We take a break from our
political coverage for the fourth annual installment on the remarkable career
of Brooklyn Nets’ point guard Jeremy Lin. The first, "The Strange and
Badly Misunderstood Career of Jeremy Lin" was published three years ago and
examined the many twists and turns Lin's career had taken from his Linsanity
days with the Knicks until that time, February, 2015, when Lin was in the midst
of a lost year with the Lakers.
Part 2, published two years
ago, was titled "The Jeremy Lin Saga Continues...JLin Strikes Back as a
Hornet," a hopeful chapter that covered the second half of his Laker
madness, a strong second half that set up his signing and ultimate redemption as
a role player with the Charlotte Hornets.
Last year’s Part 3 (“Hamstrung”)
covered the remainder of his Hornets tour, through the signing with the Nets
and his maddening, injury-laced first year with them, through last year’s All
Star break. And now Part 4 picks up the
story from then.
Through the twists and
turns of his remarkable saga he remains the controversial enigma that sparks a
full gamut of emotions from NBA fans. The
central thesis of these articles is that we do not know -- and may never know --
his true ceiling as an NBA player. Even
after seven seasons, Lin is viewed along a wide spectrum, polarized evaluations
that range from over-hyped G Leaguer to potential superstar. The truth surely lies in between.
The Nets Post-All Star Break, 2017
The wait was finally over, again. Jeremy Lin was set to
return to the Brooklyn Nets’ lineup after the 2017 All-Star break, having
missed 44 of the Nets’ first 56 games with three separate hamstring injuries. The last of these occurred while he was
rehabbing, prolonging his second absence to almost two months, 26 games in total, and this
after having missed 18 games earlier in the season with his first injury.
Prior to the 2016-17 season, the Nets had been viewed with
some modest optimism. They had been the
worst team in the NBA in 2015-16, with just 21 wins, but under hungry new
leadership – first time General Manager Sean Marks, with a Spurs’ front-office
pedigree, and first-time coach Kenny Atkinson – the Nets had turned over much
of the squad in a short amount of time.
Lin’s signing was the centerpiece of the off-season overhaul, and his
pairing with center Brook Lopez, among the best players in Nets’ history,
offered more than just a fortuitous marketing pitch (“Brook-Lin!”), but a true
pick-and-roll engine to the offense.
Nevertheless, the duo was surrounded by an underwhelming collection of
the young and the raw, draftees (Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Caris LeVert) and the old and
the well-worn, veteran players Marks had found in the value bin (Trevor Booker,
Luis Scola, Randy Foye). The most optimistic scenario had the Nets winning only 30 games, tops.
But the Lin injuries shelved that optimistic scenario, with
the first occurring in fifth game of the season. And after Lin went down for the second time,
in late December, the Nets truly staggered, losing at an historic rate; in
those 26 games leading up to the All-Star break, the Nets lost fully 25 of them. The primary cause could be placed directly at
the point guard slot: veteran back-up
Greivis Vasquez lasted even fewer games than Lin, his surgical ankle never
truly recovering, ending his NBA career after only three games as a Net. Rookie Isaiah Whitehead, a second-round pick,
showed true “Brooklyn grit” when thrust into the starting role, but he was a
project and delivered ugly stat lines game after game, even as he showed
determined improvement.
Another rookie, Yogi Ferrell, also flailed, and the Nets
picked up the unheralded G Leaguer Spencer Dinwiddie as another option. The Nets had to choose between Ferrell and
Dinwiddie; they chose Dinwiddie, and Ferrell, promptly picked up by Dallas,
proceeded to enjoy a minor Linsanity-esque boomlet as an instant starter in
Dallas. Dinwiddie fared little better
than Whitehead, and journeymen Randy Foye (too old) and Sean Kilpatrick
(miscast) also saw time at the point, without success. The Nets were, quite simply, an overmatched, rudderless,
disorganized mess on offense, and they were a poor defensive team to boot.
So we pick up the story as of one year ago, with Lin’s
return after the All-Star break, which was, quite simply, a godsend to the
reeling team. Though Lin was on a
minutes restriction, initially 15 minutes a night, then 20 and 25, the Nets
showed immediate life with his return, and the wins came faster the more he
played. Finally, it was his team, his ball,
his show to run. And for 24 games, run
it he did.
In those games (of the 26 games after the break, he missed
one more due to a minor injury, and sat out the last game of the season), the
Nets went 10-14, a serious upgrade from the 1-25 in the immediate period without
him. For the year, the Nets were 13-23
with Lin, a .361 percentage; not terribly scintillating, to be sure, but dead on
track with the 30-win prediction, and way ahead of the 7-39 record the Nets had
scuffled to without him, an abysmal .152 clip.
By season’s end, the Nets managed 20 wins overall, and while that was
one win less than in 2015-16, with Lin they were clearly on the upswing.
Lin’s impact on the team was evident in the ”eye test,” as the
Nets were simply far more fluid and effective under his veteran
leadership. The classic Lin trademark –
the disruptive drive to the rim -- was
there, invariably leading to a twisting lay-up, a resounding foul, a dump to
Lopez for an easy bucket, or a kickout to LeVert for a three. His long-range shooting was markedly improved
as well, and his on-ball defensive presence and down-the-stretch leadership all
came back in spades. The Nets’ “motion
offense” may have limited the “Brook-Lin” pick-and-roll possibilities (except
at crunch time), but both players adapted well to the offense, with Lopez
transforming into the rare “stretch-5,” hoisting a whopping 387 three’s for the
season, more than ten times the 31 he
had launched in the entire first eight seasons of his NBA career – and hitting a
more than respectable 35% of them.
Lin was not the only reason the Nets veered sharply toward
respectability in the last months of the season. Certainly the development of Caris LeVert and
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was a factor, as was Atkinson’s discovery of a set line-up,
featuring Lin at point guard, Foye at the 2, the rookie LeVert at the 3,
Hollis-Jefferson at the 4 and Lopez at the 5.
This rather surprising line-up, especially with the career point guard Foye
and the spindly Hollis-Jefferson seemingly out of position, was supported by a decent
second unit that featured an improving Dinwiddie at PG, Sean Kilpatrick, Joe
Harris, Booker and Quincy Acy.
Apart from the “eye test,” statistically Lin had his finest
season since Linsanity, despite the minutes restrictions, with career highs in
three-point shooting, shooting efficiency and rebounds, and a virtual tie in
points per game. And on a per-36 basis,
he averaged a gaudy 21/6/8 slash line of points, rebounds and assists per game.
Lin Career Statistics Through 2016-17
|
Season
|
Tm
|
G
|
MP
|
FG%
|
3P%
|
eFG%
|
FT%
|
TRB
|
AST
|
STL
|
TOV
|
PTS
|
|
|
|
29
|
10
|
0.39
|
0.20
|
0.40
|
0.76
|
1.2
|
1.4
|
1.1
|
0.6
|
2.6
|
|
|
|
35
|
27
|
0.45
|
0.32
|
0.48
|
0.80
|
3.1
|
6.2
|
1.6
|
3.6
|
14.6
|
|
|
|
82
|
30
|
0.44
|
0.34
|
0.49
|
0.79
|
3.0
|
6.1
|
1.6
|
2.9
|
13.4
|
|
|
|
71
|
29
|
0.45
|
0.36
|
0.51
|
0.82
|
2.6
|
4.1
|
1.0
|
2.5
|
12.5
|
|
|
|
74
|
26
|
0.42
|
0.37
|
0.47
|
0.80
|
2.6
|
4.6
|
1.1
|
2.2
|
11.2
|
|
|
|
78
|
26
|
0.41
|
0.34
|
0.46
|
0.82
|
3.2
|
3.0
|
0.7
|
1.9
|
11.7
|
|
|
|
36
|
25
|
0.44
|
0.37
|
0.51
|
0.82
|
3.8
|
5.1
|
1.2
|
2.4
|
14.5
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Per 36 Minutes
|
Season
|
Tm
|
G
|
MP
|
FG%
|
3P%
|
eFG%
|
FT%
|
TRB
|
AST
|
STL
|
TOV
|
PTS
|
|
|
|
29
|
36
|
0.39
|
0.20
|
0.40
|
0.76
|
4.3
|
5.3
|
4.2
|
2.3
|
9.6
|
|
|
|
35
|
36
|
0.45
|
0.32
|
0.48
|
0.80
|
4.1
|
8.3
|
2.1
|
4.8
|
19.6
|
|
|
|
82
|
36
|
0.44
|
0.34
|
0.49
|
0.79
|
3.4
|
6.8
|
1.8
|
3.2
|
14.9
|
|
|
|
71
|
36
|
0.45
|
0.36
|
0.51
|
0.82
|
3.3
|
5.2
|
1.2
|
3.1
|
15.6
|
|
|
|
74
|
36
|
0.42
|
0.37
|
0.47
|
0.80
|
3.7
|
6.4
|
1.5
|
3.1
|
15.7
|
|
|
|
78
|
36
|
0.41
|
0.34
|
0.46
|
0.82
|
4.4
|
4.1
|
1.0
|
2.6
|
16.1
|
|
|
|
36
|
36
|
0.44
|
0.37
|
0.51
|
0.82
|
5.5
|
7.5
|
1.7
|
3.5
|
21.3
|
Delving into the fancier modern stats, Line also recorded a
career high PER of 19.3, and his “on/off” stats validated his value to the
Nets. When he was on the court, the
Nets, still a below-.500 team, were outscored by three points, 106-103, but when
he was off the court, the Nets were drubbed by seven points, 108-101.
While Lin was effective from the get-go, even under the
minute restrictions, he finished with a crescendo. It all came together in the last five games
of the season (that he played), of which the Nets won three, and Lin, finally unrestricted and playing 30 minutes per game, compiled averages of 20 points, 5 assists and 7 rebounds per
game, while shooting 48% overall and a sizzling 54% from the three (hitting 13
of 24 shots). He went for 26 against
Boston and 32 versus Orlando, and sent the team and its fans into the offseason
with playoff dreams for 2017-18, even apart from what magic Marks might pull
off in the off-season.
The Off-Season
For the first summer three years, Jeremy Lin did not have
to wonder or worry about a new address.
In 2014 he had been traded to the Lakers; in 2015 he signed with Charlotte
as a free agent; and in 2016 he signed with the Nets. For once, he could focus on simply improving
on his stellar second half with the Nets, secure in his role as the starting
point guard of the up-and-coming Brooklyn Nets.
But life is never completely predictable when it comes to
Jeremy Lin’s NBA career, nor is it often kind.
The bombshell that hit the wires on June 20 was that the Nets had traded
Lopez and a first-round pick for D’Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov (the
latter a salary dump). Russell was the
key to this deal, with the Nets parting with their all-time leading scorer and
face of the franchise to acquire a young talent to build around – and one who
happened to play Jeremy Lin’s position, point guard.
Russell was the #2 pick in the 2015 draft as a 19-year old wunderkind,
but his two years with the Lakers had not been smooth. DLo (as he was known) had built up some
impressive numbers for a teenager (14 ppg, 4 apg), but his game also had many
rough edges, and his off the court maturity was a question as well. In his first
year he had to deal with old school coach Byron Scott as well as the Kobe
Bryant farewell tour, and Jeremy Lin fans certainly know how toxic that mix
could be for anyone, much less a player so young. But Russell’s game had not progressed under
Luke Walton in his second year, and Lakers’ president of basketball operations,
Magic Johnson, was ready to jettison Russell, who he believed was not a
“leader.” Johnson has his eye on a local
phenom, UCLA’s heralded Lonzo Ball.
For Lin fans, the Russell signing raised the one question
they thought was settled: who would run the Nets?
In time the basic in-going answer emerged: Lin would be the
point, Russell would play the 2, but in the Nets’ motion offense, with the
implied 30-minute max playing time limit, the pair would basically share the
ball-handling duties. And whether this
would work or not dominated Net fans’ offseason discussions.
Despite not having a lottery pick (long surrendered in the
franchise-fortune-changing failure of the 2013 deal with the Celtics that
netted aging future Hall-of-Famers Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce at the expense
of the Nets future for years on end), Marks did significantly upgrade the team. In a salary dump heist, the Nets acquired
solid veteran forward DeMarre Carroll from Toronto, along with first- and
second-round draft picks, for third-string center Justin Hamilton. Marks finally secured three-point
sharpshooter Allen Crabbe from Portland, the target of his restricted free
agent signing attempt the summer before (Portland matched the expensive deal). The Nets drafted 19-year old Jarrett Allen
from Texas with the late first round pick they secured in the trade deadline
swap with the Wizards for Bojan Bogdanovic.
Marks handiwork resulted in the acquisition of both veteran
talent and youthful potential. Most
prognosticators again forecast a 30-win team, but Nets fans foresaw the team
competing for the #8 seed in the playoffs, noting the teardowns being
undertaken in Chicago and Atlanta. Hopes
were high that Lin and Russell would mesh and lead the team into April.
The Nets 2017-18
That optimism lasted precisely through three-and-a-half
quarters of Game 1 of the new season.
The Nets opened at Indiana, the perfect team against which to measure
themselves, since the Pacers had clawed their way into the playoffs the year
before as the 7th seed. The
Nets hung with the Pacers throughout the game and were trailing by 7 when Lin
returned for the stretch drive with 7:13 to go in the game. About two minutes later, Lin flew to the hoop
untouched for a lay-up, but for a goaltending call. But by the time that call was made, Lin was
in agony on the floor, clutching his knee, looking wide-eyed to the Nets’ bench
and screaming “I’m done! I’m done!” Lin was the first to know his season was
over; the later diagnosis of a torn patellar tendon merely confirming the
obvious.
(On a personal side-note, I had to attend a charity
function that evening, and turned on the car radio after the event while there
was about eight minutes to go in the game.
That two-plus minute stretch that I just described would be the only Lin
action I would experience all year.)
The Nets went on to lose by 9 in a high-scoring
affair. The game was ragged; Lin himself
overcame a shaky start (two turnovers in the first four minutes) to score 18 in
just 25 minutes, on 5-12 shooting, 1-2 from the three, 7-7 from the foul line,
4 assists and 3 turnovers. This would be
his stat line for the entire season.
Among Marks’ goals in the offseason were to ensure the Nets
were better protected in the event of another Lin injury. Three hamstring injuries in one season do not
inspire confidence that an 82-game season is in the offing for Lin, no matter
how sturdy Lin had been during his career up to then (Lin had played in 305 of
328 games in his prior four seasons, or 93% -- and this included one rather
infamous “DNP-Coach’s Decision” under Byron Scott). In acquiring Russell, Marks ensured the Nets
were covered in this instance; he also saw combo promise in Caret LeVert; and he
could also hope that Dinwiddie and Whitehead might develop as well.
Thus the D’Angelo Russell era began in earnest, without the
benefit of the veteran cover Lin would have provided. It was Russell’s ball and his tendencies were
on full display. And, unlike in 2016-17,
the Nets showed the “Brooklyn Grit” that their clever marketing plans promised,
winning 5 of their first 12 games, and appearing poised to deliver on the
30-win prediction despite the loss of Lin.
Russell played with an undisciplined verve befitting a
hugely talented 21-year old. He whipped
blind passes surgically, showed off his “handle” with mesmerizing finesse and,
more than anything, showed no hesitation about hoisting it up. And score he did, averaging over 21 points in
just 28 minutes per game. He also
managed 6 assists per game and dominated the Nets’ offense to the tune of a
whopping “usage” figure of 35, a rarefied level that was previously reserved
for only Russell Westbrook and James Harden.
And many saw a superstar in the making, with an unlimited ceiling.
Others were more reserved in their judgment, noting other
stats that point to a far-from-finished product: the alarming shooting rate, the highest in
the league among point guards (at 22 shots per 36 minutes); the astonishing
propensity for turnovers, 4 per game, a rate that would even make Lin blush,
which contributed the denominator to the worst assist-to-turnover ratio in the
NBA among over 80 point guards. His
three-point shooting was also surprisingly poor at 30%, as was his free throw
percentage of 68%, and he showed an alarming indifference on the defensive end
of the court.
But…but…but…he was only 21 years old, and there was every
right to expect that under Atkinson’s guidance – the coach being a well-known youth-whisperer
who once upon a time, as an unknown Knick assistant, tutored an even more unknown
Jeremy Lin, readying him for his Linsanity moment – these flaws would be honed
away, some degree of discipline and judgment would emerge, and the franchise
centerpiece would develop. DLo had
talent, to be sure. It seemed the Nets
were on their way.
But Russell was not the only reason the Nets were on the
rise and better-protected in the Linjury scenario. Carroll, acquired as a salary dump, proved
far more valuable than anticipated, contributing solid offense, defense and, in
Lin’s absence, veteran savvy that translated into the team leader slot. Crabbe, while not shooting with the same
accuracy as in Portland, was a vast upgrade over Foye. But more to the point, the youngsters were
clearly on the rise. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson,
the proverbial pogo-stick, had harnessed his energies more productively, and
developed a killer turnaround jumper to boot.
Caris LeVert also was showing tremendous two-way promise and, in
returning to the bench with Carroll’s arrival, strengthened it considerably. And Joe Harris emerged as a rotation-player,
with a deadly three-point jumper (with Crabbe in a shooting funk and Lin out,
Harris was the most reliable long-range shooter). And though little used at the outset,
Jarrett Allen showed flashes of promise in the early going.
All of the upgrades helped to overcome, or at least offset,
the demise of “Brook-Lin,” and gave Nets fans something they thought they were
not going to see when Lin went down – competitive basketball. And this was a
credit to the coach as well. Atkinson might
drive die-hard Net fans crazy with his substitutions and spreading of the
minutes, and the Nets’ vaunted conditioning team might be ever-so-cautious
about sending injured players into the fray prematurely – but the team played
hard, consistently, night after night, no longer as easy mark on a long NBA
schedule. Teams might beat the Nets, but they had to work at it.
But the basketball gods rarely shine their light on the
Nets, instead hurling devastating thunderbolts with regularity. The franchise’s high water mark did not even
come in the NBA, but rather with two championships in the ABA back when Julius
Erving wore the red, white and blue of the then New York Nets in Hempstead,
Long Island, under Kevin Loughery in the mid-1970’s. Since then, it was a seemingly never-ending
cycle of pain, from the tragic death of budding superstar Drazen Petrovic in
1993 to the front-office basketball tragedy of the Garnett/Pierce trade, which
ultimately yielded neither a single 50-win season nor postseason success (they lost three out of four postseason series, never reaching the conference finals) before
falling apart – and the Nets became a consistent lottery team without the
lottery picks that should have been their due reward.
And thus the thunderbolt downed D’Angelo Russell, felled by
a knee injury in Game 13. And much like
Lin the year before, what seemed to be a relatively routine injury resulted in
a mammoth absence; it would be more two months and 32 lost games before he
would return. And despite all of Marks’
plans, the Nets were forced to rely on the same duo to man the point as the
year before, Spencer Dinwiddie and Isiah Whitehead, with perhaps some Caris LeVert
(normally a swing 2/3) getting some action as well, much as the since-departed
Sean Kilpatrick had done, with limited success, in 2016-17.
But this time there was a silver lining, as Spencer
Dinwiddie stepped forward to play a brand of basketball that, if not quite
“Dinsanity” was robust enough. Quite
suddenly, Dinwiddie emerged with play worthy of veteran NBA starters, if not
stars, smoothly guiding the Nets offence with an emphasis on controlled play,
deft passing, acceptable shooting and near-epic status down the stretch of
tight games. Dinwiddie won a few and
missed a few, but he was as fearless as Lin when it came down to final
possessions.
Dinwiddie’s emergence kept the Nets more than afloat. In the 32 games the Nets were missing both
Lin and Russell, the team managed to win 11 of them, a .344 percentage that was
just a notch lower than the .385 clip that preceded Russell’s injury (and far
better than the 1-25 disaster the year before).
Dinwiddie was a find, averaging 12 points and 7 assists per game, and
flat out leading NBA point guards with an astonishing 4.4:1 assists-to-turnover
ratio. And he captured the imagination
not just of Nets fans, but of the entire league, spawning an All-Star campaign
that, while falling short of that honor, certainly contributed to Dinwiddie
being selected for the “Skills Competition” over All-Star Weekend, an event he
ended up (naturally) winning.
Dinwiddie too has rough edges in his game. His shooting is a bit suspect, at 39% overall
and 34% for the three, both below average.
He plays adequate but not lock-down defense, and is not as disruptive as
either Lin or Russell. As noted, at
times he is guilty of “hero ball” down the stretch, and in general could be
better at kicking out to an open man on the perimeter off the drive. But for a second round pick scraped off the G
League pile, Dinwiddie was an unbelievable find, and he became Exhibit A in the
“Marks is a Genius” catalogue.
So the Nets held on until Russell’s return in Game 46, and
there the season took a perplexing, and downward turn. Russell was clearly rusty at the outset of
his return, and that is being charitable.
Perhaps his knee was still bothering him, or he was being unduly
cautious; maybe he did not like coming off the bench, or the minutes
restrictions. But for whatever reason,
he was simply atrocious. The prior year,
Lin was productive as soon as he returned, even in 15-minute stints, but
Russell was not, and the draught went on for 10 agonizing games before DLo
finally returned to some semblance of form in the week prior to the All-Star
break. But his overall post-injury stat
line of 11 points per game (despite hoisting up shots at a 20 per 36 minute
rate), 4 assists and 3 turnovers on 37% shooting and 25% from the three was
concerning to all but the most die-hard Russell fans, and perhaps even to some
of them.
But apart from the point guard dynamics, the team itself
went into a tailspin, losing 11 of 14 after Russell returned, including the
last seven before the All-Star break.
Apart from Russell’s struggles, Hollis-Jefferson and LeVert were out
with injuries over this stretch, and the Nets fell to among the worst records
in the league. The bright spots were Jarrett
Allen entered the starting line-up at this time and showed major potential, a
huge uptick in Allen Crabbe’s production, and continued fine play by Dinwiddie.
The All-Star break was a time to regroup and develop a
strategy for maximizing the development opportunities for the Nets in the
second half of the year. Marks made
several deals in the course of the season, swapping hustling vet Trevor Booker
for another high-ceiling lottery pick from the 2015 draft, center Jahlil Okafor,
nabbing another great shooter, Nick Stauskas in the deal as well. Tyler Zeller was shipped to Milwaukee for a
second-round pick and Rashad Vaughn, and Vaughn was quickly flipped for peppy
forward Dante Cunningham. The Nets got
ever younger with these deals, with Okafor the primary project, and he showed
flashes of offensive might but defensive lethargy in his short stints on the
floor.
The key question facing the Nets now, with the playoffs out
of the question, is how will Atkinson use these final 23 games? Presumably Russell will return to the
starting lineup at some point, but will he replace Dinwiddie, or instead return
to the Lin/Russell formulation in which both Dinwiddie and Russell start and
share ball-handling duties? This could
force Crabbe to the bench, which is unfortunate because his final four games
before the All-Star break were sensational, averaging 25 ppg on 51% shooting
overall and 43% from the three, finally showing his potential in spades.
Crabbe could swing down to the 3, but that would force
Carroll to the bench, and he has been a consistent stabilizing force. Carroll is a veteran, though, and not likely
to be in the Nets long-term plans.
Presumably Hollis-Jefferson and LeVert will return soon, and Jarrett
Allen and Jahlil Okafor will split time at the 5.
Going Forward
Meanwhile, Jeremy Lin has been toiling away, rehabbing
mostly in Vancouver, “rebuilding” his entire body, as he put it, learning how
to fall more gracefully at the end of his headlong drives, and planning no
significant changes in his playing style.
Lin has been in constant touch with Atkinson and the team, and recently
he picked up the player-option for the third and final year of his $36 million
contract, to no one’s surprise, given his obvious lack of leverage in the
marketplace given his injury (a marketplace that will be tight on money due to few teams
with cap space.)
The play of both Russell and Dinwiddie and his own injuries
have thrown the Nets into rampant speculation about where they go from here,
much like a quarterback controversy in the NFL. If the various fan sites are any indication, there are many separate theses
in the mix.
The Russell fans want DLo installed as the starting point
guard. That’s the primary plan, and the
fate of Lin or Dinwiddie is secondary.
They consider DLo’s upside as a point guard worth any steps that need to
be taken to find it. This would include
exploring Lin trades on draft day, which seems unlikely.
The Lin fans, of course, would rather re-set the clock back
to 2016-17. They assume Lin will
recover, at close to 100%, and they would be content with he and Russell
starting in the backcourt with a now established Dinwiddie backing them
both. All they want is Lin to play 82
games and get 30 minutes a night. If he
has to do it in a shared-combo role, so be it.
Most of them believe DLo, for all his gifts, is ill-suited to the point
given his addiction to shooting and his turnover propensity, and would more
likely find his star as a shooting guard in the motion offense; indeed, his
skill set may indeed match that slot perfectly.
Dinwiddie now has his own set of fans, and they would
generally prefer to see a Dinwiddie/Russell starting backcourt, with Lin
backing them, for two reasons: one, they
presume Lin will have a re-boot curve that should be taken slowly (i.e.,
minutes restrictions, yet again) and two, the back-up role would preserve him better
by lessening the chances of yet another Linjury.
The complication with all of these scenarios is playing
time for other deserving backcourt and swing players. Crabbe, LeVert, Harris and Carroll all have
played well this year, and all generally play the 2 and/or 3. Stauskas and Whitehead, who both have performed
ably in lesser stints, provide plenty of depth.
There were rumors abounding that Carroll and Harris would both go in
trading deadline deals, but neither was moved.
With these nine rotation-ready players vying for three slots, it seems
likely that something has to give when Lin returns.
What seems obvious to most Net fans (and to me) is that,
under any scenario, the Nets have to find out exactly what they have in Lin,
and establish his value by the trading deadline. If he is close to 100%, the outcomes run the
gamut. One option is that after
establishing his value, the Nets trade him at the deadline for another “asset”
(presumably a first round pick); he would be in great demand for virtually any
playoff team, particularly with an expiring salary. The modern NBA requires combo guards who can
handle the ball, shoot the three, drive and kickout and play defense, and Lin
can do all that and be a positive, veteran presence in the playoffs – plus he
could still, presumably, win a playoff game or two by “going off” in unstoppable
Linsanity fashion.
And there is also an argument that if Lin returns at
near-100%, he is the Nets’ best player.
He is far more polished than Russell, and a better shooter, driver and
defender than Dinwiddie. Signing him up
for another three years to anchor the backcourt and groom Russell as his
successor is hardly a bad plan. And, of
course, the marketing side of the equation would find this plan welcoming; the
Nets’ new majority owner, Joseph Tsai, has publicly stated that Lin is his
favorite player, and the reach-out to the Asian market remains a giant play.
It certainly makes little sense to trade Lin low in the
offseason, when he is a question mark, when he could be worth so much. There is every evidence that his re-hab is on
track for a training camp return. Others
have returned from the same injury to prior form, most notably Caron Butler
and, in a much earlier time, Wilt Chamberlain (who tore his patellar tendon in
game 12 of the 1969-70 season and came back to average 47.3 minutes per game in
18 playoff games that same year). Time
will tell what kind of player Lin is when he returns – but I would not bet
against him.
The Saga Continues
Jeremy Lin’s story is already Hollywood-ready. Harvard-educated Asian-American, undrafted,
is given one last chance on what might have been the final night of his NBA
career. He comes off the Knicks’ bench
to destroy the New Jersey Nets, joins the starting line-up and leads the
injury-riddled, hapless Knicks to 6 more wins in a row, shattering scoring
records, upending stereotypes and gaining a Beatles-worthy global following,
replete with magazine covers galore, all in the space of 12 days.
But soon thereafter, he injures his knee and misses the
playoffs to which he had almost single-handedly willed the Knicks. The Knicks, the worst franchise in sports,
decide to let him go when the Houston Rockets make him an extravagant offer,
and the New York chapter ends as suddenly as it began. Signed to be the engine of the Rockets, that
dream ends abruptly as well, before it even begins, when the Rockets trade for
James Harden, who would become not only the focal point of the Houston offense,
a usage-sucking dynamo, but one of the truly great players in the game.
The Rockets decide that Harden is better paired with
defensive whiz Patrick Beverly, and bench Lin, despite Lin’s solid productivity
as a starter. And after two years of Lin
adapting well to the three-guard rotation, the Rockets decide to chase, in all
ironies, Carmelo Anthony, Lin’s Knicks’ foil. (Lin led to the Knicks to all
those wins when Anthony was injured, and when Melo returned, Lin no longer ran
his freewheeling show, and the winning ways ended). So the Rockets dump Lin and his salary to the
Lakers to free up cap space to woo Melo (they fail). In LA, Lin is coached by
one of the worst in the game, Byron Scott, whom the game has passed by, and Lin is
teamed with yet another usage-sucker, a way-past-his-prime-but-still-wanting-the-ball
Kobe Bryant. But while Lin continues to produce, Scott scapegoats him and
benches him in favor of journeyman Ronnie Price in an eerie replay of his fate
in Houston, this time on a truly terrible team.
Lin moves on to Charlotte, where he finds redemption as a
role player on a happy, on-the-rise team.
Lin becomes the best back-up point guard in the league, flashing
Linsanity whenever Kemba Walker or Nic Batum are injured, leading the Hornets
to incredible victories over San Antonio (after being down 23 points) and the
eventual champion Cavaliers. Lin ups his
skill-set under coach Steve Clifford, particularly on the defensive end, and is
ready to run his own show. His image
(and confidence) restored, Lin returns to New York, under former mentor
Atkinson in Brooklyn, and then endures two years of injuries, while
demonstrating ever more production when he does manage to stay on the floor.
Such an up-and-down saga would seem to demand another climb
to the mountaintop. The script
practically begs for it. But the
ultimate redemption may never come, as Lin turns 30 next summer. And yet the saga continues. Will Lin find one more opportunity to define
his ceiling in terms other than “what might have been”? That is the question.
But for now, for all the polarized emotions that Lin still manages
to conjure, his time in Charlotte and Brooklyn have forged a growing consensus
that, whatever Lin might have been or still could become, he is in fact neither
a superstar nor a scrub. Jeremy Lin has
proven that he is a quality starting NBA point guard, one who ranks in the
middle tier of an exceptional group of players.
If you need statistical validation of this point, check out the chart
below. The chart is not a ranking, but
rather my informal grouping of NBA starting point guards, into three groups,
the stars in blue, the solid starters in green, and the a bit too young, a bit too
old or the not-quite-so-good in orange.
Lin, highlighted in yellow, firmly belongs in that middle group based on
what he has actually achieved.
Where will he go from here?
We will check back in February, 2019 to report on the next chapter of his
unusual and epic story.
If you would like to read the previous three installments in the series, here are the links:
|
NBA STARTING POINT GUARDS CAREER STATS
|
‘18
|
Player
|
MP
|
FG%
|
3P%
|
eFG%
|
FT%
|
RB
|
AS
|
ST
|
BK
|
TOV
|
PTS
|
PTS/36
|
PER
|
PER
|
|
|
33.8
|
0.443
|
0.366
|
0.522
|
0.855
|
5.0
|
6.0
|
1.5
|
0.5
|
3.4
|
22.8
|
24.3
|
23.5
|
30.5
|
|
|
34.5
|
0.477
|
0.436
|
0.578
|
0.903
|
4.4
|
6.8
|
1.8
|
0.2
|
3.2
|
23.1
|
24.1
|
23.7
|
27.5
|
|
|
35.4
|
0.473
|
0.373
|
0.518
|
0.867
|
4.5
|
9.8
|
2.3
|
0.1
|
2.4
|
18.7
|
19.0
|
25.7
|
25.9
|
|
|
34.3
|
0.434
|
0.311
|
0.464
|
0.815
|
6.5
|
8.1
|
1.7
|
0.3
|
2.4
|
22.9
|
24.0
|
24.0
|
25.3
|
|
|
34.0
|
0.461
|
0.385
|
0.518
|
0.875
|
3.4
|
5.5
|
1.3
|
0.3
|
2.7
|
22.0
|
23.3
|
21.7
|
24.6
|
|
|
34.0
|
0.413
|
0.355
|
0.473
|
0.830
|
3.8
|
5.4
|
1.4
|
0.4
|
2.1
|
18.9
|
20.0
|
18.9
|
20.9
|
|
|
35.9
|
0.432
|
0.325
|
0.460
|
0.786
|
4.4
|
9.2
|
1.7
|
0.7
|
3.8
|
18.9
|
19.0
|
19.5
|
19.2
|
|
|
29.8
|
0.440
|
0.362
|
0.510
|
0.876
|
2.6
|
5.1
|
1.0
|
0.1
|
2.4
|
18.9
|
22.8
|
20.7
|
11.7
|
|
|
31.0
|
0.424
|
0.367
|
0.501
|
0.802
|
4.2
|
5.8
|
1.4
|
0.3
|
2.2
|
14.4
|
16.7
|
18.5
|
19.4
|
Conley
|
32.5
|
0.441
|
0.377
|
0.497
|
0.814
|
2.7
|
3.3
|
1.5
|
0.2
|
2.0
|
14.3
|
15.8
|
17.3
|
15.8
|
|
|
27.4
|
0.445
|
0.332
|
0.489
|
0.798
|
3.8
|
4.6
|
1.5
|
0.5
|
2.7
|
13.5
|
17.7
|
17.6
|
18.7
|
|
|
29.6
|
0.471
|
0.386
|
0.514
|
0.855
|
2.6
|
4.9
|
1.1
|
0.2
|
2.0
|
12.7
|
15.4
|
16.1
|
18.7
|
|
|
27.4
|
0.447
|
0.357
|
0.490
|
0.842
|
2.4
|
5.6
|
1.2
|
0.3
|
2.3
|
12.6
|
16.6
|
17.2
|
15.2
|
|
|
27.9
|
0.468
|
0.362
|
0.520
|
0.757
|
3.0
|
4.8
|
1.0
|
0.2
|
2.3
|
13.6
|
17.5
|
17.2
|
16.2
|
|
|
23.5
|
0.434
|
0.321
|
0.473
|
0.831
|
2.5
|
4.7
|
0.8
|
0.1
|
2.3
|
12.7
|
19.5
|
15.4
|
17.9
|
|
|
32.7
|
0.446
|
0.359
|
0.491
|
0.788
|
3.6
|
6.2
|
1.5
|
0.4
|
2.7
|
14.7
|
16.2
|
16.4
|
17.0
|
|
|
26.6
|
0.433
|
0.350
|
0.484
|
0.805
|
2.9
|
4.5
|
1.2
|
0.4
|
2.4
|
12.0
|
16.2
|
15.5
|
19.3*
|
|
|
34.9
|
0.527
|
0.000
|
0.527
|
0.565
|
7.8
|
7.3
|
1.9
|
0.9
|
3.7
|
16.4
|
16.9
|
18.5
|
18.6
|
Jackson
|
24.7
|
0.432
|
0.323
|
0.476
|
0.858
|
3.0
|
4.4
|
0.7
|
0.1
|
2.0
|
12.4
|
18.1
|
16.3
|
12.2
|
|
|
28.8
|
0.454
|
0.384
|
0.523
|
0.801
|
3.2
|
3.3
|
0.9
|
0.3
|
1.3
|
11.6
|
14.5
|
15.2
|
14.0
|
|
|
29.6
|
0.460
|
0.309
|
0.479
|
0.618
|
4.2
|
6.4
|
1.4
|
0.3
|
2.4
|
11.2
|
13.6
|
15.6
|
18.5
|
|
|
31.4
|
0.493
|
0.326
|
0.509
|
0.752
|
2.8
|
5.8
|
0.9
|
0.1
|
2.4
|
16.0
|
18.3
|
18.4
|
14.1
|
|
|
25.1
|
0.433
|
0.358
|
0.511
|
0.901
|
3.0
|
2.4
|
0.7
|
0.3
|
1.7
|
12.6
|
18.1
|
14.1
|
16.5
|
|
|
28.0
|
0.470
|
0.393
|
0.531
|
0.872
|
3.0
|
3.9
|
1.0
|
0.2
|
1.5
|
11.4
|
14.7
|
14.7
|
14.6
|
|
|
27.8
|
0.410
|
0.341
|
0.478
|
0.753
|
3.5
|
4.1
|
1.2
|
0.2
|
2.7
|
14.5
|
18.8
|
14.2
|
15.0
|
|
|
29.3
|
0.394
|
0.317
|
0.449
|
0.681
|
3.9
|
4.9
|
1.0
|
0.2
|
2.9
|
14.0
|
17.2
|
12.5
|
12.6
|
Mills
|
17.8
|
0.434
|
0.394
|
0.537
|
0.840
|
1.6
|
2.2
|
0.6
|
0.1
|
1.0
|
8.0
|
16.2
|
15.0
|
15.3
|
|
|
31.4
|
0.381
|
0.317
|
0.422
|
0.834
|
4.2
|
8.0
|
2.0
|
0.1
|
2.8
|
10.6
|
12.2
|
15.9
|
14.0
|
|
|
31.8
|
0.463
|
0.309
|
0.482
|
0.604
|
4.8
|
8.4
|
1.7
|
0.1
|
2.9
|
10.5
|
11.9
|
16.4
|
14.7
|
|
|
25.6
|
0.374
|
0.323
|
0.421
|
0.733
|
3.1
|
4.3
|
0.8
|
0.3
|
2.5
|
11.1
|
15.6
|
10.7
|
12.4
|
|
|
27.2
|
0.410
|
0.326
|
0.439
|
0.734
|
2.6
|
4.3
|
1.0
|
0.2
|
2.4
|
11.3
|
15.0
|
11.1
|
11.1
|
|
|
27.9
|
0.440
|
0.343
|
0.480
|
0.855
|
2.9
|
4.6
|
0.8
|
0.1
|
2.0
|
10.8
|
13.9
|
14.1
|
11.4
|
|
|
21.3
|
0.411
|
0.305
|
0.443
|
0.667
|
3.0
|
3.7
|
1.4
|
0.5
|
1.7
|
7.1
|
12.0
|
11.4
|
15.0
|
Ball
|
33.9
|
0.356
|
0.303
|
0.430
|
0.480
|
7.1
|
7.1
|
1.5
|
0.9
|
2.7
|
10.2
|
10.8
|
12.1
|
12.1
|
* Note: Lin’s PER is from 2017
