Image by Anthony Bain. You should follow him on Twitter: @AnthonyBain
Aside from Eric Koreen opening Dwane Casey’s scrum asking for a Jerryd Bayless update (“the reason everybody’s here”) and Casey later heaping praise on Tyson Chandler, every single question for the two coaches this morning was about Jeremy Lin. One of the more fascinating parts of this story is how Lin remains grounded amid all this hype, on and off the court.
It’s challenging enough for any backup to step into the spotlight and know when to attack and when to defer. It’s doubly daunting to play within yourself in New York, while being treated like a superstar. It is remarkable how much confidence Mike D’Antoni has in Lin. ”This is a moment that he will cherish obviously but it’s also a great opportunity and I don’t think he’ll blow it,” he said. “He’s too smart. He’ll do what’s right to try to win, and that’s ultimately what’s going to judge him anyway. We’re dealing with a highly intelligent kid, so that’s no problem.”
Playing point guard in D’Antoni’s free-flowing system isn’t for everybody (see: everyone else who has played point guard for the Knicks this year), but Lin’s pick-and-roll instincts have him in his comfort zone. “He fits in perfectly,” Casey said. “Mike’s system is one that’s one of the most difficult to guard when you have a guy like that, a guy like Steve Nash in that situation that can run multiple pick-and-rolls, attack, read pick-and-rolls. He was at the right place at the right time. He got the opportunity, he took advantage of it, and now we have this.”
The question going forward is if it’s still a perfect fit when Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony return and it might not be in the team’s best interest for Lin to shoot 20 times per game. When a reporter told D’Antoni that a lot of people were thinking there would be problems, he corrected him.
“A lot of people hoping,” he said. “There’s no reason why it doesn’t [work], only reason it wouldn’t is if they can’t get on the same page. But up to now I’ve not seen anything except cooperation from all of the players to try to do what’s right and try to get their games compatible. Maybe [problems pop up], but if we sit down and talk about it and work it out — what is best for the New York Knicks? — we keep that idea, then they should play better with each other.”
Casey, on the other hand, acknowledged the difference in the Knicks with Lin and without Anthony. “It’s a different look, but it’s similar to Mike’s teams,” he said. “It’s closer to what his teams have been about, more so than a great player like Carmelo ISO’ing and that type of thing. You’ve got a tale of two different teams — more of the way Mike has played in Phoenix now versus a different type team. They’re a little bit more of the same with Stoudemire coming back, but when Carmelo comes back… it’s a little bit of a different look.”
With how ISO-heavy the Knicks were before Lin and how pick-and-roll dependent they are now, it’ll be fascinating to see what happens when Anthony is back. While asserting that Lin is not a flash in the pan, Casey said that the Knicks were “close to becoming his team almost.” D’Antoni said something similar. “It is not his team right now, although it’s getting close,” he said. “He is a good leader just because he does everything right. He’s a great kid, he’s humble, he just goes out and plays hard. He’s not afraid of the moment, obviously. I don’t think he’s in the locker room cheering guys on — he doesn’t have to do that — but on the floor he’s what a coach needs. He leads by example.”
If you ask me, Anthony is more than capable of following Lin’s footsteps, even if he’ll never look at him as his leader. Anthony is a good passer when he wants to be and he’s seen how much fun his teammates are having during this winning streak. Maybe, as Matt Moore suggested, he can slip into a Shawn Marion role. Maybe, as Kobe Bryant suggested, there won’t be an issue because Anthony doesn’t need to facilitate and Lin can find him in the post. There will be problems, however, if he expects to hold the ball on the wing for 10 seconds every possession. As it as always been, it’s up to Anthony.
When not talking about the system and Lin’s impact on it, both coaches expressed genuine admiration for him and his story. D’Antoni, with a laugh, said that the greatest part of the Jeremy Lin experience was “that we’ve won five in a row.” He continued, “Just everything, just what’s right with sports. He’s an underdog that came up, he does it the right way, and to be able to — probably the biggest point — to be able to step on national TV with all the scrutiny, Madison Square Garden, against the Lakers, against Kobe, and produce what he did — I mean, to me, that’s remarkable, that’s unbelievable that he can do that in that game. Again, we’ll have to see for the rest of the season. We’ve got a long ways to go yet. But up to this point, that’s off the charts. I don’t know if anybody could script that one.”
Casey said that movie directors would like to get their hands on this script. “In the biggest market in the world, in New York, he becomes an overnight sensation. You go from going to the D-League, on the waiver wire, getting picked up, and now he’s a starter on one of the prime teams, historical teams in the NBA. And you have Amar’e’s brother’s unfortunate situation, Carmelo gets hurt, and he steps in. You go from being on the waiver wire to “Linsanity” or whatever they call it.” [Note: I'm fairly sure Casey accidentally said "Vinsanity," but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he saw this dunk last night.]
D’Antoni acknowledged that not even those who saw him every day knew this was coming. “You have to have luck in life and you have to have an opportunity,” he said. “He had an opportunity, he took advantage of it. I would like to think that maybe we were smart enough to keep him around until that opportunity arose, but I wouldn’t bet on it.”
Following that, I’d like to let Casey’s thoughts on what we can learn from Lin speak for themselves.”Persistence. Don’t give up on your dream,” Casey said. “He had a dream back a few years ago, coming out of Harvard. Everybody probably thought he was crazy, he had a lot going against him at that time, but he kept working at it, didn’t give up. He could’ve given up and gone to law school, med school, whatever he wanted to do. But he stuck with his dream, stayed with it, took advantage of his opportunities, didn’t cry about not getting the opportunity… He’s a great kid, humble, but again like I said we want to kick his butt tonight when we play against him.”
