Which brings us to Brooklyn, or, as Lin fans prefer, Brook-Lin.
With the Nets, Lin will finally be allowed to play his game as starting point guard and floor leader. It’s a role no coach was willing to let him do for an extended period of time since he left the Knicks–or more accurately was bounced out of New York on his butt by Melo, Stoudemaire, and owner James “Guitar Jimmy” Dolan. Yes, Lin started at PG his first year in Houston, but he started alongside James Harden, who never met a ball he didn’t love to hog.
What can Nets fans expect of the new and improved Jeremy Lin? In one word: excitement. Lin can electrify a crowd. His style of play is fast and furious, his passes sometimes defying the laws of physics.
Nets fans will see Lin in attack mode all game long because he’s at his best when he’s aggressive.
But this doesn’t mean he’s a shoot-first point guard, as another false narrative out there says about him.
Lin has said many times he prefers passing to scoring. That being said, he’ll do what is needed. Like a smart boxer in the ring, he’ll adjust his game according to what’s happening on the floor. If a teammate has a hot hand, Lin will feed him. If a player the Nets expect production out of isn’t producing it, Lin will target him for passes in a position where he can score. And usually that means driving into the lane and drawing double and triple teams that leave a teammate wide open for a pass and a score.
Jeremy Lin makes players around him better. That’s one of the key things Nets fans will see. Go ask Steve Novak. Go ask Landry Fields. Go ask Tyson Chandler or Ed Davis.
And on nights when it looks like the team needs Lin to score more, Nets fans will see Lin filling up the bucket with an exciting array of layups, pull up mid-range jumpers, floaters, and 3-pointers.
I’m also betting that Nets fans are going to see a much-improved shooting percentage from Lin beyond the 3-point line.
I’ve published two interviews the past year or so with Lin’s longtime shooting coach, Doc Scheppler, who’s working once again with Lin this summer. This will be the second straight summer that their workouts’ key focus will be on perfecting Lin’s new three-point shooting form. Last year Lin studied a ton of tape on Steph Curry and told Scheppler he wanted to perfect a quick release like the one the Warriors’ ace uses.
The mechanics for that shot were put in place, but last year Lin didn’t have it in muscle memory. As a result, at times he was thinking too much about his form rather than just letting the ball fly.