Los Angeles Lakers point guard Jeremy Lin wanted to have a big role since he first landed in Hollywood. Now, it seems he'll get what he wished for as Lakers head coach Byron Scott looks for him to play more minutes either as a starter or coming off the bench this coming season.
After the Houston Rockets traded him along the first-round pick to the Lakers for cap-space clearing purposes, the 26-year old Lin is showing to everyone so far that he's more than just an expiring contract.
Through the first two weeks of training camp, the former Harvard standout caught the attention of the Lakers coaching staffs and his teammates by becoming one of the team's leaders on both ends of the floor.
Not only he has become an efficient orchestrator, especially running pick-and-roll plays, but he's leading the charge for the Lakers second unit in terms of scoring the ball.
In the Lakers' first two preseason games, Lin showed that he can contribute both as a passer and a scorer, as he dished out 10 assists in a 98-95 win over the Denver Nuggets and recorded 14 points on 4-for-4 shooting from the field in a 120-105 loss the Golden State Warriors.
Scott, who has been praising Lin for his terrific progress under his tutelage, already informed Lin to be prepared at all times because he's going to play a major minutes throughout 82-game regular-season campaign.
The Lakers have already mapped out their plan to keep the 40-year old Steve Nash injury-free by placing a hard cap on his playing time and sitting him in back-to-back games.
"He's got to be ready every night," Scott said of Lin's minutes via ESPN. "Every game might be different. That's one of the things we have that we just don't know with Steve right now. Jeremy knows every game he's going to play, but there's going to be games that he's going to start and he's going to have to play a lot more minutes."
For fantasy players, Lin is an ideal late-round pick because of an expected increase in his usage rate, which is one of major barometers in fantasy basketball. Lin hasn't been a major fantasy player for quite some time, but his current situation with the Lakers gives him all the opportunity to pad up his stats this season.
"He is likely going to come off the bench for the Lakers, but he controlled the second unit. Lin is going to be asked to attack the rim as much as he did in Houston and could have a very high usage rate. Fantasy owners should grab him before Steve Nash," Roto World said of Lin's fantasy basketball impact.
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