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Jeremy Lin: 5 Best Potential Free Agency Destinations

By Gerald Bourguet

Apr 23, 2016; Charlotte, NC, USA; Charlotte Hornets guard Jeremy Lin (7) reacts after scoring during the second half in game three of the first round of the NBA Playoffs against the Miami Heat at Time Warner Cable Arena. Hornets win 96-80. Mandatory Credit: Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 23, 2016; Charlotte, NC, USA; Charlotte Hornets guard Jeremy Lin (7) reacts after scoring during the second half in game three of the first round of the NBA Playoffs against the Miami Heat at Time Warner Cable Arena. Hornets win 96-80. Mandatory Credit: Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jeremy Lin
Mar 22, 2016; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Charlotte Hornets guard Jeremy Lin (7) reacts after a three point shot against the Brooklyn Nets during second half at Barclays Center. The Charlotte Hornets defeated the Brooklyn Nets 105-100.Mandatory Credit: Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports /

1. Brooklyn Nets

The Sixers would be a better basketball fit for Lin as a franchise with a more promising future, but taking every possible factor into account, the Brooklyn Nets probably make the most sense as the new home of Linsanity.

Why? Pure and simple: Jeremy Lin could be the face of the franchise in Brooklyn. Can you say “Brook-Linsanity”?

Like the Sixers, the Nets are in desperate need of a point guard, especially after they trade or waive Jarrett Jack to clear nearly $6 million in salary off the books.

Down in Philly, however, the Sixers have a full-on youth movement going. Ben Simmons, Dario Saric, Joel Embiid — those are the true stars of the show. The Nets have Brook Lopez…and that’s pretty much it.

At the point guard spot, the Nets have Shane Larkin (player option) and newly drafted combo guard Caris LeVert, who has been injury-prone over the last three years and will be a rookie.

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    • Adding Lin, a guard who can play in the pick-and-roll with Lopez or alongside another guard like LeVert, raises Brooklyn’s talent level in a necessary way. The Nets won’t own their own first round pick for the next two years, so there’s little reason for them to tank.

    Bearing that in mind, adding a global, marketable star like Lin to a position of need just makes too much sense. The Nets have to splurge their cap space somewhere; why not spend it on Lin, a popular player worldwide whose arrival would absolutely piss off the Knicks at the same time?

    Currently, the Nets have very little to look forward to in the present outside of Brook Lopez. In the future, they have nothing to look forward to outside of LeVert, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Chris McCullough and tearful goodbyes to their next two first round draft picks.

    Another potential X-factor: new Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson was an assistant for the Knicks during Lin’s rise to prominence five years ago. Lin even credits Atkinson with helping developing him into the star he became in New York.

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    Jeremy Lin wouldn’t make the Nets anything close to a playoff team, but he’d get his opportunity to start in a major market, he’d get to run the show, he’d have a fat max contract thrown his way and he’d reunite with a coach he respects. For both parties, this seems like a no-brainer.