How Jeremy Lin Will Influence the 2012 NBA Playoff Race

How much will Jeremy Lin influence the 2012 NBA playoff race?

The truth is that he'll have more than a little impact but less than a lot. The New York Knicks have improved their position and their prospects of getting to the second round, but they aren't going to make it past the second round of the playoffs. 

The Knicks were on the precipice of missing the postseason entirely not too long ago. The day before Jeremy Lin introduced himself to the world in unprecedented fashion by exploding onto the scene and becoming an international celebrity within a week, the Knicks were 8-15 and 10th in the Eastern Conference. 

Then Lin happened, and the world changed.

Today, they are the seventh seed, 3.5 games behind the Atlanta Hawks for the sixth seed. How much Lin affects the playoff race will depend on whether the Knicks can close that particular gap. 

If they can get past the Hawks, then it will make a bigger difference, because with Lin, they are as good as any team in the NBA that isn't the Miami Heat or the Chicago Bulls. The Knicks, Lin or no Lin, simply aren't on the level of those two teams. 

That being said, the Knicks might be the third-best team in the Eastern Conference now. As the sixth seed, they would be able to compete with Philadelphia, Indiana, Orlando or Atlanta in a seven-game series. It would make for an exciting series. 

The other possible shakeup is something that hasn't happened in a while, and that's assuring the Eastern Conference will have a playoff field with records at least one game over .500 for the first time since 2005.

In that time, the "best" eighth seed the conference has boasted is the 41-41 Bulls from 2010. 

Jeremy Lin makes the Knicks much more competitive simply because he's a player that can execute the offense. I like the word "catalysis" when I think of Lin. His introduction to the Knicks is promoting a "reaction," which can make the rest of the players more effective. He's executing the offense. 

There is an element of this being a copycat league, though.

The last time we saw Lin, he was getting shut down by Miami by the Heat forcing him left, and that resulted in disaster. But it shouldn't be assumed that everyone is going to duplicate the Heat's effectiveness in shutting down Lin. 

At the same time, the blueprint is out there. Lin is not going to be as effective for the rest of the year. 

He will still be effective, though.

The Knicks will be better over the second half than the first half. They will be one of the top five teams in the conference. Lin will affect the seeding and could give New York a second-round team for the first time since 2000, but that's the most he'll change things this year.