The Houston Rockets have just pulled off a major coup by poaching Jeremy Lin from the New York Knicks.

 

UPDATE: Tuesday, July 17, 10:40 p.m. ET by Eric Ball

The midnight deadline is just over an hour away, but Yahoo! Sports Marc Spears can confirm that New York has no plans of matching Houston's offer, and Lin is now officially a Rocket:

 

Lin's tenure with the Knicks comes to a close after 25 games as a starter, and now fans in Houston will become familiar with the "Linsainty" that took the Big Apple by storm last February.  

It remains to be seen how this will effect the Rockets pursuit of Dwight Howard. 

---------End of Update--------

 

According to the New York Times' Howard Beck, the Knicks declined to match Houston’s offer to retain Linsanity.

Analysis

New York could not find a reasonable way to swallow the “poison pill” that is Lin’s new back-loaded contract. That makes sense, considering the organization owes a lot of money to Amar’e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler and the rest of the stars on its roster.

The Rockets are hoping that Lin is as good as he was during the 25 games he played as a starter last season. He showed a ton of promise and could easily be a bargain.

It’s a major risk that they are undertaking, but GM Daryl Morey is never one to sit back and hope for some luck. The man is hell-bent on creating his own and is hoping that Lin becomes an unprecedented success with his organization.

 

Grade: B

This is a tough signing to grade, as so much depends on how Lin does during the 2014-15 season.

Should Lin be average to decent during his first two years, he’s still a reasonably-priced player, but one would have to believe he'll return to pre-injury form.

If Linsanity doesn’t live up to the hype by the time the summer of 2014 rolls around, this signing is an absolute failure—exactly what the Knicks hope will happen now that they chose not to swallow the poison pill.

Should he continue to play at a high level and build on his epic 2012 campaign, though, Lin is a bargain, and this grade goes way up for the Rockets.

 

Twitter Reaction

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith doesn't necessarily agree with all the hype over Linsanity:

Legion Sports also doesn't quite agree with the hype around Lin, as he makes it perfectly clear that the former Knick isn't worth the money:

Magic Insider Brian K. Schmitz doesn't see the big deal over Jeremy Lin's contract, which is especially steep in the third year:

Sports Illustrated's Zach Lowe points out that things might get a little awkward over in Vegas during the Summer League:

Knicks blogger Jim Cavan sees himself having a bit of conflict with his allegiance now, considering Lin is such a fan favorite no matter where he plays:

And, of course, to cap it all off, we have a new play on Lin's name, courtesy of Steve McPherson:

You can expect to hear a lot more puns in the next three years.