Jeremy Lin’s roster spot on the Houston Rockets is not in jeopardy. However, his spot on the depth chart may be in question after last season.
As the Rockets headed deeper into their first series loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Lin was losing playing time at the point guard position to Patrick Beverly.
Lin is a much better offensive player than Beverly. However, as seen in last year’s playoffs, if Lin isn’t performing on the offensive end he will forfeit minutes to Beverly’s more superior defense.
Therefore, the addition of Dwight Howard could be one of the best things to happen in Lin’s career.
"He really likes to play pick-and-roll and I really like to play pick-and-roll, so I hope we can work really well together and really happily learn how to play with each other,'' Lin said according to the Associated Press while in China to help run a basketball camp.
The pick-and-roll is largely how Lin made a name for himself when “Linsanity” began during his season with the New York Knicks. With coach Mike D’Antoni at the helm during “Linsanity”, the Harvard-product thrived in the coach's high-paced offense that featured a lot of pick-and-roll plays with center Tyson Chandler and, at times, power forward Amare Stoudemire.
If he is able to successfully run it with a huge—and more skilled—target such as Dwight Howard, Lin may average more than the 13 points and six assists from last season.
As for his future with the Rockets Lin said, “Right now I know there's always speculation about what might happen, but I haven't made any decisions I haven't thought about it and I'm going to approach that question when the time comes.”
