Jeremy Lin News: Why the NBA Playoffs Will Indicate Whether Lin's Improvement is For Real or Fluke
- Jean-Paul Salamanca
- Mar 23, 2014 09:36 AM EDT
Up and down. Hot and Cold. In and Out. No, those aren't just lyrics from Katy Perry's hit song. Those words also sum up NBA fan favorite Jeremy Lin's performance over the last few months.
Well, to be frank, the last few seasons, but that's not the main subject at hand here.
By now, Lin's struggles since coming over to the Houston Rockets following the short-lived "Linsanity" era in New York have been well-documented. Despite coming over with a lot of hoopla and high expectations, the Harvard grad point guard floundered in his first season with the Rockets. There's no getting around it; Lin's first year in Houston simply wasn't good.
But to his credit, Lin - who still managed to finish a close second to superstar Chris Paul in the NBA All-Star fan voting that season, a testament to his incredible popularity - learned from his mistakes, working on his shooting mechanics and ball handling over the offseason. As a result of his dedication to improving his game, Lin's marksmanship from the field improved, starting out the season shooting roughly 50 percent from the field.
Despite that improvement, Lin has started to drift down the path of inconsistency once again over the last several weeks and months. Few numbers can sum up Lin's season in a microcosm better than his last five games. In that span, Lin's averaged 12.6 points, 5.2 assists on 53.5 percent shooting from the field and 33.3 percent accuracy from the three-point line-stats right on par with the season he's been having.
He gets hot and scores 21 points off 7-for-13 shooting against Chicago on March 13. Then he cools off against the Miami Heat with only 6 points on 2-of-7 shooting on March 16. Then he picks it up again with 17 points off solid 7-for-10 shooting against Utah one night later, only to deflate with 11 points versus Minnesota on March 20. With an up-and-down statistical average like that, it's a fair thing to say that Lin hasn't been the most stable of the Rockets.
To be fair, though, Lin has also had a bit of an uphill battle thanks to fluctuating minutes, injuries and inconsistent shots each night, particularly during the second half of the season. With such factors in the way, it's no wonder why the Asian American NBA star has had such a hard time finding steady footing. However, Lin will have to find a way, as the ultimate crucible of skill and mettle in professional basketball, the NBA Playoffs, approaches in little more than a month.
The postseason has not been particularly kind to Lin. During 2012, the year that birthed "Linsanity," Lin's season ended prematurely thanks to a torn meniscus that kept him out of the New York Knicks' five-game series loss to the eventual world champion Miami. And in 2013, a chest contusion, thanks to a hard elbow from OKC guard Thabo Sefalosha, short-circuited Lin's first-ever postseason bid, with Lin shooting a poor 25.0 percent from the field, averaging only 4.0 points and 2.0 assists in only 21.0 minutes in the Rockets-Thunder 2012-2013 Western Conference playoff series.
If there is ever a time for Lin to prove his worth, especially considering the constant trade rumors that have surrounded him this season, it would be the playoffs. The Rockets should easily capture either the fourth or third seed, with the highly-talented Houston roster now mounting a serious challenge to the San Antonio Spurs' dominance in the Southwest division. They will be heavy favorites in the first round against either the fifth or sixth seed, barring a late season collapse that sends Houston sliding back down in the standings. That means that the Rockets will have plenty of games to show how much they've grown up as they compete for the NBA title.
And that means that Lin will have plenty of chances to prove just how much he has improved.
It will require skill, and Lin has improved over the course of his time in Houston,both on his shooting form and playing off the ball. It will require guts, which as he has shown by playing through painful back and leg injuries in the past. It will require luck and faith in his abilities on the part of Rockets coach Kevin McHale, who has not established much trust in Lin throughout the plucky point guard's time in Houston. And most of all, it will require staying healthy, a luxury that Lin has not been afforded over the last two seasons.
If Lin can stay healthy and aggressive during the playoffs, if he can kick it up a notch on defense so as to give the Rockets more defensive options in the backcourt rather than just Patrick Beverley, and if he makes the most of whatever minutes he is afforded, Lin can do much more than just make noise in the playoffs; he could make an impact. Of course, if he fails, it will be another damning indictment of Lin's skills, which means his time in Houston will almost certainly be drawing to a close, and it could hurt his chances of landing a lucrative contract after his deal expires in 2015. Either way, the 2014 NBA playoffs this spring will be Jeremy Lin's greatest test.
