To me, what's worse than bad calls by decision makers is constantly second-guessing oneself. Responsibility comes with power. Glory and accountability often come hand in hand.
Before a person calls a shot, he/she should put in sufficient time and research, to fairly judge all the pros and cons, evaluate the situation carefully, exam all viable options, and prepare adequate plan and/or exit strategy for risk mitigation. But once he/she makes the decision, he/she should follow through, even being stubborn to certain extend, as long as the hurdles are within expected range.
In real life, there are rarely absolutely right or wrong decision, and you can reach your goal in different ways. However, you will stuck in the road, if you keep changing directions.
I did not agree with the decision starting Bev over Lin, although I can understand the on-ball defending and fitting Harden arguments. As I said before, there is no way Bev is a better player than Lin is. With last year’s games and this year’s performance, of course Lin is starting worthy, not to mention in direct comparison to Bev. Lin has been playing very consistently and very efficiently, coming off the bench, in this season. His production, impact, and minutes have surpassed the starting PG in Bev, and better than a lot of starting PGs in other teams.
The nail-biter against Toronto has once again proven that Lin and Harden CAN co-exist on court (of course they can), and it also showed once again that Lin can be a natural scorer, especially with his improved shooting form. Now, is that reason enough to put him back into the starting lineup, and return him this much deserved honor? I think the answer is obviously a sounding yes. However, if I had the call, I probably wouldn’t want to do that yet.
PB went out with injury after his 10 minutes of starting, and the season is still very young. The Twin-tower idea sounds rotting to begin with - none of the two can shoot free-throws, not to mention any threat 8 feet out of the basket, how could they stretch the floor? They can only clog the paint to stop drives from Harden and Lin. Although I wouldn’t mind McHale running with that for another 10-15 games, to determine that as absolute failure, it’s probably evidential enough to stop right now. Lin as 6th man, OTOH, the argument could be given that he’s flourishing in the role right now, and/or PB hasn’t been regained form, and more importantly H-H haven’t meshed enough yet.
As well as Lin is playing right now, I am sure he will have a few bad games as the season progresses, just like everyone else. I don’t want naysayers come out with all kind of hindsight, how PB wasn’t 100% and how Lin was inconsistent, whether we should have Lin come off bench again etc. Personally, I want to see Lin coming off the bench for another 20 games, to see if PB starting is a net negative.
We all know Lin can start for sure, and now we have learned that Lin can be very effective and dangerous coming off the bench as well. If he’s closing games, as this point, I am kind of OK with him not starting. I only want him to be inserted back to the starting 5, after it’s proven that the team absolutely needs him to start in place of PB. No more “experiment” or “2 starting PG” garbage.
I really want Lin to win the 6th MOY award this year, and it seems that’s probably the easiest award to win in NBA. Once he wins that, his market value will go up a lot, and shut down lots of ignorant doubts.
What say you?
