LOLOLOL dude chill out man... relax. don't have an aneurysm. nobody is saying that... your worldview is still intact so don't freak out. all this says is that lin is a very popular player - more than people think. and those searches for lin could be from both his haters and fans alike. man, some people take this so seriously...
It doesn't. You're missing the point. Lin is popular. Clearly. That means dollars to franchise owners, clearly. No, I'm not talking about increased jersey sales. I know those are mostly shared among clubs. I'm talking about at least three other items that have true value: 1. Every internet hit, and every mention of his name and the Rockets name on TV means $. It builds the brand. It also translates into marketing dollars saved. There are professional firms that provide one service - they click a counter every time the mention of a name comes up. Every click = dollars (either dollars to brand name or dollars that the Rockets don't have to spend in marketing bc the channel/website comes to them instead of vice versa). 2. Inroads to Asian deals for the Rockets OR a company owned by Les Alexander which is not officially a part of the Rockets (google articles on this and you'll see what I mean; Les did this with Yao and to a lesser extent is doing or can do this with Lin). 3. Corporate sponsorships. Add the 3 up, and Lin has value well beyond his contract. So, people just need to understand that Lin has dual values, and the point of this post is to talk about the second value. This just means that while Les might trade Lin for the right deal, you should recognize that the right deal would involved more than Lin the player (but don't despair - this means the owner trading for Lin gets the same benefits, and generally might also be willing to pay higher for Lin than normal). As an aside, Lin is a quality starting PG (I'm not saying he's top 5 or even top 10, but he's probably in the top 10-15 tier). At the least, he was one of the leading 6th men of the year so far, so that means he's a super sub. What this means is he's probably worth his value as a basketball player, which is a player who has an $8.3M cap hit. In the right situation, Lin would be worth even more. As a comparison look at Steve Nash when he was the primary ballhandler vs when he played with a dominant 2-guard in LA. Even for the few games when he was relatively healthy, his numbers just took a beating. So all that crap that you read about Lin being untradeable is BS. While he may not be a high value contract from a strict BB standpoint to certain teams because PG position has a lot of depth, he is an even level contract and his marketing value makes him decent. Yes, he's making $15M next year, but his cap hit is $8.3M and if he's traded this year he'll be averaging $11M or so (pro rated). Les could easily throw in $2M in cash and lower it to around $10M if needed. And on teams like the Bucks, the Bobcats, the Bulls (sans Rose), NY, Pistons, etc. (that are offense starved), he'd be gangbusters. I'm a LF (Lin Fan, not LOF) and I'd prefer to keep him but I would be ok if we trade him in the right situation. For example, I would jump all over trading him if we could get Paul, Love, Aldridge, etc. (not happening, but apparently the Chris Paul situation came close).
