Jeremy Lin has a big task ahead of him as the star of the young Rockets.

Knicks failed to match the Rockets offer sheet of $25 million over three years making Jeremy Lin the new point guard and marquee player in Houston.

Lin’s success came without stars Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire.  If he’s going to have success in Houston, it’s going to be with a roster full of mostly young, unproven talent.  The Rockets have young talent Jeremy Lamb, Terrence Jones, Marcus Morris, Chandler Parsons with proven decent players Kevin Martin and Patrick Patterson.

I thought Lin would have been perfect for the Knicks with his ability to distribute and get everybody involved.  The problem is that Lin only started in 25 games last season after getting worn down quick by his string of dominance.  He went out with a torn meniscus in his knee and never came back during the playoffs.  His style was going to the rim right at the bigs, taking the contact and trying to finish and it takes a toll on a small player like Lin’s body.

If Lin can stay healthy then he has a chance to be a star in Houston.  The talent he showed for the Knicks was real and I don’t buy into any claims that Mike D’Antoni’s system is responsible for his success.  There’s no doubt in my mind that he can be a high caliber point guard for many years to come, not at the level of a superstar, but a good productive everyday starter.  He’s in a different position than he would have been in New York playing third fidle to the other stars.

The Rockets aren’t going to win many games next year and it’s going to be interesting to see what the perception of Lin becomes after his team struggles.  There’s just too many young pieces that need much more experience on the court to have any success at the NBA level.  I think despite a surprising season last year that the Rockets will end up in the lottery next summer to try to get Lin some help.  On the bright side, they have plenty of trading chips to where they might be able to lure in a good player.

Even though I’m not happy that Knicks didn’t match Lin’s offer, I hope he has a long and successful career.  He didn’t earn every dollar, but he seized his opportunity off the end of the bench and made something out of nothing.  The only question is his ability to stay healthy over an 82-game season and if he can’t, then the Knicks did the right thing.  If he does prove to stay healthy then the Knicks will regret the safe choice to let him go.

It wasn’t always pretty, but LeBron James led the United States in an exhibition win over Brazil. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

United States got off to a slow start against Brazil in Washington D.C., but took the lead back with a dominant second quarter and never looked back as they won 80-69 in the second of five exhibition games before the Olympics.

The Brazil team featuring NBA players Nene, Tiago Splitter, Leandro Barbosa, and Anderson Varejao looked like a polished unit at the start taking a 17-to-7 lead.  U.S. was settling for playing one-on-one and taking contested jumpers which weren’t falling at all as they went 1-for-12 from 3-point land in the first half with Kobe Bryant sinking the lone make from the corner.

U.S. took their first lead since 2-0 with about three minutes left in the second quarter thanks to a change in tempo that sped up the game which is always going to be in favor of the U.S.   The Americans won the second quarter 20-to-5.

Brazil stayed close the entire way and the U.S. continued to struggle shooting the ball.  Nobody could buy a deep jumper and needed to stop settling for them.  The team is far from where it needs to be, but that is what these pre-Olympic games are for is to work the kinks out before the real competition starts.  Brazil also is a team that is viewed as one that could medal in London so the opponent was a strong one.

LeBron James led the U.S. to the win with 30 points on 12-for-19 from the field and got to the rack late after settling for the jumper early. James went for 12 points in the fourth quarter.  He’s the strongest player in the entire Olympics so it only makes sense for him to impose his physicality and punish the opposing countries team.

The sloppy play doesn’t bother me because this group hasn’t gotten used to playing together yet and this was a very good test for them to realize that they can be challenged.  Most importantly they pulled it together for the win behind the strength of the worlds best player.

Klay Thompson looks like the new stock at shooting guard in the NBA with his high powered offensive game.

Klay Thompson is making noise in the NBA summer league and the United States select team.  The 6-7 scoring machine who spent three years at Washington State is all set to takeover the starting spot for Golden State next season and looks like the biggest steal of the ’11 draft.

Thompson was selected 11th overall.  One spot behind Jimmer Fredette who up to this point ,still early, looks like a complete bust.  Thompson looks like the best player in the entire draft so far outside of Kyrie Irving averaging 12.5 points on 44% from the field and 42% from 3-point range while hitting for 88% from the free throw line in 24 minutes per game.  Decent rookie year, but is set for a breakout this season as he’ll get more minutes.  He started for 29 games last season after coming off the bench until Monta Ellis was traded to the Bucks.

Summer league games aren’t a good barometer of what a player will do in real NBA games, but Thompson has been one of the most impressive players.  The Warriors have dominated both days with two blowout wins.  In the first game, the Warriors won by 40 with Thompson dropping Klay Thompson had 24 points, six rebounds and five assists.  On day two the Warriors were in a tight game with the Nuggets only up two at the end of the third quarter and then blew them out by 20 in the fourth.  Thompson went for 17, including 12 of the Warriors first 16 points. He hit on 4-for-6 from deep with six rebounds and four assists, but turned the ball over six times.

Thompson’s has good size for a shooting guard at 6-7 210 especially for a sharp shooter.  This is a player capable of going for five, six, seven 3′s on any given night.  He could have a long career being a sharp shooter, but he is proving to have an all-around game.  He’s athletic enough to finish at the basket and will make the smart basketball play whereas in his rookie season he was more of a volume shooter towards the end. He stretches defenses with his great shot, but I think he’s a better shooter than he’s shown yet and a smart player. He gave some glimpses into the future at times during his rookie season hitting for 31 once and many 20+ point games.  I think the Warriors have a guy who is going to average 20 points per game very soon and be one of the best young shooting guards in the game.

I have to give the Warriors draft team huge props for getting steals the last two years that are huge for success in the future.  Thompson fell in the Warriors lap at 11 because of character concerns from a citation for marijuana. Thompson was a great pick and Harrison Barnes at No. 7 this year was an absolute steal also.  These two paired up are going to be good for a long time together and if Steph Curry and Andrew Bogut can get healthy then they are a playoff threat this season.

Knicks appear to have chosen Raymond Felton to be their starting point guard as the clock still ticks on matching Jeremy Lin’s offer sheet.

In a shocking move last night the Knicks traded Jared Jeffries and Dan Gadzuric to the Blazers for Raymond Felton and Kurt Thomas leading to world wide speculation that the team won’t match Houston’s offer sheet of $28 million over three years to Jeremy Lin.

Felton played with the Knicks in 2009 for 33 games and it was the most successful playing stint of his career where he averaged 17 points and 9 assists.  That was about the same amount of games that Lin played in while only putting up 14 and 7.  Felton never reached close to those numbers before and he hasn’t done it since.

Amare Stoudemire also hasn’t been the same since Felton left.  I think that has more to do with Stoudemire was the only offensive option before Carmelo Anthony got to town and not any special dynamic between Felton and Stoudemire.  But it is nice to have a player that Stoudemire has thrived playing with because he hasn’t thrived at all since Anthony has got to town.

Felton is a distributor and that’s exactly what the Knicks need.  He can shoot the long ball and plays good defense and should be a huge asset for the Knicks at $10 million over three years especially considering Lin would make and a half times Felton’s whole deal in the third year of his contract.

I have long lobbied against Felton coming to town because of the season that he had in Portland last year.  First off the Knicks traded him to Denver, he wasn’t happy being a backup and then he signed with Portland.  He wasn’t the only player in the league to not work hard during the lockout, but he came into Blazers training camp carrying an extra 30 pounds and it wasn’t muscle. After that his play on the court was subpar and he complained that coach Nate McMillan didn’t have any confidence in his game and he was unhappy.  McMillan was fired and a lot of Blazers fans hate Felton because of it.

There’s no denying he had a bad year, but if we are going to judge an entire body of work then Felton is very capable of being the Knicks every day starting point guard.  Jason Kidd, who was arrested for drunk driving last night after hitting a telephone pole with his Escalade, is too old to be depended on to be an everyday start but will provide some valuable minutes off the bench.

I really wanted Lin back in New York and the Knicks still have two days to match, but the word is that they are going to let him walk to Houston.  It seems like way too big of a contract for a player that played 25 games and couldn’t stay healthy for an entire season, but I thought it was a risk worth taking.  Easy for me to say because it’s not my money.  Even Knicks star Anthony called the contract “ridiculous”.

Without Lin the Knicks future is still bright even though the backcourt is the area of concern.  J.R. Smith and Raymond Felton isn’t exactly what I had in mind for the Knicks opening day backcourt next season, but I trust in the best frontcourt in the NBA (Chandler, Stoudemire, Anthony) to make it a mute point.

The clock is still ticking for the Knicks to be able to match the Lin offer if they choose to do so. Tomorrow Lin will learn his fate as he will either be a Knick or more than likely a member of the Houston Rockets.  Chris Paul is a free agent next summer so if Lin gets away then that’s who fans will be dreaming of as the point guard in New York for the next year.

Knicks have three days to match the offer sheets for Landry Fields and Jeremy Lin if they choose to do so.

Jeremy Lin signed a 3 year 25$ million offer sheet with the Houston Rockets that the Knicks are widely expected to match, but should they?

The offer was much more manageable when it was believed to be four years and $28 million with Lin making just under $10 mil for the last two years.  Instead, he got three years with his salary leaping to a massive $15.8 million in the third year.  That is superstar money during his contract season.

Lin has in no way earned that type of figure as he’s only started in 25 games during his career.  The 23-year-old also hasn’t shown he can stay healthy for an entire season as he tore his meniscus and missed the end of last season including the playoffs.  His take it to the rack style isn’t a good thing on a guy that has strength as a question mark in his game.

It’s a pretty big risk to match the offer of Lin, but something that has to be done.  You have to take chances to win and the Knicks are banking on Lin being the starting point guard of the future.  We saw him put up double-figure assists on several occasions last season and that’s the hope that he can be the key distributor that meshes Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, and the rest of the team together.

It’s an automatic match for Lin.  Not only did he show he can compete at a very high level when healthy, but also was second to Kobe in jersey sells.  He’s a cash cow, the goose that lays the golden egg for James Dolan and New York is going to give him a chance to live up to the hype.

Landry Fields is a different story.  He’s signed a 3-year $20 million offer with the Raptors and it’s widely believed the Knicks won’t match and let him walk.

Fields had a good first half to his rookie season, but has failed to live up to it ever since.  When Carmelo Anthony joined the team, Fields struggled to fit in and continue making an impact.  He had a bad season last year and teams would just sag off of him and give him wide open deep jumpers that most of the time ended up in bricks.

However, he’s young and athletic.  The offer isn’t huge considering the deal the Knicks gave Novak and all it would most likely mean is more luxury tax to be paid.  We know the Knicks have deep pockets and if the strategy is to win right now then maybe it’s right to match this offer.

Fields has NBA level defense and athleticism which is why he could be an asset as a backup for the Knicks.  With J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert returning at shooting guard there wouldn’t be much room for him in the long term at shooting guard, but move him back to his natural 3 position and you’ve got a solid backup who can bring energy.

I was never a Fields fan and wasn’t hurt to see him go, but again if the strategy is win now then why not stockpile all the pieces you can.  The Knicks probably will not match his deal and Fields will be a Toronto Raptor.  I think not matching is the right move, but there is that little voice telling me that it’s a tough decision.

Kevin Durant’s lethal shooting stroke is a nightmare for opponents in international competition with a shortened 3-point line.  There’s no answer for this 7-ft scoring machine as he led the way with 24 points in Vegas.

United States Olympic basketball team debuted against the Dominican Republic and not surprisingly dominated Coach Calipari’s experienced team the entire way in Vegas to a 113-59 win.

Coach K went with a starting lineup of Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Tyson Chandler.  Anthony played the power forward position.  I like this move by Coach K because Melo was one of the vocal leaders in the gold medal run in ’08 and it didn’t make sense to demote him despite a player that most feel should start in Kevin Durant.

Kevin Durant was the guy who came in and lit it up with his deadly 3-point range off the bench on his way to 24 points on 5-for-6 from deep.  Dwyane Wade played a similar role in ’08 as he was the US leading scorer and played as a reserve.

Durant put on a scoring display with 21 points at the half as the United States had a 23 point lead.  The 3-point line in international play is shorter than the 3-point NBA line and it’s almost automatic for Durant.  It’s going to be a barrage of Durant 3-pointers all summer long.  I didn’t like guys like LeBron James and Anthony settling for jumpers, but you prefer that out of Durant because he makes them. KD could have gone for 40 if they wouldn’t have rested him for most of the second half.

Anthony did his thing with 9 points in the first half on his way to finishing with 13.  He is just as good at playing the 4 position possibly even better because he relies less on his jumper and it forces him to be in the paint more where he is an absolute beast.  He is a huge asset because of his versatility to cover up for Blake Griffin’s injury and the lack of bigs on the squad.

Kobe Bryant did his usual hitting jumpers over double coverage, playing solid pressure defense, and looked like he always does.  Despite continuing to age, Bryant’s game is still very much deadly and he’s the real veteran leader of this team who takes pride in playing for his country.

Andre Iguodala hit four 3-pointers and was very efficient offensively and his defense is the reason why he was selected to the team.  He was shooting, dunking, creating steals.. makes you wonder why Philly continues to shop him every chance they get.

Russell Westbrook played hounding defense and even though he looks out of control at time is a fearless competitor who made a number of very great passes that led to easy passes for him teammates. There’s no international guard that is even close to a match for his athleticism. His teammate James Harden was dominant on the offensive end as he got plenty of minutes due to the blowout.

Kevin Love was struggling in practice with the 3-point ball and also early in the game, but couldn’t miss from deep during mop up time. Anthony Davis got some time and it’s nice to see his ankle injury isn’t too serious as he might be needed to replace Griffin.  He got some rebounds and hit an and one 3-pointer.

The DR isn’t going to make the Olympics, but it was still nice test considering it was the first time this version of the Olympic team has played together as they have a couple of NBA players on the roster in Al Horford and Fracisco Garcia.

The US was playing a full court press that was deadly and that could be a huge weapon for them this summer as the perception is that the only the they lack is a wealth of big guys.  They are faster and more athletic than any team that they will face in London even if they lack size.  The press is a very good strategy for a team that is stacked deep with guards.

By the fourth quarter all of the starters were resting on the bench, but it was good to see everybody on the U.S. squad still playing hard despite being up by 40 points.  We got to see some of the team chemistry and comradory that it takes to be a successful team.  It’s nice to see that they respect the honor that is the chance to play for an Olympic gold.

Jeremy Lin’s $28.8 million is an easy match for the Knicks as they get their starting point guard of the future.

Mike Woodson said what was pretty much a foregone conclusion already, that the Knicks will match Jeremy Lin’s $28.8 million from the Houston Rockets.  Not only will they match, but he also said as expected that Lin is the starter going forward into next season even with the acquisition of Jason Kidd.

This was an easy match.  There wasn’t really much to think about because the contract isn’t huge even though he will make just under $10 million in each of the last two seasons of the four year deal.  His off the court jersey sales and everything else will make the Knicks so much money that it would have been worth it to them to match almost any offer.

Even though he only played in 35 games last season and started 25, he showed the Knicks front office what he could do if given an opportunity in the NBA.  He averaged 14.6 points per game and 6.2 assists in 29 minutes.  He can get to the rim and finish, distribute at a high level, and can even knock down a shot when it’s there.

Lin also average 3.6 turnovers per game which needs to improve for him to be a dependable starter, but at age 23 with no experience under his belt there was bound to be bumps.  Another concern is all of his best days were with Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire sideline with injury.  There are still chemistry issues that need to be resolved, but that’s what a full training camp with Mike Woodson is for.

The other area of concern and really  the only area of concern for me is durability.  He went down with a torn meniscus in his knee and missed the last few months of the season including the playoffs.  He withdrew from the US select team this summer because he didn’t want to get hurt.  His style of play is going right at the neck of the bigs to get to the bucket which can be very unforgiving.  My only hope is that Lin can stay healthy and it’s the only thing he hasn’t proven to me.

Luckily this time around the Knicks are much more prepared if Lin does get hurt.  Woodson can just put proven veteran point guard Jason Kidd in to run the show in the unfortunate hypothetical case that history repeats itself and Lin can’t make it through the season healthy.

I have great confidence in Jeremy Lin to do good things on the floor and I think he will definitely adjust his game to be more of a play-making distributor helping to get Anthony and Stoudemire easy buckets.  He will learn and gain valuable knowledge from the mentoring of Kidd.  Lin is going to be a starter right from the jump this time, there won’t be any end of the bench heroics or gimmicks.

The Dwight Howard saga is a skid mark on an otherwise exciting offseason for the NBA with no end in sight.

Dwight Howard’s absurd saga goes something like this: Howard waits until the 11th hour to decide on staying with the Magic another season after changing his mind several times.  Howard gets coach Stan Van Gundy fired despite their success together.  Howard decides that he will only play for Brooklyn despite his commitment.

“There’s only one team on my list and if I don’t get traded there, I’ll play the season out and explore my free agency after that,” Howard said.”

A deal that would have sent Howard to Brooklyn collapsed and is dead.  The only destination that makes any sense now is Howard to the Lakers and that doesn’t even make sense because Andrew Bynum doesn’t want to go to Orlando.

Howard’s off-season is far worse than any one hour special that LeBron James had and was hated for when joining the Miami Heat.  It’s been the only skid mark on an otherwise exciting off-season full of transactions.  No matter what has happen the first story up everyday is Dwight Howard trade rumors.

I can’t believe I am wasting my time writing about this when it’s all going to change again.  It’s going to keep changing and even when Howard lands with his new team there’s still going to be Dwight drama.  He’s a player that will always carry some kind of self-centered antics with him wherever he goes and I don’t think he will ever win a championship.

…And it has nothing to do with what he does on the court.  He’s an absolute beast on defense and on the boards, his offensive game isn’t polished but he has shown he can get points.  Coming off of back surgery, I wonder if he will be as physical as usual.  Whichever team he lands on immediately gets a huge boost in the form of the best center in basketball, but they also get one of the biggest team cancers in the history of the game.

Dwight needs to study the way Tyson Chandler conducts himself professionally and is a vocal leader for the team.  I wouldn’t trade Chandler for Howard despite the later being younger and more talented because Dwight makes everything hard.  If I am annoyed by this, I can’t imagine what the Magic organization thinks of Howard.

Howard is professional sports at its worst.  The definition of a me-first superstar and that’s not going to change no matter where he ends up.

Knicks are surrounding their talent with seasoned veterans who play the game the right way to raise the collective basketball I.Q. on the team.

Knicks made their moves in free agency by bringing seasoned vets Jason Kidd and Marcus Camby on board.  These were not only good pickups on the court, but both make sense in the lockerroom.

It’s clear that the goal was to get guys who come from a winning culture and have the experience to help talented guys like Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire keep their focus in the right place.

Jason Kidd won the NBA championship in ’09 playing with current-Knick Tyson Chandler in Dallas.  Kidd has been a great point guard in the NBA for 18 years and will be a perfect mentor for Jeremy Lin.  Lin is expected to be the starter, but if he turns the ball over early or struggles defending his man then Kidd will be there to put in the game. Not only that, but if Lin goes down with injury like last season then the Knicks won’t be forced to rely on Baron Davis and Mike Bibby in the playoffs.

Even though Kidd’s game has slowed at the age of 39, he can still defend point guards and shooting guards.  He can still run the second unit and help tremendously with the offensive spacing and just general offensive awareness for a Knicks team with a collectively low basketball IQ.  A lot of people wanted Steve Nash, but Kidd is the next best thing as he still has some basketball left in him and he came at a much cheaper price than Nash.

Marcus Camby will play the role of backup center.  The Knicks didn’t really have any quality depth down in the paint last season especially on the defensive end.  Jared Jeffries was good at times, but injured too much to be relied on.  Camby is a defensive enforcer and is 38 years old.  This give the Knicks a quality defender and rebounder off the bench so that they don’t miss much when Chandler goes to the bench.

Both guys are high class inside the lockerroom and do things the right way.  Carmelo has already embraced Camby coming back to the Knicks because he played with him in Denver and he was strictly business.  Everybody wants to play with Kidd because he’s been nothing but professional for a very long time and understands the game.

Kidd and Camby are two pieces of a suddenly very strong Knicks second unit.  Both have a lot to bring to the table even in their advanced age and I couldn’t be happier with the acquisitions.  What started out as a slow off-season and because a bad off-season around draft day has turned into a job well done by the Knicks front office.

The United States needed size, but weren’t willing to take on the risk of someone who might possibly disrupt team chemistry.

The notion of Sacrament Kings big man 22-year-old DeMarcus Cousins as an immature player with worlds of growing up to has been brought to the forefront again after he failed to make the U.S. Olympic roster.

This is what USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said about Cousins according to Pro Basketball Talk.

“Show respect to players, and you get respect back. He needs to mature as a person and as a player if he’s going to have an outstanding NBA career. So before there’s discussion about him being part of our program, he has a lot of building to do. He has a lot of growing up to do.”

Cousins wanted badly to make the roster and play in the Olympics. He seemed like an easy choice to make it because of all the big men out with injury. Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Anthony Davis are all out for the summer. The only big men that made the final cut were Tyson Chandler, Kevin Love, and Blake Griffin.

Word from the training camp was that Cousins was over-aggressive even leading Carmelo Anthony to remark “He fouled the shit out of everybody.”

This seems like an instance where Cousins past perception as an immature kid got the best of him. It just seems like to me that he wanted badly to make the team and was trying to show how aggressive he could be as international competition tends to go that way. Rumors of immaturity came full circle when he got coach Paul Westphal fired after a terrible start from the Kings and then dominated after the coach’s exit. College teammate John Wall seems like he isn’t very mature either, seems like Coach Calipari didn’t do a very good job turning these boys into men.  Colangelo is very good friends with Westphal and that seems like a logical reason why he despises Cousins so much.

At least Coach K put a positive spin on things stating that maybe being around the U.S. basketball atmosphere would be just what he needs to realize was professionalism looks like and he’s got a good point. Maybe by now Cousins knows what people want out of him and now has seen it. It’s not like he has had any veterans in Sacramento to mentor him. He went from being the second most coveted player on his college team to the biggest star on his NBA team.

We should all hope he gets it together soon because he is truly a dominant center with the potential to be mentioned up there with Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum as the games best. He’s coming off of an 18 and 11 season and at such a young age still has plenty of room for improvement in his game. However the consensus is that he needs to work on things that might have nothing to do with the basketball court before he will reach his potential.

Now Cousins has Thomas Robinson from Kansas on the block next to him which should lead to the best young post duo in basketball. The Kings are on the right track if their star big man can get his mind right to want to be great.