Jeremy Lin, Rockets Stats: Comparing Lin’s 15 Games as a Rocket vs. Knicks; Can They Rebound from Recent Struggles?

For Jeremy Lin, this has been a November to remember, but for all the wrong reasons.

To say that Lin's first month as the newest Houston Rocket has been a rough one can be seen as something of an understatement. When the Houston Rockets signed the little known point guard who became an overnight star during the heights of "Linsanity" last season, Rockets brass likely expected that they were going to be getting that version of Lin.

That Lin, young, strong and athletic with a relentless desire to attack the basket and thrived on the pick-and-roll, scored 22.5 points in 12 starts before the All-Star break, and 24.6 points in his first 10 games as an everyday player.

And that Lin, with an unusually sophisticated--for a novice pro--way of seeing the floor and spotting the open man, was dishing out 9.2 assists in New York at his height, drawing the praise of high-profile teammates like Amar'e Stoudemire, who flourished again while Lin was finding him in the paint.

While the whole world was talking about Jeremy the Knick, Jeremy the Rocket has had less than favorable statistics, at least compared against the player he was in New York. Through the first 15 games of the season, during which the Rockets have found themselves at a respectable, but losing 7-8 win-loss record to rank third in their division, Lin has struggled.

Lin is currently shooting a career-low .377 percent from the field, his points per game average dipping to 10.3 points--which is 4.3 below the 14.6 points he scored for New York in 35 games last season.

It appears that Lin is focusing more on being a playmaker rather than a scorer, if the numbers tell the tale correctly. In his first 15 games as a starter in Houston, Lin has attempted only 154 shots. When he started under Mike D'Antoni in New York, he had nearly 100 more shots than that, shooting 242 times in his first 15 starts. Comparatively, Lin is averaging 6.5 assists this season, which is higher than his 6.2 assists that he finished out with in New York for the season. However, this season's assists total for Lin is still much lower than the 8.6 assists he dished out in his first 15 starts as a Knick.

Top it off, he is not limiting his turnover numbers, giving the ball back to opposing teams at least 2.93 times a game--a major no-no for a starting point guard. 

While he had a solid game against the Knicks last week, scoring 13 points and three assists in the Rockets' 131-103 drubbing of one of the best teams in the league this season, his overall play has analysts expecting the worst.

"Jeremy Lin isn't who we thought he was," writes Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports. "More accurately, he wasn't who we wanted him to be. We wanted him to be Superman, this unlikely Taiwanese-American hero from the Ivy League who wasn't offered scholarships by any Division I schools, wasn't drafted by any NBA teams, then was released by the Warriors and Rockets before being picked up by the Knicks and demoted to the D-League."

Perhaps Doyel may have a point...on some things. After all, the pressure of living up to the legend of John Henry's hammer is all but insurmountable for far too many. However, consider this-Lin is only a month into his tenure with the Rockets, a team that is much younger than his old Knicks team was, with a new superstar--James Harden--who came only days before the first game of the regular season in October.

It's a point that has been harped on in the past, but one too crucial to overlook--chemistry and making winning adjustments don't come overnight. Remember Lebron James and his first season in Miami? When James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh combined to form the "Avengers" down in South Beach, the hoopla and championship buzz surrounded them.

And they looked sloppy, clumsy even, for months while they learned how to play with each other. Sure, they made the Finals that year thanks largely to talent and pure athleticism, but against a more experienced Dallas Mavericks team, they were no match as they watched Dallas hoist their first ever championship banner at their expense.

The heckling and the criticism poured on them, many thinking that they simply could not find the chemistry needed to win a title.

One year and a championship trophy later, this has become the Heat's league. And it's all because they finally figured out how to make the pieces fit in the puzzle.

Lin is in a similar--though not quite the same--situation. New city, new team, new system to learn. This isn't to say that the Rockets have the same caliber team as the Heat, as they still have a long way to go, but Lin is perhaps taking his time to figure out his teammates. He's been criticized already for deferring too much to Harden and needing to be more aggressive in stepping up during games. But is the alternative to step on Harden's toes and create a needless power struggle of "Who's the Man?" that could disrupt a young and talented team that may have a legitimate shot of making the playoffs? Wouldn't it be better to find out what his teammates can really do before he can blend in his offensive talents to go along with the rest of the team?

Make no mistake, Lin is not going to stay in his "learning curve" phase for long; and he is striving for much higher. He told ESPN last week that he still believed that one day, he will be an NBA All-Star.

"At some point, for sure. Right now I have a ways to go, but at some point, yes," he told ESPN. "I try to get better every year, and if I do that and work on the things that are problems for me right now, I definitely think I'll have that chance."

He clearly has some work to do, but if he remains committed to improving his game, figures out Houston's playing schemes and players, and gets his confidence on his offense going the way he did last season, he might do more than just rebound from a poor November.

Houston, Lin may have lift-off.