Kobe Bryant took the day off on the 41st game of the Los Angeles Lakers to rest the nagging injury that was supposed to be bothering him. While some in the media believes that there is more to Kobe’s absence, coach Byron Scott says that there’s nothing to it and that’s that.
With the Black Mamba out of the roster, focus is on the second highest-paid player in the Lakers uniform on active list. And that’s no other than Jeremy Lin. It could have been Steve Nash but he’s out for the rest of the season.
The Harvard graduate is playing on the last year of a three-year $25 million contract acquired by the Lakers from the Houston Rockets during the off-season, which means that Lin is approximately receiving $8.3 million this season.
But it seems that Jeremy Lin is not playing at par with what he is getting paid for and also what Kobe Bryant and the Lakers expect from him as one of the team’s point guards.
Neither terrible nor great
Lakers coach Byron Scott says that Lin is really not playing terrible but he’s not playing great either. He is okay but below what is expected of him, adds Scott.
That became obvious once again during the game of the Lakers versus the Jazz at the EnergySolutions Center on January 18 where the team suffered another 94-85 setback, pushing further the Lakers’ win-loss slate to 12-29, the fourth worst in the league, exactly midway to the season.
The San Jose Mercury News detailed that Jeremy Lin, started at the point, played for 30 minutes but churned out only six points on 3-of-10 shooting, three assists, and three turnovers.
Nick Young led the Lakers with 24 markers on 4 of 9 shooting and a perfect 13 of 13 from the free throw line.
Observers believe that Lin could have used the opportunity to take over the game the way he did as a reliever with the New York Knicks some four years ago knowing that their star player is out. He could have brought Linsanity back with Kobe Bryant out in the sidelines and nobody is pressuring him to deliver what he is capable of dishing as a player. But he did not.
Nearer and nearer to the end
With the Lakers fans and basketball pundits all eyes on Jeremy Lin, he seems to be melting under the pressure to deliver and he appears to be losing it.
He knows he is in the trading block already and there’s no way for Jeremy Lin to get his bearings back again in a Lakers uniform.
LA should do the right thing and pull the trigger on a possible trade before the deadline. Not only will it do the team good, it will also put the fire and confidence back on the relatively young NBA career of Jeremy Lin.