Preface: I like Lin. A lot. I think he's a good guy, a good pro, and Linsanity was the most fun I had with this team since the '99 run. If he's gone, I'll miss him.
But it strikes me that this team is executing a vision. Between Woodson and Grunwald, they're shaping the roster to take on a new persona and a new style. There have been murmurs that these moves--and the resistance to eating the Lin poison pill--might be part of some grander scheme to land Chris Paul, but that seems untenable.
Based on nothing but my own speculation and observation it appears to me that the Knicks are being built for a singular purpose: to beat the Heat.
For the next X amount of years, all paths to the promised land must pass through the Superfriends and looking at the deals I feel like Grunwald is positioning this team to capitalize on the Heat's (few) weaknesses and minimize their strengths.
In another thread nixluva noted how Woodson's system seems to be transforming into a half-court, stingy D, old-school style, sacrificing pick-and-roll and motion offense for a slower, war-of-attrition type of approach. On offense, working through the post (Melo, Kidd, a hopefully-new-and-improved Amare)and staying away from the PnR would take away the Heat's greatest defensive strength, their ferocious trapping and disruption of the passing lanes, which leads to gimmes on the fast break. They're the best team in the NBA at that trap-and-rotate D. But they can be punished on the block and made to pay on the extra pass out of the double team. A penetrating PG is also wasted because they have mastered the art of flopping--er, sound, positioning to take the offensive charge.
On the defensive end, how do the Heat kill you? Dribble-drives and kick-outs to open threes, which they will be far deadlier executing with Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis camping out behind the arc. Meaning, you can't cheat off the shooters to help. Wade and LeBron will get into the paint--they're in the top 10 of all time in my opinion at doing that--so you either cheat to help or bank on your bigs to protect the rim. You cheat, you get torched. So what's the alternative? More punishment, delivered by Tyson, Camby and Crazy Eyes (who I am thrilled is back with us). If Joel Anthony beats you, then so be it.
As such, I just don't see Lin and the skillset he brings as being the best way to execute this strategy. In a vacuum, Lin is young and talented and has great potential, but the Heat have changed the landscape. A team needs to be built to match-up against them.
It might be a good idea. It might be a bad idea. Maybe it will all implode and we'll be back to lamenting the state of our franchise. This is just my take on what's happening at the Garden and if it's close-to-accurate I'm actually encouraged that our basketball brass have been given the freedom to do this. Because as much as Dolan is a little puke, isn't letting Lin walk--the human cash printer that he is--the opposite of Dolan's modus operandi?
Then again the Knicks could match and I just wasted all of Andrew and Martin's bandwidth for nothing!
7/15/2012 10:13 AM