Jeremy Lin Sees Brooklyn Nets As Playoff Contender, Feeling No Pressure
Jeremy Lin feels his Brooklyn Nets having nothing to lose could make them the NBA’s big surprise winners during the 2017-18 season.
“We’re making the playoffs,” the USA Today reports Lin recently boasted to anyone who would listen. “I don’t care what anybody else says to me.”
After a 20-62 season and an average of 62 loses over the last two seasons for the Nets, the biggest reason for Lin’s renewed optimism seems the team’s offseason acquisition of still-rising, former Lakers’ young star guard D’Angelo Russell.
The Nets landed Russell in a deal also involving veteran center Brooks Lopez and Lin’s approval appears obvious.
“I can’t wait,” he said of the chance to the to play alongside Russell in what shapes up to be one of the league’s best and most versatile backcourts.
“We’re gonna do some serious damage next year,” added Lin, who was limited to just 36 games last season by an assortment of injuries. “I’m pretty sure he’ll start (at shooting guard), but it will be pretty interchangeable. And then when one of us is out of the game, the other person most likely will have the ball in their hands. It will probably be a little bit combo guard-esque.”
The Nets have also added veterans DeMarre Carroll and Timofey Mozgov and drafted Texas big man Jarrett Allen, stoking Lin and the organization’s enthusiasm all the more.
“We’ve got a long, long, long way to go, but we’re taking baby steps to get there,” said GM Sean Marks.
And with Chicago, Indiana, and Atlanta all expected to regress next season in an already weak Eastern Conference, the Nets’ turn could come sooner than when most expect.
Brooklyn’s core also includes the young trio of Caris LeVert, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, and Isaiah Whitehead, all of whom are just 22 years old but already somewhat battle tested.
It all seems to have Lin resting easier this offseason, with USA Today reporting he recently joined Steph and Seth Curry for an NBA tour of his native China.
While there, the San Jose Mercury News reports Lin touched on what it means to be an athlete of Asian descent trying to find his way in today’s NBA, and why it is so important for him to speak out about that experience.
“In the U.S., a lot of (people) — doesn’t matter if it’s basketball players or people in other professions — they look at Chinese people or Asians and they surely will underestimate us,” he said. “So, I think if we can have more Asian basketball players it will help our masculinity a lot. I think we just need to keep being ourselves and I think that the world will come around and appreciate us Asians.”
Lin enters the season in the second year of a three-year $36 million deal that made him the face of a franchise for the first time since his brief 2012 run with the Knicks evoked the era of “Linsanity.”
[Featured Image by Michael Reaves/Getty Images]
