Jeremy Lin: The Most Important New York Knick

"Linsanity" may be fading but Jeremy Lin is still the most important player on the New York Knicks' roster.  His role has changed under Mike Woodson but his performance is more critical to the team's success than ever before.

When coach Woodson took over, he told reporters that the offense would run through New York's two scoring stars: Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire.  This comment was broadly misinterpreted to suggest that Lin's role would be marginalized.  In reality, what Woodson did was implement a system in which Lin is a facilitator in the offense. 

Under coach Mike D'Antoni, Lin was encouraged to be aggressive and drive to the hoop.  He is good at penetrating but often struggles with turnovers and has difficulty controlling his kick-out passes while driving to the rim. The scoring role fit when the Knicks' scorers were out of the lineup, but made less sense and took the offense out of sync when they returned.

What Woodson seems to understand well is that Lin's greatest asset is his court vision.  Talent scouts rightly praise his penetration, athleticism and ability to take punishment, but Lin is not a young Jason Kidd.  He is much better at surveying the court and making the right pass, with penetration as a backup option.  That mentality is a perfect fit for Woodson's offensive system.

Lin is responsible for bringing up the ball, setting the offense and looking for scorers.  He's looked almost Nash-like in recent outings, surveying and dissecting the defense while looking for Anthony on the wing or Stoudemire in the post.  It brings to mind Nash's style back in the mid-2000s when he used to distribute the ball brilliantly between Stoudemire, Joe Johnson and Shawn Marion.

So Lin's role is that of keynote facilitator, but what makes him the critical cog in the offense is his ability to penetrate in conjunction with his distributive mentality.  The Knicks can score in many different ways. 

Lin can give the ball to Anthony, letting him take an opponent from the wing or the top of the key.  He can pick and roll with Stoudemire or dump the ball to him in the post.  Lin can look for Chandler, either giving him an alley-oop pass or taking a shot when Tyson is below the rim for the offensive rebound.  He can look for J.R. Smith or Steve Novak at the three-point line.  And, most essentially, he can drive to the hoop when teams decide to deny him these various options.

That is what makes Lin the most important player on the Knicks.  Now, more than ever before, everything runs through Jeremy Lin.