Liberty Ballers

Apparently it is a moral and quasi-legal requirement for every sports blog to dedicate an article to all things Linsanity... so I figured why not compare Lin's incredibly small sample size but huge usage rate to our own resident Boss of Philly. If eligible, Lin would have the 5th highest usage rate in the NBA- right between Mellow and DWade, so who better to compare him to on the Sixers than the Boss who uses more than any man in Philly?

More importantly, I wanted a post where people can go on the record with their projections for Lin so that we can look back and praise (mock) them for their prescience. So I am simply going to present the numbers an you all can share your wisdom and eye for the future where the Knicks are suddenly relevant and Lingit contenders ...

It's hard not to be drawn in by the fairy tale. The guy has finally proven he can overcome life's slings and arrows- or more specifically overcome getting a perfect score on the math SAT's and then compounding his woes by attaining a diploma from Harvard. Few have suffered such deprivation to go on and make something of themselves, let alone in NY, where people with Harvard degrees do not stray far from Wall Street. But you all know the story. And honestly, I believe Linsanity to be at least 50% New York, 25% human interest and maybe 25% basketball (and that might be stretching it.) But you can't argue the guy had a good first week at work- but can he out-Boss the Boss?

I'm simply going to present the numbers- inadequate as they are, and leave it to you all to use as a starting off point. Remember, these comments are for history sake. We will return to them in a month, a year and a generation when you grandkids question you about these heady early days.

Data from basketball-reference.com and hoopdata.com:

Data: Lou....Lin

Age 25.... 23

tape 6'2" 175..... 6'3" 200

Per 36minutes

pts 22.3 ..... 23.8

asst 5.2 ..... 8.4

TO 1.4 ..... 4.8

A:TO 3.6 ..... 1.84

reb 3.0 ..... 4.1

FGA 17.8 ..... 16.9

FTA 6.7 ..... 8.9

3PA 5.2 ..... 2.5

Stl 1.0 ..... 1.7

Shooting/scoring

FG% 41.6 ..... 48.9

3pt% 38.9 ..... 25.0

16-23ft 38%(3.4) ..... 63%(1.4)

Rim 55%(2.3) ..... 63%(3.5)

FT% 80.6 ..... 75.0

eFG% 47.3 ..... 50.7

TS% 53.6 ..... 57.2

Advanced

PER 22.6 ..... 24.6

Usage 29.4% ..... 31.8%

Asst% 24.8% ..... 48.0%

TO% 6.5% ..... 18.8%

ORtg 113 ..... 108

DRtg 100 ..... 101

WS/48 .219 ..... .190

adj +/- -6.1 ..... +17.0 (how their team plays when the player is on the floor vs on the bench)

Raw +/- +127(747m) ..... +75(291m)

So round 1 is in the books. Lin wins on most technical points but Lou takes some of the key big numbers (ORtg DRtg and WS/48.) Clearly Lin has a hugely positive impact on his team... Lou not so much. So I declare round one goes to Linsanity... but Melo is about to enter the ring.

PS- let me know if there is another stat you want or an explanation of what the heck all this means (probably a whole lot less than you think :).

Poll

Who will be the better pro, Lou or Lin?

64%

Lou Williams (Boss)

29 votes

35%

Jeremy Lin (Linsanity)

16 votes

45 votes | Poll has closed