Los Angeles Lakers: Nash Announcement Opens Door For Jeremy Lin
By Phil Watson
Well, that question’s moot now.
Since the Los Angeles Lakers acquired point guard Jeremy Lin from the Houston Rockets in July along with first- and second-round picks in exchange for the rights to 32-year-old Ukrainian center Sergei Lishchuk, the question became: Who will start at point guard for the Lakers—Steve Nash or Jeremy Lin?
With Thursday’s announcement that Nash will miss the entire 2014-15 season with a back injury, the question becomes much easier to answer.
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It will be Jeremy Lin’s job.
Lin has played in four of Los Angeles’ seven preseason games, logging 98 minutes, averaging 10.8 points, six assists, 3.5 rebounds and two turnovers per game, while shooting 12-for-24 from the floor and 2-for-5 from long-range.
Those stats were dragged down a bit by an 0-for-6, one-point clunker in his first preseason game against Denver, but he still contributed 10 assists to the cause.
Wednesday night against Portland, Lin had 13 points, five assists and six turnovers in L.A.’s 94-86 win.
Lin is now three seasons removed from “Linsanity,” when the California kid from Harvard captured the imagination of many NBA fans with his dazzling play with the New York Knicks in 2011-12. For one stretch of 11 games during the lockout-shortened season (Feb. 4-22), Lin averaged 23.9 points, 9.2 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game while shooting .500/.361/.732.
That season ended early for Lin because of a knee injury and his final numbers were 14.6 points, 6.2 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 26.9 minutes per game on .446/.320/.798 shooting.
He signed with the Rockets for three years and $25.1 million, with a cap hit of a bit less than $8.4 million this season but an actual base salary of $15 million.
Lin seems to be a good fit in Byron Scott’s 1980s-style offense and his defense isn’t as bad as some would like to believe.
He’s also been getting some pointers from a pretty tenacious perimeter defender in Kobe Bryant, who told the Los Angeles Daily News earlier this month that he likes what Lin brings to the table as a defender.
"“Jeremy’s biggest challenge, which he loves, is I’m really going to challenge him to be a great defensive player, because he can. He has the speed. He has the length. He has the size. But he’s never had to take on that challenge to be a great defensive player.”"
The only other point guards on the Laker roster are 31-year-old journeyman Ronnie Price and rookie Jordan Clarkson, a second-round pick out of Missouri.
Clarkson has dressed for four preseason games, played in three and has averaged nine points, 3.3 rebounds and (this is not a typo) 0.3 assists in 18.3 minutes, while struggling with his shooting. He’s 8-for-25 (32 percent), a figure that includes his 3-for-5 night against Portland Wednesday, and he’s 2-for-8 from distance.
Price has played in six preseason games, even logging 38 minutes Sunday against Utah, and has averaged 8.2 points, 5.3 assists, two rebounds and 1.8 steals in 29.5 minutes per game. He’s shot 18-for-44 (40.9 percent) overall and 3-for-14 (21.4 percent) from 3-point range.
Price has bounced around the NBA since 2005 with the Sacramento Kings, Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers and Orlando Magic.
He spent last season in Orlando and averaged 2.4 points, 1.5 assists and 1.1 rebounds in 12.2 minutes per game in 31 games, shooting .304/.209/.692. For his career, he’s at 3.4 points, 1.5 assists and 1.1 rebounds in 11.7 minutes per night in 425 career games and is a .378/.292/.726 shooter.
So, yeah, it’s Lin and it’s not even close.
In the final year of his contract, the door is open for Lin to truly establish himself as a starting-caliber NBA point guard (if he hadn’t already) and to build his value as he enters unrestricted free agency for the first time next summer.
With Nash’s contract also coming off the books at the end of this season, Lin should look at 2014-15, at least in part, as an audition for the future … be it with the Lakers or someone else.