jayu70 wrote:Interesting....Lin said he’s going to let his agent handle the potential buyout conversations. And in what could be a way to deflect giving a direct answer, he said he wasn’t aware of any talks between his agent and the organization in terms of a potential buyout. “Until I hear otherwise, I’m committed,” Lin said. “I’m here every day, and I think we’ve been playing good. I think in the last 25 games, we’re 12-13. We’re building something. I just want to stay healthy and enjoy the game, and I’ll let my agents do their work.”
– viaThe AthleticIf Lin’s representation can find a team that is willing to play him more than the time he’s getting now from the Hawks, he’ll likely request a buyout. Lin has been adamant that coming off the bench isn’t his preferred role, and it never will be. That’s just his competitive nature. “I’m going to try to do my best, though, with whatever assignment I have,” he said. “It doesn’t mean I don’t have aspirations to be a starter or to get heavy minutes or even to come off the bench and play more or be more involved. Those are all very real thoughts.”
– viaThe Athletic
Most of the league would love to pickup Lin to play backup combo guard on the pro rated minimum, dirt cheap for a . However since Schlenk didnt want to take long term bad money (Knight, Leonard, Turner, etc), Lin couldnt really fetch back a good enough asset on his own due to his own contracts size.
Lin hasnt been good enough to have a team guarantee him a starting role playing 28-32 mins a game, which is naturally his goal.
The question is which teams out there can guarantee him 20-28 mins a game whether to spot start or come off the bench and be a playoff contender. Playing for a playoff team helps a player's value immense, as Lin would know first hand how playing for the blatantly tanking Lakers for 1 year nearly destroyed his value (despite posting decent stats), and playing for CHA for a year boosted it significantly where he got a nice contract from BRK to be their starter (which sadly was full of sorrow due to injuries).
His agent really needs to target PHI.IND, MIA, WAS, SA, and SAC as theyre all in playoffs or chasing and are weak at PG. He can easily get same or more mins at those places with a chance ot showcase himself in the playoffs if he helps em get or do well.