Los Angeles Lakers: No Kobe Bryant, No More Excuses for Jeremy Lin
By Daniel Tran
The Los Angeles Lakers are without Kobe Bryant for the foreseeable future due to a torn rotator cuff. Jeremy Lin has an opportunity to prove his doubters wrong again.
No more excuses for Jeremy Lin. No more, “he plays with ball hogs” or “the coach is not utilizing him correctly”. It is time for Lin to prove that he can be a starter for the Los Angeles Lakers.
After coming down from a dunk attempt, Kobe Bryant tore his right rotator cuff and still finished the game playing almost completely left handed. He will not (or at least should not) be asked to do that for the rest of the season and will most likely be sitting for an extended period of time or miss the remainder of the season entirely.
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His potentially lengthy departure from the team is another cog added to the Lakers rolling tank job and should ensure the team is in great position to finish that the bottom of the league. However, his injury also means that there are plenty of opportunities for the Lakers’ young players to prove their worth in the NBA. Jeremy Lin is one of those players.
With Bryant likely out of the picture for a while, Lin now has an open lane put his imprint on the team without the dictator-like leadership of Bryant looming over the Lakers. If there ever were a chance for Lin to prove that he is a starting caliber player, this would be it.
At the beginning of the season, Bryant was in Y.O.L.O. mode when it came to his shot selection, so Lin’s numbers can be forgiven due to his lack of quality touches in that span of time. Lin was then relegated to the bench when he was ineffective after head coach Byron Scott took the ball out of his hands.
Much like when he was a starter, Lin’s production from the bench fluctuated like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940: there would be games where he would put up good numbers and then games where he would just be nonexistent. Lin managed to improve slightly going against opposing bench units, earning a plus/minus rating of +1.2, which is a huge upgrade from his -15.0 plus/minus rating when he is a starter, and improving his per 36-minute stats across the board (14.1 points/3.3 rebounds/6.1 assists as a starter; 15.7/4.4/6.8 on the bench).
With Ronnie Price missing games due to injury, Lin was thrust into the starting role again. In the two games Lin started without Bryant in the lineup due to rest, Lin averaged 8.0 points on 36.8 percent shooting, 6.5 assists, and 2.5 steals. These are numbers where Lin did not have Bryant to prevent him from being aggressive and yet he still could not find a way to score at an efficient rate.
If Lin wants to prove that he can be a focal point of an NBA team or even a contributing member of a starting lineup, he will need to improve upon those numbers on a Laker team that is starving for playmaking. Aside from Nick Young, who has fallen into a slump of epic proportions, Lin is the only playmaker on the Lakers that has shown that he can create his own shot. And with the season virtually lost, it is Lin’s time to show what he can do. No more excuses.