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So what gives? How does Jeremy Lin go from getting cut by two mediocre clubs
-- the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets, to starring on one of the
league's biggest stages, all within a period of three months?
To find out, we asked some of the league's talent evaluators and here's how
they explained the 6-foot-3 Harvard grad's ascension from undrafted D-
Leaguer to New York Knicks energizer. Lin, who was beaten out by Goran
Dragic and Jonny Flynn for Houston's backup point guard spot in December,
has averaged 25 points and eight assists while shooting 58 percent from the
floor over the last three games.
No one wanted to take credit away from Lin, but no one was ready to declare
him the next Steve Nash, either, and no one was ready to call out the
Warriors and Rockets (or all the other teams that passed on him in the 2010
draft) as numbskulls. But they said that there's more at work than Lin's
ability.
For one, Mike D'Antoni's system plays a huge role. D'Antoni was often
referred to as an offensive genius during his great run with the Phoenix
Suns. Well, judging from his inability to mesh the talents of Carmelo
Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, we've seen that he's not quite all that. D'
Antoni is more like a one-trick pony, and his one trick is a terrific
offense for a point guard.
Lin's surge is just the latest evidence that a competent point guard who
possesses natural point guard instincts and doesn't give up his dribble
easily will look much better in D'Antoni's offense than in just about any
other system. Remember Chris Duhon? Three years ago, he averaged 11.1 points
and 7.2 assists on 42 percent shooting (all career highs by a mile) for D'
Antoni's Knicks. Now he's a three-points-per-game scorer while backing up
the struggling Jameer Nelson in Orlando.
How about Raymond Felton? He actually garnered All-Star consideration while
starting for the Knicks last season, and his career-high numbers (again, by
a mile) of 17 points and nine assists per game warranted it. Since leaving D
'Antoni, things haven't gone as smoothly. First, Felton found himself
backing up Ty Lawson in Denver, and now he's averaging 10 points and fewer
than seven assists while shooting just 37 percent with Portland.
Heck, even the fantastic Nash wasn't so fantastic before hooking up with D'
Antoni. A two-time All-Star who never averaged as many as nine assists per
game in Dallas, Nash was light years away from being an MVP candidate or
Hall of Famer. In fact, his last season in Dallas was so ho-hum (14 points,
eight assists per game) that Mark Cuban didn't even try hard to re-sign him.
Enter D'Antoni and the rest is history, as Nash's scoring, assists and field
goal percentage all skyrocketed and blazed a trail all the way to
Springfield, Mass. And in case you're wondering, Nash is still running D'
Antoni's system for Alvin Gentry in Phoenix.
"If a point guard can't find success in D'Antoni's system, he's not a point
guard," one league executive said, "At least not an NBA point guard."
Lin's predecessors in New York this season, Toney Douglas and Iman Shumpert,
are fine talents, but neither is a real point guard.
So what is it about D'Antoni's system that's so great for point guards?
Golden State coach Mark Jackson, who played 17 seasons in the NBA and ranks
third all time in career assists, broke it down.
"He gives his point guard a lot of freedom," Jackson said. "The ball is in
the point guard's hands a lot. They run multiple pick-and-rolls and they
spread the floor. The spreading of the court makes it tough to help on the
point guard so he has more room to operate. That's key, so Mike's offense
works to the advantage of a playmaking point guard."
Lester Conner, another longtime point guard in the league who's now an
assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks, agreed, but stressed that it's not
all about D'Antoni.
"Mike runs some nice offensive stuff but he's not making the right pass or
hitting the 18-foot jump shot," Conner said. "Lin's doing that. So it's a
combination of a good system and a player that knows how to play."
TNT analyst Steve Kerr, who served as president of the Suns while D'Antoni
coached in Phoenix, said even though D'Antoni's system is favorable for
point guards, it takes a special playmaker to pick up the system as quickly
as Lin has.
"When you think about all the backup point guards Phoenix tried behind Nash
all those years, nobody really jumped out in terms of mastering the system
or at least using the system to inflate their stats," Kerr said. "So I think
this kid is legit. He's got great feel for the game. It is a good system
for him but it's not like anybody can just jump in there and do what he's
doing. People are going to adapt and try to cut off penetration and make him
shoot, but he's a good player."
During this three-game stint in which he's outplayed John Wall, Devin Harris
and perennial All-Star Deron Williams, Lin has kept his dribble alive,
shown great ability to penetrate off the pick-and-roll, finished well at the
rim, and found his shooters on the perimeter when drawing multiple
defenders. In short, he's played like many legitimate point guards do.
Another factor in Lin's emergence has been D'Antoni's belief in him. Sources
say Lin was outplaying the hampered Baron Davis badly in practice and that
helped him earn D'Antoni's trust. And with Douglas and Shumpert struggling
mightily and Davis' sore back killing him, D'Antoni had no other options but
to give Lin the opportunity to play through his mistakes.
So while Lin's been great, he also had eight turnovers against Utah and gave
up 29 points to Washington's Wall.
"A player can only be as good as his coach thinks he is," one league
executive said. "There are a bunch of guys who are one coach liking them
away from being a decent player in this league. If your coach has you on a
short leash and pulls you out every time you make a mistake, you're going to
play like crap.
"Jeremy Lin is just like a whole bunch of guys," the executive continued. "I
've seen three guys in the D-League recently who are like him. He's no
better than he was two weeks ago. But he's been given an opportunity with a
coach who believes in him."
Jackson agreed. "Having a coach that believes in you is more than half the
battle," Jackson said. "I tell people all the time that I could've been a
guy that -- if I had been drafted by somebody else, who knows how long I
would've played in the league or how successful I would've been. But the
Knicks drafted me and Rick Pitino believed in me and gave me the ball and I
played 17 years. So I'm a guy that believes the confidence a coach has in a
player is a bigger part of an individual's success than most people think. I
've seen coaches kill players by taking a guy out when he makes mistakes."
Jackson said he's overjoyed for Lin and the success he's having. He had no
idea how good Lin could be because he never saw him play. Moments before the
Warriors' first practice, the team cut Lin to clear enough salary cap space
to offer DeAndre Jordan a four-year, $43 million contract that the Los
Angeles Clippers ultimately matched.
D'Antoni's seat was getting awfully hot before Lin led the Knicks to three
straight victories. The front office was being patient with D'Antoni and,
understanding how point-guard dependent his system was, wanted to give him a
chance to coach with a true playmaker.
The guy they were waiting for was Baron Davis. But it's turned out that the
guy they needed, at least so far, was Lin. And while D'Antoni's "discovery"
of him might have saved Lin's career, Lin's emergence could end up saving D'
Antoni's job. |
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