Releasing Jeremy Lin Was Not A Mistake By The Golden State Warriors
During the shortened offseason the Golden State Warriors made a move to clear cap space in their attempt to sign restricted free agent center DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers. That move was to let point guard Jeremy Lin go and according to Marc J. Spears article found at this link stated that the Warriors did their best to keep Lin, yet weren’t able to.
Would also disagree with Spears assessment of the situation in the article he attempts to portray the release of Lin up there with the trade of Wilt Chamberlain, Robert Parish, Chris Webber and Tim Hardaway. As great as Lin has been playing it’s not even close to being the same.
Chamberlain was actually expendable with Nate Thurmond taking over the center position. The Parish trade also included a first round pick that turned out to be Kevin McHale, which is a trade that was terrible for the Warriors. Webber, Hardaway and also Latrell Sprewell should be included in this as well. These players were traded because the team was being run by a terrible ownership group and that group is long gone.
Ignored by Spears though is the fact that the Warriors have been able to develop a number of players who are very similar to Lin. Anthony Morrow who was not drafted was signed by the Warriors as an undrafted rookie and he went on to lead the NBA in three point shooting and in his first career start he scored 37 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and in his second career start went for 25 points and four rebounds. He left as a free agent and signed with the New Jersey Nets last season.
There was also C.J. Watson who in his first season never made a start for the Warriors and yet like Lin scored a career high 13 points in his rookie year. His second year with the team he made 18 starts and scored a career high 38 points and in another start registered a career high in assists with 12. Watson played one more season with Warriors before signing as a free agent with the Chicago Bulls two seasons ago.
Another example is that of Reggie Williams who got his chance after being signed from the Developmental League. He appeared in 24 games including 10 starts in his first season and recorded a career high of 29 points and that was off the bench. His second he played in 80 games, yet managed only nine starts and scored a career high 31 points. The Warriors let him go as a restricted free agent during this offseason and he is now on the Charlotte Bobcats.
More importantly Spears is forgetting that the Warriors have a very talented point guard of their own in Stephen Curry. While Curry’s ankle has been an issue for the entire season if Lin was still on the Warriors roster it wasn’t likely he’d get more than 10-12 minutes a night and a couple of starts while Curry was out with his injury. Yet, so far Curry has managed to average 16.9 points, 6.6 assists, 4.3 rebounds, on 48.8 percent shooting, 42.5 percent from three and 75.7 percent from the free throw line.
So, in Lin’s place the Warriors signed two point guards one was Ish Smith and the other was undrafted rookie point guard Charles Jennings. When the Oklahoma City Thunder released Nate Robinson, the Warriors signed Robinson and let go of Smith.
Robinson has been great for the Warriors providing instant energy off the bench and playing solid defense.
As for Lin he was signed by the Houston Rockets and yet was released as the Rockets signed center Samuel Dalembert. Lin again found himself on waivers and on December 27th Lin was claimed by the New York Knicks.
During his time with the Knicks he was assigned to the team’s D-League team and after Iman Shumpert was hurt he was called up to the Knicks. In his first nine games he played sparingly and there were thoughts by the Knicks of letting him go, yet Lin took advantage of his chance as he played nearly 36 minutes registered 25 points, seven assists, and five rebounds.
He went from being nearly released to starting the next night and he again had a huge game this time 28 points and eight assists. His legend continued to grow as the Los Angeles Lakers came calling and after Kobe Bryant basically brushed Lin off, Lin outplayed Bryant out scoring him 38 to 34.
The reality is that it’s not the Warriors fault for releasing Lin, nor the Rockets or the Knicks fault for thinking of releasing him. Lin’s story should be celebrated because he persevered and has made the most of his opportunity that was presented to him similar to how Tom Brady started out his career with the New England Patriots.
