Jeremy Lin: Knicks Make Huge Mistake by Letting Linsanity Walk

Well, Knicks fans, let the heartbreak begin.  According to Howard Beck of the New York Times, team management has decided to let breakout point guard Jeremy Lin walk away to join the Houston Rockets.  The Harvard grad will sign a three-year, $25 million contract to be the starting point man in the Lone Star State while the Knicks will roll with a tandem of Raymond Felton and Jason Kidd.

As a Knicks fan, this decision makes me absolutely furious.  It is just another bad decision in what has become almost common for the New York front office to do: develop a good young player who has a positive impact both on the floor and in the locker room, not to mention with the fans, and then decide to not bring him back.

This all could have been avoided once an arbitrator Lin would have his early Bird rights, which would have let the Knicks go over the salary cap to sign him.  Yet, current General manager and Isiah Thomas disciple Glen Grunwald chose to wait on making an offer for Lin and instead let the free agent market dictate his price.  As a result, the Rockets offered a backloaded deal, known as the "poison pill" and despite repeated reports that the team would match Houston's offer sheet, it turned out to be too big a pill for Grunwald to swallow.

As a result, Knicks management have once again alienated the fans and thus royally dropped the ball on someone who could have been the key to the team's future.  Lin starred in former coach Mike D'Antoni's system in the absence of Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony and even when Mike Woodson took over, he did just fine in getting those two stars the ball.  At the same time, even he himself showed flashes of brilliance when the opportunity presented itself.

Now, the Knicks have Felton and Kidd running the point, one of whom has peaked and the other is on the decline.  Felton can run an offense, but he is the definition of inconsistency.  He may have done well during his half season in New York, but that was in a D'Antoni offense that pads any point guard's stats.  Regarding Kidd, he is a fine leader, but little more than a three-point shooter production-wise.

On top of it all, the Knicks just lost out on a major marketing opportunity.  Bringing Lin back would have opened up so many merchandising and advertising doors through which Linsanity could have been capitalized on immensely.  Because Grunwald didn't jump on getting Lin an offer from the get-go, the Knicks now have to try and market the team's two superstars and the supporting case to a pissed off fanbase.  Not exactly an easy task.

Anyway, I'm rambling, so I'll close with this.  The Knicks should be thankful that Lin's deal is only for three years and he is only 24 years old, as they could probably make a play for him on the free agent market then too if he continues to develop in Houston.

If New York underachieves this year because of inconsistency at the point, Grunwald will only have himself to blame, and chances are that the fans will never forgive him for this mistake.