If Jeremy Lin becomes the consistently productive and imaginative floor general he was during his short stint as a Knickerbocker, the circumstances that allowed him to become a Rocket will be regrettable.
But as it is now, you can’t blame Jim Dolan and the Knicks for letting Lin walk despite having the right to match Houston’s three-year, $25 million offer sheet.
It’s overly simplistic to say Lin’s controversial exit played out in a way only the Garden could botch.
Really it was Lin himself who ended up controlling the next step of his out-of-nowhere career by inking a document containing what’s referred to as a poison pill. With $15 million back loaded in the third year of a proposal tailored to trigger luxury tax headaches for Dolan, Lin and the Rockets cut a deal that both parties knew would likely end Linsanity at the world’s most famous.
Lin pocketed about $6 million additional guaranteed by signing up for the re-worked Houston offer. But by doing so, Lin sealed his exile to a city with zero basketball buzz. What Lin gained in additional total salary from Houston would have been dwarfed by the value of lost endorsement opportunities should he manage to push the re-start button on the set of skills he displayed in half a season as a Knick.
Maybe Lin knows he’s not for real and wanted every last penny before the bubble bursts. Or maybe (as I suspect) he projects it impossible to succeed in a lineup that is saddled with Carmelo Anthony’s me-first act.
Once Melo got D’Antoni fired and prompted management to put pushover Mike Woodson in the driver’s seat, perhaps Lin knew the ball-sharing style of play he so successfully orchestrated would be impossible. Remember: Linsanity blossomed while Melo sat with an injury.
I was in a banh mi joint in Queens Wednesday night and one of the items on the menu was the Lin Sandwich. He captured every corner of this city’s imagination and made watching the Knicks a lotta fun. Dolan will likely never get in front of a microphone and explain his decision, but the stiff luxury tax formula included in the new CBA means the Knicks would be on the hook for about two bucks for every dollar over the cap in 2014-15.
Even without Lin in the picture, the Knicks are projected to have a difficult time staying under the cap given the bloated max-out commitments to Stat and Melo. That’s not Lin’s fault, of course, but you can see how that third-year spike in Houston’s Lin offer would be problematic.
Dolan’s math with luxury tax included made Houston’s offer sheet exorbitant even by the Garden’s standards. The decision to let Lin leave drives Knick fans crazy because of all the bad money thrown after bad up until now. But if you assess this move in isolation, the Knicks probably did the right thing given the distinct possibility that Lin doesn’t pan out long term.
