NBA Free Agency: One move every team needs to make
By Tom West
Brooklyn Nets: Sign Jeremy Lin
Thaddeus Young is gone, and the athletic, versatile, playmaking rookie combo guard Caris LeVert is in. The Nets have started making moves to reset their roster by trading one of their best players from last season in Young, and that won’t be the end of it. Even as a team coming off a 21-61 season with little prospects on the horizon due to such a worrying absence of draft picks, hardly making themselves an attractive free agent destination in the process, they’ll do all they can to improve.
Perhaps we’ll see a Brook Lopez trade. Maybe the Nets will take that kind of dramatic step in a rebuilding effort. Either way, they’re at least free of Joe Johnson’s monstrous salary, ditched Young’s $12.1 million for next season, and have just over $50 million in cap space now.
Such money to splash out places them among some of the richer teams in the NBA’s most spending-filled summer yet, and it could help them land a new starting point guard (Jarrett Jack has been released) like Jeremy Lin, one of the standouts in a very weak pool of free agents at the position.
His ability to run the pick-and-roll with a strong rolling big such as Lopez is an immediate benefit to the Nets’ offense, while Lin’s streaky pull-ups from mid-range, passing, and driving can add a new dynamic to the team. His capable defense makes him even more intriguing while the top point guard available, Mike Conley, won’t be attainable.
Lin has expressed his interest in returning to the Hornets on multiple occasions, so don’t think that he’ll leave easily. However, with so much money and a starting position, which will undoubtedly intrigue Lin as he’ll never be more than Kemba Walker’s backup in Charlotte, the Nets have some things going for them.
On top of that, Lin has a close relationship with new Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson after their time together during Atkinson’s assistant days with the Knicks. The point guard has never held back when expressing his admiration for his former colleague (via Nets Daily):
"“I’ve kind of been saying it was just a matter of time for him [Atkinson] because I know how good he is, I know how much he was there for me in New York”, Lin said. “When you’re around him, you kind of understand there’s something different about him: his energy, his passion, the juice he approaches his work with.”"
With limited options on the market, Lin is worth the interest.
Next: New York Knicks