New York Knicks: Jeremy Lin by Reggie Williams

It’s no hype – dude is Lin-tastic!

“Just let me know when you come back home, but knowing Mr. Analytical himself, I know you haven’t bought into the LIN-Sanity.”

This was the text received from my brother about a week ago. He wanted to know if I was ready to rekindle my childhood love for the New York Knicks.

I’m not!

Yes, I had heard all the Jeremy Lin hype. Like my brother mentioned, I am very analytical and I wasn’t going to anoint Lin a great player because he had performed well for a “whole” five games. I want to see what happens over a 66-game season before I’m ready to anoint him “Broadway Lin.”

So with the Knicks facing the Dallas Mavericks this past Sunday, I rushed home to get my personal courtside seat to see what all the hype was about. After watching just one game I’ve concluded that ‘this dude is Lin-tastic!’

My arriving at this decision had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Lin dropped 28 points (shooting 55 percent from the field) while dishing out 14 dimes. To truly evaluate Lin’s game, you must throw out the numbers – including the excessive turnovers – and watch his court play. It’s Lin properly understanding point-guard play that proves he is the real deal.

Lin is a phenomenal floor general with a savvy understanding of ball possession. At one point in the third quarter, the 6’3 guard committed three turnovers. Coming out of a timeout following the third turnover, Lin penetrated the lane, scored the basket and got fouled. On the ensuing offensive set, once again he takes it to the rim and completes an old fashioned 3-point play. Producing big plays after negative possessions are reserved for ballers.

Many critics have taken Lin to the woodshed because of the frequencies of his turnovers. But the reality is that those are just a part of his learning curve; they will begin to diminish shortly after the All-Star break.

Lin’s court vision is sharp. At one stretch of the fourth quarter he not only found sharp-shooting teammate Steve Novak with consistency, Lin forced Dallas to be occupied with thoughts of what he would do, subsequently negating placing any defensive coverage on Novak, who drained four ‘3s on five attempts. Dallas, one of the best defenses in the League, had to honor Lin’s ability to get into the lane which left craters for passing lanes. The hard traps employed by Dallas to slow Lin down were ineffective at best. And Dallas was so concerned with Lin’s ability to get to the rack that they gave him a couple of uncontested ‘3s. Both Shawn Marion and Dirk Nowitski (Mavericks forwards) – protecting the paint – were caught playing matador defense late in the game.

Lin’s leadership is also obvious. When he appeared on the floor, the offense ran with fluidity. But for the 3 ½ minutes that the Harvard grad sat on the bench, the offense looked like they were caught in Broadway’s rush hour traffic. No. 17 has made New York relevant – something neither Carmelo Anthony nor Amar’e Stoudemire have done.

Lin-sanity is no hype; this dude can straight ball!