Lakers Rumors: Jeremy Lin Still Has Future With Purple-and-Gold, But Not as Starter

Jeremy Lin's future with the Los Angeles Lakers is clouded with uncertainty, and that's not only because of his inconsistent play this season, but his desire to find a place where he can be a starter again.

In this week's edition of ESPN Los Angeles 3-point, Los Angeles Lakers writers Baxter Holmes, Ramona Shelburne and Arash Markazi tackled on Lin and his chance of staying put with the purple-and-gold moving forward.

While Holmes and Shelburne are rather pessimistic about a continued marriage between the Lakers and Lin, Markazi isn't ruling out the other way around, especially if he embraces the role as a backup point guard for the team.

"I think there's room for a backup point guard such as Lin on this team, but I'm sure he wants to try his hand at being a starter again and going to a team that will give him that opportunity. If he can't find that elsewhere or a better deal, I don't see why the Lakers wouldn't want him back as a reserve," Markazi stressed.

Acquired from the Houston Rockets last offseason, the 26-year old Lin was expected to be the answer to the team's seemingly never-ending search for a quality point guard, considering their gamble on the injury-prone Steve Nash never played out well.

Instead, Lin provided more questions rather than answers to a team bound for the draft lottery for a second consecutive year. After starting Lin for 20 games, Lakers head coach Byron Scott relegated him to the bench in favor of Ronnie Price. And although Price isn't the craftiest point guard around (averaging just 5.4 points and 3.7 assists), Scott appears to be contented to have the feisty veteran play more minutes at the point than tapping a player he openly criticizes for being soft and inconsistent.

With all the negativity he heard from his head coach and his desire to reclaim his 'past-glory,' it's hard to think Lin would still pick the Lakers when he becomes an unrestricted free-agent next summer. The Lakers' interest in keeping Lin isn't sunny too, and the report of Yahoo Sports NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski about Lin being a one-year rental player for the Lakers didn't help his cause.

Lin, who is averaging 10.5 points and 4.5 assists in 25.7 minutes a game, is actually pocketing the highest paycheck of his career at roughly $15M this season. His next contract won't be as lucrative as his current deal anymore, but Lin will nevertheless exhaust all options to get his career back on tract, whether it would be with the Lakes or another team.