Linball

[bigpern23]

It's an Insider link so I can't read the whole thing, but ESPN.com has a headline that Larry Coon says the Knicks should match. So that's enough for me to believe the cap/tax issue isn't nearly as debilitating as believed, and the Knicks are using it as an excuse.

Frank Isola wrote that Mike Woodson doesn't believe Lin will be a good full-time starter in the future.

There is also a sense that head coach Mike Woodson is not sold on Lin, whose game is better suited to former coach Mike D'Antoni's system. Woodson had told friends that he thinks that Lin, a volume shooter and high-turnover point guard, is better suited as a backup.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/carmelo-anthony-ny-knicks-match-ridiculous-contract-rockets-offered-jeremy-lin-article-1.1114989#ixzz20zGp5ou2

As O'Connor wrote in the article I linked earlier, the Knicks could have found ways around that cap-busting third year, so yes, you're probably right that Knicks management is using the poison pill as an excuse not to match.

However, had the Knicks simply offered Lin a four-year, $24m deal before letting him test the market, they could have avoided the whole mess and had Lin locked up with a reasonable contract.

But I haven't seen anything yet that points to Carmelo as the reason the Knicks didn't re-sign Lin. I think that's just people looking for something else to blame on Anthony.

 

[LongTimeListener]

He called a teammate's potential new riches "ridiculous." As poin keeps pointing out, that's pretty unusual.

 

[bigpern23]

And, yet, no one cares about what J.R. Smith said? Of course not, because Carmelo is the new LeBron and everything must be blamed on him.

For the record, Shawn Kemp (who was, admittedly, a ****head) was pretty pissed that he was making less money than Jim McIlvaine with the Sonics back in the day. And I'm sure I've heard of NFL players telling teammates to "just get into camp" during a holdout, though I'm drawing a blank on any specific names.

It is unusual, yes, but so is throwing an extra $5m at a player who has already agreed to a deal.

 

[poindexter]

If it makes you feel any better pern, I think J.R. Smith is just as much a royal ****head as Carmelo.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I don't even know what J.R. Smith said. But people always care what the star of the team and franchise player says.

I mean, why care what Michael Jordan has to say when you could get a quote from Bill Wennington?

 

[poindexter]

Actually, Bill Wennington won a lot more playoff games than Carmelo.

 

[bigpern23]

Fair enough, Poin.

LTL, I get what you're saying, but you guys seem to be hanging everything on Carmelo when it was Dolan who screwed this up from the start. I haven't seen anything that would lead me to believe Carmelo was trying to run Lin out of town.

I think you can blame Dolan, the Rockets and probably even Mike Woodson and Glen Grunwald (who it seems weren't as enamored with Lin as the rest of NY). There is little to no evidence that Carmelo had anything to do with it. I think anyone suggesting it was his fault is reaching.

FWIW, Smith told SI it wouldn't go over well in the Knicks' locker room: “I think some guys take it personal, because they’ve been doing it longer and haven’t received any reward for it yet. I think it’s a tough subject to touch on for a lot of guys.” That was a lot more damning than anything Carmelo has said.

 

[heyabbott]

The Knicks are as relevant as Toronto

 

[poindexter]

I'll go one step further - No way Carmelo or Smith make those comments if Lin were a black man.

 

[Small Town Guy]

This was all predicted months ago (last graf):

http://www.sportspickle.com/news/9996/knicks-front-office-unsure-of-how-theyre-going-to-mess-this-one-up

 

[Lugnuts]

I think Carmelo vacillated between wanting Lin there and blatant jealousy. It's whatever his mouth decides to say at any given moment.

Good luck, New York. Enjoy dull middling basketball with no hope of a sniff anywhere near a Finals.

 

[qtlaw]

Grunwald is a hack. 3rd year was not as big a poison pill as first reported, they could have cut him the 3rd year and then amortized that $15M over 3 years to reduce the hit that 3rd year.

Anyways, Lin is in a much better situation in Houston, Morey >>>> Grunwald/Dolan. The 2nd most important thing in the NBA (besides an absolute stud) is flexibility and Houston has that. They are just waiting for the next disgruntled superstar to want out (Paul? Irving?). As long as they don't load up on a bunch of overpaid mid-tier guys (Kevin Martin, etc.) they will be relevant very soon (as opposed to say my beloved Warriors hoping and praying on Andrew Bogut's foot).

 

[cranberry]

But I haven't seen anything yet that points to Carmelo as the reason the Knicks didn't re-sign Lin. I think that's just people looking for something else to blame on Anthony.

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.

 

[sgreenwell]

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.)

 

[Bodie_Broadus]

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 **** is out of control.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

I think Carmelo vacillated between wanting Lin there and blatant jealousy. It's whatever his mouth decides to say at any given moment.

Good luck, New York. Enjoy dull middling basketball with no hope of a sniff anywhere near a Finals.

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.

 

[heyabbott]

I'll go one step further - No way Carmelo or Smith make those comments if Lin were a black man Canadian.

edited for cross-threading purposes

 

[YankeeFan]

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 **** is out of control.

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

 

[Webster]

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.

 

[Bodie_Broadus]

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 **** is out of control.

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

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.