The debate will soon move from his role with the purple-and-gold franchise to what his value will be on an open market loaded with fellow point guards like Goran Dragic of the Miami Heat, Rajon Rondo of the Dallas Mavericks and Brandon Knight of the Phoenix Suns.
Those aforementioned players were traded this season and could be on the move again come July 1.
Similarly, Lin also finds himself on the merry-go-round, having been traded from the Houston Rockets to the Lakers last summer on an expiring contract. For the 26-year-old guard who rocketed to fame with the New York Knicks during a 35-game stretch in 2011-12, this current campaign was supposed to be about solidifying his identity and worth once and for all.
But instead, the picture presented in Los Angeles has been one of uncertainty—an enigma who has gone from starter to role player and from lost to found at various points with Lakers coach Byron Scott.
As Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck recently wrote, the search for Lin's identity and the various versions on display this season don’t point toward an L.A. encore:
Whatever that version is, it will not be rediscovered in Los Angeles. The three-year, $25 million contract Lin signed with Houston in 2012—the one Carmelo Anthony called "ridiculous"—expires this summer. Lin will be free to choose his own destination as an unrestricted free agent, and he is certain to be moving again.
But as Lin pointed out to Beck, the cloudiness of his next step mirrors the elusive middle ground of a career marked by highs and lows: "There's always been doubt around me, around my name, ever since I stepped foot in the NBA. That's literally all I've had, is just a huge cloud of uncertai...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
