体坛英语新闻：Jeremy Lin eyes playoffs for Houston Rockets

HOUSTON, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Houston Rockets' new starting point guard Jeremy Lin said Monday his goal this season is to help his team make the playoffs.

The rebuilt Houston Rockets met with the media on Monday before heading south to begin training camp.

At the news conference Monday, 24-year-old Lin described himself as a work in progress, saying he still has a lot to improve.

"I played in 50 career games. For me, I see it as a beginning. I'm very young in terms of learning," he said.

"Everyday I make a lot of mistakes in practice. As I continue to cut down on those and hopefully grow my game I'll be able to evolve as a player," Lin said.

The goal of the Rockets in this season is to make the playoffs and as for himself, his goal is to help the team make the playoffs, Lin said.

Rockets coach Kevin McHale also said the team is trying to make the playoffs. "That's our goal. You can't do anything special in our league until you're one of the final 16 teams playing in April. Inside that, we have to get better every month."

However, McHale admitted that the team will have to rely on scrappiness and guile to stay afloat this season, with most of the nucleus of last year's team, Kyle Lowry, Courtney Lee, Goran Dragic and Luis Scola, gone to other teams.

Lin is hardly a seasoned veteran with only 25 starts in the NBA. Aside from him, the 2012-13 Rockets' roster is rather bland as well as young. Eleven of the 20 players are rookies or second-year players.

"We have a lot of young guys. We have to find a rotation, we've got a lot of stuff to do," said McHale.

Lin conveyed a positive outlook on the lack of veterans on the squad, saying that the young team's shortcomings in experience could be overcome by young players' qualities such as speed, quickness, strength and athleticism.

Lin was waived by the Rockets last December, then picked up by the New York Knicks.

The Harvard-educated guard and the first American-born NBA player of Chinese heritage became an overnight international sensation, with his skills, humour and work ethic during his short career with the Knicks.

Lin averaged 22.1 points and 9.2 assists, making 47 percent of his shots, in his first 12 starts, keying a seven-game winning streak.

The Rockets pays a hefty sum to get Lin back. The team's three-year deal with Lin worth about 25 million U.S. dollars and the third year is worth about 15 million.