While he has yet to say it directly and officially, Jeremy Lin also believes that he will not play for the Los Angeles Lakers next season.
He does not have to say the obvious but when he was asked what does he thinks of his future with the Lakers, the 26-year-old Harvard graduate refused to say anything at all. He just said that he will diplomatically hold off any predictions with regards to his future with the team, notes the LA Times.
Jeremy Lin was not able to play on the Lakers game against the Timberworlves on April 10 because of sore knee. But after undergoing an MRI on the hurting knee, it only showed a cartilage abnormality, which is not serious at all and does not require any type of surgery.
Depending on Byron Scott, Lin may be able to play the last three games of the Lakers or he may no longer be.
It can be recalled that Jeremy Lin was made the starting point guard of the Lakers with 11 games remaining on the team’s forgettable regular season, where it will be headed again to the lottery for the second consecutive year.
10-game test
It was reported then that Byron Scott would put Lin back on the starting unit and his performance during the last 10 games of the Lakers would determine whether he would be re-signed by the team during the off-season or not.
But the Lakers were a woeful, 3-7 in its last 10 games, not counting its remaining three games. So it was obvious that Jeremy Lin was not able to do something dramatic to change his fortunes with the Showtime franchise.
If not for the victory over the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves on April 10, the Lakers would be looking at a six-game losing streak, or possibly a nine-game losing streak to end the regular season as they will be up against playoff-bound teams in its last games.
Lately, head coach Byron Scott was saying that he does not want Jeremy Lin to score but merely to have that point guard mindset first of getting players involved with scoring coming in only as an option.
Scott says that he still believes in old school basketball where point guards are there to distribute the ball and get others to score and be part of the game. This was actually in stark contrast to the instruction he gave to Lin in February that he should start playing aggressively, consistent with what Kobe Bryant has been telling the point guard at the start of the season.
On the way out
With Jordan Clarkson becoming more of a revelation as a point guard plus reports that Rajon Rondo of the Dallas Mavericks is being eyed by the Lakers, Jeremy Lin is indeed on the way out.
But if there’s one thing good going for Lin is the fact that the Dallas Mavericks and Mark Cuban have already expressed interest in getting his services during the free agency.
Jeremy Lin shall definitely has his next stop in his colorful journey in the NBA. If and when he is taken in next season by a different team, it would be his fifth team in five years or an average of one team per year. It’s up to Lin to prove his worth so that he can finally find a place and a team he can call home.