Watching this guy nightly for the Lakers this year and... he is terrible! What the hell happened for a dozen games in New York? No wonder the Rockets were willing to trade a pick to get rid of him.

It's just rewards for Kobe, a talented player but first class jerk.

concordtom;842417917 said:

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It's just rewards for Kobe, a talented player but first class jerk.

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Kobe being a talented player? I would place him top 15 ever to play game. As far as Lakers, yes, they are not a good team this year.. and as many BI members are fans of GSW, we are well too aware of what a "not very good team" looks like in the NBA. (as well as what a very good looking team looks like such as the 2014/15 GSW team)

Lin and Linsanity was not him personally, he was just trying to play game to the best of his abilities when his name was called in NY. His stats so far this year, 11.8 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 5.1 apg , 44% from floor, 30 mpg look ok to me... and certainly not terrible.

Jeremy is good when he is the focal point of the offense. When he went nuts with the knicks - Amare and Melo were hurt. He is a super poor mans version of James Harden, is a scoring guard more than a point guard that gets better as he takes more shots. Why things did not work out for him at Houston and will not in LA. What is lost during his knicks run was that he was averaging close to 8 turnovers a game.

Why ....Cause I think this is one of the funniest things in the past decade.....

1. He was never quite as good as he looked during that "Linsanity" period. Teams adjusted to him.

2. He's still a decent player, but since that time he hasn't been playing in a system that really highlights his skills. Lin works best when he is the primary ball-handler and he can slash, penetrate, and make the decision to shoot or dish. He likes to run-and-gun. The last several years, though, he's been stuck next to ball-hog volume-scorer teammates who demand the ball all the time (Carmelo, James Harden, Kobe), so he's just a spectator on too many possessions. He doesn't play great D and he's not a spot-up shooter, so what else is he going to do in that system?

Funny thing is that he'd probably do well on the Warriors right now, as they are a team that shares the ball and keeps the offense in a flow. The teams he's been on play stagnant half-court sets; that's not Lin's game.

I think the Linsanity run created some unreal expectations for him. In many ways, it's been as much of a curse as a blessing for him. He's a decent enough player in the right system--not the plodding, "give Kobe the ball and get the F out of the way" one that the Lakers currently employ.

Now Lin got benched. On the Lakers. Which have very little talent.

Putting Lin on a team with a massive ballhog and a slow half-court system is pretty much like throwing Peyton Manning into an option offense.

He'd probably kill it on the Warriors on the second unit that lacks a slasher/scorer outside of Iggy.

dimitrig;842420184 said:

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Now Lin got benched. On the Lakers. Which have very little talent.

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Lin's not playing well but he's still averaging 11 and 5. It's more of an indictment on Shaw.

Lin's problem is not his shooting so much as his really, really crappy defense and poor ball handling.

dimitrig;842420313 said:

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Lin's problem is not his shooting so much as his really, really crappy defense and poor ball handling.

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Why single out Lin when the entire team is playing equally bad defense?

I think everybody is demoralized having to play with Kobe. I'm a lifelong Lakers fan, and I supported Kobe over Shaq when it all went down, and I still feel good about that, but at this point in his career, there's no way to field a competitive team when one player is taking up almost 40% of the salary cap. And this is for an aging superstar w/ a high usage rate. He's shooting below 40% for the year, and his defense sucks.... yet he yells at his teammates for missing shots and playing bad defense. Worst of all, is that he makes his teammates worse. I can't think of a free agent that actually played better once they got to the Lakers: Malone, Payton, Howard, Nash, Lin, Jodie Meeks, the list goes on and on. The only one who did was Pau Gasol. Even a hall of fame point guard like Steve Nash (when healthy) couldn't play w/ Kobe. I remember after the trade, Kobe said he was excited "to run routes" and leave the ball handling up to Nash. When they actually got to play together, they said it wasn't working, and they essentially turned Nash into the shooting guard. That pretty much tells you all you need to know.

If you need more, there's this:

http://ballislife.com/kobe-shoots-a-40-foot-airball-misses-16-shots-in-34-point-loss-vs-mavs/

rathokan;842420424 said:

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I think everybody is demoralized having to play with Kobe. I'm a lifelong Lakers fan, and I supported Kobe over Shaq when it all went down, and I still feel good about that, but at this point in his career, there's no way to field a competitive team when one player is taking up almost 40% of the salary cap. And this is for an aging superstar w/ a high usage rate. He's shooting below 40% for the year, and his defense sucks.... yet he yells at his teammates for missing shots and playing bad defense. Worst of all, is that he makes his teammates worse. I can't think of a free agent that actually played better once they got to the Lakers: Malone, Payton, Howard, Nash, Lin, Jodie Meeks, the list goes on and on. The only one who did was Pau Gasol. Even a hall of fame point guard like Steve Nash (when healthy) couldn't play w/ Kobe. I remember after the trade, Kobe said he was excited "to run routes" and leave the ball handling up to Nash. When they actually got to play together, they said it wasn't working, and they essentially turned Nash into the shooting guard. That pretty much tells you all you need to know.

If you need more, there's this:

http://ballislife.com/kobe-shoots-a-40-foot-airball-misses-16-shots-in-34-point-loss-vs-mavs/

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Kobe has the whole organization and coaching staff by the nuts... and I just can't wait for him to retire and go away. There's nothing we can do until that contract is up.

concernedparent;842420383 said:

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Why single out Lin when the entire team is playing equally bad defense?

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That's not true. Ed Davis is playing decent defense.