BY ERIC NGUYEN – FAN FUEL BLOGGER
In 2011, the sports world was graced with the new sports sensation that was Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos.. In 2012, it seems as if the sports world has a new favourite storyline: New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin.
An undrafted Harvard graduate, Lin bounced around a few NBA teams before getting a chance to start with the Knicks after numerous injuries. But while he’s led them to a 8-2 record since February 4, don’t be fooled: he’s not as good as people perceive him to be. Here’s why:
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1. Poor overall shooting ability
Fans around the world have fallen in love with Lin after he carried the Knicks to multiple victories en route to setting a record for the most points by any starter in their first four career starts. While he’s put up a lot of points this season, he’s unable to score efficiently.
Lin has a tendency to make some poor in-game decisions. While his two-point shooting is quite accurate, he takes too many three-point attempts despite his poor conversion rate (34.3 per cent). Add that to his 74.2 per cent free-throw conversion rate and you’ve got a player that has one strong attribute masking some other obvious flaws in his game.
2. Big minutes equals inflated stats
Simply put, Lin’s ability to post up a good number of points almost every game is correlated with the amount of minutes he’s playing. He’s averaging roughly 38 minutes as a “starter” (if you count his first game against the Nets as a start).
To put that number into perspective, he’s playing almost one more minute than Rose did in his 2010-11 MVP season with far less efficiency. He also plays two and three minutes more each game than Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook respectively. His numbers are simply inflated to the amount of playing time he receives, yet he fails to produce at an elite-level.
3. Turnovers
Jeremy Lin’s biggest flaw can be summed up in one word: turnovers. Despite the fact that he finds way to carry the Knicks to win after win, the other NBA teams are going to smarten up and learn to expose Lin’s weakness. Lin already plays big minutes, yet fails to produce numbers comparable to the NBA’s elite point guards.
On top of that, he turns over the ball at an alarming rate. Westbrook is regarded as perhaps the most turnover-prone PG and he averages about four turnovers per game. Lin is averaging 5.6 turnovers as a starter. This just shows that Lin will likely not be able to keep up his above-average production.
I believe that Lin will not keep his production rate up, and with Carmelo Anthony’s return, Lin is just going to get less minutes and opportunities. Many others will disagree though. What do you think?
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