The kid is 23 years old, plays a premium position, had a 20 PER last season and is widely considered to have high upside. If you're a rebuilding team and can sign a player like that for reasonable money (not near max), isn't that exactly the kind of move you should make? I'd still rather have Dragic if all things are equal, but if it's a question of Dragic at $10+ mil over five years with Lin at $7.5 mil over three or four... I'm not so sure. To me, it has nothing to do with marketing. I don't care if he's Asian, white, black or anything else. Lin's basketball profile makes him a good candidate for a young, rebuilding team, especially at the rumored price. It's not a franchise-changing move, but if the Rockets can take advantage of the Knicks' pursuit of Steve Nash and steal a quality young player, it's a move I support. (All said, I still think NYK matches.)
If you judge a player by one game - especially against the defense of LeBron James - you can make basically any player in the NBA look awful. Sample size.
With all that cap room they have oh ya they'll bite on a 15 m luxury tax bite lol Knicks will not match a bloated backend contract
True just look at what MJ and Scottie did to Toni Kukoc in the Olympics- and he was good-speaking of is DMO comparable to Kukoc just thought of that can move skinny and long arms and just long Hmmmm....
I hope you're right, but I'd be surprised. James Dolan is insanely rich, and Lin does bring a lot of off-court revenue. It's a very unique situation.
NY will match. Lin is too valuable to them in getting deals, even if he never sees the floor again with Nash taking over.
If they matched, they would have to unload 2 of the big 4 before signing any FA to something more than the mini mid level exception for the next 3 years. It's not just about paying the tax penalty which could be $50 mil by 2014, but also not being able to make moves and having to spend $3 to $1 to keep any players you have that outperform the small contracts you had them on in the first place, which is highly likely since playing next to Melo and with Nash for 3 years really helps the resume. They may have to pay Nash under the table to get him to retire before his 3rd year before that poison pill in J Lin's contract kicked in and took $40 mil of Dolan's money. Maybe they match and amnesty Amare. But they aren't going to just match the offer and stand pat, I assume they are smarter than that in NYC. Brooklyn may actually be a good team next year, NYK can't lose all flexibility keeping Lin around.
I have a feeling they'll throw caution and conventional wisdom into the wind and keep Lin despite the grotesque tax penalties and loss of flexibility that you mention. Of course, I must admit I base this on my superstitious belief that the rockets have bad luck and will be unable to sign any of our free agent targets this summer, and lose what they could have kept (ie Courtney Lee, Goran Dragic) in those pursuits.
Jeremy Lin's value goes beyond his on court performance. Yes, a lot of his allure has to do with jersey sales and endorsements. So what? If Lin makes Leslie Alexander money, that is a GOOD thing. More money means that the organization will be more willing to buy second round draft picks, more willing to go into the luxury tax. A lot of Yao's value didn't just come from him as a player, but as a cash cow for the organization and a player who could lure other players with the promise of possible Chinese endorsements and increased exposure on national TV. Jeremy Lin could accomplish the same thing, even without being the player of Yao's caliber. Lin's talent is at least comparable to Gogi's. Plus, he is cheaper and younger. Can't hate on this.
Man yall need to understand what makes a contract bad. What we are offering two young players with upside is not a bad contract. It's just not. Bad contracts are players on the decline, making a lot of money, with a lot of years left. That's almost every player near or past 30 on the decline with years left to go.
They can't amnesty Amare. They used it stupidly on Billups. If they match our offer, when Lin's contract spikes up, they will owe about 73 mil to only 4 players if nash isn't there. Taxes make that rise to over 120 mil (repeat offending lux tax by 2014)! No gm could be that stupid. That's financial hell.
Lin's embarraassing performance against the heat : he's exposed (1 game) Then turnaround and b**** about Lin's other good - dominant performance being such a small sample size. Typical Lin hater way of thinking.
Exactly. I forgot about Billups. So even that longshot isn't a possibility. That poison pill is going to hurt in 2014. I'll say it again, if Jeremy Lin wants to be a Houston Rocket, he will be a Houston Rocket. 4 yrs / $30 million sounds about right. $5 / $5 / $8 / $12 is all it would take to wreak havoc on NYK future flexibility. Why does that contract sound bad to Houston fans? If we get under the cap once out of the next 2 seasons we can avoid that harshest repeater tax in 2014 where paying the luxury on Lin's contract is a $1 to $1 match but if the Knicks do so they will be paying at a $3 to $1 rate.
It would be even more fun if Kelvin Sampson is allowed to direct the offense (I know he's the defensive coordinator), because McHale doesn't do much of that. I loved watching Sampson's OU teams and all of their offensive sets. Not sure if this would happen, but I wish it would.
