Jeremy Lin: Why the New York Knicks Should Consider Bringing Him Back in 2015
Hindsight is always 20/20, and with the New York Knicks' future looking murky, you can't help but wonder how things might have turned out if they made a different call regarding letting Jeremy Lin go.
Presently, the Knicks, the reigning Atlantic Division champions, are stuck at the bottom of their division with a woeful 11-22 record while the mediocre Toronto Raptors are on top with a 16-16 record. Yep, the division champs have become the worst team in arguably the worst division in the NBA. Riddled with injuries and lacking the effectiveness on offense they had last season when Jason Kidd helped transform the Knicks into a major offensive threat, the Knicks are looking more and more like a team bound for the lottery. On the other side of the NBA in the Western Conference, Lin has been enjoying a turnaround season while the Houston Rockets, the team the Knicks let him go to, are 22-13 and only 4 and a half games behind the San Antonio Spurs for the Southwest Division lead as they make a serious push to be a viable NBA championship threat for the first time since the mid-1990s.
A big part of the reason why the Knicks are struggling is the lack of leadership on the court, thanks to Tyson Chandler recovering from a broken leg and Kidd and Rasheed Wallace, both big contributors for the Knicks last year, having retired prior to the start of the season. The retirement of Kidd, in particular, has truly hurt the Knicks, with New York lacking production and leadership at the point guard position with Kidd gone and Raymond Felton having a weak and injury-prone season, averaging only 10.5 points and 5.1 assists as opposed to his strong first half last year.
Meanwhile, Lin, who finds himself in the thick of the NBA All-Star vote, currently fourth overall among West guards in the fan voting, has rediscovered his shooting touch, hitting 47.9 percent from the field and averaging 14.1 points off the bench for the Rockets as he makes his case for being a serious NBA Sixth Man of the Year candidate, adding a lot of stability—yes, odd that such a word should be used to describe Lin, whose production last season changed like the wind at times—to the Rockets. That has been crucial for Houston at a time when most of their backcourt, including All-Star James Harden and up-and-comer Patrick Beverley, has been dealing with injuries.
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When Lin emerged from obscurity in February 2012 for the Knicks, he did so with a brilliant flash of offense that had many assuming New York had found a new star and its starting point guard for years to come. However, when Lin became a free agent amid the hype of "Linsanity," his stock rose through the roof, as did the asking price for the journeyman-turned-overnight star. Caught between several interested teams, the Knicks lost out on the bidding war for Lin's services that summer to Houston, who offered him a backloaded three-year, $25 million contract that the salary cap-strapped Knicks were not willing to match.
Lin's struggles, adjustments and improvements have since been documented in Houston, but the rise and the fall of the Knicks in the aftermath of letting Lin go has been widely looked at, their struggles at the point where superstar Carmelo Anthony is rumored to be considering leaving the team when his player opt-out clause kicks in this summer. It's almost ironic in a way that the Knicks find themselves in the same dire situation they did two winters ago, when they desperately needed a hero and Lin came out of nowhere to help save their season. Now, the man they let slip away is not only helping another team get on the winning track, but he takes delight in coming back to haunt the Knicks every time he locks horns with his old team.
On Friday, Lin scored 14 points and four assists as he helped the Rockets stay 4-0 against the Knicks since the Lin trade with a thrilling 102-100 win. In that game, Lin outscored virtually all the Knicks' point guards save Iman Shumpert, who tallied 26 points for the night. With the Knicks near the bottom of the league in team scoring, ranked 24 out of 30 with only 95.1 points a night, they could use Lin's talent for offense and his relentless attacks on the basket these days. Shumpert has shown flashes of being able to do that, but he has been unable to provide that kind of consistency on a nightly basis for him to become a viable offensive option. And with Felton faltering, Pablo Prigioni and Beno Udrih aren't any more closer to providing direction or offensive production at the point guard position and Tim Hardaway Jr., though talented, is also not a threat on offense even if he was shifted from the two-guard spot into point guard.
There is the slim chance that the Knicks could consider bringing Lin back to the fold after he comes off the books in 2015, especially considering that Lin may be less than thrilled with playing off the bench under Rockets coach Kevin McHale. Until then, the Knicks can only soldier up, try to claw their way out of the hole they dug for themselves and wonder where they might be right now if the sparkplug guard they let walk away was still there to shine a light into what is becoming a very dark winter in New York basketball.