Jeremy Lin: Signing with Portland Trail Blazers Is Star PG's Best Option

Jeremy Lin isn’t an insect. The bright lights of New York City are attractive, but he must resist and head west. There—on the Portland Trail Blazers—is where Lin will be in position to shine the brightest.

Hoopsworld’s Alex Kennedy reported that, according to sources, Portland will be one of the teams attempting to persuade the point guard to abandon the Big Apple this summer.

On paper,  the New York Knicks, not the Trail Blazers, look like Lin’s ideal landing spot. Amar’e Stoudamire is the best pick-and-roll big man in the NBA. And that will be the key to Lin finding long-term success in the league: committing to a team that will allow him to control the basketball, with a big capable of running the pick-and-roll.

If the Knicks were to trade Carmelo Anthony, Lin would be the primary ball handler and be free to create for his teammates. But two problems exist.

First, Stoudamire is one of the most injury-prone players in the league. There isn’t any guarantee that he’ll be able to stay healthy for an entire season in the near future. The fact that he’ll be 30 years old in November isn’t on STAT’s side either. Because of that, he’s the star most likely to get shipped out of New York—not Melo. And Lin can’t play pick-and-roll with Anthony.

However, he’d be able to do just that with LaMarcus Aldridge. While the Dallas Mavericks are another team being linked to Lin, Dirk Nowitzki doesn’t possess Aldridge’s youth, which will provide Lin with a long-term pick-and-roll partner. Aldridge will turn just 27 years old in July.

Other teams with their eyes on Lin include the Toronto Raptors, Golden State Warriors and Brooklyn Nets. Plain and simple, the Raptors and Nets aren’t talented ballclubs.

While the Warriors look promising, Lin doesn’t fit well in the same starting lineup as Stephen Curry. Not only are they both poor defenders, but Curry has the mentality of a point guard and needs the ball in his hands.

There isn’t any doubt about it. Portland is Lin’s best fit by far.

Thanks to the flop that is Raymond Felton’s, there’s a nice big hole at the point guard position for Lin to fill. Aldridge is one of the most talented young bigs in the entire league. Small forward Nicolas Batum is a solid 23-year-old spot-up shooter who also finishes well at the rim.

And you can’t forget that the Trail Blazers managed to hustle the Nets into swapping their 2012 first-round pick for Gerald Wallace. That selection comes with the sixth-highest odds to win the No. 1 pick in the draft lottery. In the deepest class since 2003, Portland will have the opportunity to leave the draft with two starting-caliber prospects.

But when it’s all said and done, will they be able to outbid the Knicks for Lin? Yes. Kennedy brings more good news to Blazer fans with this loophole that he found in the new CBA:

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A team with salary cap space could make things interesting by increasing Lin’s salary in years three and four of his contract and paying him the average salary of the four-year deal. However, if the Knicks match a back-loaded offer, they’ll have to pay the actual salary that he’s due for each season.

That means if Brooklyn offers Lin $12,628,613 and $13,146,387 in the final two years of his deal, they’ll have to pay him $9,000,000 per season. However, if New York matches, they’ll owe Lin $5,000,000 next season, $5,225,000 in year two and then $12,628,613 in 2013-14, when they already owe Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler $60,632,000. Matching Lin isn’t the no-brainer decision that some have made it out to be when you consider how much it could cost New York in two years.

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If Lin isn’t wearing a Trail Blazers uniform in a few months, somebody messed up.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

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