Jeremy Lin Finds His Best Basketball Self With Atlanta Hawks

Jeremy Lin of the Atlanta Hawks shooting over Malek Beasley of the Denver Nuggets on November 15. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)GETTY

Over the course of his nine-year NBA career, Jeremy Lin has experienced many roles. Just a few subway stops from where he met with reporters on Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn, he’d briefly been a franchise savior with the Knicks, after getting bounced out of the Warriors’ plans.

The stops since have promised various possibilities, only to be blocked by other players or injuries at virtually every turn—Rockets, Lakers, Hornets, Nets, all achingly close to seeing what Lin could do if once again handed the keys.

Now in Atlanta, a funny thing has happened in a season that doesn’t promise Jeremy Lin anything like the chance to be a franchise icon. Under Lloyd Pierce, he may have found his best basketball self yet.

It’s a striking evolution, considering how far from settled Lin felt just a few months ago.

“There were some very bad days early on,” Lin said, prior to Atlanta’s game against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday. “I got cleared right before training camp, maybe 3, 4 days before training camp, and so I hadn’t played 5 on 5 or anything before that at all, so it was tough. They saw me go through the entire process of getting my legs underneath me, trusting my body, slowly getting my rhythm, but that’s all part of the process.”

The results, at first, reflected this. Lin shot 34.2 percent from the field in Atlanta’s seven October games, 21.4 percent from three. His role—running the team when Trae Young was on the bench—yielded periods of promise, along with some obvious rust, reflecting a full season missed after Lin hurt himself in the 2017-18 opener with the Nets.

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“He didn’t come in shooting it well,” Pierce said Sunday. “He got off to a really slow start just coming off the injury and I think just trusting his body. A lot of his shots, he gets in the rhythm of what he does and that’s why I say he’s a stabilizer.”

He’s certainly been that since November 1. Atlanta is 3.5 points per 100 possessions better with Lin on the court so far this season. He’s shooting the ball better than he ever has, too: 50.3/40.0/81.6 percent line from the field, three and free throw, respectively, and since November 1, even gaudier: 54.7/44.6/80.6 percent.

To put that in perspective, compare it to Lin’s breakout season in New York: 44.6/32.0/79.8 percent. His remade shot has taken him to a different place as an overall offensive player.

One reason for the jump is that while Lin has always been among the best in the league at getting to the basket in the halfcourt, he’s finding more success in transition than ever. Per Synergy, Lin ranks third in the NBA in points per possession in transition, minimum 50 possessions, of 110 qualified players. Compare that to the Linsanity run: that year, Lin rated 182 out of 188 qualified players.

So in many ways, he’s become a fundamentally different player, more complete, without sacrificing his best skills from early in his career. It means that he can get to the basket in the halfcourt as well as ever, as seen here:

But it also makes him the kind of floor spacer a point guard, to be truly elite in the current NBA, needs to be.

Even so, Pierce understands the value of Lin lies in his playmaking ability. It is the tragedy of his wasted, healthy seasons, when he was forced off the ball so much. To have Lin at his best means having the ball in his hands, and for so many, there is the frustration over knowing that we haven’t gotten to see that very much, not since the Knicks chose to let the promising 23-year-old go for… Raymond Felton.

“Teams go under his pick and roll, so he’s able to [shoot it],” Pierce said. “A lot of his threes are off the dribble because teams are going under and they’re in rhythm. A lot of his floaters and pull-ups are in the paint in the mid pick and roll. And then when he gets off the basketball, guys are able to find him on the weak side and he’s gettin’ some of his catch and shoots. Still, when I call the play for Jeremy, it’s a mid pick and roll, primarily.”

Lin will face some additional turmoil over the coming weeks. The Hawks are building around Young, plenty of NBA teams need a point guard. A move to Orlando, where coach Steve Clifford absolutely loves Lin dating to his time back in Charlotte, would make plenty of sense. Don’t expect this change to throw Lin, though.

“For me, I started to turn a corner 2-3 weeks into the season and a lot of it came from getting in a lot of extra work away from the games, and I felt like when I was playing against other people, whether it was extra workouts or practice or whatever, I could start to really feel a lot of that stuff come back,” Lin said. “Honestly, for me, confidence comes a lot from when I’m training. When I see the ball go in or when I see myself training a certain way or playing a certain way, it gives me confidence that, when I step out on the floor, I can be that same person.”

The same? Maybe. But the numbers suggest that as Jeremy Lin approaches 30, he’s actually better than ever.

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