The Lakers attempted to acquire Jeremy Lin in the past
During the Los Angeles Lakers’ introduction of combo guard Jeremy Lin, team general manager Mitch Kupchak revealed to the media that the Houston Rockets trade wasn’t the first time the organization has attempted to acquire Lin, having done so twice in the past.
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"It wasn’t the first time L.A. tried to bring in Lin.The Lakers were in negotiations with his representatives to bring him to training camp on a partially guaranteed deal after Lin went undrafted out of Harvard and had a strong summer league showing. Lin, who was born in nearby Torrance, California, but spent his youth growing up in Palo Alto, California, chose to sign with the Golden State Warriors, who had made a similar offer to the Lakers’, to be closer to home.After the Warriors cut him midway through his first season in the league, the Lakers again attempted to acquire Lin, only to have their waiver bid beat out by Houston, which had a worse record at the time.“The first thing I said to him when he sat down was, ‘You know, three times is a charm,'” Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said, recalling the conversation he and Lin had when the point guard came in for his physical with the team."
It’s been two seasons since ‘Linsanity’ took the NBA by storm. Since leaving the New York Knicks, Lin has improved as a player despite not impacting the league in the same way.
Now the Lakers have him on a contract year and depending on his play, the Lakers could either stumble on a player who can be apart of the rebuild for years to come or a nice trade asset at the trade deadline, reeling in more pieces to flip and twist as they continue to look for a star for the post-Kobe era.