Good morning, you sweet, crumbly pastries. The Knicks have until 11:59 tonight to decide whether or not they'll match Houston's three-year, $25 million offer sheet to Jeremy Lin. Many signs have been pointing to Lin's dismissal, which would disappoint many of us, but no matter what happens, at least this torturous waiting period will end soon. I'm coming off my third consecutive restless, nightmare-ridden night of sleep, which is just embarrassing. I checked Twitter on my phone about a dozen times overnight, but I'm not sure how many of those times were real.
Yeah. Some links and things can be found after the jump.
- First of all, the Knicks are STILL disputing that the deadline is tonight. They want until Wednesday night. They continue to act like a bunch of babies about this whole thing. (Babies are notorious dawdlers).
A popular theme on the internet today (but by no means a new one) is that the Knicks have both reason and recourse to sign Lin even if they're worried he won't earn his contract on the court.
- Recourse One: A $14.8 million expiring contract has the potential to be a very useful in a trade (though remember that the Knicks, a tax-paying team, won't be able to participate in sign-and-trades in the future).
- Recourse Two: The Knicks can, indeed, use the stretch provision to dilute that "poison pill".
Again, you guys have brought up all of this in your comments and posts. The Knicks surely know about this stuff as well (Glen Grunwald is good at the salary cap. He knows this stuff). I'm convinced at this point that New York's consternation has much, much less to do with finances (if not nothing at all) than it does with the front office's twisted principles.
- I'm at the point where I've spent so much time fretting over and reckoning with Lin's departure that I've nearly exhausted those thoughts. Now, I'm worrying about what it'll be like if the Knicks match. Will Lin be grumpy? I wouldn't blame him for it. Will shit get weird in the locker room? It might, right? I mean, some things have been said, some rumors have swirled, and Raymond Felton thinks he's starting. I'm still violently in favor of New York matching, but if that ends up having been their intention all along, then I think the delay came at a price.
- Carmelo Anthony clarified his poorly worded comments from the other day, for whatever that's worth.
- Funny bros who share our pain: Bob 'n' Jim, Kenneth Drews (no Dan, evidently. I've yet to listen to this but the DoC never disappoint).
- I'm sure y'all know all this stuff, but I got Larry Coon to clarify a few CBA things relevant to this issue for The Sports Section.
- The petition blew past 10,000 signatures in two days and is on its way to 15,000.
That's what's up right now. No news, really.