Los Angeles Lakers: Jeremy Lin Uses Win As Showcase

There’s no doubt this season has been a disappointment for Jeremy Lin and the Los Angeles Lakers. From both a team and personal perspective, this season has not gone how either party had anticipated.

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The Lakers were supposed to improve, however slightly, from their franchise-worst season a year ago. Jeremy Lin was supposed to show the league that he was a starting point guard by becoming a factor in Los Angeles. Both have failed to materialize, as the Lakers only have 18 wins on the year, and Lin has been relegated to a bench role for one of the most miserable squads in the entire league.

However, both of those failures took a turn for the better on Sunday.

In the win Sunday against the Philadelphia 76ers, Jeremy Lin scored 29 points to go along with five assists and five rebounds. It was one of his best games of the season, and it showed the league that he was not going to quit despite nearly being kicked to the curb by Byron Scott earlier in the year.

Sure, this game was against one of the worst teams in the NBA. Nobody is mistaking this game as an all-time performance, and it doesn’t make a claim that Jeremy Lin is a starting point guard in the league. But it certainly means something given the situation.

Facing a big offseason in free agency, Jeremy Lin stepped up to the plate and showed potential suitors what exactly he can do at times. He also showed that even faced with adversity stemming from his own coaching staff, he is capable of overcoming.

There certainly is a place for Jeremy Lin in the league. He was effective as a bench piece for the Houston Rockets last year, who according to reports will pursue him this summer, and has been a good bench scorer for the Lakers this season. If there’s doubt that he can be a good bench piece on a playoff team, he’s slowly but surely easing those doubts.

Perhaps the most important part of this journey in Los Angeles has been that despite the benching, getting publicly called out for his defense, and the swirling rumors that had him on the first plane out of town, Jeremy Lin has remained a productive part of the largely unproductive Los Angeles Lakers team. He’s put in his work without making waves or stirring up controversy, allowing the franchise to focus on developing Jordan Clarkson at Lin’s expense.

Jeremy Lin is certainly not going to earn the amount of money as he did on his last contract, and it’s unclear whether he should have received such a lucrative deal based on a few months of out-of-his-mind play, dubbed as “Linsanity.” But, he should have a decent deal waiting for him from a quality team looking for a solid bench piece. Lin has proven that he can be exactly that, and that his willingness to simply show up won’t be phased by adversity.

Whether it’s from the Los Angeles Lakers, or from another team, Jeremy Lin is going to get an offer to be a real piece of someone’s team. And despite all the negativity surrounding his 2014-15 season, that fact alone is positively impressive.

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