Clincher wrote:They planned on matching his deal as they never expected or thought he'd get a poison pill contract. 15 mill is outrageous for the year Lin played. I agree that Woodson/Dolan did open their mouths prematurely but at that point, you have to figure that both Lin/his agency and the Knicks were in great terms with one another and were that confident that a deal is reached. Everyone around the NBA was caught by surprise by Lin's final year on his deal and Dolan, silly or not, felt hurt that Lin went and fought for more money. Dolan is petty no doubt but the one thing he is.....he's too loyal to people he values a lot and likes a lot. He really liked Lin, he loved that Lin won him the Time Warner Cable dispute and he loved the buzz he brought town.
That's your misconception right there. Lin did not go back and fight for more money. If you read the articles that came out afterwards from ESPN and elsewhere, they even quote Morey, in that it was Les responding to Woodson's words in the media and the Rockets making the initiative on their own to raise the offer. It had nothing to do with Lin. He didn't got back to ask for more money.
Clincher wrote:Knicks were going to give him an extension but the Rockets jumped in there unexpectedly, especially given we acquired Lin because again, Houston waived him and Lin/his party fought for as much money as they could. Fair play to Lin given he at the time didn't have too much money and he's a smart man but he was in good terms/standing with the Knicks FO. Melo, JR Smith and others on the team maybe not so much but Dolan and Glen? Absolutely. He would have gotten taken care of, just maybe not for as much money as what Houston got.
False again. Extension was never an option. As an undrafted player (just like with 2nd round picks), he is not on a pre-determined Rookie scale contract with defined extension dates and terms like 1st Round Draft picks. Lin was on a 2 yr contract that he had original signed with Golden State. Contracts that are 3 or less years in length are ineligible for extension according to the CBA.
Further, while other teams have to wait for the first date of free agency before they can talk to a player or try to work out a new deal, that is not the case with the existing team. So it is categorically false that the Rockets "jumped in" before the Knicks had a chance. The Knicks had exclusive access to him and could have worked out a deal before he hit free agency. But they declined to do so, refused to give him any offers, and then told him to go out there and seek his market price. Even the reports of the meetings that Glen held with Lin prior to him hitting free agency revealed that the Knicks declined to give him any numbers or a single contract offer.
Clincher wrote:But you nor I don't know that if Houston didn't step in that the Knicks would have taken care of him down the road that offseason. Lin signed that deal relatively out of the gates. Again, the Knicks were adamant upon matching any contract and would have done that relative 4 year 28.8 mill with the 4th year as a team option deal. It was the poison pill deal that turned everything sour. Matching that deal would have put the Knicks in a luxury tax and while money's nothing to Dolan, I am sure he never expected to have to pay a boatload of cash because of Lin's deal because of the poison pill in year 3.
Of course he liked it here. I just don't think he's 100% completely not guilty or at fault for his departure of NY.
Again, that is not true that he signed it "relatively out of the gates." The Knicks had the time between the last game of Heat/Knicks series and the start of free agency to hammer out a deal if they wanted. They had EXCLUSIVE access to him, and were the only team allowed to negotiate a contract with him. No other team can step in. They refused to do so. Teams that really want to retain a guy start negotiating and trying to lock in players before they even hit free agency (Like the Clippers did with Chris Paul, so that Paul's agent told other teams not to even bother scheduling a meeting when free agency began, because he had a deal worked out with the Clippers when they had exclusive access to him for contract negotiation purposes).
And no, we don't know that the Knicks would have definitely taken care of him. In fact, historical examples would prove the opposite. There was a restricted free agent a while back (his name escapes me at the moment, but it was brought up during the whole discussion at the time) who was looking at a big payday because of a breakout performance in the playoffs. He was the toast of the town and eagerly eyed by other teams. The team adamantly broadcasted to everyone that they would match any offer. So the other teams shied away and didn't even bother trying. As free agency wound down, the rest of the NBA settled on their free agent choices and the money ran out. All the while, this restricted free agent, who everyone expected to have a huge payday, got zero offers due to the original team boasting of matching any price to keep him. At the end of free agency, with all the suitors gone and their money tied up in new contracts, the original team then gave an extremely lowball offer, significantly below his market value. The agent refused and held out, and held out, and held out, trying to get his market value instead of the vet min or whatever that he got lowballed with. This went on well into when the season began, till the player caved several months into the season and accepted the low ball offer.
Many suspected that was the purpose of the Knicks broadcasting that they were willing to match anything, despite their capped out status and luxury tax concerns. Especially when they refused to give him a single offer or negotiate a contract to lock him up when they had EXCLUSIVE access, and were the only team allowed to negotiate a contract with him.
Clincher wrote:Accepting Felton was more so because Felton had a strong showing as a Knick with DAntoni and was someone who the Knicks didn't want to cough up necessarily in the Melo deal but had to(Walsh didn't want to give up any of the 4 Knicks but Dolan didn't want Melo with the Nets and Melo's camp pushed for a deal before the lockout) so Felton left on a pretty good standing in the minds of Knicks fans and brass.
We had to sign and trade for Felton since we had little to no money to spend that offseason which is why he became Plan B, esp. coming off the disgraceful year in Portland.
This was after Fat Felton and his locker room mutiny in Portland and his terrible season. And getting him required wasting assets in a sign-and-trade that could have been used in a different deal to fill another hole in the team. So that was a double whammy. Not just picking up a Fat Portland Felton, but also losing an opportunity cost to use those assets in a sign-and-trade to fill a different area of weakness in the roster.
And yes, if you were following things at the time, you could definitely see the heavy hand of MSG's PR department. Alan Hahn and Clyde were all over the news desperately begging the Knicks FO to match the poison pill. Then, as if a switch was turned on, Clyde suddenly shut up and not a peep. And Hahn started trying to ease the fans into Felton. They both get their paychecks from MSG. So they both had to hold their tongues once the corporate orders came down. But their desperate attempts to try to convince the brass to match at the last minute despite the poison pill instead of going with Felton revealed their true feelings. The character assassination and false rumors of Lin going back to ask for more money also didn't crop up till then, in an attempt to make Lin look like the bad guy so that the Knicks fans wouldn't riot (rumors since proven false by explicit statements by Morey of what really happened behind the scenes).
Here was the piece from Sports Illustrated that gives food for thought, and contradicts the character assassination attempts that he was only out for the money. There's an ESPN bit elsewhere from Morey stating that the initiative to raise the poison pill was wholly the Rockets' and not Lin's. So that got debunked as well.
Sports Illustrated wrote:The notion that Lin has always cared about money above all else, in particular, eats away at him, especially as he sleeps in his childhood home.
"If I really wanted to, I could have triple-digit endorsements," Lin pointed out, but he does not. Instead, and in large part because Lin wanted to concentrate on basketball, he declined to cash in on the Linsanity gold-rush -- namely, the mountain of business opportunities in Asia -- and picked only three companies: Volvo, Steiner Sports and Nike.
"A year ago, I was just trying to stay alive and fight day by day, just to be on a roster," said Lin, who famously slept on couches upon his arrival in New York. "What I have now is way more than I ever would have dreamed of, and way more than I need."
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"I love the New York fans to death," Lin said. "That's the biggest reason why I wanted to return to New York. The way they embraced me, the way they supported us this past season, was better than anything I've ever seen or experienced. I'll go to my grave saying that. What New York did for me was unbelievable. I wanted to play in front of those fans for the rest of my career."
http://www.si.com/nba/2012/07/18/jeremy-lin-exclusive
