Jeremy Lin Sets NBA Summer League Abuzz

July 16, 2010

Check out this highlight video of undrafted rookie Jeremy Lin holding his own against overall first pick John Wall. While it's unlikely that anybody will ever confuse the two, Lin showed out against a strong Washington Wizards summer league team (featuring two bona fide NBA starters in Wall and JaVale McGee), dropping 13 points in 27 minutes and electrifying the Las Vegas crowd.

Among the highlights: a high-arcing jumper in the lane over McGee, one of the league's most promising shotblockers, a pretty crosscourt bounce pass to teammate Shan Foster, and a breakaway dunk that gets replayed about eight times too many. Oh, and then there's that Dwyane Wade-esque behind-the-back-spin move that draws an offensive foul call (and damn near starts a riot).

After a series of strong games in the summer league, Lin has sparked interest from a number of NBA teams, including the Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Lakers. He'd be a longshot to make the roster of either team -- the Mavericks have a logjam at the point guard position (with All-NBA starter Jason Kidd, 2009 first round pick Rodrigue Beaubois, and feisty backup José Juan Barea) and the reigning champion Lakers aren't exactly looking to groom any rookie players. That said, Lin is an obvious crowd favorite who can play well at this level, and who could be an excellent NBA player down the road.

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Winston Chou

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Winston Chou is a graduate student in sociology at UCLA. He is especially interested in issues of immigration and second-generation assimilation, but would almost always rather talk about obscure NBA players from the '90s. (Remember Chris Gatling?)

Comments

Comments

Actually, they're offering Lin a bona fide NBA contract, not a training camp invite or anything like that, so it's not a "longshot" to make the roster.  Not a guarantee and it might take a season in D-League, but far from a "longshot."

Sorry, I should have clarified -- I meant the active regular season roster NBA teams have to hold 12 players, not the roster of all players whose rights are held by the team. If Lin does sign a contract with either the Mavs or the Lakers, I do think he has a chance to be called up from the D-League in case someone is injured. But no way do I see him snatching one of those 12 spots this year, when both teams are in the title hunt and already have 3/4 PGs.

Hyphen was one of the first publications to cover Jeremy Lin, back in December 2009.

http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/2009/12/basketball-extraordinaire-jer...

Here is a December 2009 article about Lin, from a SF-Bay magazine: