His shot isn't a glaring weakness or anything -- he made a three per game at Harvard, and hit two of the three three-pointers he took in Vegas. It's just that he'll be a nearly ideal backup guard or starter in a triangle-type offense in the NBA if he can make that jumper into a strength -- I can definitely see Lin being a Derek Fisher-type guard thanks to his blend of toughness and basketball IQ, with Lin being a better driver than Fisher but a less confident outside shooter. -John Krolik, ProBasketballTalk
Just weeks ago Jeremy Lin was considered a long-shot for the NBA, let alone the D-League. But after his summer league stint, Lin is drawing comparisons to actual NBA stars. Donnie Nelson, general Manager and president of basketball operations for the Dallas Mavericks, indirectly described Lin's surprise factor akin to Steve Nash. But Krolik seems to believe Derek Fisher, a solid contributor to many championship Los Angeles Laker squads, is an apt description. While a favorable comparison, is Derek Fisher ultimately Lin's ceiling? Probably not.
Krolik has a lot of nice things to say about Lin's game based off his observations from NBA Summer League 2010. And based off what Krolik thinks Lin does best, it seems that this supersedes what we've seen from Fisher during his tenure as the lead point guard for a poor Warriors team during the 2005 and 2006 seasons:
Lin isn't a traditional drive-and-kick guard, but he sees plays before they happen and knows where the right pass is. Even if he doesn't make the pass that leads directly to a basket, he gets the ball to a teammate in a position where he can do something with it. His three assist box score is a joke -- there were at least four or five passes Lin made that didn't go down as assists because his teammate blew an open shot or got fouled. He also moves as well without the ball as any guard in Summer League, which is something that becomes obvious as soon as he hits the floor.
Derek Fisher is a great pro, but I honestly didn't see much of Lin's game from Summer League reflected in Fisher's resume. Perhaps I'm just unfairly judging him. An ex-girlfriend of mine named her car, a 1989 Honda Accord, Derek Fisher because she thought he was the anchor to those three-peat Laker teams. And maybe because of the traumas of that relationship, I don't want to give Fisher his due. But from my own memories of Fisher with the Warriors, he unnecessarily jacked up 3-pointers. He looked like someone who may have taken his affiliation with Kobe Bryant too seriously as he seem to take on the responsibility of a scorer to go with that pedestrian assist to turnover ratio. I don't think he's someone who necessarily moves well without the ball either but as someone who benefits with wide open looks from drive-and-kicks of superstar teammates.
But Fisher is still as clutch as they get and he's consistently come up big for the Lakers (and the Utah Jazz). But for these reasons, I definitely don't see Lin necessarily in the Derek Fisher mode. But I could see Lin having a Derek Fisher-type significance for an already good team.
In all honesty, I see more C.J. Watson in him so far. By that, I mean a guy who can come off the bench and make heady plays. Like Watson, Lin looks like he can score in bunches and be that spark off the bench (nine fourth quarter points versus John Wall's Wizards). Similarly to Watson, Lin possesses some of the intangibles such as getting into passing lanes and making plays big plays that can shift the momentum.
Comparing Lin to Watson may seem like a step down from Krolik's glowing re-assessment of Lin as a Fisher-like player. But comparing Lin to any NBA player now seems like a triumph, especially as nobody could imagine any comparisons to begin with just a week and a half ago.
Based off Summer League recaps, who would you compare Lin to so far?
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