Jeremy Lin and the Rockets may have gotten the better of the Knicks last night, but George Willis of the New York Post contends that New York still made the right call by letting the guard go to Houston in the summer of 2012. Houston gave Lin a three-year, $25MM offer sheet that was backloaded to pay him $15MM in the final year. That number would have put the Knicks in luxury tax hell, making a return nearly impossible. “Lin is not a $15MM a year player and never will be,” an NBA insider said. “The Rockets don’t even see him as that.” Here’s more out of the Atlantic..
- New 76ers coach Brett Brown never expected his club to get out to a 5-4 start, writes Thomas Moore of the Bucks County Times. The rebuilding Sixers were widely predicted to finish with the worst record in the league this season, particularly after it was announced that Nerlens Noel would be lost for the season.
- The Nets are struggling early on under new head coach Jason Kidd, but star guard Deron Williams insists the wins will come if the team continues to believe in their system, writes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. A 2-5 start isn’t what the Nets had in mind after breaking the bank to acquire Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jason Terry this summer.
- New Knicks guard Beno Udrih is singing a similar tune, saying that he’s not ready to panic, though the club has to step up their game. “There’s panic going on because no one expected the season to start the way it has started,” Udrih told Lang Greene of HoopsWorld. “But the regular season has 82 games so there’s still [73] games remaining. We just have to worry about ourselves. Our goal is still to win the [Atlantic Division] and get in a good spot for the playoffs.“
- Former Celtics and Nets guard Terrence Williams split with Turk Telecom due to family reasons, according to a Turkish report passed along by Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. To keep up with hoops from around the globe, check out Hoops Rumors’ International Player Tracker.