NBA Rumors: Why Jeremy Lin Is a Lock to Return to the New York Knicks

While the New York Knicks have been on a roll as of late, it's never too early to look ahead to next season, especially when it becomes to the future of point guard Jeremy Lin.

The Knicks have to eventually decide if the undrafted point guard is indeed the future of the Knicks, and if they do, the hard part is figuring out how to keep him in the Big Apple.

There's good news as Larry Coon reported for ESPN.com. Being the fact that Lin wasn't a first-round pick, he's a restricted free agent for his first three years on the market. Therefore, the Knicks can match any offer that Lin would receive.

But the bad news is that just because the Knicks can match any offer to Lin, it doesn't necessarily mean they will have the means to do so.

Being that the Knicks claimed Lin off waivers, they don't have his full Bird right's, which would take Lin playing three seasons in New York in order for that to kick in. This would pretty much allow them to not have to worry about the salary cap.

But because they don't have that luxury, they are going to have to find a way to free enough cap space to not only sign Lin, but secure the proper bench pieces as well.

They are protected though, which means Lin should be a lock to return to the Big Apple, but it's good news-bad news all the way around.

They will have the full $5 million mid-level exemption to match an offer on Lin, that he's almost certain to receive. That's the good news. The bad news is that now they won't be able to use that on another player if they are forced to use it on Lin.

If the situation arises when Lin receives a bigger offer, which is also a likely possibility, the Knicks will be protected by the "Gilbert Arenas Provision," in the CBA. This limits the amount of money that teams can offer first or second year restricted free agents.

Basically, no team can offer such a player more than the mid-level exemption for the first year of the contract, which means the Knicks could also be in a position to match any offer.

Where they get hurt though is if Lin would only sign a one-year deal, since the Arenas provision doesn't apply to teams holding second year Bird rights on a player.

Add all that up and it looks like the Knicks should be a lock to keep Lin at least for next season and hopefully beyond. Landry Fields is also in a similar situation. But those rules apply to him as well so the Knicks should be in a good enough situation to keep both around, as long as they don't use any portion of their mid-level to sign another player.

It's doubtful they will do that though. The backlash from the bad PR that would result from letting Lin walk would be too much to handle.

So while the Knicks seem protected from allowing Lin to walk, it looks like it's a situation that's certainly worth keeping an eye on this summer.