Much has been made by the Jeremy Lin faithful of Lin’s misuse in Houston last season. Switching between starter and reserve and playing as the shooting guard instead of point guard led to a season that admittedly was not his best effort.
However, despite last year’s inconsistencies, Lin is still open to the possibility of seeing minutes off-the-ball as a shooting guard this season.
Jeremy Lin on playing off the ball: "I like it a lot. I don't always like it. But I think they're always a time for it and a balance."
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) October 8, 2014
J. Lin continued: "I don't think I would ever want to just be a two, but for stints during a game I'm definitely comfortable doing it."
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) October 8, 2014
82games.com does a great job of diagramming how many minutes a player spends on each position, breaking it down as “the percentage of the team’s total minutes the player was at that position.” Essentially, it tells you what percentage a player played each position for each team.
Last year, Lin spent 27% of the Rockets minutes at shooting guard and 52% as point guard. Comparatively, in 2012-13, he spent just 2% of the team’s minutes at the two-guard and 64% of the minutes as point guard. Traced back to 2011-12, he spent just 1% of the Knicks minutes as shooting guard and 35% as point guard.
Lin saw too much time as shooting guard last year, that’s a fact. However, given his shooting ability, Lin can also be effective off-the-ball too. It’s great to see that he’s comfortable playing in that position, which will inevitably lead to more minutes on the court. Finding the perfect balance to keep him effective, though, will be Byron Scott‘s challenge.