The NBA is more fun with Jeremy Lin in it. And on a more practical level, he can still be a useful rotation player. Before a midseason move to Toronto that got him a ring but reduced his usage to garbage time, he averaged 10.7 points and 3.5 assists in 19.7 minutes per game as a backup/mentor to Trae Young in Atlanta.
You’d think some team would find a use for a player like that, but Lin remains unsigned, and apparently without offers. And at an appearance at a basketball clinic in Taiwan this weekend, an emotional Lin allowed that it’s wearing on him.
“Every year it gets harder. And in English there’s a saying and it says once you hit rock bottom, the only way is up. But rock bottom just seems to keep getting more and more rock bottom for me. So, free agency has been tough. Because I feel like in some ways the NBA’s kind of given up on me.”
CSKA Moscow is said to be targeting Lin to play point guard, to replace the departed Nando de Colo, who signed with Fenerbahçe earlier this month. (The same report says that if they can’t get Lin, CSKA will target Ron Baker. The Euroleague is a real Guy-Rememberer’s paradise.)
Lin says he believes that he’ll receive an offer of the veteran’s minimum in training camp or after the start of the NBA season, and he very well may, but he might not want to wait that long, and the Russian offer likely pays better.
If I may make a suggestion that would probably be roundly rejected by all parties, the Knicks should sign Lin. They’re not going anywhere, and they could at least run things back to 2012, the last time being a Knicks fan was any fun.