Jeremy Lin to Houston Rockets: What Should the Knicks Do About the PG Situation?
Jeremy Lin and the Houston Rockets have reportedly agreed to an offer sheet that would pay Lin $30 million over the course of four years with an option for the fourth year of the deal, which puts the New York Knicks in a precarious position.
First, they must evaluate their point guard situation. They just signed Jason Kidd after whiffing on a Steve Nash sign-and-trade, and Kidd most likely won't be coming into New York to be the starting point guard for the Knicks.
So, New York is going to have one of two options. First, the Knicks can match the offer for Lin and use Kidd as the primary backup, or they could pursue another low-level point guard and play point guard-by-committee, which would be an interesting option.
The first option would put the Knicks in a tight spot financially, but not as bad as once thought.
New York would have to match the Rockets' contract for Lin, but the team option for the fourth year could get rid of all the fears in the Knicks front office that they may have surrounding this deal. If there was no option, New York would have four players making north of $9 million during the 2014-15 season, which means roughly $66 million in payroll would be tied up in four players.
However, the fact that it would only be the case for one year should Lin not preform as well as they hope should make the Knicks more confident in matching Houston's offer, as it would only lock them into his salary for three years, the fourth year being optional.
At the moment, that seems like the option that makes the most sense and would work the best for the Knicks, but we know these Knicks, and they tend to do strange things.
They've already talked about pursuing Raymond Felton in a sign-and-trade deal that would bring the underperforming point guard back to the team for which he played the best (although it was under Mike D'Antoni, and not Mike Woodson).
While the deal isn't yet done for Kidd, and sign-and-trade possibilities are still being looked at, Kidd is most likely going to slide into their mini mid-level exception, which would mean any new acquisition would have to be via trade or sign-and-trade.
Other point guards still out there that the Knicks could pursue a sign-and-trade with should they decline to match Lin's offer sheet include Kirk Hinrich, D.J. Augustin, Derek Fisher, Jonny Flynn, Gilbert Arenas and Delonte West, unless some of these players could be had for the league minimum.
The absolute top-notch option for the Knicks at point guard has to be Lin, while a point guard-by-committee option seems to be sloppy and unwise, at best.
