Patrick Beverley made a splash this summer by inadvertently colliding with Russell Westbrook's knee, forcing him to miss the playoffs and the first few weeks of the 2013-14 season. After his breakthrough performance against Oklahoma City, Beverly was expected to fade back into the life of a bench sparkplug.
However, according to the Houston Chronicle's Rockets beat writer Jonathan Feigen, Beverley is expected to start on Opening Night for the Houston Rockets while a healthy Jeremy Lin is relegated to the bench. Beverley's superior shooting gives the Rockets another spot-up shooter in the starting lineup chock full of rim finishers (Chandler Parsons, Dwight Howard, Harden and Omer Asik) as opposed to Lin's preference for finishing at the rim. Being an analytics-based organization they've certainly observed Lin's increased productivity when he's not occupying the same floor space as James Harden.
Via Bleacher Report:
When both were on the floor last season, Lin shot just 43.3 percent from the floor (31.5 from outside) for an average of 19 points per 48 minutes, according to NBA.com (subscription required). Separate from Harden, he converted 48.3 percent of field-goal attempts (47.4 percent from three-point range) and notched 24.6 points per 48 minutes.
All's not lost for Lin though. Both his head coach Kevin McHale and Harden carved out niches for themselves as a sixth men.
"As a player, I always found it irrelevant," he(McHale) explained, per Creech. "I came off the bench in a lot of games. What is the big difference in playing 27.5 minutes off the bench and 26 minutes as a starter?"
