There wasn’t a better way for Mike D’Antoni to spend Super Bowl Sunday yesterday than debating whether to start Jeremy Lin at point guard for the Knicks tonight against the Jazz.

Instead of the coach wondering about his job security, “The Jeremy Lin Game’’ Saturday provided the Knicks renewed hope there is a point-guard alternative on the roster not named Baron Davis.

Thank you, Harvard.

Lin’s career-high 25-point, seven-assist performance was like watching a Disney movie. Reality could bite tonight.

Lin’s domination of Nets star Deron Williams could go down as either a fluke or — in D’Antoni’s dreams — a momentous night in franchise history. The speedy Lin snaked into the lane at will, sank jumpers and tossed lobs for alley-oop dunks.

“This is a system that really is beneficial for attacking point guards,’’ Lin said late Saturday following his Garden heroics in the 99-92 victory. “That’s what I was just trying to do.’’

Lin’s story-book 36-minute stint had the joyous crowd chanting “Jer-e-my!’’ Afterward, two dozen reporters surrounded Lin’s locker, blocking Amar’e Stoudemire’s path to his own cubicle.

D’Antoni’s speedball system needs a penetrating point guard who can run pick-and-rolls and draw defenders in the lane to create passing lanes. Stoudemire, a pick-and-roll beast, could benefit most from Lin, as he thrived last season with Raymond Felton.

Davis was intended to be that guy, but his injured back has not cooperated. Davis’ debut has been pushed back indefinitely.

“He played smart,’’ Stoudemire said of Lin. “The way he reads things, he takes what the defense gives him. He’s never out of control. Obviously, teams are now going to be aware of his play, so it’s going to be a little tougher for him.’’

Rookie Iman Shumpert, the current starter, Toney Douglas and Mike Bibby have failed to master D’Antoni’s system. The Knicks view Shumpert as a shooting guard or small forward. Douglas has been a train wreck, and Bibby, who has not played in four straight games, appears shot.

Now Lin gets a crack to save the Knicks’ 9-15 season, the coach’s job and end the franchise’s desperate search for a D’Antoni-style point guard.

“I still was weighing things,’’ D’Antoni said when asked if Lin had carved a permanent rotation spot. “We’ll go back to the well because he can give us something we can’t do without.’’

The Knicks claimed the undrafted Harvard guard and first Chinese-American to play in the NBA off waivers after the season opener, and his minimum contract is not guaranteed until Friday. Lin played 29 games last season as a rookie with the Warriors.

D’Antoni was impressed at Lin’s workout before the 2010 draft, thinking he could develop into a point guard who could run his system but needed a better jumper and more defensive quickness.

Lin defended Williams well for one Saturday night, and surprised his coach with his composure.

“He missed three, four wide-open shots,” D’Antoni said. “At his position without a lot of experience, that could have crumpled some people, but he took it again and took it again and got it right. I think he showed a lot of mental toughness.’’

After his big night, Lin made two selfless gestures. He praised the starters for defending tenaciously despite it being the third game of a back-to-back-to-back. Then Lin went out of his way to credit Knicks assistant Kenny Atkinson.

Atkinson, unaware of Lin’s plaudit, said, “He’s the hardest worker we have.’’

Lin was disappointed the Knicks sent him to the D-League for two games last month. But Lin posted a triple-double at the new D-League affiliate in Erie that runs D’Antoni’s offense. The Knicks brought him back to face Davis in scrimmages on non-practice days, and a funny thing happened — Lin outplayed Davis.

“It was rough for me,’’ Lin said of the D-League demotion. “Looking back, it was exactly what I needed. Inside it gave me confidence just because it was first time I played in Coach D’Antoni’s system. Just to get a feel for it.’’

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/lin_it_to_win_it_QTfLvSyckoIrvFOSHczXJL#ixzz1laDMUFms

Basically, he has and has had the respect of his teamates. That is a BIG COMPLIMENT coming from a coach and don't forget we have Tyson here too!

I got a feeling about this kid and what he can do for us pronto.

EMS

nixluva wrote:They said the same things about Shawne last year. I understand that fans want things to happen right away. Especially with the team losing, but an experienced coach tries to balance the needs of the player and the team. Lin had not had any real time to learn the system due to the lack of practice days. It was a smart thing for MDA to send him to the D League for a short stint in order to let him get some run in this system!!! The kid said it himself that it was the best thing for him, tho he didn't like it at 1st. One day NY fans are going to realize that we do have a good coach and tho we may not always understand his decisions, a lot more thought goes into them than many fans realize.

These fans aren't there in practice and have no idea of the details of what's going on.

Definitely solid points about what an attacking PG can do in D'Antoni's system. It's way too early to say anything about how good Lin can be....but I think a lot of us are excited because after 1 game, he seems to demonstrate a better understanding of how to thrive in this system than our other PGs do. I'll take it at this point, we need all the help we can get.

It puts some lamp light on the MDA vs Lin controversy.

It's pretty clear from what Berman brings to table in this piece that MDA knew very well what he was doing with the young fella'.

The team liked Lin from the get go and did not want to rush him in the line-up. D'Antoni has been talking about getting minutes for the guy for about 2 weeks and I pointed it out on one of the other threads that eveyrone would be getting their wish. He was talkinga bout Lin exactly like he was talkinga bout Mozgov before they put him back in the line-up.

With young guys you have to be careful. You can't ram them out there and then sit back and hope for the best. Yes, we were struggling. Yes we needed a PG. But you can't worry about that. WE can't worry about today with young prospects. We have to prep them, build confidence, put them in position where they can succeed. Jeremy Lin told you exactly what I'm trying to tell you when he said

Lin said of the D-League demotion. “Looking back, it was exactly what I needed. Inside it gave me confidence just because it was first time I played in Coach D’Antoni’s system. Just to get a feel for it.’’

You don't believe it from me. You call Nixluva a luva and yet the player is telling you that it was "exactly what I needed". He basically told you he wasn't completely ready until that moment. It's his own words. His talent hasn't gotten better. His penetration hasn't gotten better. Nothing has changed in his game, but he is a hell of a lot more confident today then he was a couple months ago when he was tripping over his own feet 2 months ago trying to drive through the lane. You have to treat these kids with kid gloves. Loss of confidence(see Toney Douglas, Roger Mason and that guy that shot the lights out a couple years ago for us in camp) can set a player back a year and even end careers. Not something you want to mess with when you have a guy liek Lin that has potential. Especially in NY City where fans can turn on you on a dime(see Toney Douglas)

Not sure why everyone thinks just throwing a young guy out there and "seeing what happens" is a development technique. Rebuildign teams do it all the time and it doesn't always work. In other situations the player rides the pine behind a veteran(sometimes even if he is better) and waits his turn. No rush, no harm. He's playing now, so who cares.

mrKnickShot wrote:

Bippity10 wrote:Bonn: You ask why play him at all? they didn't play him. Isn't that the argument everyone is having? Weird point you are trying to make.

The team liked Lin from the get go and did not want to rush him in the line-up. D'Antoni has been talking about getting minutes for the guy for about 2 weeks and I pointed it out on one of the other threads that eveyrone would be getting their wish. He was talkinga bout Lin exactly like he was talkinga bout Mozgov before they put him back in the line-up.

With young guys you have to be careful. You can't ram them out there and then sit back and hope for the best. Yes, we were struggling. Yes we needed a PG. But you can't worry about that. WE can't worry about today with young prospects. We have to prep them, build confidence, put them in position where they can succeed. Jeremy Lin told you exactly what I'm trying to tell you when he said

Lin said of the D-League demotion. “Looking back, it was exactly what I needed. Inside it gave me confidence just because it was first time I played in Coach D’Antoni’s system. Just to get a feel for it.’’

You don't believe it from me. You call Nixluva a luva and yet the player is telling you that it was "exactly what I needed". He basically told you he wasn't completely ready until that moment. It's his own words. His talent hasn't gotten better. His penetration hasn't gotten better. Nothing has changed in his game, but he is a hell of a lot more confident today then he was a couple months ago when he was tripping over his own feet 2 months ago trying to drive through the lane. You have to treat these kids with kid gloves. Loss of confidence(see Toney Douglas, Roger Mason and that guy that shot the lights out a couple years ago for us in camp) can set a player back a year and even end careers. Not something you want to mess with when you have a guy liek Lin that has potential. Especially in NY City where fans can turn on you on a dime(see Toney Douglas)

Not sure why everyone thinks just throwing a young guy out there and "seeing what happens" is a development technique. Rebuildign teams do it all the time and it doesn't always work. In other situations the player rides the pine behind a veteran(sometimes even if he is better) and waits his turn. No rush, no harm. He's playing now, so who cares.

I mainly had a big problem in the Boston game when MDA did not play him in the second half he looked pretty good in the first half. JVG was baffled and kept questioning it as well.

That's fine. I would have played him too, but every coach coaches differently and every coach has different ways of workign with players. I understand D'Antoni's predicament because I've been there before. You want to get the best guy out there but you also don't want to lose one of the guys(Douglas) who has been solid for you the last two years. When you are the coach you have direct view in to practices, personalities etc. So you may behave in a way that is odd to some but makes perfect sense to you and your staff. Often times I would be called dumb for not being able to recognize talent when we had been discussing how we needed to get that guy onto the floor for weeks/months. But as an outsider it's easy to give the quick surface level analysis without much information.

mrKnickShot wrote:

Bippity10 wrote:

mrKnickShot wrote:

Bippity10 wrote:Bonn: You ask why play him at all? they didn't play him. Isn't that the argument everyone is having? Weird point you are trying to make.

The team liked Lin from the get go and did not want to rush him in the line-up. D'Antoni has been talking about getting minutes for the guy for about 2 weeks and I pointed it out on one of the other threads that eveyrone would be getting their wish. He was talkinga bout Lin exactly like he was talkinga bout Mozgov before they put him back in the line-up.

With young guys you have to be careful. You can't ram them out there and then sit back and hope for the best. Yes, we were struggling. Yes we needed a PG. But you can't worry about that. WE can't worry about today with young prospects. We have to prep them, build confidence, put them in position where they can succeed. Jeremy Lin told you exactly what I'm trying to tell you when he said

Lin said of the D-League demotion. “Looking back, it was exactly what I needed. Inside it gave me confidence just because it was first time I played in Coach D’Antoni’s system. Just to get a feel for it.’’

You don't believe it from me. You call Nixluva a luva and yet the player is telling you that it was "exactly what I needed". He basically told you he wasn't completely ready until that moment. It's his own words. His talent hasn't gotten better. His penetration hasn't gotten better. Nothing has changed in his game, but he is a hell of a lot more confident today then he was a couple months ago when he was tripping over his own feet 2 months ago trying to drive through the lane. You have to treat these kids with kid gloves. Loss of confidence(see Toney Douglas, Roger Mason and that guy that shot the lights out a couple years ago for us in camp) can set a player back a year and even end careers. Not something you want to mess with when you have a guy liek Lin that has potential. Especially in NY City where fans can turn on you on a dime(see Toney Douglas)

Not sure why everyone thinks just throwing a young guy out there and "seeing what happens" is a development technique. Rebuildign teams do it all the time and it doesn't always work. In other situations the player rides the pine behind a veteran(sometimes even if he is better) and waits his turn. No rush, no harm. He's playing now, so who cares.

I mainly had a big problem in the Boston game when MDA did not play him in the second half he looked pretty good in the first half. JVG was baffled and kept questioning it as well.

That's fine. I would have played him too, but every coach coaches differently and every coach has different ways of workign with players. I understand D'Antoni's predicament because I've been there before. You want to get the best guy out there but you also don't want to lose one of the guys(Douglas) who has been solid for you the last two years. When you are the coach you have direct view in to practices, personalities etc. So you may behave in a way that is odd to some but makes perfect sense to you and your staff. Often times I would be called dumb for not being able to recognize talent when we had been discussing how we needed to get that guy onto the floor for weeks/months. But as an outsider it's easy to give the quick surface level analysis without much information.

That is usually correct. The coach is usually right. But if thats the case, us fans can never question any coach. They all know more about basketball than we do - we can just call it as we see it.

No this isn't true. The benefit of the doubt should've been given to MDA, but because he was losing due to our quest for 2010, fans in NY forgot how good of a coach he actually is. Dude is a LEGEND in Europe. he's not just some other guy, he's a freakin LEGEND!!! Dude is picked to help with the Olympic team and then both Coach K and Pop end up using some of his offense! He really hasn't had a PG that fit his system since being here. LIn is the closest thing to Nash MDA has had and it's great for us, cuz Lin can only get better. Imagine once he knows it as well as Nash and gets to improve on his offensive game even more!!!

mrKnickShot wrote:But if I see TD in a game for more than a minute - I will kill him myself. Who knows maybe TD can get his confidence back - its kinda sad.

Toney played 3 minutes tonight in a game where we were short handed.