Five Reasons Why Jeremy Lin is Not the Next Kurt Warner

Jeremy Lin is the big news in the NBA this week, seemingly coming out of nowhere becoming the best scorer in his 1st 4 games as a starter since the NBA/ABA merger. However, Jeremy Lin did not come out of nowhere and he isn't as good as he appears to be. Here are 5 reasons why Jeremy Lin is not the next Kurt Warner:

1. He's been sent to the D-League twice, in each of his 2 seasons.
2. He only averaged 2.6 points per game off .389 FG% in Golden State, playing in 29 games.
3. He didn't get a D-1 scholarship because of racial profiling and was not drafted because of his alma mater, not his playing skill being deficient.
4. Average players look fantastic on very bad teams.
5. D'Antoni is such an awful coach that he put the aging Mike Bibby ahead of Lin on the depth chart until Lin proved he's at least a decent player.

Deeper analysis after the break.

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Before Carmelo Anthony's injury and Amar'e Stoudemire's brother's death, Lin saw very limited action, being the 3rd PG on the depth chart behind Mike Bibby and Iman Shumpert. With the Knicks' two best players out, Lin saw more action and quickly found his way in D'Antoni's system that heavily favors PG play. A lot has been made out of Lin "coming out of nowhere" by ESPN, but that is just plain untrue. It's not necessarily a bad thing to be sent to the D-League, but ESPN is not giving the D-League any credit, or even the Golden State Warriors for even bothering to sign Lin as an undrafted free agent as a publicity stunt.

Jeremy Lin is not a bad player at all. He's very good, especially considering how little playing time he's gotten up to this point in his career. He's getting some comparison to Tim Tebow for some reason, but unlike Tebow, Lin is actually very good at the position he plays and plays for a coach who knows how to draw up plays for a point guard. What Lin is not however, is an elite player capable of superstar status. Put him on any other team in the league and Lin won't be as effective. He's actually similar to Amar'e Stoudemire, who had to chase D'Antoni's system to become effective again, floundering under Alvin Gentry.

As I write this, Jeremy Lin just got done scoring 38 points against my Lakers (who really stunk it up coming off an overtime victory against the Celtics) as well as 7 assists. If anything negative can be said about Lin, it's that he needs to work on his ball control, especially as a point guard. 6 turnovers is just plain unacceptable and won't cut it against teams that are among the elite on the fastbreak, like the Miami Heat.

Well, there is another negative that can be said about him, at least in a tongue-in-cheek way. With the emergence of Jeremy Lin, I think it's fair to say that Mike Bibby's incredibly unremarkable career is now FINALLY over.