Jeremy is playing in the all star weekend rising stars (formerly rookie sophomore) game tonight after the Heat taught him a hard lesson last night. For the first time in his young NBA career, Jeremy did not rise to the challenge and was overwhelmed by the moment against the Heat. Nonetheless, during his inspirational ascent, Jeremy proved he belongs in the NBA. Jeremy has now competed against the NBA's best, knows his level, and can begin building his career in earnest.
How productively Jeremy and his teammates and coaches use the the next week and a half will make a big difference in the direction they take for the second half of the season. Due to a quirk in the Knicks schedule, starting with all star weekend, the Knicks will be off until the Cavs at home on Wednesday Feb 29 and then will be off again until a tough sequence of games beginning with the Celtics in Boston on Sunday March 4. After their all star weekend rest, the team should have five days around the Cavs game to digest everything they'e learned since Jeremy's rise and practice together - basically, put everything in order for the stretch run.
I wonder if now is the first time Jeremy has had to deal with the best basketball coaches and players targeting, planning for, and attacking him. He didn't seem ready for the Nets and Heat's game-planning and aggression that specifically targeted him. The narrative of Jeremy's high school, college, and NBDL careers is that he played in leagues below his talent level and was the best player on his team. Jeremy seems to get bored and careless when the competition is weak - I saw Jeremy get bored playing at Columbia when he did just enough for his Harvard team to win. He played bored against the Kings and Hawks, too. Before the NBA, Jeremy always dominated within his own league and was able to surprise the top players (eg, 2010 summer league and John Wall, UConn and Kemba Walker). In other words, he could coast in most games, punctuated by getting up for big opponents. Jeremy didn't regularly compete on even terms with his true basketball peers and when he faced them, he was always the aggressor. Now that he can't catch them by surprise anymore, the top players are expecting his talent and attacking him for the first time in his basketball life. How will Jeremy adjust? Not learning how to regularly compete with his peers on even terms is a consequence of coming out of the weaker Ivy League rather than a PAC-10 school like Stanford, Berkeley or UCLA. Jeremy now has to learn to compete nightly with his basketball peers at the highest level.
Jeremy dominated the ball and controlled his teams in high school, college, and the NBDL. During the winning streak when Anthony and Stoudamire were out, Jeremy dominated the ball, was aggressive as a scorer, and controlled the Knicks. Now Jeremy has to defer with all the Knicks stars back in the rotation. Can Jeremy, for the first time in his career, adjust his game to be equally or more productive while being less dominant with the ball and with less control?
I believe Jeremy is really a SG/PG combo guard. He reminds me a lot of SG/PG Jeff Hornacek, a well-regarded, smart, versatile "third" guard on the Suns who didn't succeed as the starting PG for the Sixers. Hornacek eventually flourished as the starting SG and part-time PG with the excellent Stockton-to-Malone 90s Jazz teams. In a 2010 interview, Lin compared his game to Goran Dragic, another SG/PG combo guard.
I'd like to see Lin play some minutes at SG with Baron Davis handling the point. I think playing off the ball would unleash Lin's true NBA position. I believe the best role for Jeremy Lin is playing off the ball and making plays from the wing, with limited minutes running the offense at PG. Though he's impressed with his court vision and floor game, Lin seems most comfortable and effective attacking and scoring. Jeremy played more as a lead guard than point guard in college, and what has become more and more apparent (or reinforced) during the last 11 games is that Jeremy Lin isn't a pure point guard. He's a smart, versatile combo guard with enough PG skills to run the point against bad defenses or back up the PG in limited minutes against good defenses. However, Jeremy's passing and ball-handling abilities simply aren't up to running the point full-time.
My advice to D'Antoni: give Jeremy time at SG with Baron at the point, get Lin moving off the ball and attacking, and let's see what happens. I'd also like to see more Anthony at the 4 in Shawn Marion's Suns role and less of Stoudamire and Chandler clogging up the same space in the paint, which means either more minutes for Stoudamire at the 5 or less playing time for Stoudamire in order to free up Chandler at the 5.
With the drubbing at the hands of the Heat, Chapter 1 in the rise of Jeremy Lin is complete. He's proven he belongs in the NBA and evaluated himself against the best. The rest of the NBA knows him, his strengths and weaknesses. After the all-star break, Jeremy can begin his NBA education and discover who he is as a career basketball professional.
On the media coverage, the expected pushback to the extended "Linsanity" hype is underway. After the build up, then the tear down, resentments, mocking, and controversies. It's how the media generates business. A lot of good articles about the Asian American aspect have been written. Good watchdogging on the racist responses. It's noticeable, however, that some media are more comfortable talking about Jeremy as an international (foreign) Asian phenomenon rather than an Asian American phenomenon.
Add: Ed Weiland of hoopsanalyst.com explains his precisely argued pre-draft prediction of NBA success for Jeremy Lin in 2010.
Eric
Friday, 24 February 2012
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Mock trial
In the fall, I was on the runner-up team in my school's mock trial competition and just competed in the regional round of the TYLA National Trial Competition. My team finished in the middle of the pack in the preliminaries largely due to the superior trial skill of my partner, though I held my own. I feel confident now I can do trial work. Whether I'll be good as a trial attorney is a different matter. Since I won't be going to Texas, the end of the competition means I get my weekends back.
Eric
Eric
Monday, 13 February 2012
Jeremy Lin named Eastern Conference player of the week
It's official - Jeremy Lin is Eastern Conference player of the week for games played Monday, Feb 6 (so his breakthrough game off the bench against the Nets on Feb 4 isn't included), through Sunday, Feb 12.
The week couldn't have played out more perfectly for Lin. On Feb 4, the Knicks were dead in the water, rapidly losing sight of the play-offs, and being blown out by a bad team, the Nets. The rumor was Mike D'Antoni, who had no viable PG for his PG-centered system, was on the verge of being fired. Desperate, he sent Lin into the game off the end of the bench, and Lin single-handedly won the game while dazzling against all-star PG Deron Williams. D'Antoni then tried Lin as the starting PG against the Jazz, a good team unlike the Nets, and Lin did it again even though Stoudemire missed the game due to his brother's death and Anthony strained his groin early in the game. In his 2nd game as a starter, Lin matched up against John Wall, the PG drafted 1st over-all in the 2010 draft where Lin was undrafted. Besides running D'Antoni's offense impeccably against a very poor Wizards defense, Lin served notice to the NBA with a beautiful fake and cross-over that made John Wall jump to the side, concluded by an emphatic 'What's my name?' dunk.
Without the need to defer to his 2 superstar teammates last week, Lin was able to take ownership of the Knicks PG position, carry his team to 5 straight wins, make his teammates better, and become a team leader. After Kobe Bryant had dismissed him the night before, with skeptics predicting the end of Lin's run, Lin outdueled Bryant to lead the Knicks to victory over the Lakers on national TV. Finally, against Ricky Rubio and the Timberwolves, Lin showed off his steel by driving to the basket at the end of the game and absorbing a hard foul to score the game winning point, despite a poor 2nd half of the game. With the 5 wins, the Knicks are in 8th place and back in the play-off picture in the East. After the defensive grittiness and offensive style Lin established for the team last week, Stoudemire and Anthony will now be expected to adjust to Lin's Knicks when they return. That wouldn't have happened if they had been in the line-up last week. Stoudemire replacing Jared Jefferies and Anthony replacing Bill Walker in the starting line-up should be upgrades, and I believe Anthony and Stoudemire will adjust to playing with Lin.
The media is still buzzing about Lin's Roy-Hobbesian week, but it looks like the "Linsanity" hype is peaking - the memes are repeating ad nauseum at this point. Hopefully, the media attention will settle down soon so Lin can focus on his job, make adjustments, improve his game, and build himself a career. Lin has weaknesses to work on. There's a fine line between reckless and fearless. He dribbles into defenders at times and gets the ball stripped or tied up. At other times, he seems to lose sight of defenders behind him who either knock the ball away or jump his pass. Lin is a score-first point guard, and besides his shaky jump-shot, he gets into trouble at times with tunnel vision on his aggressive drives to the basket. At times, Lin has forced passes or shots in the crowded paint when a teammate on the perimeter must be open. His remarks about the Timberwolves defending the gray areas indicates his court vision has blind spots, and opponents may be diagnosing patterns in how he passes. Lin's legitimate excuse for shooting so much has been the absence of Anthony and Stoudemire. Now with their return, despite the worry over Anthony and Stoudemire adjusting to Lin's point guard play, a concern is that Lin will continue to call his own number first and become criticized for missing Anthony and Stoudemire when they're open in the half court. Hopefully, the need to feed the Knicks' 2 superstars will help Lin focus on orchestrating his teammates first and then scoring as needed, a balance that made Steve Nash a superstar.
Last week, Lin outplayed Deron Williams, Devin Harris and Earl Watson, John Wall, Derek Fisher and Steve Blake, and Ricky Rubio. Who will Lin face in his 2nd week as the starting PG of the Knicks?
On Tuesday, Feb 14, against the Raptors, Amare Stoudemire will be back on the floor after a week grieving his brother's death. Lin will match up against crafty Spanish PG Jose Calderon and lightning fast Leandro Barbosa.
On Wednesday, Feb 15, against the Kings, Lin will have 2 challenges: maintaining his lift and energy on the 2nd game of a back-to-back and a rematch with 2011 60th pick Isaiah Thomas, who embarrassed Lin during garbage-time in their 1st meeting.
On Friday, February 17, against the Hornets, Lin faces 6'6 Greivis Vasquez.
On Sunday, February 19, against the champion Mavericks, Lin takes on the venerable Jason Kidd.
Eric
The week couldn't have played out more perfectly for Lin. On Feb 4, the Knicks were dead in the water, rapidly losing sight of the play-offs, and being blown out by a bad team, the Nets. The rumor was Mike D'Antoni, who had no viable PG for his PG-centered system, was on the verge of being fired. Desperate, he sent Lin into the game off the end of the bench, and Lin single-handedly won the game while dazzling against all-star PG Deron Williams. D'Antoni then tried Lin as the starting PG against the Jazz, a good team unlike the Nets, and Lin did it again even though Stoudemire missed the game due to his brother's death and Anthony strained his groin early in the game. In his 2nd game as a starter, Lin matched up against John Wall, the PG drafted 1st over-all in the 2010 draft where Lin was undrafted. Besides running D'Antoni's offense impeccably against a very poor Wizards defense, Lin served notice to the NBA with a beautiful fake and cross-over that made John Wall jump to the side, concluded by an emphatic 'What's my name?' dunk.
Without the need to defer to his 2 superstar teammates last week, Lin was able to take ownership of the Knicks PG position, carry his team to 5 straight wins, make his teammates better, and become a team leader. After Kobe Bryant had dismissed him the night before, with skeptics predicting the end of Lin's run, Lin outdueled Bryant to lead the Knicks to victory over the Lakers on national TV. Finally, against Ricky Rubio and the Timberwolves, Lin showed off his steel by driving to the basket at the end of the game and absorbing a hard foul to score the game winning point, despite a poor 2nd half of the game. With the 5 wins, the Knicks are in 8th place and back in the play-off picture in the East. After the defensive grittiness and offensive style Lin established for the team last week, Stoudemire and Anthony will now be expected to adjust to Lin's Knicks when they return. That wouldn't have happened if they had been in the line-up last week. Stoudemire replacing Jared Jefferies and Anthony replacing Bill Walker in the starting line-up should be upgrades, and I believe Anthony and Stoudemire will adjust to playing with Lin.
The media is still buzzing about Lin's Roy-Hobbesian week, but it looks like the "Linsanity" hype is peaking - the memes are repeating ad nauseum at this point. Hopefully, the media attention will settle down soon so Lin can focus on his job, make adjustments, improve his game, and build himself a career. Lin has weaknesses to work on. There's a fine line between reckless and fearless. He dribbles into defenders at times and gets the ball stripped or tied up. At other times, he seems to lose sight of defenders behind him who either knock the ball away or jump his pass. Lin is a score-first point guard, and besides his shaky jump-shot, he gets into trouble at times with tunnel vision on his aggressive drives to the basket. At times, Lin has forced passes or shots in the crowded paint when a teammate on the perimeter must be open. His remarks about the Timberwolves defending the gray areas indicates his court vision has blind spots, and opponents may be diagnosing patterns in how he passes. Lin's legitimate excuse for shooting so much has been the absence of Anthony and Stoudemire. Now with their return, despite the worry over Anthony and Stoudemire adjusting to Lin's point guard play, a concern is that Lin will continue to call his own number first and become criticized for missing Anthony and Stoudemire when they're open in the half court. Hopefully, the need to feed the Knicks' 2 superstars will help Lin focus on orchestrating his teammates first and then scoring as needed, a balance that made Steve Nash a superstar.
Last week, Lin outplayed Deron Williams, Devin Harris and Earl Watson, John Wall, Derek Fisher and Steve Blake, and Ricky Rubio. Who will Lin face in his 2nd week as the starting PG of the Knicks?
On Tuesday, Feb 14, against the Raptors, Amare Stoudemire will be back on the floor after a week grieving his brother's death. Lin will match up against crafty Spanish PG Jose Calderon and lightning fast Leandro Barbosa.
On Wednesday, Feb 15, against the Kings, Lin will have 2 challenges: maintaining his lift and energy on the 2nd game of a back-to-back and a rematch with 2011 60th pick Isaiah Thomas, who embarrassed Lin during garbage-time in their 1st meeting.
On Friday, February 17, against the Hornets, Lin faces 6'6 Greivis Vasquez.
On Sunday, February 19, against the champion Mavericks, Lin takes on the venerable Jason Kidd.
Eric
Saturday, 11 February 2012
WWJD means What Would Jeremy Do?
Can I say a young man over ten years my junior has become my hero? Jeremy Lin's victories these last 4 games as the Knicks point guard have pulled tears of bursting pride from my eyes. His game against the Lakers last night was inspiring. Fellow Taiwanese American men are weighing in with the same ethnic-national pride in Lin's ascendancy. See Bryan Chu's, Danny Chau's, and Wong Chow Mein's posts.
The runner-up title to this post: The Jeremy Lin Experience.
Thoughts:
Jeremy Lin was born in 1988 in the Year of the Dragon.
Is there enough time for Lin to play his way onto Team USA?
Lin is clutch. He always seems gassed by the middle of the fourth quarter, then closes out games with impeccable clutch play. The Knicks should give the ball to Anthony to close out games only when Lin is being trapped.
Lin rises to the moment with indomitable competitiveness. At the start of the Lakers game, you could see in his eyes the laser focus and iron determination to beat the Lakers in a game his skeptics were predicting his unmasking as a fluke. He started out draining jumpers and building a double-digit lead for the Knicks. When the Lakers played him physically and ran size at him, Lin responded by raising his level of play. He carried the undermanned Knicks to victory over an elite opponent on national TV.
Where between Harvard and the D-League did Lin develop such a complete and sophisticated game? Lin plays like a veteran, has all the tools, and marshals them with Jason Kidd type floor sense. He's constantly moving to the right spot on the floor in every situation ahead of the gameplay, whether he's positioning himself so a rebounder can make an easier outlet pass or beating an opposing ball handler to a spot on defense.
Lin plays with a very American sense of toughness, flair, style, and swagger.
Next up: Ricky Rubio and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
When I am anxious and unsure of myself, I will ask myself, WWJD? Jeremy is fearless. If he can attack and win on his terms, maybe I can, too.
Lin and we, his fans, are riding a high right now, but realistically, he won't keep playing at what would be an all-time Hall of Fame pace. He's accomplished the first step of carving out an NBA career by showing enough flashes to prove he can be a NBA rotation player. Over the past week, Lin has shown off brilliant ability. But as teams continue to adjust to him, especially as he is the key to the Knicks winning right now, I expect his performance level will drop off until he finds his long-term level. I expect the next test will be whether Lin can bring the ball up and run the Knicks half-court offense while athletic aggressive guards press him all over the court. I predict he will settle into 15 PPG, 4 RPG, 7 APG, 1.5 SPG.
Eric
The runner-up title to this post: The Jeremy Lin Experience.
Thoughts:
Jeremy Lin was born in 1988 in the Year of the Dragon.
Is there enough time for Lin to play his way onto Team USA?
Lin is clutch. He always seems gassed by the middle of the fourth quarter, then closes out games with impeccable clutch play. The Knicks should give the ball to Anthony to close out games only when Lin is being trapped.
Lin rises to the moment with indomitable competitiveness. At the start of the Lakers game, you could see in his eyes the laser focus and iron determination to beat the Lakers in a game his skeptics were predicting his unmasking as a fluke. He started out draining jumpers and building a double-digit lead for the Knicks. When the Lakers played him physically and ran size at him, Lin responded by raising his level of play. He carried the undermanned Knicks to victory over an elite opponent on national TV.
Where between Harvard and the D-League did Lin develop such a complete and sophisticated game? Lin plays like a veteran, has all the tools, and marshals them with Jason Kidd type floor sense. He's constantly moving to the right spot on the floor in every situation ahead of the gameplay, whether he's positioning himself so a rebounder can make an easier outlet pass or beating an opposing ball handler to a spot on defense.
Lin plays with a very American sense of toughness, flair, style, and swagger.
Next up: Ricky Rubio and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
When I am anxious and unsure of myself, I will ask myself, WWJD? Jeremy is fearless. If he can attack and win on his terms, maybe I can, too.
Lin and we, his fans, are riding a high right now, but realistically, he won't keep playing at what would be an all-time Hall of Fame pace. He's accomplished the first step of carving out an NBA career by showing enough flashes to prove he can be a NBA rotation player. Over the past week, Lin has shown off brilliant ability. But as teams continue to adjust to him, especially as he is the key to the Knicks winning right now, I expect his performance level will drop off until he finds his long-term level. I expect the next test will be whether Lin can bring the ball up and run the Knicks half-court offense while athletic aggressive guards press him all over the court. I predict he will settle into 15 PPG, 4 RPG, 7 APG, 1.5 SPG.
Eric
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Jeremy Lin is a credit to his race
Through the lens of modern political correctness, saying someone is "a credit to his race" is viewed as patronizing praise bestowed on minority athletes and other minority American strivers, a remnant of the polarized social-cultural racial politics of the early-mid 20th century era. I say without reservation, though, that Jeremy Lin is doing us Taiwanese Americans proud in a similar way that sports icons like Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson made black Americans proud in the last century. While we take some pride in successful Chinese and Taiwanese athletes like Yao Ming and Wang Chien-Ming, it's not the same with them. They weren't born and raised Americans like us, like Jeremy Lin. He's one of us, a representative of our Taiwanese American tribe.
Lin's first game as a starter, a win against the Jazz last night, was an electrifying follow-up to his breakthrough performance against the Nets. He played a high-energy 44 minutes and looked exhausted much of the game, yet like his 1st game, Lin finished strong when his team needed him to close the game. The Jazz adjusted their defense on Lin in the 2nd half, which resulted in 8 turnovers. We'll see how Lin counteradjusts as team defenses and NBA point guards key in on him. Lin is the difference right now for the Knicks. Not only the Knicks' team offense but the team defense has improved with Lin at the point.
Stoudemire will miss an unknown number of games due to the death of his big brother in Florida and Anthony will be out 1-2 weeks with a strained groin. Lin will be tested as the starting point guard to lead the Knicks without their 2 main stars as opposing teams make him their focus. If Lin succeeds, he'll emerge as a true team leader.
Next up are the Wizards and John Wall on Wednesday.
Props to this long-time Jeremy Lin fan site.
Eric
Lin's first game as a starter, a win against the Jazz last night, was an electrifying follow-up to his breakthrough performance against the Nets. He played a high-energy 44 minutes and looked exhausted much of the game, yet like his 1st game, Lin finished strong when his team needed him to close the game. The Jazz adjusted their defense on Lin in the 2nd half, which resulted in 8 turnovers. We'll see how Lin counteradjusts as team defenses and NBA point guards key in on him. Lin is the difference right now for the Knicks. Not only the Knicks' team offense but the team defense has improved with Lin at the point.
Stoudemire will miss an unknown number of games due to the death of his big brother in Florida and Anthony will be out 1-2 weeks with a strained groin. Lin will be tested as the starting point guard to lead the Knicks without their 2 main stars as opposing teams make him their focus. If Lin succeeds, he'll emerge as a true team leader.
Next up are the Wizards and John Wall on Wednesday.
Props to this long-time Jeremy Lin fan site.
Eric
Saturday, 4 February 2012
Jeremy Lin breakthrough NBA game
Jeremy Lin led the Knicks tonight to a hard-fought win over the NJ Nets in MSG. The fans were chanting his name. Most impressive were Lin's hustle, lockdown defense against all-star point guard Deron Williams, and his strong point guard floor game. I thought Lin's point guard abilities were akin to Delonte West's combo guard game, yet he played like a lesser version of Rajon Rondo with an equally shaky jump shot but more willingness to score. (Before his rookie season with the Warriors, Lin compared his game to Goran Dragic's game with the Suns. ) Lin's line tonight against the Nets: 36 MIN, 10-19 FGM-A, 0-4 3PM-A, 5-7 FTM-A, 1 OREB, 4 DREB, 5 REB, 7 AST, 2 STL, 0 BLK, 1 TO, 3 PF, +13 +/-, 25 PTS.
It all came together for Lin tonight. The Knicks were exhausted and deflated in its 3rd game in 3 nights, so the bench was going to get run. It was a must win for team morale and possibly the head coach's job. Mike D'Antoni was desperate for a point guard to run his point guard dependent system, and all the other candidates (Douglas, Bibby, Shumpert, Anthony at point forward) on the roster had failed, with Davis still in street clothes. The Nets are a bad team with poor defense, which allowed Lin to penetrate and finish, with an all-star point guard to measure Lin against. Lin schooled Williams on both ends of the court.
Lin may well have been auditioning tonight to stay a Knick for the rest of the season. Lin was signed on Dec 27 to a non-guaranteed contract, and non-guaranteed contracts become guaranteed next week, on Feb 10. Bench warmers on non-guaranteed contracts are usually released before the contract guarantee date.
It remains to be seen whether Lin can expand on tonight's success. Williams played off Lin tonight, unlike the game that made me doubt Lin could last in the NBA, where rookie Kings guard Isaiah Thomas smothered him.
Tonight, I'm a proud Taiwanese American. Lin surprised people in high school and college. Maybe he can succeed in the NBA, too. I'm looking forward to seeing what Lin does against the Jazz on Monday. The Jazz are a good team, unlike the Nets.
Eric
It all came together for Lin tonight. The Knicks were exhausted and deflated in its 3rd game in 3 nights, so the bench was going to get run. It was a must win for team morale and possibly the head coach's job. Mike D'Antoni was desperate for a point guard to run his point guard dependent system, and all the other candidates (Douglas, Bibby, Shumpert, Anthony at point forward) on the roster had failed, with Davis still in street clothes. The Nets are a bad team with poor defense, which allowed Lin to penetrate and finish, with an all-star point guard to measure Lin against. Lin schooled Williams on both ends of the court.
Lin may well have been auditioning tonight to stay a Knick for the rest of the season. Lin was signed on Dec 27 to a non-guaranteed contract, and non-guaranteed contracts become guaranteed next week, on Feb 10. Bench warmers on non-guaranteed contracts are usually released before the contract guarantee date.
It remains to be seen whether Lin can expand on tonight's success. Williams played off Lin tonight, unlike the game that made me doubt Lin could last in the NBA, where rookie Kings guard Isaiah Thomas smothered him.
Tonight, I'm a proud Taiwanese American. Lin surprised people in high school and college. Maybe he can succeed in the NBA, too. I'm looking forward to seeing what Lin does against the Jazz on Monday. The Jazz are a good team, unlike the Nets.
Eric
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