Jeremy Lin

Lin was acquired by the Hawks into cap space, without much in the way of sweetener going the other way. Normally, players traded into cap space are either very good or highly unwanted, and with the latter, a first-round pick (or more) is usually traded with their contract as sweetener. Not so with Lin, onto whom the Brooklyn Nets stuck only a 2025 second-round pick in moving him to Atlanta. Lin is an unlikely Hawk, a now-veteran reserve point guard without upside or team control on his contract, who nevertheless replaces Dennis Schroeder as a more harmonious, cheaper alternative to push Trae Young's career along.

Perhaps the answer to Lin's perceived value lies in the secondary revenues he creates; by virtue of his Chinese heritage and the size of their increasingly passionate fanbase, Lin yields a ton of merchandise and apparel sales for whichever team he is signed to. However, by the time the trade deadline passes, all those Hawks Lin jerseys will already have been bought. Assuming he has only negligible trade value (which he will unless the Hawks are prepared to use him to take on salary, which would be highly out of character and out of kilter with the rest of the moves they have made of late), he becomes a logical buyout candidate. On a team not intending to win anything any time soon, what incentive is there to keep him?

Jeremy Lin
PG - 6’3, 200lbs - 29 years old - 8 years of experience

Injured mere minutes into the season, Lin’s role was to sit on the bench in a series of sharp outfits and snazzy haircuts. He performed this with aplomb, and thus can arguably be said to have had a fantastic year, apart from the bit where he was injured mere minutes into the season.

Already having opted in to his player option for next season, there is the chance that if he can prove his good health and get back to his normal career level of play, Lin will have some resale value down the right. That is likely the intent, at least, for with D’Angelo Russell in the fold, Caris LeVert’s good second year to consider and (you would imagine) a strong desire to keep the incredibly solid Spencer Dinwiddie, the need for ball handling primary playmaking guards is very much marginalised. All three have youth and upside on their side over Lin, and while decisions between the three may have to be made down the road, the more immediate decision to be made is where Lin fits in alongside them.

Even after digging out a couple of good players through the Redraft and Reclamation process thus far, the Nets still need to improve their overall talent level by quite away. Lin’s return will help with that, for he is a solid-starter-excellent-reserve calibre of lead guard who betters any team he is on. The point of signing he and Trevor Booker, though, was not so much to aid the team immediately as it was to be warm and helpful presences while waiting to be turned around for assets down the road.

It worked with Booker. With good health, maybe soon it will work with Lin as well. And if he does stay and see out his contract – which is entirely likely considering the injury – here’s hoping he gets back to the fun stuff again.

Player Plan: One year and $12,516,746 remaining. Look to move, potentially as salary relief for a team with a big 2020-expiring bad deal they wouldn’t mind attaching something useful to to be free of while getting a useful player like Lin in return. Solomon Hill, for example.

Jeremy Lin
PG, 6’3, 200lbs, 28 years old, 7 years of experience

Seems at home in a pace-and-space system; give him a team of shooters to spot up around him and he'll find them (35.5% assist percentage) while still getting his own. Admittedly in a shortened season due to injury and ignoring the lazy defence that stats never cover well, this was nevertheless Lin's best year since Linsanity. It was notable how much the team struggled without him (1-27 stretch after he got injured; 11-12 stretch upon his return). Nonetheless, if a pick is there to be had, take it; the sign-vets-trade-vets-for-picks strategy might never work this well again.

Player Plan: Has a $12 million salary for next season, then an option for 2018/19 at $12,516,746. Shouldn’t think he would exercise the option, thus essentially making this the final year. Trade him so as to get something for him.

In light of one or both of these two being about to be traded, there exists a new realm of questions about this two unusual, nearly-novel deals.

The questions surround what they're being paid, and what they're being charged to the salary cap. People don't know which set of figures to believe, and the confusions stems from the fact that those two questions actually have two different answers.

"Salary" and "cap number" are usually assumed to be synonymous with each other on account of the fact that they normally are, with rare exceptions. Occasionally, exceptions can be found in buyout agreements (I believe, though cannot say decisively, that the Blazers were still playing Shawn Kemp up to and including last season), but not with valid contracts. These deals, then, are an exception. And that's why they need clarifying.

Using the Arenas provision, Lin and Asik signed for the most Houston could give them over three years - $25,123,938. The contracts called for them to be paid an even $5 million in 2012/13, $5.225 million in 2013/14, and $14,898,938 in 2014/15. For the purposes of where we're going, it doesn't matter how these figure was arrived at, only what they are and where we're going.

The cap number for these contracts calls for that $25,123,938 contract to be split evenly across all three years, i.e. $8,374,646 each season. This is true despite of the actual payment schedule being what it is above. So when someone asks "what are Lin and Asik getting paid?", the answer could be either, technically. On a literal interpretation of the question, the payment schedule is the right answer. Yet when people ask that, what they really want to know, even if they don't know there's a difference, is what is their cap number. That's the one that matters to anyone who isn't actually cutting the cheques.

The confusion as to which is correct stems from a now-irrelevant provision of the Arenas rule, whereby had Chicago and New York matched the deal, their cap hit would have mirrored the payment schedule. This was widely reported at the time, and as such, passed into the public conscience in a conflicting manner. But it's something that should be disregarded. That was something that didn't happen, cannot now happen, and thus is irrelevant. From now until the date the contracts expire, Lin and Asik will have cap numbers of $8,374,646 in each season, along with being paid $5.225 million this season and $14,898,938 next. This is true no matter which team they are on - even if Asik is traded back to Chicago, $8,374,646 will remain the cap number. While owners looking to trade for them must be mindful of the latter, it is the former figure which is used for all cap calculations, and thus trade permutations. So when you see their cap hit listed as $8,374,646, this is the one that matters. This is the figure around which outgoing salary in trade, cap room, proximity to luxury tax, and all that jazz, is calculated from. This, then, is the correct figure.

And yes, this also applies to Landry Fields. His actual salary will be $5 million 2012/13, $5.225 million 2013/14, and $8,525,000 in 2014/15. Don't shoot the messenger.



While we're on the subject, let's address one other thing regarding these three signings - they were NOT "Poison Pill" deals. They were deals done what we used to call, and for no apparent reason stopped calling, the Arenas provision. The mechanism known as the "Poison Pill" provision is completely different, and regards what happens when you trade someone whose rookie contract you have extended, before said extension kicks in. It is unrelated here, and yet from somewhere, the term seems to have transitioned to the Asik, Lin and Fields cases.

In some additional related bookkeeping, the reason for many of the players listed in the previous list was due to the NBA's contract guarantee date. All players on NBA rosters on or after January 10th have their contracts guaranteed for the remainder of the season (future seasons are unaffected); this also includes waivers. In-season waivers are 48 hours long and do not include weekends; therefore, with the 10th of January being a Monday, players had to be waived by close of business on Wednesday 5th in order to have cleared waivers before the deadline date.

Eleven players with not fully guaranteed contracts were waived in the hours before that deadline: Steve Novak, Damien Wilkins, Jarron Collins, John Lucas III, Ime Udoka, Lester Hudson, Ronald Dupree, Brian Skinner, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Sundiata Gaines and Rodney Carney. Twenty seven unguaranteed players survived; Delonte West, Von Wafer, Brian Scalabrine, Samardo Samuels, Manny Harris, Alonzo Gee, Brian Cardinal, Melvin Ely, Gary Forbes, Jeremy Lin, Ish Smith, A.J. Price, Ike Diogu, Luc Richard Mbah A Moute, Ben Uzoh, Didier Ilunga-Mbenga, Shawne Williams, Malik Allen, Garret Siler, Patty Mills, Sean Marks, Darnell Jackson, Chris Quinn, Sonny Weems, Jeremy Evans, Cartier Martin and Hamady Ndiaye. Players with contracts who had already become guaranteed due to specific guarantee stipulations in their contracts were Sherron Collins, Derrick Brown, Josh McRoberts, Willie Warren, Derrick Caracter, Luther Head and Joey Dorsey.

The Warriors started early, nabbing Jeremy Lin after summer league ended to a contract that has $350,000 in guaranteed money. Since this represents almost 75% of his entire rookie year salary, you can safely assumed he's sticking around for the duration

Jeremy Lin

Lin's major strength is his scoring efficiency. As a 6'3 guard, he shot 52% last year as a first option player, which is pretty hard to imagine. But that's about it for the moment. He's an unathletic 6'3 score-first player who turns it over too much to be a point guard, who is too small and grounded to he a two guard, and who doesn't shoot from outside particularly well either. He defends fairly well, though, and neither is he timid. And if he can improve his ball-handling and jumpshot, there's enough guile there to override his physical tools. But shooting and dribble are prerequisite point guard skills for a reason.