Linsanity

Over the last week a new phenomenon has emerged in the NBA for the New York Knicks. If you don't know who I am talking about, you better pay attention because this kid will be around for awhile. His name is Lin, Jeremy Lin.
For the first week of his career in the NBA Lin led the Knicks to a 4-0 record, averaging 27.3 points, 8.3 assists, and 2.0 steals a game. This kid is the real deal. No one since the 1976-77 season has 20 points and had 7 assists in each of his first four starts. Let me repeat that stat line, NO ONE since the 1976-77 has 20 points and 7 assists in EACH of his first four starts. That is ridiculous, Lin was in the right place at the right time. He came in right when Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire went out with injuries.
Now I am going to be the first to say this, no one on the Knicks is more important than Jeremy Lin. Again, no one is more important than him and he should be the Knicks No. 1 priority and their franchise player. Lin is the player you want to build around because besides Steve Nash, no one has worked Coach Mike D'Antoni's system as well as Lin has in the past week. He outscored Kobe Bryant during this four game stretch and led the Knicks to a four game win streak. The Knicks were 8-15 before Lin was inserted into the lineup and are now riding a five-game win streak thanks to his play.
This kid is something special and the hype surrounding him is unmatched by anything in recent memory in the NBA since Lebron James came into the NBA out of high school. He is the next big thing and he is in the perfect system for his skill set.
The biggest question everyone has had is how will Lin and Anthony mesh and it is a valid question. Anthony seems to thrive on the isolation and creating his own shot, where as Lin creates shots for others and has flourished in the pick and roll system D'Antoni was famous for in Phoenix with Nash and Stoudemire. As a result of the previous experience Stoudemire has in D'Antoni's system, I don't think it will be a problem for him to adjust, plus it is the system best suited for Stoudemire. Anthony needs to understand if he takes a back seat to Lin and let's him run the system, the Knicks can become instant contenders in the East. It may not be this year, but with that core of players, the Knicks have the potential to be very good for a very long time, as long as they can keep this core of players. Again it all depends on how D'Antoni can mesh these players and get them to all buy into the same system. That is the million dollar question and I for one am looking forward to seeing how it plays out. If you want to read the full ESPN story here.

You can follow me on twitter @roberts_843 and now on Venomstrikes.com, writing about the Diamondbacks as part of the FanSided network of sports blogs.