Lin is so much fun to watch. Basketball is all about responding in the moment to a complex set of inputs. He just seems to have an uncanny ability to make some great choices.
He is turning the ball over a lot only because his approach will result in some failures. But the opportunity for success sharply outweighs the failures.
The other players simply do not know what to do with him. Watch as they try different approaches. The Mavs had Nowitski covering him. Did not work. They tried to muscle him inside and he simply passed out.
It is like he is seeing the court and making his choices much, much faster than the other teams can react. At this level it is not so much the basketball prowess as the ability to make the right choice rapidly.
He makes the choices so much faster than anyone else. The only way to beat him is to make decisions as rapidly. That could take a while.
Sabermetrics exploded into baseball because it identified people who were important to the team who were not recognized before. So much of baseball scouting is on individual prowess, one-on-one skills.
Lin was unrecognized because his game comes from a full 5v5 contest. He has skills that permit him to break 5v5 defenses. You would not normally see this in 1v1 drills.
Perhaps basketball incorporate more of this sort of cognition in its scouting reports.
