2014-15 Jeremy Lin Lakers Season Summary

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All Lin fans have breathed a sigh of relief that Jeremy Lin’s season with the Lakers came to an end with Jeremy being mostly healthy, with the exception of sore knee in the past 4-5 games.

Lakers Fans Deprived of Linsanity in LA Experience

(except for 6-7 Post ASB games)

It’s very unfortunate that Lakers fans cannot enjoy Linsanity in LA due to Byron Scott’s apathy to Pick-and-Roll system that Jeremy excels, especially with Lin-Davis undeniable chemistry. For many possible reasons (i.e. tanking system, personal dislike of Lin’s playing style, prioritizing Kobe role as SG/PG/SF, etc.), Jeremy Lin could not find home in LA. There was a brief period of Linsanity-like 6-7 games after the All-Star break where Jeremy was allowed to run Pick-And-Roll offense which looked quite unstopppable but Byron Scott asked Jeremy to shut it down. It’s a small evidence that Jeremy was the same talented PnR (but much skilled) player when Linsanity broke through in NYC in 2012. But Byron chose to say no to PnR and winning since Top 5 Draft Pick in 2015 was at stake and Lin’s winning ways in Kobe’s absence will reflect badly on Kobe’s retirement season in 2015-16.

Moving Forward In Search of New Home 

(as Dwight Howard recently did)

And Lin fans should not lose heart because Jeremy is not the only one who cannot call LA home. Dwight Howard, Shaquille O’Neal, Ramon Sessions showed the same pattern of Kobe Bryant unwillingness to share the spotlight in LA.  If it’s only 1-2 players, there might be other personal issues. But when they are multiple players having the same issues to co-exist with Bryant, it’s hard to deny Kobe Bryant’s staying power in LA. With his 5 rings, Lakers has chosen to swim or sink with Kobe until he retires.

As for Jeremy, he stated his desire to find a good team where he will FIT well in the free-agency. He didn’t close the door to return to LA but it’s unlikely that many things would chance to make Lakers a good fit for him next season.

2014-15 Jeremy Lin Season Performance

For now, we can recap his performance and growth in an underrated season and enjoy his season highlights

After the last game vs Kings when Lin didn’t play, Hill and Boozer leaped over Lin for most points so JLin is now #3. But Jeremy still leads the Lakers in Assists, Steals, and Free Throw TOTALS

Source: Basketball Reference, Lakers 14-15 Season

Compared to his previous seasons, Jeremy’s FG% dipped to 42.4% in Byron’s minimal PnR system but he reached career high in 3PT%.

His PPG dipped to 11.2 as his minutes dropped to 25.8 contrary to Mitch Kupchak promise in early season that he will play a lot of minutes.

Screen Shot 2015-04-17 at 2.31.16 PM

Source: SportingChart, Jeremy Lin

[Editor update: per Kwok]

JLin is ranked 18th among PGs by ESPN RPM @1.66 as on Apr 19.
http://espn.go.com/nba/statist…


JLIN is ranked 16th among PGs by WAR @4.75 as on Apr 19
http://espn.go.com/nba/statist…



He is also ranked 21st by ESPN ORPM; 20th by DRPM.
Every player above Lin has played more minutes per game than Jeremy.


Impressive!

WAR: The estimated number of team wins attributable to each player, based on RPM

RPM: Player’s estimated on-court impact on team performance, measured in net point differential per 100 offensive and 

defensive possessions. RPM takes into account teammates, opponents and additional factors


ORPM: Player’s estimated on-court impact on team offensive performance, measured in points scored per 100 offensive possessions


DRPM: Player’s estimated on-court impact on team defensive performance, measured in points allowed per 100 defensive possessions

2014-15 Jeremy Lin Video Highlights

Kudos to Christina Cheng who compiled these excellent JLin highlights:

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Please feel free to add more analysis so we can include it in this post.

 

By psalm234