When Jeremy Lin first took over for the Knicks last season, things appeared to be going quite well. After struggling mightily to start the year, New York ripped off seven straight wins and became one of the hottest teams in the league when Lin was inserted into the lineup. Despite that success, Tyson Chandler says he didn’t quite have a handle on the offense.
“Baron was hurt and Jeremy was a young point guard who was just learning and figuring out an offense,” Chandler told the NY Post. “It was nothing against them and it was definitely nothing against Baron. Jeremy was a young point guard who was inexperienced, who brought a great light to the organization. But as far as being able to run the offense and putting players in the right position he just wasn’t there. We got some veteran point guards that are capable of doing that.”
Many point guards have succeeded in Mike D’Antoni’s offensive scheme, so perhaps Lin’s high scoring totals and ability to take over games was a direct product of that. He may not have been the best at getting everyone involved, but overall the team seemed to do quite well when he was in the lineup.
In reality, Lin is gone now so Chandler can’t be talking about how much better the team was with him. They have no choice but to move forward, and expressing confidence in the current roster rather than dwelling on the past is probably the right thing to do.
