Personally, I never got all that caught up in Linsanity.
I appreciate his game, I love the reckless abandon he shows going to the hoop, I admire his knowledge and his devotion to his faith, and I called him “Time Magazine cover material” a week before he was on the cover of Time Magazine. I’m glad he got papered (NBA parlance for getting paid).
But you know what? Raymond Felton is better.
Not only a better all-around player, but a better fit for the New York Knicks.
So is Pablo Prigioni. And so is Jason Kidd, should he ever return to playing point guard (the guy is as much of a spot-up shooter as anyone in the league except perhaps Shane Battier.
We got into a discussion of Linsanity (or should we say post-Linsanity) in this interview with Brian Clark of Cinesport, also touching on the big Oklahoma City-Philadelphia game Saturday night and the chances of any NBA player ever coming close to accomplishing what Jack Taylor did for Grinnell College earlier this week.
Comments are welcome.
Eye Exam says
Prigioni? better fit?? on what? Dance with the stars?? Jeremy Lin had Prigioni spinnin’ around so much I thought he was a merry go round.. LOL
nofutureknicks says
Yes. Felton is a better fit for the Knicks…..They BOTH suck!
James says
Sure Lin may not be as good of a fit for NY but I believe he is the better player individually. Lin is bigger & faster, can’t shoot as well though, AND his upside is tremendous. He can impact the floor on both ends. Even though he has trouble with on-ball defense at times he is a great help defender and has great hands.
knicksuck says
lol, does this guy really know basketball. I am sure all we care is about points in basketball!!! Lets not forget that Lin is averaging at least 5 rebounds, 6 assist and close to 2 steals a game. Everyone is scouting Lin and playing rough D on him, i m sure they are doing the same to Felton. The knicks would not be winning if it wasn’t for kid. and anthony is playing D this year for some reason, but would not do jack on D last year. also thanks to amare not playing his statue of liberty D!!!! can’t wait to see amare to come back to play D!!! Last year was 25 games are not a big enough sample size for Lin but 12 games are enough to say LIN is worst player in the NBA.
holy cow says
wow, did lin burn felton every time down the court or what?
felton might have a better jumper than lin at this stage, but man, lin roasted and toasted felton whenever he wanted. lin essentially shut down felton 1on1 as well. round 1 goes to lin by a landslide. careful, sheridan.
CHAZ says
LOL, Felton played like he was on a mission to outplay Lin instead of playing within the flow of the Knicks offense. Jeremy on the other hand, played cool as a cucumber. Yea, he didn’t play like Parsons/Harden but that’s the point, Lin played within the flow of the Rockets offense. Lin made it about the team while Felton made it about Lin. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Richard Fox says
Chris, You are so misguided. Your comments are incorrect! Did you watch the game this past Friday?? Jeremy outplayed Felton. Yes, Felton had more points, but Jeremy had more rebounds, but overall Jeremy had more intangibles that helped the Rockets, rather than Felton helping the Knicks. I learned as a writer, you have to be careful what you write, because one day it will come back and haunt you. Mark my words!
Ryan says
You can say felton is a better fit for New York and I’ll say Lin is a better fit for Houston. Look how well Houston flowed tonight. Those young guys are putting together a very formidable team. Not just anybody can drop 131 inside of regulation…ps Felton did fine on the stat sheet but did nothing to inspire his team.
So sure, Felton fits better on the Knicks, but Lin is a better fit for the Rockets.
CMS says
I agree with you, Raymond Felton is much more rounded player in general. I think if Houston has showed us anything its that Lin will struggle given that teams now have a game plan against him. To be honest, I think Lin, in time, might be a good-off-the-bench guard for a play-off team. I told folks all last year, yes he was amazing during that stretch of games where Knicks were without Amare and Melo, but you have to remember: this is a guy who didn’t get ANY playing time in GS. He was facing the likes of Curry and Ellis (and both leave a lot to be desired on the defensive end minus the steals) in practice, yet he was unable to convince Nelson to get him playing time.
I think what we are seeing now in Houston is a closer indication of Lin’s career than that brief span in New York. Thus, comparing Felton’s body of work to Lin’s, its fair to say that Felton is thus far the better (more proven) player.
Joe says
I guess it is human nature to judge someone based on how he looks. It does go both ways… people say hes great after a few games…. and others say he’s average or below average after 12 games… Illogical. We’ll see after a year how he is.