Old North Banter
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Charlotte Hornets: Houston = new rival for Lin

By John Woodcock

Apr 29, 2016; Charlotte, NC, USA; Charlotte Hornets guard Jeremy Lin (7) reacts after a hard hit during the first half in game six of the first round of the NBA Playoffs against the Miami Heat at Time Warner Cable Arena. Mandatory Credit: Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 29, 2016; Charlotte, NC, USA; Charlotte Hornets guard Jeremy Lin (7) reacts after a hard hit during the first half in game six of the first round of the NBA Playoffs against the Miami Heat at Time Warner Cable Arena. Mandatory Credit: Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Charlotte Hornets chance at the Jeremy Lin sweepstakes has a new more dangerous threat in the form of the Houston Rockets.

A few weeks ago I suggested that the Charlotte Hornets path to re-signing Jeremy Lin had hit a pot hole when the New York Knicks hired Jeff Hornacek to be their next head coach. That opened the possibility of the Knicks needing a point guard like Lin to run the new Hornacek offense.

Then the Knicks got Hornacek to announce that he was sticking with the triangle and that pretty much doomed that. The triangle offense does not rely on a point guard to function. As a result, Phil Jackson really didn’t use one on either the Bulls of the 90s or the Lakers of the 2000s. The point guard became a big defender who could shoot threes or one of the two of those things.

So it would make sense for Hornacek to add the next Ron Harper on one end or the next Derek Fisher or Steve Kerr on the other. I was sort of surprised that the Knicks haven’t made much noise of having Jerian Grant grow into that role.

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So no more threat from New York. However another team made a coaching hire that could potentially attract Lin to yet another previous destination on his basketball journey. The Houston Rockets, one of Lin’s former teams, have hired Mike D’Antoni. D’Antoni is one of Lin’s former coaches.

Potentially this is a more dangerous draw than New York. D’Antoni is the one who put Lin into the fire when Carmelo Anthony was injured and Linsanity was born. D’Antoni tried to used Lin as a poor man’s Steve Nash and it seemed to work. There has to be a comfort level between the two as to if they can work together.

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Houston, like New York, is in the middle of figuring things out at the moment. Unlike the Knicks, they were a playoff team last year. Like the Knicks, they are trying to build around the one superstar they have, James Harden. That work can begin in earnest as it is believed that Dwight Howard will leave the team for somewhere in the off season.

This allows D’Antoni to write the book how he likes it, assuming of course that there are a few chapters titled ‘Harden.’ Lin would be the exact kind of player that he would want to bring in to help establish his book.

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All of that is problematic for the Hornets, who have to be careful about getting into bidding wars when they have multiple players they wish to return. Of course the Draft will tell us a lot about the Hornets’ intentions toward Lin and then everything starts July 1st.

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