After beginning the season as the Los Angeles Lakers starting point guard, Jeremy Lin was replaced with Ronnie Price 20 games into the season. Since then, rookie Jordan Clarkson took over the role and has shown promise. Lin was moved back into the starting lineup during the team’s recent road trip and has been playing along side Clarkson.
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Despite how the year has unfolded, Lin came to the Lakers with high hopes. He was coming off a rough year in Houston with Patrick Beverley taking over his job. Many looked forward to Lin’s fresh start. One of them was former Lakers head coach Mike D’Antoni. According to ESPN’s Pablo S. Torre, D’Antoni was the first one to call Lin following the trade and talked about the missed reunion between the two:
As the clock ticked toward 3 a.m. in Lin’s hotel room, his mom, Shirley, handed him the phone for his inaugural conversation as a Laker. “Oh my gosh,” Mike D’Antoni told Jeremy, in his unmistakable West Virginia twang. “I can’t believe we missed each other.”
Lin’s breakthrough came under D’Antoni while the two where in New York. D’Antoni also praised his former point guard and called him “special,” via Torre:
Now he was calling Lin only eight weeks after resigning as coach of the Lakers amid discord with, yes, Kobe Bryant. “You hate to miss an opportunity to coach somebody that receptive, that good,” D’Antoni says. “He’s one of those special point guards.”
When the season ends, Lin will become an unrestricted free agent and his future is up in the air. Since coming back from the All-Star break, Lin has played well. However, the Lakers will have a protected top-five draft pick and plenty cap room to bring in another point guard if they were to go an other direction.
[divide]Byron Scott Names Jeremy Lin A Starter, His Future In LA