New Nets guard Jerry Stackhouse thinks the Knicks made the right move by not bringing back Jeremy Lin.
Stackhouse, an 18-year NBA veteran, said in a video interview on SI.com that the Rockets’ three-year, $25.1 million offer sheet was too much to match “for a guy that’s only played 25 games for you.” Lin, a restricted free agent, signed the sheet and the Knicks decided officially Tuesday not to meet it, mostly because Houston tinkered with it late and added more guaranteed money in the third year.
Stackhouse, who will be playing his home games across the East River from the Knicks in Brooklyn this coming season, believes the Rockets might grow to regret the finances of the deal, too.
“I think it’s too much, I think they’re gonna look back three years from now and say we maybe could have used this to go out and get another player,” Stackhouse said. … “I think it’s going to hamper them.”
Lin “was great” for the Knicks last year, Stackhouse said, but even “the cable man” – Knicks owner and Cablevision head James Dolan – said it “was a little bit too much.” Stackhouse feels that Raymond Felton, who the Knicks acquired in a sign-and-trade with the Blazers last week, is “a better point guard than Jeremy Lin right now.”
Stackhouse, who signed a one-year deal with the Nets earlier this month, also doesn’t think the added marketability of Lin due to his Asian American heritage will help in Houston.
“I don’t think they’re gonna sell that much [merchandise],” Stackhouse said.