Jeremy Lin came out of seemingly thin air to to provide the struggling New York Knicks the spark they very much needed. His play has been almost indescribable, but Shaquille O’Neal probably provided the best description of his play thus fair. He tweeted:
“Linderrella story of the year jeremy lin has lingle handedly played lensational lincredible I’m linpressed all he does is Lin Lin Lin”
There seems to be a “LIN-finite” amount of adjectives that can be used while inserting his name in them to emphasize his phenomenal play. He is definitely due the credit. Some say he is a future All-Star in the NBA, and even more say he is currently one, and the fans in Madison Square Garden consider him the “M-V-P” according to their chant. There’s no denying the impact he has brought to the NBA right now, and “Linsanity” is fit for the moment, but is there any way he can sustain this type of play?
In his first six games he was averaging almost 28 points and nine assists per contest. In fact, he had put up more points than any other NBA player in his first five starts since 1975, a prestigious list that has NBA greats such as Shaquille O’Neal and Dominique Wilkins. And in the seventh consecutive win for the Knicks, he had a career-high 13 assists. Lin can definitely sustain this play, especially with Amare Stoudemire coming back, who plays very well off the pick and roll. The biggest concern is whether Lin, Carmelo and Amare can all play together.
Unfortunately, Carmelo Anthony is going to be the person who keeps Lin from developing into a better player. Since the trade for Anthony, the Knicks actually have a worse record than the Nuggets and have a record with Carmelo well below .500. Carmelo MUST dominate the ball. He is an isolation player who has dominated the ball his entire career. In fact, when the Knicks traded for Carmelo, their offense became very stagnant, Amare Stoudemire, who was having an MVP caliber season until the trade, saw a dip in his stats, and Landry Fields, who was on pace to win the Rookie of the Year Award last season, saw his development come to a sudden halt. Keep in mind, since Carmelo has been hurt, the Knicks have won six consecutive games.
The only problems Jeremy Lin is having thus far are his turnovers, at six a game, and his on-ball defense, which are things he can work on. However, when Carmelo Anthony comes back from injury, Lin’s numbers will definitely drop. He won’t have his assist numbers because of the way Carmelo isolates, and his scoring will drop because he’s going to have to share the wealth with Amare and the domineering Anthony.
In lieu of Jeremy Lin being sensational, look for it to calm down severely. I don’t doubt him, I doubt the people (Carmelo Anthony) around him. Lin is a great talent and I wish him nothing but the best.
On a completely unrelated note, I bet the Golden State Warriors, and moreover, the Houston Rockets, have a very salty taste in their mouths right now with all of this LIN-sanity.