National Basketball Association

Jeremy Lin: Keys To Building A Sustainable Linsanity

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Jeremy Lin, like it or not, has become a mainstay in today’s NBA landscape. Finally put in a position to succeed, can he rekindle some of that Linsanity magic in Brooklyn?

As a writer, you try to stay as objective as you possibly can. Unbiased opinions and nonpartisan analysis are almost always the most level-headed takes.

But, in the case of Jeremy Lin, I have found it extremely difficult to not outwardly cheer for him. For one, as an North American of Asian descent, he is perhaps the only player in NBA history that is actually relatable for this sizable segment of the population.

It also helps that, by all accounts, he is also one of the most down the earth and, at times, self-deprecating players in the league.

Every YouTube gem he releases has gone viral, and every photo of a new haircut he rocks makes it on the front page of NBA Reddit.

Even with the heaps of praise his personality inherently garners, however, there are always that vociferous core who reminds everyone in an antagonizing manner that Lin is a below-average point guard, and more pointedly, that if he wasn’t “Asian,” he wouldn’t receive nearly as much attention as he currently enjoys.

And, as much as it hurts to admit, for the span of about three years subsequent to “Linsanity”, such sentiments were absolutely true. As a member of the Houston Rockets, and the Los Angeles Lakers thereafter, Lin was at times painfully cringeful to watch.

More explicitly, playing alongside a primary ball-hander like James Harden and later a coach who belittled his abilities in Byron Scott, Lin seemed to overthink things and really force plays that weren’t there whenever he got the ball.

Barreling into a sea of stationary defenders, killing his dribble in the middle of lane with no recourse, and telegraphing his passes became regular occurrences for Lin.

Something changed, however, last year as a member of the Charlotte Hornets. For the first time since his two weeks stairway to international fame, Lin played with patience and pace.

Although his touches were still limited due to his backup point guard role, he did a tremendous job of picking his spots and diversifying his game.

The frantic frenzied forays would still rear its ugly head from time to time, but in general, Lin became much less dependent on his straight-line speed.

Alternatively, he began utilizing angles to find creases to the basket, kept his dribble alive in tight quarters, and used both his body to snake pick-and-rolls and his stronger handle to enable plays to actually mature and unfurl.

In addition to the Steve Nash-esque influences to his game, he was also much more adept when playing off-the-ball as the secondary ballhandler alongside Kemba Walker.

He routinely called upon his elite first step to effectively attack closeouts, and although his 3-point percentage dipped to a 4-year low, he showed no hesitancy in showing off his newly-refined, more-upright shooting form.

In fact, Lin, in manning the backcourt across from Kemba, was apart of the NBA’s fourth-most efficient lineup last season.

As we enter the 2016-17 NBA campaign, Jeremy Lin now finds himself back in the Big Apple, this time serving as the undisputed primary ballhandler of the Brooklyn Nets.

Playing on a bargain deal (considering the amount of money doled out around the league this offseason), he will try to recreate a sustainable form of Linsanity.

The fundamental infrastructure is in place for Lin to flourish individually. Kenny Atkinson, the Nets’ new head coach, played an integral role on Mike D’Antoni‘s staff during Lin’s storybook stint with the New York Knicks.

He has an ideal pick-and-pop partner in Brook Lopez, an outside sniper/floor spacer in Bojan Bogdanovic and an athletic thoroughbred in Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.

The Nets may not win too many games, but for the first time in his career, Lin is put in a situation to succeed.

Here is a fun fact: in the 33 games that Lin has started in which Carmelo Anthony (Knicks), James Harden (Rockets), or Kemba Walker (Hornets) were out of the lineup, he averaged 20.4 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 6.7 assists per game on 48 percent from the field and 44 percent from beyond the arc.

Moreover, his teams went 23-10 during those contests.

The question now becomes, can Jeremy Lin augment the pace and confidence he played with last season in a starting role capacity?

He will certainly need to improve his three-point percentage back to the high-30s to keep defenses from packing the paint, and unearth some modicum of a midrange game.

Fairly or unfairly, the Brooklyn Nets will be one of the most watched and followed teams next season, despite their lack of contending talent.

Such attention will be tethered to Lin for the rest of his career. But, when skeptics finally realize he is not just your run-of-the-mill basketball player, in that he is the only great hope to a large contingent of an underrepresented populace, they too will tune in for their dose of Linsanity.