TWITTER: Lin officially to Houston Rockets; Knicks Decline to Match Offer

[Coatesvillain]

Originally Posted by RollWithEm

Felton very possibly could be the better player.

I agree. Also he'll come a lot cheaper.

[E.H. Munro]

Originally Posted by Coatesvillain

I agree. Also he'll come a lot cheaper.

There's more to the calculation than merely salary. Performancewise Felton looked cooked last year. Now maybe the schedule was too much for him and he'll look better this year by getting himself into shape over the summer. But there isn't any clear indication to me that Felton is going to bring anything to the court that Lin isn't.

So that leaves us with the financial calculus, and there I think Lin's a lot more valuable to New York. Not simply in terms of corporate sponsorships from the far east, but also in terms of merchandise sales in building. I suspect that Felton would need to be a vet minimum signing to make the Knicks more money than they would with Lin over the next three years.

[HKF]

Felton won't sell jerseys though, so Lin is going nowhere.

[LA68]

A player young as Felton who already doesn't stay in shape it will only get worse from here. And last year he couldn't shoot either. Of course Lin hasn't proven he can play a full season as starter.

Its the Knicks, always some drama on broadway.

[Diable]

Lin is probably an mle type of a player, but we haven't seen enough to know that. It sure doesn't seem like he did enough to merit this. Of course it seems to be more about what he can do to the bottom line than what he can do on the floor.

[c_dog]

you can tell just from people commenting on how how felton "is cheaper" that some people here never figured out the basic economics of society. felton won't come much cheaper than lin's contract, and he certainly won't make even 1/3 of the revenue that lin generates. lin has been selling out stadiums all over the country(and yes ppl wanted lin, not amare, not carmelo anthony cuz this happened even while they were injured). lin was #2 is jersey sales that year, and that doesn't include the merchandise. the decision to match is just too easy.

[Coatesvillain]

I don't know I thought we were talking about basketball and winning. Apparently other things override that.

But it's the Knicks the most overblown "important" franchise in all of sports. So I can see why they'd make a move like this because that's what they do.

[e-monk]

Felton as knick playing for D'Antoni might have been decent but that guy hasnt been seen in 2 years - he's apparently been replaced by a fat kid who would rather be spending time on his couch playing on his ps3

[Ron]

Originally Posted by Coatesvillain

I don't know I thought we were talking about basketball and winning. Apparently other things override that.

But it's the Knicks the most overblown "important" franchise in all of sports. So I can see why they'd make a move like this because that's what they do.

They also don't win championships. It's been 39 years.

They will never learn. They bring in aging superstars like Jason Kidd well past his prime. They bring in Carmelo Anthony, who can light it up but can't play any defense and won't share the rock. They bring in Amar'e Stoudemire, a big man who is still trying to grab his first rebound.

All of their moves seem to be about star power, and not about actually WINNING something.

[Bogg]

Originally Posted by Coatesvillain

I don't know I thought we were talking about basketball and winning. Apparently other things override that.

But it's the Knicks the most overblown "important" franchise in all of sports. So I can see why they'd make a move like this because that's what they do.

To be fair, Jeremy Lin is a better basketball player than Ray Felton at this point.

[Coatesvillain]

I don't even know if we can say that. Lin without D'Antoni wasn't the same as he was with him.

[E.H. Munro]

Unless Felton drastically improves over last year, even with the injury it's a safe bet that Lin is better. And it's not because he's a wunderkind but because Ray Felton sucks like Paris Hilton after a night of tequila shooters.

[Bogg]

Originally Posted by Coatesvillain

I don't even know if we can say that. Lin without D'Antoni wasn't the same as he was with him.

Ray Felton without D'Antoni is good for 11 and 6 on iffy percentages, and that's assuming he isn't the fat kid who led the locker room mutiny in Portland when he shows up next year. In seven years he's had a half-season of 17 and 9 ball, let's not start pretending like that's the guy he is now.

[Luke]

Any team would be moronic not to match that offer for Lin for reasons completely unrelated to basketball. The amount of revenue that he is going to bring to that franchise by virtue of being Asian is staggering.

He's not that great of a player though. He's solid, but anyone who thinks he has an all star future ahead of him (in terms of impact, not chinese people voting him in) is a fool.

And that's actually my biggest problem with Lin. I like the kid. He seems humble and I am happy that he has been given a chance to show that he belongs in this league. But watching every single Asian fan blow him constantly, whether it be on this site or elsewhere, is ****ing obnoxious. I'm white, we don't have a lot of superstars in this league, but you don't see me fawning over every single white dude that can play just because he's white. With Yao I tolerated it because Yao was actually a franchise player when healthy, but Lin is an average to slightly above average starter and will be for the rest of his career. But he probably won't miss an all star game for the next 10 years and I'm going to be stuck hearing about how incredible he is the entire time.

[Bogg]

Originally Posted by Luke

you don't see me fawning over every single white dude that can play just because he's white

My good buddies Dennis and Isiah think you're a silly person.