The last time that Jeremy Lin was playing in New York, the moniker Linsanity was coined. But that was ages ago, more than five years ago in fact.
He has returned to New York for the upcoming NBA season but not with the Knicks but with the other team based in the state, the Brooklyn Nets.
Realistically, the addition of Jeremy Lin does not turn the Brooklyn Nets into an outright playoff contender in the Eastern Conference but it has enabled the Nets to start putting the right pieces together following inappropriate trades and player signings during the past years. The team was not doing well in the NBA draft too.
Jeremy Lin admits that he is not coming to the Nets as its next star player because he still thinks, like most critics and fans do, that the team’s main man is still big man Brook Lopez.
The 27-year-old Harvard graduate says that whatever the Nets lack in talent, they are to make up for it in teamwork and that he hopes to compliment the game of Brook Lopez to nurture their pick-and-roll game the way that John Stockton and Karl Malone had perfected it when they were still playing with the Utah Jazz.
So from Linsanity during Lin’s first tenure in New York with the Knicks, Brook Lopez and Jeremy Lin are now being dubbed as Brook-Lin, representing their duo.
Capitalizing on the special bond
Head coach Kenny Atkinson, who will be calling the shots from the Nets bench for the first time, is one of the reasons why Jeremy Lin was lured by the Nets from a spectacular season with the Charlotte Hornets.
Atkinson and Lin first worked together when they were still both with the New York Knicks and the new Nets head coach believes that the special bond between him and Lin can reap dividends for the team in the long run, cites Game & Guide.
Jeremy Lin will be the starting point guard for the Brooklyn Nets, something which he would not get if he stayed with the Charlotte Hornets, and Atkinson believes that the American of Taiwanese descent will be very crucial in keeping the team together and inculcating the value of teamwork.
Based on such premise, Lin shall definitely have a big load on his shoulders playing for the Nets, which pretty much approximates his worth to the team after signing a $36 million three-year deal with the Nets as a free agent in July.
Ready to showcase his wares
While the NBA 2016-17 season is still a couple of months away, Jeremy Lin is reportedly excited to showcase his wares as the starting point guard for the Brooklyn Nets.
In fact, his first game as a Nets player would already happen when they play against the Boston Celtics on October 26.
But there would be several more pre-season games before that so Jeremy Lin would have more than enough time to harness his game and prepare to be the court general for the Brooklyn Nets.
According to a sports analyst, Jeremy Lin and the Brooklyn Nets are a perfect match because the team has a roster filled with youth while Lin is a relative veteran who could step in immediately and start at the point, notes Fansided.
While some critics are saying that the $36 million on Lin is rather on the side of overpaid, it should be noted that the Nets had offer sheets of $50 million and $75 million matched on Tyler Johnson and Allen Crabbe, respectively. So Lin is not a bad option for the team at his current salary.
More than the salary, Jeremy Lin has recently stated that the primary reason why he took the offer of the Brooklyn Nets during the free agency was because of head coach Kenny Atkinson.
Atkinson was a former bench mate of the 27-year-old Harvard graduate on the New York Knicks bench before ‘Linsanity’ took everyone by storm during the 2011-12 NBA season.