Jeremy Lin: Magic Johnson Crazy to Think Knicks Will Challenge Bulls and Heat

Jeremy Lin has turned all the skeptics into believers following his heroic efforts last night in the New York Knicks' victory over the Toronto Raptors. Even Hall-of-Fame point guard Magic Johnson is convinced that "Linsanity" will do special things for the franchise. 

While the Knicks look a lot better today than they did at the start of the month, it is important to keep things in proper perspective. 

The Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat are better teams overall than the Knicks. They have more talent top to bottom, they play a more efficient style on offense and defend the ball as well as any two teams in the NBA. 

The Knicks have improved dramatically on defense this year with the addition of Tyson Chandler, but they are not in the same league as the Bulls and Knicks. 

As great as Lin's highlight reel looks, there are still big holes in his game that he has to correct before the team can compete with the best teams in the NBA. He didn't play a great game overall against the Raptors; his problems against Minnesota on Sunday did not inspire confidence. 

In addition to the struggles he has had, Lin is still not a good point guard. He is a good shooter and can put the ball in the basket, but his passing and running the offense needs a lot of work.

His assist-to-turnover ratio is less than 1.5:1 during the last five games. The Knicks offense isn't as strong this year as it was last year, so even though Mike D'Antoni wants to play fast and loose, this team isn't built to do that. 

We still have no idea how this team will look when Carmelo Anthony comes back and Amar'e Stoudemire is back to being the player he used to be. 

It is easy to look at what each player can do on their own—which is what Magic is doing—and assume that they will find a way to make it work. As we saw last year with the Miami Heat, it takes a long time for that kind of talent to mesh well. 

And the Knicks trio isn't in the same league as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Anthony has to have the ball in his hands to be an effective player. Stoudemire is best when someone is setting him up in the paint. Lin is best when he is shooting the ball. 

No one is going to deny that the Knicks are a playoff team with their version of the Big Three, but to think that they are just going to mesh right away and challenge the top two teams in the Eastern Conference is wishful thinking. 

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