Sports Cipher

Jeremy Lin Passed the Knicks the Rockets Offer Sheet and Knicks Won’t Match

A year ago, Jeremy Lin was playing in the D-League being overlooked and didn’t seem to get that break he needed. In February, Lin-Sanity was born. The Jeremy Lin jersey became international. Everybody couldn’t get enough of him and expected Lin to be the starting point guard after all he did for the Knicks in 25 starts. Lin made $788,000 last season, averaged 14.6 points and 6.2 assists. Lin-Sanity was over in the blink of an eye when Lin needed surgery to repair torn knee cartilage.

The basketball world gasped when the Houston Rockets offered Lin a contract. Houston, a team that cut him in his early NBA years, is in their rebuilding process. The Knicks has been matching Houston’s offer sheet, while Jeremy Lin plays the system to get a bigger contract. In salary space, the Knicks were willing to spend up to $1 billion on him. But instead of matching, the Knicks are replacing him.

Why the Knicks Probably Won’t Match the Offer

Money

One of the biggest reason’s is money. The Rockets are offering near $30 million over three years. The Knicks were comfortable with $25 million over that same amount of time but a penny more is pushing it. In 2014-2015 the Knicks would have only $25 million of salary space to work with after the contracts of their biggest stars, including Lin, were satisfied (Anthony, Stoudemire, and Chandler). That’s not a lot of room to work with!

Point Guard Replacement

Another rehe Knicks have a sign-and-trade deal with the Portland Trailblazers for point guard Raymond Felton. Felton, a member of the 2005 draft, was picked fifth overall and played on the Charlotte Bobcats for five seasons. From there, things got rocky. He played a couple games in New York then headed over to Denver in a trade for Carmelo Anthony. In the 2011 season, he played for Portland and now he hopes to get back in New York.

Tony Dutt, Felton’s agent told ESPN The Magazine’s Chris Broussard that returning to New York has been Felton’s first choice all along.

Knicks Teammates Chime In

Small forward Carmelo Anthony said, “It’s not up to me. It’s up to the organization to say that they want to match that ridiculous contract,” he told the paper. Anthony also said, “I’d love to see him back, but I think he has to do what’s best for him right now.”
Jared Jeffries, headed to Portland in the sign-and-trade deal that will bring Felton to the Knicks, comments via text message to ESPN NY, ”I never thought they would let him go.”
Someone else was super surprised as well. A source close to Lin told ESPNNewYork.com that the Knicks’ trade for Felton caught Lin off guard. “He was very surprised,” the source said. “He felt the whole time that the Knicks would just match the offer.”
This offer sheet came back to bite Jeremy Lin in the butt. I believe that his whole intention was to milk the money out the Knicks to get a contract that will reflect his talent. Which, I commend. Now, you’ve bitten off more than you can choose when you really want to be in New York.
Plus, the reason why the Rockets are lobbying for Lin so hard is to further entice Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard to come to Houston as well. That way they have unbeatable offense. That won’t happen though because Howard definitely wants to be in Brooklyn.