Knicks · Letting Lin walk is the right thing to do (page 1)

Preface: I like Lin. A lot. I think he's a good guy, a good pro, and Linsanity was the most fun I had with this team since the '99 run. If he's gone, I'll miss him.

But it strikes me that this team is executing a vision. Between Woodson and Grunwald, they're shaping the roster to take on a new persona and a new style. There have been murmurs that these moves--and the resistance to eating the Lin poison pill--might be part of some grander scheme to land Chris Paul, but that seems untenable.

Based on nothing but my own speculation and observation it appears to me that the Knicks are being built for a singular purpose: to beat the Heat.

For the next X amount of years, all paths to the promised land must pass through the Superfriends and looking at the deals I feel like Grunwald is positioning this team to capitalize on the Heat's (few) weaknesses and minimize their strengths.

In another thread nixluva noted how Woodson's system seems to be transforming into a half-court, stingy D, old-school style, sacrificing pick-and-roll and motion offense for a slower, war-of-attrition type of approach. On offense, working through the post (Melo, Kidd, a hopefully-new-and-improved Amare)and staying away from the PnR would take away the Heat's greatest defensive strength, their ferocious trapping and disruption of the passing lanes, which leads to gimmes on the fast break. They're the best team in the NBA at that trap-and-rotate D. But they can be punished on the block and made to pay on the extra pass out of the double team. A penetrating PG is also wasted because they have mastered the art of flopping--er, sound, positioning to take the offensive charge.

On the defensive end, how do the Heat kill you? Dribble-drives and kick-outs to open threes, which they will be far deadlier executing with Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis camping out behind the arc. Meaning, you can't cheat off the shooters to help. Wade and LeBron will get into the paint--they're in the top 10 of all time in my opinion at doing that--so you either cheat to help or bank on your bigs to protect the rim. You cheat, you get torched. So what's the alternative? More punishment, delivered by Tyson, Camby and Crazy Eyes (who I am thrilled is back with us). If Joel Anthony beats you, then so be it.

As such, I just don't see Lin and the skillset he brings as being the best way to execute this strategy. In a vacuum, Lin is young and talented and has great potential, but the Heat have changed the landscape. A team needs to be built to match-up against them.

It might be a good idea. It might be a bad idea. Maybe it will all implode and we'll be back to lamenting the state of our franchise. This is just my take on what's happening at the Garden and if it's close-to-accurate I'm actually encouraged that our basketball brass have been given the freedom to do this. Because as much as Dolan is a little puke, isn't letting Lin walk--the human cash printer that he is--the opposite of Dolan's modus operandi?

Then again the Knicks could match and I just wasted all of Andrew and Martin's bandwidth for nothing!

+1. You make a strong case.

Letting Lin walk for nothing is dumb. I'm ok if he's not part of the master plan, but then at least match and trade him on Dec 15th. The shine will still be on Linsanity, and there will still be interested teams that will take a chance on him even with the 3rd year balloon payment (The GSW for one, and maybe even Houston especially if they strike out on D12) At least get some picks/prospects out of him if you're not going to keep him.

Linn is a good asset and should be kept and developed as originally planned. Even if we trade him later, we should get back a good player in return. Definitely match

This would make sense if we were replacing Lin with someone like Andre Miller who has succeeded in that type of offense. Replacing him with Felton doesn't make sense since Felton has never shown he can be effective outside of MDA's fast-paced offense. The way I see it is Lin is, at worst, just as good as Felton but Lin is still growing and improving as a player while Felton is what he is at this point.

Good job gymkata....it's all about beating Miami not money schemes. Championships are our there to be won!

If by vision you mean marginalizing every one not called Melo so he can have the entire spotlight to himslef then I agree. Letting Lin walk for nothing is beyond stupid and only something the NY Knicks can pull.

EnySpree wrote:Good job gymkata....it's all about beating Miami not money schemes. Championships are our there to be won!

Berger saying the same thing. Knicks are being built to beat the heat.

ridiculous... every basketball person out there says either Lin is the real deal or at the very worst has talent. How many years of lousy PG play for Knicks to learn you cant teach court vision? Lin has court vision, he's got smarts, he works very very hard, every stop he's been all the coaches always acknowledged his tremendous work ethic.

He's 21. This is the bet prospect we have on the roster and his talent has been acknowledged from Bob Cousey to Kobe to your moms. And letting him walk for nothing in return "is the right thing to do????"

Glad you dont run my team

CrushAlot wrote:

EnySpree wrote:Good job gymkata....it's all about beating Miami not money schemes. Championships are our there to be won!

Berger saying the same thing. Knicks are being built to beat the heat.

How does letting Lin walk for Felton improve our chances of beating the Heat?

I'm sorry I don't understand the logic behind this at all. How can we land Paul or any other big name? How does Lin not help? Even if Lin is overhyped how will he not help us? What are the alternatives? I thought matching Fields would be smart, give us another rotational player with a little potential but at least i understand he was pretty awful and there may not have been minutes so I can understand but Lin makes no sense to not match...

Seriously, Lin's floor is Ray Felton....my God, never mind his ceiling. For all of the decades that we have over payed scrubs, I don't see why we would let one of the most promising prospects in the league walk over a few million $ when we were absolutely going to match before that raise.

We need as much talent as possible to beat the Heat and if we let Lin walk, we are diminishing our chances of getting past LeBron.

The kid can play and he has both the physical and mental tools to be a star in this league.

Hell, even from a business perspective it makes no sense to let Lin walk.

tj23 wrote:I'm sorry I don't understand the logic behind this at all. How can we land Paul or any other big name? How does Lin not help? Even if Lin is overhyped how will he not help us? What are the alternatives? I thought matching Fields would be smart, give us another rotational player with a little potential but at least i understand he was pretty awful and there may not have been minutes so I can understand but Lin makes no sense to not match...

It's just people trying to find some sort of silver lining.

i liked felton when he played here but lets be honest he is not the same felton and MDA i not here anymore. I know lin had a small sample size but he played well under woodson also be fore he went down. I just think it s abig mistake after making a lot of good moves this offseason this would be teh first bad move

What pisses me off is people keep saying that Lin has had such a small sample size.....hell, I'll take my chances with a 23 year old top prospect in that sample size over a 28 year old veteran who also hasn't shown anything substantial beyond his brief tenure as a Knick!

s3231 wrote:What pisses me off is people keep saying that Lin has had such a small sample size.....hell, I'll take my chances with a 23 year old top prospect in that sample size over a 28 year old veteran who also hasn't shown anything substantial beyond his brief tenure as a Knick!

i agree. I mean a small sample size is 3 games. Lin had 1 really bad game but you have yo figure exhaustian played a big factor

I don't want to loose Lin. I think it's a dumb idea. But Felton/Kidd is a combo designed to match up against the Heat, that i agree with. I just trust that Felton will be a good player in NY.

Felton is a much better defender right (at least he is in NBA 2K) ... if this fits into Woodson's design to focus on D, i like it a lot.

Knixkik wrote:I don't want to loose Lin. I think it's a dumb idea. But Felton/Kidd is a combo designed to match up against the Heat, that i agree with. I just trust that Felton will be a good player in NY.

If you are relying on Kidd/Felton to provide the offense against a MIAMI defense, when Melo goes his usual 1-13 from the field and Amare whacks a fire extinguisher then you are in for HUGE disappointment.

anrst wrote:Felton is a much better defender right (at least he is in NBA 2K) ... if this fits into Woodson's design to focus on D, i like it a lot.

Felton is a better defender than Lin only in the way that Amare is a better defender than David Lee. Neither one is going to be shutting anyone down.

anrst wrote:Felton is a much better defender right (at least he is in NBA 2K) ... if this fits into Woodson's design to focus on D, i like it a lot.

well apparently felton never wanted to leave NY which is why i guess he played so badly the last 2 years at least i hope that is the reason. He better play good otherwise he is gonna get massacred by the fans