How are the Nets faring without Lin?
As well as Sean Kilpatrick and Isaiah Whitehead have played with Jeremy Lin on the sidelines, the Nets are still a better team with Lin playing. There are subtle differences with and without the point guard, but on the whole, Lin gives this team its best shot at winning games.
Winning games is something many thought was not going to come easy for the Nets this year. While Brooklyn has fought hard in every game it’s played this year, not many people would’ve expected them to have four wins 11 games into the season. If Atkinson can keep finding the right combinations to eat up the void Lin has left, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that this team could be in the hunt to surrender a back-end lottery pick to the Boston Celtics.
And with the Celtics struggling so far this season, it would be amazing if when the draft rolls around, it was Boston that sought to deny the pick swap rights attached to the two teams’ selections in the 2017 NBA Draft.
Next: McCullough Improving in Both NBA and D-League
Below you’ll find some numbers that caught my eye when looking at Lin’s On/Off statistics on both offense and defense.
Defense: Lin On/Off
- Lin on: DRtg 104.6. 47.1 FG%, 36.6 3FG%
- Lin off: DRtg 105.7. 44.4 FG%, 35.4 3FG%
Offense: Lin On/Off
- Lin on: team-low 30 3PA, team-high, 110.4 points, 53.6% of FG assisted, plus .7
- Lin off: 36.1 3PA, 105 points, 54.4% of FG assisted, minus 6.3