From a $4.3 million two-year bargain deal he signed with the Charlotte Hornets last year just to get out of a rut from a disappointing season with the Los Angeles Lakers, Jeremy Lin has turned his game around and came out a winner in the NBA free agency.
Right on the first day of the free agency market on July 1, the 27-year-old Harvard graduate inked a lucrative $36 million three-year deal with the Brooklyn Nets, which is almost 900% more than what he got from the Hornets last year.
Charlotte expressed interest in keeping him to maintain the core of its team that made it to the playoffs in April and notch its first playoff victory in years but the team can only offer Jeremy Lin a maximum annual salary of $5.6 million. After all, the team also had to work on keeping its other key starters including Nicolas Batum and Marvin Williams.
The Hornets were already able to secure Batum and Williams to multi-year multi-million deals but already lost Jeremy Lin and Courtney Lee to the free agency.
Linsanity returns to New York
Many are saying that with his decision to sign up for the Brooklyn Nets, Jeremy Lin will officially return to New York, where his NBA career was first recognized playing for the Knicks.
It was during the 2011-12 NBA season when he exhibited his explosive run for the Knicks while Carmelo Anthony was injured that earned him the moniker of ‘Linsanity.’
Only this time, he will return to New York City but on the other side of the bridge. After leaving the Knicks at the end of that season, and signing up with the Houston Rockets, it was gradual downhill for Jeremy Lin.
Some critics are saying that Jeremy Lin actually plays well for Eastern Conference teams more than the Western Conference teams, which is based on sound logic and experience.
His first year was with the Golden State Warriors where he was a benchwarmer. His stint with the Houston Rockets for two years under then-coach Kevin McHale, he was not able to get a feel for the game because he was playing in the same spot as James Harden.
Lin was also a lost soul in the rotation of then Lakers coach Byron Scott and he was not able to click playing alongside Kobe Bryant or at least before the Black Mamba had that season-ending shoulder injury and subsequent operation that year.
In New York, he made a splash as a replacement to the injured Anthony and he had a run of more than 20 games where he was the leading scorer of the Knicks. Last season with Charlotte, he was the reliable sixth man and there were several times that he led the Hornets in defeating powerhouse teams including eventual champion Cleveland Cavaliers and the mighty San Antonio Spurs.
A solid move for the Nets
Unlike in the past seasons when the Brooklyn Nets seems to have fumbled big time with its trade moves, the decision to acquire Lin was a solid one, reports the New York Times.
It finally puts stability on their backcourt after they lost Deron Williams and then Joe Johnson in consecutive seasons because of ill-advised trades.
For Jeremy Lin, the decision to sign up with the Nets has his wish granted of finally playing as the starting point guard for a team which has been in the process of rebuilding for rather a long time. Lin adds depth and stability to its backcourt.
The Nets just won 21 out of 82 games last season and critics have opined that the reason why fans come to watch the team’s home games at the Barclays Center is because they are more interested in seeing the visiting teams win over the home team.
Jeremy Lin would certainly add some spunk to the Nets’ backcourt rotation and if he can match his level of play and energy he exhibited last season, he is bound to make the Nets a better team in the upcoming 2016-17 NBA season.
With his per game average of 11.7 points, 3.2 assists, and 3 rebounds last season, Jeremy Lin ended up in the seventh spot in the NBA’s sixth man of the year balloting.