are swinging and legs are kicking, Lin may see an opening, but you've got to have that quarterback bullet pass in order sneak it in through there, and frankly, NBA players are just too good and react too fast in order for anything short of perfection to slip through. At the end of the day, here's my advice to Lin, stick with the easy passes, run your pick and roll, you've got to be okay with the hockey assist. If I were to take D'Antoni's spot, the last play I would run, would be a basic pick and roll with Amar'e and Lin, then have J.R. Smith and Steve Novak sitting in the corner and wing respectively for the three if it needs to be kicked out. The pick and roll doesn't have to be flashy, it just has to score two points, I know Knicks fans are asking for a show, but at the end of the day, your job is to win basketball games, and I'm sure they'll forgive you the couple of highlights lost for the W. If I were to ask Lin to model his game after someone, it'd definitely now be Tony Parker. He's not going to get the rack as fast, but he's definitely attacking as aggressively, so keep it up.

Finally, I'd say that Lin needs to play over the defense, sometimes, he doesn't need to keep the ball on the floor. Yes, I know, a live dribble, awesome, but that being said, the Knicks are an athletic team, play over the defense. Lin's greatest assists have always been when he has been keeping his passes high over the defenders' heads. I'm not asking for an alley oop every single time, but sometimes you have to trust your teammates to get to the ball, you don't always have to put it into their hands directly. Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady made a lot of their facilitating success looking over the defense, now I know Lin is only 6-3 to Carter's 6-6 and McGrady's 6-8 but still, you need to keep looking up. I'm sure as much as the team is adjusting to playing with Lin, Lin is adjusting to play with the team as well. I'm still very optimistic about Lin's career, he just needs to calm down, and play some sound basketball. If you see the bounce pass, go for it, your bigs are going to roll a lot harder to the rim because they know you can get them the ball, so don't be afraid to throw a lob, trust your guys to get to where they need to be, you don't have to be Steve Nash, and remember, as good as Nash made Amar'e, Amar'e made Nash look good by being ready for the pass and finishing, so keep your head up, both on and off the court.

Depth, not chemistry to be the issue with the Knicks

A lot of people have been asking whether or not Jeremy Lin can sustain his stellar performance or if it will be dampened by the return of the Knicks' two stars, Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, to the lineup, because, let's face it, they use up possessions, quite a few of them, and each possession used up is one less possession for Lin to excel. While this may not be great for Jeremy Lin fantasy owners, the fact of the matter is, that Lin's emergence is a boon not necessarily in spite of Melo and STAT but rather, because of them.

First off, I've already said at my other blog, Fundamentally Sound that to me, Jeremy Lin's game most reminds me of Tony Parker. Now in this situation, you may be better suited with a pass first type guard such as Rajon Rondo or Ricky Rubio, however, I believe that Lin, like Tony Parker, will surprise us all in his ability to man the point. While Lin may not be the pass-first, high percentage shooter that Steve Nash was, D'Antoni has to be excited that Lin can see the floor and recognize the options given him. Sure, he's turnover prone, he's trying to make the fancy passes, but I think, as he learns the angles given him, he'll settle down, and hopefully get his turnovers down to a reasonable rate.

Lin's ability to run the pick-and-roll, as well as just involve his teammates make him the ideal floor general for the team. Amar'e Stoudemire got a lot of attention from his physicality and overall game, but his success came mostly from the pick-and-roll game he had with Steve Nash. This season, it was a struggle to get Amar'e involved in the offense because of how it stagnated without someone to facilitate the ball movement around the floor on the offensive end. With Lin getting the likes of even an offensive dud like Jared Jeffries involved, we can see that an Lin-Amar'e pick-and-roll combination will only bring good things to the Knicks in the future. Simply put, Amar'e will start looking like the Amar'e we expected, because he can expect those passes and those looks that he wasn't getting before.

On the flip side, we have to wonder about Melo, sure the ball gets stuck in his hands a lot, but quite frankly sometimes you need a player like that. Regardless of what people say about Melo and whether he deserves his contract or not, the fact of the matter is that he can put the ball in the bucket. Melo is probably one of the best, if not the best, pure scorers in the league. I would argue that with Lin manning the point guard position, Melo can focus on doing what he does best, scoring, rather than trying to do something he's not comfortable doing, facilitating. While Melo may be the most popular and well-paid (though it's arguable now with all the Linsanity stuff), and he may ultimately be the face of the franchise (again, caveat with the Linsanity), he's not really the natural leader of the group. I believe that, at least on the floor, deference to Lin will be a good thing for him, because Lin will try to energize the rest of the guys (i.e. Imam Shumpert and Landry Fields) to get into it. Melo is one of those high efficiency scorers when he's on, remember, he averaged about 26 points per game playing NEXT to Allen Iverson, who averaged I think 23 (I'm too lazy to look it up), helping a relatively successful Nuggets make the playoffs. With Lin getting all the other role players involved, I think this situation is much better than that.

The main "chemistry" issue I sense is the possibility of discontentment from Baron Davis when (if) he gets back. However, I don't find that to be a major issue, because, provided he's healthy, figuring out how to split time between Jeremy Lin and a healthy and motivated Baron Davis is a luxurious problem I'm sure Mike D'Antoni wouldn't mind having. What does concern me though is the frontcourt rotation. While Stoudemire and Chandler look to eat up most of the time on the floor, I don't know that Novak and Jeffries necessarily are going to take them the distance. I like how they are getting involved, and Novak really to me has taken the sort of Matt Bonner of the Eastern Conference kind of role. That being said, I still think the Knicks need to figure out a way to add some size. I don't know who would be a good center for the Knicks, maybe it involves cutting Mike Bibby, maybe it involves trading Toney Douglas, I don't know, but I think that, way more so than any chemistry issues on the court with Melo, STAT, and Lin should be the primary concern of the Knicks.