http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2474722-jeremy-lin-to-hornets-latest-contract-details-comments-and-reaction
Jeremy Lin to Hornets: Latest Contract Details, Comments and Reaction
By Tyler Conway , Featured Columnist Jul 8, 2015
A one-year stint with the Lakers didn't help Jeremy Lin recapture the "Linsanity" magic. Now we'll get to see if he fares better in Charlotte.
Lin and the Charlotte Hornets agreed to terms on a contract, a move both sides hope will help the former sensation recapture his momentum.
Lin went into further detail on Facebook:
This will be Lin's third team in as many seasons and fifth overall franchise since going undrafted out of Harvard in 2010.
Traded to Los Angeles by Houston as part of a salary dump last offseason, Lin averaged 11.2 points and 4.6 assists per game in his lone campaign as a Laker. He began the season as a starter before losing the job to rookie Jordan Clarkson. It was—I'm assuming you'll sense a theme here—the second time in as many years Lin lost a starting gig to a relatively unheralded player.
Lin was an awkward fit in Lakers coach Byron Scott's system, and he has struggled over the past three seasons to recapture the performance level he had in New York. He's instead settled into a bench role that requires a very specific style of play. Lin remains largely ineffective as a stationary shooter and prefers running high pick-and-rolls designed to give him driving space toward the rim.
While that style of play can be effective, Lin's deficiencies in many ways outweigh his strengths. He turned the ball over on more than 20 percent of possessions as a pick-and-roll ball-handler, shot a mediocre 36.2 percent in spot-up situations and remains a minus on defense. Despite a strong steal rate, Lin's high-risk tendencies tend to get him in trouble.
All told, he's probably settled into the role he'll play for the remainder of his NBA career. He can come in games off the bench, score in spurts and be sat right back down if he doesn't have it going on a particular night. Players of his ilk have a role in the NBA. It's just a far more limited one than his backers, of which there are many, would have you believe.
"There's always been doubt around me, around my name, ever since I stepped foot in the NBA," Lin told Bleacher Report's Howard Beck in February. "That's literally all I've had, is just a huge cloud of uncertainty, doubt and in a lot of ways maybe polarizing criticism around me, for whatever reasons. It's part of the journey."
The Hornets should provide a safe haven for Lin to prove the doubters wrong. For all of the clear struggles he's had the past three seasons, it's fair to say he's been fed a raw deal. Houston dealt for James Harden, a more talented player with skill overlap, before Lin ever got a chance to run the show. The Lakers never really viewed him as much more than the means to a first-round pick. No one is saying Lin was set up to fail, but he wasn't put in the best place to succeed.
Ostensibly now in a place that wants him as a basketball player and not just as an asset, we should get to see what Jeremy Lin really has in the tank.