Linball

Exactly. I really don't get the hate for Melo. He was the guy who suggested putting Lin into the lineup in the first place and has been supportive and I don't think the way he used the word "ridiculous" was meant as a knock on Lin -- more something that the media latched onto for a headline.

Regardless, the Knicks' smartest move was to sign him before he became a free agent. They blew that. But I don't think they necessarily should have matched Houston's offer given the $32 million hit. Felton is probably the better player of the two and he costs a fraction.

Anyway, good for Lin that he got paid. He's a fun player to watch and let's remember he more than paid for himself by ending the Cablevision-Time Warner dispute last winter.

 

qtlaw touched on this briefly, but I'll also bring it up - Isn't Daryl Morey a bit of an evil genius in this? With that third year, he basically took a page from David Letterman's playbook. When Letterman left NBC for CBS, NBC had the right to match any contract offer he got, but Letterman's agent smartly had CBS insert a poison pill into the contract - If Letterman wasn't the host of an 11:35 p.m. show, he got an extra $50 million. Obviously, that was no problem for CBS, but NBC wasn't willing to go there. It strikes me as a direct parallel to this, where if the Knicks want to match that final year, it costs them an extra $30 million or so, but it costs the Rockets nothing.

(By the way though, these are the Knicks, so there is a greater than zero chance they'll be paying that much anyway, when they trade Fields and Kidd for Joe Johnson's beast of a contract, or something else similarly stupid.)

 

I have never seen so much hype over a contract signed by a guy who was good for a quarter of a season.

I like Lin, I really do, but good lord this shit is out of control.

 

Which would be different from the past 15 years, how? I like Lin and think he could be a good player, even if it is. Oming off the bench. But to get whatever Kidd has left? And Felton we've seen before? I think I would take Lin who at least has an upside.

 

edited for cross-threading purposes

 

Yeah, it's so obvious. You're always saying good things about him.

 

Regardless of the merits of his game -- and I think that the jury is very much still out on this -- he signed a deal which would be tough for the Knicks to swallow.

If he wanted to stay with the Knicks, he didn't need to sign this deal, but he did. So it wasn't some great betrayal that they decided not to match.

 

Last season I watched every Knicks game I could, I was blown away by how well he played. But I have serious doubts that he can do it for 82.

 

Oh my God.. Jay Caspian Kang... Bingo.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8174968/jeremy-lin-leaving-new-york-knicks-james-dolan-blundered-again

Why is everybody trying so hard to save Jimmy D a buck?!

 

Unlike LeBron, there will never be a championship in Carmelo's future to change such a circumstance. So he better get used to failure and blame in the Big Apple.

 

That is a GREAT column.

 

Outstanding.