Lin is a restricted free agent, but there are ways that teams can make it very difficult for the Knicks to match any offer given to him.
So, it isn’t a given that he will resign with team.
It has been a foregone conclusion for months that Jeremy Lin will re-sign with the New York Knicks, but sources close to the situation say the return of the free agent point guard is not as certain as it once seemed.
While both Lin and the Knicks are hoping for a reunion, sources say that if any clubs offer Lin, a restricted free agent, a backloaded contract that pays him an eight-figure salary in the third and fourth years, the Knicks could be given pause about matching the offer.
The Knicks can offer Lin a four-year deal worth $24.5 million. But an opposing team can offer Lin a poison pill that could go as high as $40 million over four years. Such a contract would pay Lin $5 million in each of the first two years and then go as high as $15 million in each of the last two years.
Matching such a contract would give the Knicks four players — Lin, Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler — making more than $14 million in the 2014-2015 season. Those four players alone would have a combined salary of $72 million, nearly $2 million above the luxury tax.
Lin has to remember that his marketing potential in New York is greater than any other city, but on the flip side of that you are only hot for so long and security on the back end of a deal might be more important.
Curious to see what decision he makes.