Lin played extremely well tonight: 21 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds, 4 steals, and just 3 turnovers in a more sane 36 minutes. But Deron Williams absolutely went off and the Nets shot ridiculously well from 3, so the Knicks lost again. Carmelo Anthony didn’t do very much and neither did Baron Davis in his first game back. So it’s another very good effort for Lin but much more of a mixed bag for the Knicks.
With the attention from the media and the world growing exponentially, it seems the expectations from Lin are invariably growing at a similar pace.
To compare Lin to Paul or Williams or Parker, at this stage, is just ridiculous. These guys are perhaps the 3 best point guards in the world! As a point guard, Lin is not (and may never be) one of the 5 best in the league. He’s also clearly not as good as Rose or Westbrook, who aren’t really point guards but are listed at that position.
The amazing thing about him is that he firmly entrenched himself in the Top 6-10 in the NBA in just a week after being on the cusp of being cut from the league and quitting basketball. But to even mention him alongside Paul is really doing Paul a disservice.
I am skeptical that he’s entrenched himself as one of the six or ten best point guards in the league no matter how good he’s been the last two weeks. I think it takes more time than that- we’ve yet to really see how teams gear up to stop him and how he responds to that.
Good points. I think that the ultimate test will be how well he survives this season, with all the physical punishment that his style of game requires. But if you were to hold a draft today, I’m pretty certain that he’d be one of the top 10 point guards chosen. And I understand that there is a lot of “potential”, and not necessarily “actual”, in a draft.
Top 6, no.
Rose
Paul
DWill
Nash
Rondo
Kidd
Throw in Curry, Westbrook, Wall, a few others. But I think you can make an argument for say top 15, even given the limited number of games we’ve seen him play. He’s already proven he has decent ability to penetrate and finish/find open guys, and at least tries to play defense. He’s also not as bad a shooter as people were afraid of at first. I think these are all things you can’t just dismiss as 2-week flukes.
I disagree somewhat that we haven’t seen what teams will try to do to stop him. Opponents have been gameplanning for him since the Utah game. Obviously with all the media hype he’s been getting there’s plenty of attention being paid and tape being watched. Mavs are a top defense and trapped him every time down, bringing doubles up high, lots of hard fouls, etc. And he made some adjustments and was successful. That’s a strong case for the elusive BBIQ people have been claiming that Lin has.
Overall tho, I agree that to really feel confident that he can continue to keep winning, we’d have to see how the rest of the season and possibly playoffs play out.
I’m not calling him a fluke. There’s a lot of reason to think he will continue to be successful even though I don’t think he will continue to score 25 points a game - if he does, the Knicks are probably in trouble - and he does have some significant flaws. He deserves much of the praise he’s getting, but it’s too early to say he’s one of the best point guards in the league. It’s a boom time for the position right now, which is one reason he had trouble getting a job.
I think sportswriters need to try to write actual headlines with facts than try to come up with some punny catchphrase.
You want sportswriters to think? Are you Linsane?
Linconceivable!
edited to add: Linja’d!
Lindor Truffles!
I’ll take Lin puns over "chink in the armor"any day.
As usual, The Onion nails it. I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time.
Or over a goofy discussion that UFC’s Dana White chose to rake the coals with today:
Let’s not do this, everyone (and what Mayweather, who I consider a punk (who could kill me with one punch), said was considerably more benign than the bad judgment and taste shown by the ESPN guys).
Anybody following the Lin contract drama? Looks like the Knicks aren’t going to match the latest Rockets offer, and are pissed off about it. I totally agree that this latest offer is far too much for an unproven player like Lin, but I do think if the Knicks didn’t foul up the process, they could have kept Lin, at a more reasonable price.
Apparently, after the Rocket’s initial offer, the Knicks told Lin they’d match, and Lin went and got himself a better deal. As a Knicks fan, I’m disappointed that he’s not likely to come back, but loving the fact that the Jim Dolan is pissed off. Apparently, Dolan considers this a disloyal act. Refusing to offer Lin a contract, and letting the market determine Lin’s worth, that’s not disloyal, it’s just good business. I guess it’s also good business to advertise to the world that you intend to match “any offer” for Lin, no way that could affect negotiations.
Jeremy is a disloyal untrustworthy person, who got himself an additional $6M guaranteed, good for him, and I wish him well in Houston.
I think he’s better off in Houston. No Carmelo, and he’s headed to a team that’s looking to commit to him. The Knicks have hemmed and hawed the whole time he was there.
Knicks are better off without him then matching that contract offer.
Ok, I’m loving this part. The Knicks decided to let the “market” determine Lin’s worth, however, their cost to keep Lin isn’t the same as other teams who are bidding on him. In addition to the basic luxury tax problem, the Knicks are especially hard hit by a back end loaded contract. Houston Chronicle
Their decision to let Lin sign an offer sheet has locked them in to the back end loaded, salary cap busting poison pill that the Rockets gave them.
BTW, can anyone explain the logic behind the part I quoted? Why would the cap impact be different for the Rockets vs. Knicks?
I am not really clear on how NBA contracts work. Are they guaranteed? If not, ISTM the Knicks could match, and then after two years either redo Lin’s deal or cut him.
Purely a marketing POV, Lin is extremely valuable. And as a casual fan, it’s a shame to see him going to a bad team.
NBA contracts are guaranteed, yes.
The way the “poison pill” part works is a loophole in the CBA/salary cap structure with regard to restricted free agents. If a RFA is signed to an offer sheet, the team signing him to the offer sheet can take the salary cap charges each year at the average annual value of the contract. However, if the RFA’s original team matches the deal and re-signs the player, they have to take the salary cap charges at the actual salary paid in each year.
Having a contract that takes a lesser cap hit in years 1 and 2 and then a massive one in year 3 particularly targets the Knicks, because they have their expensive players locked in to deals that go through that third season (and those deals escalate as well, though more gradually, so the highest numbers are in year three). Once you add in the Lin money, they will end up being way over the luxury tax threshhold that year, since there’s no way they could have really planned for him to get anywhere near that much. On top of that, the new CBA massively ramps up the penalties for being over the luxury tax line. It is likely to cost the Knicks something like $30 million in luxury tax penalties if they match and then keep him through the third year, without otherwise breaking down or rebuilding the team. That’s not to say that they shouldn’t match anyways and then try to trade him after the first year; if he has even a decent season, $20 million or so over two years will be very tradeable, especially with the marketing opportunities. There’s some real downside there, though, if anything goes really wrong in year one.
On the other hand, until Carmello Anthony’s gone, there’s really no hope for Lin anyhow. Probably better for him if he goes.