When the Houston Rockets tip off the season Wednesday night, Patrick Beverley will be out on the court as the starting point guard.
Jeremy Lin will be in his warm-ups on the bench, waiting for his name to be called by coach Kevin McHale — Lin will be the sixth man for the Rockets, at least to start the season.
And he is good with that, he told CSNHouston.com.“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” Lin said.
“You just have to look at the game as a whole,” he said. “How many minutes do you end up playing and what do you do when you’re on the floor. To me, it’s not that big of a deal being in the second unit, being able to attack and have that freedom and to be able to be freelancing a little bit. I think it will be fun.”As I noted yesterday, I like this move for the Rockets — it’s not about how much money Lin makes, it’s about fit. With the starters, you want the ball in James Harden’s hands and Lin takes some possessions away from him. Plus Beverley is a better defender and a better spot up shooter, both skill sets that fit better with the Rockets’ starters.
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Lin comes in as a spark plug, asked to score and attack — to do what he does best off the pick-and-roll. He can run it with Dwight Howard, Omer Asik or others, and really provide a boost. This is a great use of his skill set; the question is if he would accept it. He seems down with it (and with his personality didn’t we expect that).
By the way, Beverley is good with starting. Very big of him. But he handled it graciously.