Charlotte Hornets: Linsanity’s Long Shadow Still Shades Jeremy Lin’s Career
By Ben Gibson
The Jeremy Lin that slept on Landry Fields‘ couch is long gone. And apparently so is the couch.
That’s not exactly the worse thing, either. Linsanity wasn’t something that was going to last. February 2012 was something beautiful that only happened because all the right factors fell into place at the right time.
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Lin was ready for his chance and seized the moment as a struggling New York Knicks team was missing both Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire for long stretches and coach Mike D’Antoni was willing to try anything as long as it kept him from being fired.
Other opponents weren’t ready for Lin and he didn’t hesitate to shoot 18 times a game while racking up 15.4 points, 8.4 assists, and 2.1 steals a game that month.
That Feburary was fun, but the five turnovers a game were a sign and the Miami Heat’s dismantling of Lin near the end of the month combined to let us know the dream couldn’t last forever. Teams adjusted to Lin’s style and the Knicks roster got back to full strength. We knew a player wouldn’t go from the 467th best player in the league to a bonafide superstar.
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A injury before the playoffs would effectively end Lin’s season and he’d leave New York and his legend behind.
Fairly or not, to this day that February casts a shadow over everything Lin’s done since. If you wanted to be exceptionally critical, at worst you could say he’s been average or slightly below average since then. His $5 million to $10 million a year the past few seasons might have been a little high, but it wasn’t outrageous.
Plus that had more to do with the Houston Rockets’ decision to offer Lin a “poison pill” contract to mess with the Knicks. He played well enough in Houston and with the Los Angles Lakers but despite being a positive factor in both places, he finds himself in on his third team in four years with the Charlotte Hornets.
Is the shadow of Linsanity going to follow him again? As strange as it sounds, the best thing for him and his career might have been to disappear during his stint with the Lakers. With only 21 wins, the Lakers were irrelevant in a hyper-competitive Western Conference.
After Julius Randle and Kobe Bryant went down with injury only interest the team gathered was in the form of schadenfreude. Lin slightly improved his 3-point shooting while in Los Angeles but for the most part his numbers were down across the board from his career averages. The Lakers were a mess on and off the court so Lin’s mediocrity went mostly unnoticed.
It helped as well that Los Angeles coach Byron Scott helped muddy the waters around Lin by never quite letting the point guard settle in to a role either as the point guard or the shooting guard.
As Lin gets ready to suit up for the Hornets this fall, the expectations are the lowest in his post-Linsanity career despite the fact he’s still playing at a respectable level and at two years for $4.3 million, his contract is relatively inexpensive in the current market.
Lin comes to a Charlotte team that regressed from a playoff team in the Eastern Conference to one that was 16 games below .500. The defense remained in the top 10 in the NBA but the Hornets offense went from bad to worse as it finished ranked 28th in the NBA last season. The offense struggled to get running in transition and got bogged down and was afraid to shoot the 3-pointer.
The Hornets ranked 24th in 3-point shots attempted with 19.1 a game and looked nothing like a modern NBA offense. The defense was great, but the offense’s poor play made sure no one noticed.
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Lin’s defensive mistakes should be covered by his teammates and his offense has a chance be reinvigorated as he’ll be returning to his more natural role on the court. Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer believes things will open up the offense much more than it was a season ago and that the Hornets will allow Lin to get back into his old role.
The pick-and-roll game of Lin combined with coach Steve Clifford’s promise for more balance backs that assertion. But what may matter most is Lin won’t be an off-the-ball guard in Charlotte and will be used in the same way he was when Linsanity was in full-swing.
By being the point guard coming off the bench, Lin should be free to get aggressive with his shot selection and the way he attacks the rim. He won’t wait for the ball to get to him or be forced to move without the ball to get an open look. It seems that all the early indications from Charlotte are Lin play in a style closer to his Linsanity days, not his time with the Rockets or Lakers.
All this hinges on whether the Hornets are truly committed to a faster and more free-flowing offense but after last year’s struggles they would be foolish not to embrace a more Lin-friendly style.
This may be the best chance for Lin finally get out of his own shadow and find the magic that made that February special just a few years ago.
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