Good Riddance

The Jeremy Lin storyline has gotten somewhat tedious, but at least something has taken some heat off of Dwight Howard’s “The Indecision”, which became tedious in April. My New York Knicks were faced with the decision of whether or not to resign the man who made New York basketball relevant this past season with the wave of Linsanity that dominated headlines for two weeks or so. Lin’s success slowly diminished as the season progressed past this climax and he eventually suffered a knee injury that ended his first and last season as a Knick. The feedback from fans and analysts has been a relatively even split. Lin did preview a potential future for the Knicks backcourt, the Rockets are living proof that people still believe in Lin’s ability to successfully run an NBA offense and produce at the high level that spoiled New York for a short couple of weeks. As a loyal fan to my eternally struggling team, I anxiously counted down the days and minutes until Lin was shipped off to the western conference because this was the best decision the Knicks could have made for multiple reasons that we will cover. I start this article at midnight as a celebration for the best and only good decision the New York Knicks have made in recent memory.

The first reason behind my Let Lin Leave campaign is personnel. Whether or not you believed in Lin last season, injuries created a shortage of guards that needed to be filled. Lin deserved a shot and certainly made the most of it for a short time. Even when his play initially declined, there was no need to replace him because our only decent alternative was an unpredictable Baron Davis. Now, however, both Jason Kidd and Raymond Felton have come in as capable point guards. I actually believe both are better options than Lin, even at this stage of their careers. That contract, which we will review, for a potentially third string point guard would have been absurd. There was a somewhat valid point floating around ESPN saying that with Shumpert missing the beginning of next season, JR Smith is really the only decent shooting guard. Felton or Lin could have taken his backup spot. However, in my opinion, each point guard on the roster needs the ball in his hands. Felton is the closest thing to a combo guard of the three, and even he would be much worse without being able to quarterback the pick-and-roll system that he had success with in his last round with the Knicks. With Shumpert back, we will have two very capable guards at point and shooting. The only issue will be Smith’s backup pre-Shumpert, which they can figure out without throwing too much money at the most overrated player of this off-season.

The contract in question adds up to just over 25 million dollars over three seasons, which would have been a big investment for a New York team that would like to save money where they can so we can hunt free agent superstars. The worst part of this miscalculation is the 15 million dollar third year of this contract due to the agreement’s back-loaded nature. The numbers are initially within reason but lose control in 2015-16 and only the basketball gods know how Lin will be playing that far down the line. This bloated season would destroy a team’s spending ability because of luxury tax rules that I do not fully understand myself. The gist of what will happen is that whoever takes on this Lin contract may be hit hard with penalties for going over the team’s salary cap. The Knicks luxury tax penalty would have totaled over 50 million dollars. Hopefully the Rockets have better bookkeepers, but luckily this is no longer our problem. ESPN’s Michael Wilbon cited the many financial blunders made by the Knicks (see Eddy Curry’s contract) and referred to the possibility of matching Houston’s offer “classic Knicks”, which is never a good thing. I applaud this rare display of financial responsibility.

Lastly, I finally get to assert my longstanding belief that Jeremy Lin is simply not a great point guard and wisely used his fifteen seconds of fame to scrape away at an unsuspecting team’s money. Houston lost both Kyle Lowry and Gordon Dragic in this offseason. In my honest opinion, Lin is not better than either of these players and Houston is in for a rude awakening if they are under the impression that they are improving at this pivotal position. Lin maybe beats out Dragic narrowly after a few years of development, but I doubt it. Between this move and getting rid of their best player, Luis Scola, in the hopes of getting Dwight Howard as their next quality big man will leave this franchise lost once he ends up playing in the Staples Center. Linsanity made me eat my words when I said he could not be a successful NBA point guard. Those were an exhilarating couple of weeks, but I never overreacted to his upside. Needless to say, we all enjoyed the ride, but it predictably came to a screeching halt when the NBA introduced him to the Miami Heat. Granted, no one looks great against them, but Lin could not physically dribble the ball, let alone continue to shock the sports world. Once Wade and Lebron were done with him they let Mario Chalmers get a couple of steals just for fun. My credibility on the matter was sadly restored, but it I held against him until the playoffs. Lin did not ask to be overrated, it just happened. My resentment towards him started when he milked his knee injury to avoid Miami in the playoffs. I do not usually make guarantees when we cannot be certain, but I can assure you this happened. Lin himself admitted to reaching 85% healthy before the playoffs even started. I bet Kobe would kill to feel 85% healthy for the first time since 2005. My housemates and I watched that Miami game and finally knew what we would look like against NBA players after seeing him completely and utterly lost on that court. Lin is a Harvard guy and knew free agency was coming up. Only true Knicks fans were fully aware of his decline and abrupt return to mediocrity. Knowing all this, he figured that the best idea was to not return and have his free agency stock take a major hit. Instead, he ended on a positive note with the rest of the league, which had not seen enough to come to the conclusion that any Knicks fan should have been aware of. They must have only been watching Sportscenter because anyone who knew better had been watching MSG. I am more than willing to have patience for a young, developing player and would not mind resigning one. The guy who pulled that stunt, however, is the one I want out of New York.

The Rockets think they are getting Linsanity, but Jeremy will be about as productive for them as Yao Ming’s left foot. He dribbles how Jason Kidd drives. Lin was frequently compared to Tim Tebow as an unconventional winner, and also to Victor Cruz as a surprising hero in New York. Both of these comparisons offend me. Love him or hate him, Tim Tebow is a proven winner. He won two college championships and won a playoff game in his first real season as a professional starter. In order to do this, of course, he had to be willing to actually make an appearance for his playoff team, which already separates him from Lin’s established standards. Victor Cruz is nothing like Lin because he is phenomenally talented and also clearly possesses the DNA of a champion. Cruz was 3^rd in NFL receiving yards behind the specimen named Calvin Johnson and the cheat code named Wes Welker. Cruz had more great games in an NFL season than Lin had in an NBA season. Thanks to this move, we may actually not lead the league in turnovers next year with the help of two veteran point guards who can distribute the ball well and, unlike Lin, do not have to be big scorers as well. Even if Lin was great, and offense with Melo, Amare and JR does not need a shot-happy point guard.

What Lin does have going for him is if the Rockets fail to acquire a real superstar, he can take every shot he desires because there will be no dominant weapon on offense who he has to find and pass to. His numbers may be decent if he is the only scoring threat around. He will also be good for Rockets marketing because until he fully dies out, people will want to come to their games and see him play. I hate the argument that the Linsanity attraction is enough of a reason to keep him in New York. Maybe other teams have a good enough roster to reserve one spot for a circus act, but we certainly do not. We need every spot on the roster to make major contributions towards a series of issues that need fixing. He solves neither defensive weakness nor excessive turnovers. We have enough scoring, which is all he really brings to the table on a good day. With years to develop, maybe he learns to stay healthy and hang on to the ball. Sadly, the Knicks have no interest in paying 25 million for a collection of maybes. Between admitted chemistry issues on offense, questionable ability, and an outright despicable sequence of events after that knee injury, this is a move to be celebrated by Knicks fans, not criticized. Of course, Lin could be great next season and shut me up all over again, but when his groin magically tightens up against the Thunder next May just remember to not be too surprised.