As for the Knicks, spreading out Lin’s salary over a few players, rather than sign what was then a relatively unproven commodity to a large back-ended contract, turned out to be the right decision on the court (as for merchandising and sponsorship sales, we’ll leave that to someone else).
| NY (League Rank) | Offense | Defense | FG% | 3FG % |
| 2011-2012 | 97.8 (11) | 94.7 (11) | 44.3 (18) | 33.6 (21) |
| 2012-2013 | 100.1 (10) | 96.4 (10) | 44.2 (18) | 37 (7) |
The team’s field goal percentage is nearly identical to last season’s number and the points scored and allowed per game slightly improved to enter the league’s top third.
This isn’t because of Lin, but the Knicks have been able to find players better at scoring from deep, greatly improving the team’s 3-point shooting percentage.
So one year after Linsanity, Jeremy Lin and the Rockets have comfortably entered a new fast-paced era and could give a contending team headaches in the first round of the playoffs. The Knicks avoided spending big money on Lin and remain one of the top five or six teams in the Eastern Conference. So it seems like both teams made the correct and responsible decision. Isn’t that nice?
Shlomo Sprung loves advanced statistics and the way they explain what happens on the court. He is also the web editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and a writer for Football.com. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, The Sporting News, Business Insider and other publications. His website is SprungOnSports.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
Good analysis. But it doesn’t take into account that Lin is young and improving, while Felton is an older vet who has already peaked and may actually regress some since Felton doesn’t seem to take care of his body that much.
This can be seen in Lin’s numbers getting better mo th to month, while Felton’s have decreased month to month.