Jeremy Lin was convinced he would sign with the Mavericks for the room exception this past summer, as he told Dan Feldman of ProBasketballTalk, but Dallas turned away when DeAndre Jordan reneged on his commitment to the Mavs, leading the point guard to turn to the Hornets instead. “Charlotte came out of nowhere,” Lin said. “Had I known it was going to go down the way it went down, I would’ve definitely planned things a little differently.”
Lin enjoys his Hornets teammates, but no guarantee exists that he’ll be back with them next season, since he can opt out of his contract. No team gave a higher percentage of its minutes after the trade deadline to players who can hit free agency this summer, Feldman points out, but Charlotte has been successful because of an unusual bond between the players, as Feldman details. Al Jefferson conceded that he probably wouldn’t have accepted a reduced role during a contract year if he were younger but said he’s never been on a team quite like this one in Charlotte.
See more from the Eastern Conference:
- Steve Novak wants to re-sign with the Bucks after a brief, injury-shortened time in Milwaukee this season, and coach Jason Kidd indicated that the feeling is mutual as the team seeks to improve its shooting, notes Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Novak is a guy we thought was going to help in that [shooting] department,” Kidd said. “Hopefully we can re-sign him. We liked what he did briefly on the floor, but we also enjoyed what he did for us off the floor, even being hurt. That’s what a vet does. We would all love to have him back. That kind of threat is what we need as a team to have any kind of success.”
- Gardner suggests in the same piece that the Bucks want to move on from O.J. Mayo and Greivis Vasquez but have better regard for Jerryd Bayless. All three will hit free agency in July.
- Richard Jefferson‘s contribution in Game 1 was subtle but important and showed the value of his signing this past offseason for the Cavaliers, observe Michael Beaven and George Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal.
Lin is becoming someone who plays for a different team each season. He seems to have a good arrangement in Charlotte. Unless he gets a huge offer from someone, it’s probably best that he stays with the Hornets.