good god. clutchfans never ceases to amaze me. double standard? there are literally no other players in the NBA other than Asik who we could apply this so called double standard to. Everyone considers Asik an 8.3 million dollar player even though he is only actually making 5 mil. Just about 99.9% of players in the leagues salary is exactly the same as their cap hit. The contracts that Lin and Asik received are extremely rare in that there cap hit and actual salary are 2 different numbers. But for cap purposes they are 8.3 million dollar players for this year and the next 2. Which for the millionth time is the only number that should matter to fans. When there is a salary cap, how much 1 player counts towards that salary cap is the number we should and always do worry about. And yes there cap figure absolutely does matter. If his cap hit was only 5 million this year we would have 3 more million dollars in flexibility to possibly make a move this year.
The only reason people are unhappy with this is because people who don't like Lin are using the $8 mil to say that HE is an overpaid player...meaning he does not deserve his salary based on his performance. Your reasoning that it's a salary cap issue is perfectly fine I think. But the distinction has to be drawn that he personally is NOT paid $8 mil, which takes away the ammunition that his haters have that he doesn't deserve the money etc etc. Sure you're thinking about the team cap space, and how it affects free agency, but other people who tout the $8 mil aren't so noble.
Folks who complain that Lin is overpaid have no idea what Free Agents actually make. Yes, there are great PG's on Rookie Contracts, but those are DRAFT PICKS that you can NOT acquire from another team at face value. Anyone who thinks a team with a $5M draft contract player like Kyrie Irving is going to trade him for 5 x veteran minimum players off the waiver wire is absolutely delusional. Similarly, a player like a Kyrie Irving can NOT be attained through normal processes except pure luck in the draft. Lin produces fairly for what his skill set commands in the Free Agency market which is ALL that counts considering that the Rockets do NOT have a first round pick to draft a potential all star PG prospect, and even if they did 2/3 of draft picks completely WASH OUT. And for all the talk of Lin not being proven, most Draft Picks have LESS experience and are LESS proven than Lin was when he was signed by the Rockets. NCAA plays about 30 games in a season at a rate of about two games per week. Players coming out after one year in college are being drafted based upon a resume of 30 NCAA games, against NCAA level competition... which in Division I basketball, of which there are 1500 or so players, of whom only 60 or so get drafted. And even then, 2/3 of those 60 players wash out. Lin on the other hand was being hired based upon 25 starts against NBA level competition, with the most Elite players in the NBA going after him Hard because he had a target on his back due to the press from Linsanity, during a lock out season playing 3-5 games PER WEEK. Take out the rookie contract players, and then look at how Lin is doing for comparable salaries. Even better, take a look at those rookie contracts and tell me what those players will make when those contracts are finished. If they're better than Lin, the odds are that they'll make more than $8M per year.
If so, then you would not have said Lin isn't overpaid for his play as of right now. The entire argument around how "Lin is paid market value" is based on comparisons to other free agent PGs, disregarding the numerous highly valuable PGs on rookie contracts that are not drafted in the lottery. These picks have values that can be converted into money, and costs much less than what the Rockets paid Jeremy Lin.
As always, torocan serving a nice cup of STFU to ignorant folks in the most eloquent and factual manner.
Please, no one's comparing Jeremy Lin to Kyrie Irving. If we're talking about FAs vs top-3 lottery picks, yeah, then no kidding one should ignore them. But Lin's performance range is in the area of Avery Bradley, Eric Bledsoe, Jeff Teague, pre-injury Aaron Brooks, Dragic(pre-FA) to name a few off the top of my head. And these are not high picks. Easily obtainable for certain amount of cash/capspace. A comparison would be recently Memphis dumping ~$12mil of salary while giving up a 1st round pick and a faltering ex-1st round pick.
<br> Nah man, we have no idea what free agents actually make and just got served a gigantic cup of STFU. You know what though, aside from tonight's game (Miami just defended way too well) I think the last couple of weeks Lin's play has been living up to his contract.
What other players are similar to Lin in regards to that they can look like a star one game, and then a complete scrub the next /repeat? Sooooo Linconsistent it drives fans nuts!
More like the coaching staff panics and doe stupid stuff like have Harden play point guard. I give you one thing though, besides Lin's inconsistent shot, he's not athletic enough at the rim like Rose or Westbrook.
Well, it is the 2nd of a b2b and against NBA Champs. I think it's so peaceful in the game thread because everyone expected them to lose. Even I was shouting at Lin to show Chalmers/Cole who was boss...but alas, it never happened. He should become more consistent once the Rockets schedule isn't so packed. That guy once said that sleep does wonders for him.
He really needs to work on his stamina in the off season, shooting, and ball handling skills. Hope he doesn't travel to Asia again.
For anyone who's butthurt about Lin being paid $8M a year: Lin is paid market value, Morey made sure of that and Les agreed. What's the problem? PS. it's not your money, nor mine.
List of things he needs to improve on in order of importance 1. Confidence 2. Jumpers 3. Handles 4. Endurance on B2Bs 5. Passing 6. Strength 7. BBIQ 8. Defense against quick guards Basically EVERY aspect of his game. Except 1. Acceleration 2. Transitions 3. Playing the passing lane Lin can appear elite on given nights because his shooting is streaky, (more a factor of confidence via seeing his early shots go in) and his acceleration is elite level. But his game is one dimensional, and the lack of a veteran on the team to mentor him is going to slow his development.
I'd rather have this than consistent mediocrity or even consistently above average play. Because it means that he has potential - and his ceiling is pretty damn high.
Lin's upside is that he doesn't have to face Miami for 82 games of the year, because otherwise he would be out of a job. More of GSW please.
The people who are butthurt are LOFs who will not allow anyone to say Lin is not playing up to his contract right now. Otherwise, after Cato, Taylor, Ariza, Swift, etc. Lin isn't even close to being to be worthy of being butthurt over.
Once again, the point is that rookie scale contracts are not free market valuations of players in the free agency. And no, you cannot translate draft picks gotten via cash or capspace renting into free market valuations because, besides the fact that those are also rookie-scaled contracts, those are not free market conditions because there are too many non-monetary factors involved in such transactions. They are not pure free market cash translations due to those additional transactional factors. For one thing, you are only allowed to receive or give up to $3M in cash each season. That means there's an artificial ceiling imposed on the valuation of a pick, not a free market valuation. Also, it means the use of cash is accompanied by the loss of freedom in future trades. If you pay cash in a transaction for a pick, it may mean that you won't be able to get a trade done in the future if you need the cash to grease hands as a throw-in (like how the Knicks paid the Rockets to take Douglas). So there is an opportunity cost associated with spending cash to acquire draft picks, which means such an acquisition cannot be translated purely into monetary numbers as you are attempting. Also, because you are limited to $3M, that means you can't go out and spend $12M to get 4 such picks at $3M each. Again, these CBA constraints means that it is not a free market. These restrictions, as much as the rookie-scaled nature of the contracts, means that you can't translate the value of such acquisitions into purely free market cash numbers. There are other elements and considerations, opportunity costs and restrictions and limits, that render these non-free market valuations. And these non-cash factors and considerations also come into play when renting capspace like the Memphis salary dump situation. If it takes renting X amount of cap space to acquire a draft pick. If you have 4 times X, does that mean you can get 4 such draft picks? No, because you would need 4 teams in similar desperate salary straits. And you also have to consider other factors, like the fact that Morey stated he will not want to take on any contract that extends beyond this season. And you also have to see what competing options are available on other teams to absorb those contracts. As well as consider the opportunity cost of not having that cap space used for some other type of trade. And every team's situation, rebuild/contending/injury replacement/etc, will be different. So again, there are too many non-monetary concerns involved here, that you cannot attempt a direct monetary cash conversion for such a transaction as you are trying to do. These are not free market valuations, too many non-monetary factors. The only free agent valuations that are truly free market are when a bunch of teams are bidding for free agents on the open market. Rookie-scaled contracts are by definition not free market. And your attempts to convert the acquisition of picks via cash or renting cap space into free market valuations of such players is erroneous due to the many non-cash elements and considerations involved (even when only cash exchanges hands, due to things like artificial CBA imposed limits, opportunity costs, concomitant trade requirements, idiosyncratic team salary/roster/development aspects, etc.).
A common wrong assessment of Lin. His speed and agility was actually rated higher than Rose. I agree that Westbrook is more athletic.
