After sending Jeremy Lin to the Los Angeles Lakers on the third and final year of his $25 million contract last summer, the Houston Rockets appears to be intent on landing the Harvard graduate once again when he becomes a free agent next summer.
According to a report by SB Nation, the Rockets are reportedly keenly interested in bringing back Jeremy Lin to its fold when he becomes a free agent in summer.
It seems that the Houston Rockets know something that many in the media covering the NBA do not. Everyone knows that Jeremy Lin has been placed by the Lakers on the trading block as early as December last year.
Now it is becoming clearer and clearer that the originator of Linsanity almost four years ago in New York, has no takers from other NBA teams, with just a matter of less than five days before the NBA trading deadline.
Looking for a point guard
The Rockets’ keen interest on Jeremy Lin is being fuelled by the fact that the team needs a legitimate point guard. Patrick Beverly’s contract will be expiring at the end of the current season. They are on the same boat as Jason Terry.
The Houston basketball squad is also looking to get via the trade route Goran Dragic, the Slovenian guard from Phoenix Suns. And if the team indeed lands Dragic before the February 19 trade deadline, they would have to deal with him this summer too as he shall also become a free agent by then.
The Rockets are obviously eyeing multiple free agent point guards this year. The team wants to become known as the ideal destination for any point guard who does not care how many shots or points he gets.
Should the Rockets lose Beverly and Terry to free agency next summer, they still have Isaiah Canaan who can get a real shot at point guard duties for the team.
Worst year in LA
The 26-year-old Jeremy Lin is having his worst NBA year with the Lakers. He is averaging 10.4 points, 4.6 assists per game while shooting 43.2 percent from the field and a career-high of 37.4 percent from the three-point area.
Now that Kobe Bryant is out for the rest of the season after undergoing and completing surgery on his torn rotator cuff, Lin could have turned this into an opportunity to score but he is obviously not up to it the way he was during his Linsanity days with the New York Knicks.
Lin could certainly not do scoring so much if he’s with the Rockets especially if he’s a teammate of James Harden, the current scoring leader in the NBA season.
It is not clear whether Jeremy would still get a $25 million for three years deal or more with the Rockets come this summer but pundits believe that given his sub-par performance with the Lakers and the perception that he is overpaid, it would certainly do Lin some good if he does not put so much price on himself come the free agency.