Will Jeremy Lin succeed in Houston?

Few years back Jeremy Lin, un-drafted guard out of Harvard was struggling to find a place in NBA.

Flash Forward few years and The New York Times calls Lin “[the Knicks'] most popular player in a decade” and he has endorsements from the likes of Nike & Volvo.

To answer the question, let’s go back and get to where it all started.

The Story So Far.

Lin went un-drafted in the 2010 NBA Draft.

He then joined the Dallas Mavericks for mini-camp as well as their NBA Summer League team in Las Vegas, and in five Summer League games, while playing both guard positions, Lin averaged 9.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.2 steals in 18.6 minutes per game and shot a team leading 54.5% from the floor.

He received offers to sign from the Mavericks & Los Angeles Lakers.

But on July 21 2010, Lin signed a two-year deal with his hometown Warriors and also signed a three-year guaranteed contract with Nike, His jersey was already on sale before his first NBA game, he seemed to have a cult following from the start of his career due to his Asian ethnicity.

Lin acknowledged the expectations and simply quoted, “I won’t be an All-Star this year.”

On December 12, 2011, Lin was claimed off waivers by the Houston Rockets, but before the start of the season, the Rockets waived Lin to clear payroll to sign center Samuel Dalembert.

The New York Knicks claimed Lin off waivers on December 27 to be a backup behind Toney Douglas and Mike Bibby after an injury to guard Iman Shumpert; as also recently signed guard Baron Davis was also injured and weeks away from playing.

On January 28, Davis suffered a setback that postponed his Knicks debut, Then New York considered releasing Lin before his contract became guaranteed on February 10 so they could sign a new player. However, “in desperation” coach Mike D’Antoni decided to give Lin a chance to play and the rest you might know.

On February 4 Lin had 25 points, five rebounds, and seven assists—all career-highs—in a 99–92 Knicks victory.

He then went on to became the first NBA player to score at least 20 points and have seven assists in each of his first five starts.

Here’s an amazing video depicting the whole LINSANITY.

After 26 games Lin had a small meniscus tear in the left knee. Lin opted to have knee surgery and missed the remainder of the regular season.

He became a restricted free agent at the end of the season.His success over only 26 games left teams uncertain about his overall standing among the league’s point guards. Some still believed he was suited as a bench player.

Then Houston gave Lin a 3-year $25 million “poison pill” deal and the Knicks didn’t match.

What Now ?

Rockets are in full rebuilding mode this season, they tried their best in getting Dwight Howard, releasing 7 good players in the process and still couldn’t land D-12.

This year Rockets will have numerous players in their 1st or 2nd season only. So that means ample game-time for Jeremy to have a break-out season.

So will he succeed ?

The answer is , yes he will. If you ask me if he will put all star numbers, I wouldn’t be so sure but he’s definitely going be a solid player this season.

Why ?

Well, because Lin has been a talented player since his childhood. Here are some facts to accompany the above statement.

In his high school, Lin captained Palo Alto High School to a 32–1 record and upset nationally ranked Mater Dei, 51–47, for the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division II state title. He was named first-team All-State and Northern California Division II Player of the Year, ending his senior year averaging 15.1 points, 7.1 assists, 6.2 rebounds and 5.0 steals.

He received no athletic scholarship offers out of high school and went un-drafted out of Harvard University.

By his junior year during the 2008–09 season, he was the only NCAA Division I men’s basketball player who ranked in the top ten in his conference for scoring (17.8), rebounding (5.5), assists (4.3), steals (2.4), blocked shots (0.6), field goal percentage (0.502), free throw percentage (0.744), and three-point shot percentage (0.400), and was a consensus selection for All-Ivy League First Team.

In his senior year (2009–10), Lin averaged 16.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.4 steals and 1.1 blocks, and was again a unanimous selection for All-Ivy League First Team.

He was also one of 30 midseason candidates for the John R. Wooden Award and one of 11 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award, so that proves he was exceptional always, it’s not that he just got some magic MJ sneakers one night and took the entire NBA world by storm.

All the above stats verify the fact that Lin’s magical run wasn’t fluke, it was only a matter of chance, a chance to prove that he was great, that he was the JEREMY LIN.