Jeremy Lin: Linsanity Not Enough to Lift New York Knicks in Eastern Conference

I can't fault fans of the New York Knicks for going all in on Jeremy Lin.

Or "Linsanity," as he's not being referred to on the heels of his two-game explosion at Madison Square Garden.

He's the Obi Wan Kenobi of the Big Apple, the Knicks' only hope of delivering on the considerable promise that was ascribed to them by the city's feverish media contingent heading into the 2011-12 NBA season.

Okay, so maybe that's overstating Lin's importance just a smidgen, though what about the kid's meteoric rise hasn't been? Usually, when a 23-year-old Harvard grad comes to New York City seeking employment, he or she does so as a banker on Wall Street, not a baller on Madison Avenue.

But that's what Lin has done, that's the mold that Lin has shattered, and for that, he deserves at least a prorated portion of the phenomenon of which he's become the focal point.

Well, that and the 53 points and 15 assists he's poured in since Saturday.

With that said, let's not get completely carried away here, folks. He's not the second-coming of Bill Bradley.

Not yet, anyway.

More importantly, the Knicks still have a long way to go before they can consider themselves anywhere near the class currently cohabited by the Miami Heat and the Chicago Bulls atop the Eastern Conference, much less NBA title contenders.

The pairing of Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony clearly isn't working, at least without a competent point guard. Tyson Chandler has been solid, though his defensive skills hardly make up for the ball-handling prowess the team gave up when it "amnesthetized" Chauncey Billups.

Please, don't talk to me about Chauncey's Achilles. You never know if, where, when or how a freak injury like that is going to crop up.

Clearly, the energy and excitement that Lin has brought to Mike D'Antoni's backcourt is far superior to anything thrown into the mix by the likes of Toney Douglas, Iman Shumpert and the walking corpse of Mike Bibby, at least at the point. It's also infinitely better than anything Baron Davis has yet brought to the table, simply because he has yet to play a single minute in a Knicks uniform.

Still, the Knicks will need more than just whatever they can squeeze out of a second-year guard who went undrafted out of the Ivy League if they're to crawl into the playoff picture in the East. Supposing the B-Diddy Experiment works out and GM Glen Grunwald is able to nab one more guard (say, JR Smith), the Knickerbockers may yet find themselves back in the business of winning basketball games.

But pinning their fragile hopes to an even more fragile former all-star is a dangerous game for the Knicks to play.

So too is counting on a kid who the team plucked out of the D-League late last month after posting a triple-double for the Erie BayHawks.

Then again, what else do Knicks fans have at this point but Linsanity?

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