Great article by Les Carpenter. Lots of things that make this a unique story that is going to have everyone’s eyes glued to the TV.
They sent him to the D-League. When the Knicks put him on a plane to Erie in late January, Lin was terrified that last year was happening again, that his NBA dream was gone, that he was destined to be an interesting footnote in a long list of international firsts the league loves to tout as it lumbers toward world domination.
Alright. I’m going to go all Hubie Brown on it.
The Analysis: The way Jeremy moves and penetrates is very similar to Tony Parker. And like Tony, we haven’t seen the outside shot too much. We’ll see how bigger guards do defending him once they play the Lakers (I imagine Ron or Kobe will take a swat at him) or even a team like Minnesota with the lengthy Ricky Rubio. Can Jeremy develop the shot and can he probe without getting frustrated when the defense forces him outside? The bigger question to me though is how Jeremy is going to fit in once Carmelo and Amar’e come back. The pick-and-roll will be there with Amar’e but they’re going to have to find a way to include Carmelo without slowing the pace. We know Amar’e is used to the uptempo D’Antoni style but the Phoenix team he and D’Antoni were a part of had no Carmelo equivalent. For this to work well, Carmelo is going to have to do his best Joe Johnson impression—run tirelessly, hit the 3 and cut like there’s no tomorrow.
