I have been a Knick fan for close to forty years, so I am absolutely loving that the Knicks ended up with this young man. However it is not fair to blame McHale for this at all. There is absolutely nobody anywhere that had even the slightest idea Lin would put up these kind of numbers.Originally Posted by Netboy Extraordinaire
Lin went undrafted last season so really every teams scouts, coaches and GM's all missed it. He signed last year as an undrafted rookie with the Warriors and only averaged 2.6 points per game made no impact and played sparingly. This season the Warriors brought in a new coaching staff in Mark Jackson as HC. Coincidentally he was the last great rookie PG the Knicks had on their team. I think it would have been likely Jackson would have recognized talent in Lin had he seen him play, but the team released Lin in the offseason to make cap room in order to go after needed FA's in the front court.
It was then that Houston signed him to be their 3rd string PG. Then they ended up needing cap space in order to sign center Samuel Dalembert, so once again Lin was a cap casualty. He was only with Houston for maybe two weeks, and keep in mind this season with the NBA work stoppage there wasn't any off season workouts or any kind or organised training. So the reality McHale would have seen very little of a player that far down the bench as he was trying to scramble to get the starting team ready for the season ( as all the coaches in the NBA were also doing).
The Knicked the picked him up, and for the same reasons mentioned above He was buried on the bench for the Knick as well until a little over a week ago. The handful of times Lin had come into the games earlier in the season he looked nothing like the player he is now. He was sent down to the D-league for a bit, and then brought back up. The Knick coaches also had no idea what they had in Lin, and if it were not for the combination of a number of things happening that basically forced Knick coach Mike D'Antoni to go to Lin he still would be buried deep on the bench.
1) The Knicks needed to Waive Chauncey Billups in order to clear cap room to sign their new center (Chandler)
2) Toney Douglas (who in his second season looked good at pg last season) this season has been absolutely horrible
3) Davis, the free agent pg the Knicks signed to replace Billups has been inactive an hurt for the entire season to this point.
4) Mike Bibby, who the Knicks brought in this season for pg depth as been awful and appears to be done for his NBA career at this point.
5) The team was on a big losing streak and everyone in NY was calling for the coach to be fired. The owner refused to give him any voice of support and it looked like he would be fired any day.
6) Mike D'Antoni's fast paced offense is designed in such a way, that without a good PG, it is a train wreck, and at this point he had nobody.
7) Coming off a loss to the rival Celtics the Knicks were playing against the lowly Nets, a local team they don't like losing to. They were down big after the first QTR and with his job on the line, and no other options D'Antoni had nothing to lose in turning the team over to the only of pg on the bench.
Of course that player was J. Lin and as Paul Harvey used to say, "and now you know the rest of the story"In reality it is these very factors that make the Lin story so great. Nobody could have expected this from him, it came out of nowhere.
Personally having watched all his games, it has been a blast. The most fun I have had as a Knick fan in many years. I was almost to the point where I was regretting having purchased the NBA's League Pass to watch the games because they were playing so horribly bad. Not now, this past week and a half of basketball has been unreal to watch.
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