[HotSnotParticipant]

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/222306/Rockets_Sign_Lin_To_Larger_Offer_Sheet

The Rockets have reportedly dropped a bombshell, greatly increasing the third-season salary in the offer sheet signed by Jeremy Lin on Friday.

Last week, it was reported that the Rockets and Lin had agreed on an offer sheet totaling approximately $19 million guaranteed over three seasons, with a team option on the fourth and final season.

The deal was increased to $25 million total over three years, with the final season now nearly $15 million.  That final season could cost the Knicks as much as $45 million in luxury tax payments.  It is unclear if a team option still exists for a fourth season.

Some believe Houston is now desperate for a point guard after Goran Dragic and Kyle Lowry left the Rockets this summer.  But general manager Daryl Morey could still expect the Knicks to match, and he may be more concerned with driving down Lin’s value as a future trade chip in New York’s arsenal.

Chris Paul is eligible to hit the free-agent market next summer and a package centered around Lin, under more reasonable contract terms, could have enticed the Clippers to trade the All-Star point guard to New York.  Inflating Lin’s contract terms will make him less attractive to the cost-conscious Donald Sterling, keeping Paul on the path to free agency and in play for Houston as it seeks to remake its roster.

These maneuverings may set up the Rockets’ longer-term strategy of acquiring Dwight Howard and keeping the All-Star center in Houston by pairing him with an elite play-maker like Paul.

The Knicks will have three days to match the deal or lose Lin to Houston.  New York clearly intended to match under the offer-sheet terms originally reported.

Clearly, with 25 games as a starter under his belt Lin is not currently worth the contract he’s been offered… yet.  Perhaps he continues to improve or perhaps he implodes and we never see another game like those in that magical run he had in the 11-12 season. 

All that aside, basketball had nothing to do with this contract.  This contract is now in the players pool because one owner wants to screw another.   There is nothing you could ever put in a CBA that will curtail these types of stupid moves.  This type of contract should disolve any clout the owners might have in arguing "poverty" in the next CBA’s negotiations.  If the owners want to ensure profits… stop the linsanity!

[Cavaliers420Participant]

Houston REALLY wants to make NY pay for Lin after saying they’d pay up to a "billion" for him. Balls in there court now.

[aamir543Participant]

I’m gonna say that NY doesn’t match, and that Houston makes a huge run next season as the Cinderella team, provided they don’t trade their whole roster for Dwight. They would have Lin, maybe Asik, Martin who can still score 20 every night, Parsons, and then the three rookies who all look good, plus last years first who looked really special today, plus Patterson and Morris, if he’s ready. Two or three of those 4 rooks would have to have huge seasons, but I could really see it, and McHale did a great job with them last season, until injuries doomed them last season, because they were a 6th or 7th seed until they plumetted at the end.

[TomShoeParticipant]

 

The Rockets have thrown down the gauntlet, really test how much New York wants Lin.

That means the Knicks have 3 options here:

1. Match the offer sheet, rationalizing that the income Lin generates is greater than the luxury tax cost.

2. Let him go to Houston and go after another PG in FA (Felton, Brooks, Hinrich, JL3, Davis?)

3. Let him go and stick with Kidd as the starting PG.

Hmmm…Decisions, Decisions.

[sheltwon3Participant]

No way Knicks do not match

[mookieParticipant]

What was the beef on Isiah in NY?  Tell me he was worse than Walsh and who they have now…no way.  He had the same talent the Knicks r getting praised for now….Pieces that don’t fit.  Jeremy lin plays 15 good games and like David Robinson sayid, he gets more publicity than Duncan did in his whole career.

 

Knicks shouldn’t match. but if they do I can see why…they will be getting rid of amares contract that final year of Lin’s so it won’t be that much in taxes.  But the money they make off marketing will more than make up for it…that is if Lin plays lime he did for those 15 games.  I still don’t think he meshes with Melo.

 

I keep saying it. They should kept billups and amniestied amare.  Billups would been off the books quicker and cheaper to re sign and hes a better fit with Melo.  Yeah I know he got injured but who knows if he would in NY, its a shot in the dark 

[NYK2010Participant]

Knicks will match they will still have a big payroll.

In 3 yrs they will b in luxury tax hell but i’m sure they will make a trade or something to move a contract.

 

[JunkYardDogParticipant]

 one thing you didn’t notice is that lin potential (not from a sports point of view but economical) is way bigger than 45M $…

you can sign him, overpay him… he would still make you win money (asian market, brodcasting rights, merchandising…)

LIN IS NOT A PLAYER HE’S A PRODUCT

[AccountCanBeDeletedParticipant]

There’s no doubting that if Lin continues his form from last year during that 2 week stretch that it’s true whatever team he plays for will milk him through the various methods you mentioned.

However, what I’m still very sceptical about is we haven’t seen Lin play in a 82 game season, and when he did play during that 2 weeks he showed flaws in game, i.e. turnovers etc… All I’m saying is we’re basing his potential and what he can do on what he did to players who had played a month (can’t remember how long) and obviously weren’t physically there. I’m not saying he’s bad, I’m just saying I still see him as a fringe starter or sixth man if he pans out at best (that’s just me personally, i’m sure people out there think he can be the next Kobe). Which in turn leads me to my point, if he fails to live up to these expectations and becomes a role player playing 10 minutes a game will he still be the money honeypot he once was? I doubt he will and the market for him will greatly decrease, which in turn asks the question is he worth $15m if that does happen?

So what I’m putting out there is if he play’s at that near All-Star level sure he’s worth the contract due to the other ways you could make money from him, however and it’s very likely if he doesn’t reach that level most people seem to think he can become due to that two week span will he still be commercially profitable? Just ask Yi Jianlian…

I personally believe he needs to go to the Rockets, because there he will be let to do whatever he wants and shoot as much as he wants. If he goes to the Knicks I just have this feeling he’s going to get worse and end up coming off the bench, which won’t do much for him.

My two cents anyways.

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 It wasn’t two weeks, it was 25 games. He averaged nearly 20 points a game and 8 assists. During the 2 week period he averaged over 20 points a game and the Knicks were nearly unbeatable. 

Then you say the rest of the league wasn’t physically there because they had only been playing a month. Oh while Lin who had been sitting on the bench and not playing had some big edge I fitness. Why don’t you get together with the guys who say that the rest of the league was tired and Lin going into the starting role, asked to play 40 minutes a night had fresh legs which gave him an edge on everyone. Maybe you guys can find another reason why what you saw Lin do really didn’t happen and doesn’t count. 

[MJ FOR LIFE 23Participant]

Funny how things change in one season. One season you’re not even good enough to get into rotation and only going to get paid like 800k, the next you’re being offered over 25 million by the same team who cut you.

[doubledribblerParticipant]

Of course the new CBA was a lie. The owners were never losing money. It’s possible that maybe a handful of teams are, but the NBA always has owners lining up and every time a team gets sold, it gets sold for way more than it was purchased for.  I remember during the lockout 90% of the people on here were talking about "I’m with the owners." "The lockout is the players’ fault." People in this country are increasingly more likely to agree with whoever makes the most money for some reason. Since the CBA has been in place guys are getting paid like crazy.

Look at all the guys making max and near max deals. Hibbert is not a max player. If he is your best player you are in bad shape. Lopez, a center that is an awful rebound and defender should not be getting paid like he is about to be. Kwame Brown took 7 million dollars to be injured. 9 Million a year for Ryan Anderson? Deals that reach $15 million in a season for Lin and Asik. The owners have created a massive problem. You are about to end up with teams where 3-4 guys make up the entire cap and the rest of the roster is likely to get filled with minimum contracts and the exceptions. Just like in real life, the owners are about to eliminate the middle class. So don’t be surprised if good role players start thinking hard about going overseas once the money dries up and the teams start facing the harder tax penalties.

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 Yep, I hope fans are getting it figured out. It was a lie by very rich men who want to have the rules litterally written in a way that they would get richer. 

These salaries don’t matter because the players are limited to 50% of basketball related revenue. Even if with bird rights and mid level exceptions and everything the salaries end up being more than 50%, then the players have to give back the amount that they are over it. The players have to set aside some of their pay into an escrow account. Once the season is done, they don’t get that money to the extent the owners are over 50% of their revenue. The owners litterally can’t lose. 

Every team will soon be over the cap, but it doesn’t matter because the cap is set way below the 50% level. Some teams might end up paying a hefty luxury tax, but that just shifts money from one owner to another. Money that frankly the teams should be sharing (NBA is one of the few sports leagues where the home team takes the entire ticket receipts even though obviously you need both teams to have a game and a lot of times fans are paying more to see the visiting team (like the Lakers) than the home team. 

[theballerwayParticipant]

Lins marketing ability is tied nto his performance. Once D’Antoni ws gone (and teams started to account for him) his stats dropped into a very average at best realm. So now we have a guy who couldnt last 20 games(phsyically) after not even playng before hand ( so he sure wasnt run down), who was a limited athlete before the injury coming back to this ttype of contract. In 3/4 years when the contracts worth 15 million or watever and his production dips more and more (as said above the teams pieces still dont fit) this deals gonna look absurd.

Im curious as to what type of potential on the ciourt guys see in this player.

Let Houston have him and let them pay him a Asik all they want to – they still wont win nada. Lin and god damn Asik as your bug 2 – loooooool

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 Limited aelticaly? He jumped 35 inches in the combine and tested out faster than John Wall. Do you remember when he ran down  Rose and blocked him above the rim? Google it. The only athletic limitation the guy has is he doesn’t have a great wingspan. 

He projects to be an all star. The two weeks of Linsanity would project a player to be an MVP candidate if he could have kept it up for another week. Those two weeks were kind of a fluke probably. But he regressed to simply a level of play that would have made him a ROY candidate easy. Go back and look at what Westbrook and Rose did their first years in the league. Young guys struggle, happens all the time. 

I see all this love on this site for young guys. Marshon Brooks and Shumpert are going to be stars apparently. But Lin who actually went out and dropped near 40 on the Lakers, well everyone wants to wait and see. This guy is supposed to be the risky one who might flop. 

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