[FRpilot]

i'm kind of in different about the situation.

lin got offered 25M over 3 years. even though it's structured to pay him $5M, $5M, and $15M over the three years, if i did my math correctly it averages out to about 8.3M per year. imo, i think that's kind of a lot for a player who had 3 good weeks. however, teams gamble and pay players based on potential all the time. boston just paid jeff green big money after coming off heart surgery based on his potential. i'm happy for lin since he worked his ass off and got rewarded with a large contract offer, but i don't feel he deserved it after 3 weeks. i hope he can get better and feel he has to earn his paycheck by working on his game and improving. he could also just mail it in and be like baron davis after he gets his fat paychecks, but either way houston still makes a lot of money off his marketing potential. i think they can recoup that $25M contract back easily.

at the same time, what carmelo said does make him an ass. i think he's jealous of the attention lin got in new york and the threat that lin could potentially steal his spotlight and be the hero in new york. he doesn't say that because no one likes to admit that they are jealous, but we all know melo is not the humble guy he makes himself seem. why say something negative about your teammate? if he was a good teammate he should be happy for lin and encourage him, which he did but he also added that "ridiculous contract" part when he could have omitted it. it's even more ironic that he said that when many people feel that he doesn't deserve his "ridiculous" max contract, but i'm sure in his mind he feels deserves it because he averages 28ppg while everyone around him sucks (as if that's their fault).

the difference is that lin still has time and the potential to get better. carmelo can still become a better player if he wants to, but his window is quickly closing.