Follow the leader
Lin eager to take reins again after two miserable, injury-plagued seasons
Jeremy Lin endured hamstring injuries his first year with the Nets and ruptured his patella tendon in this season’s opener. But after having to actually change the way he moves — undoing 29 years of muscle memory isn’t exactly like wiping a hard drive — his marathon rehab is finally in the home stretch. As the Nets wrap up this season, Lin said when they tip off the next he expects to resume his role as a starter and leader — even in a crowded backcourt that includes D’Angelo Russell, Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris LeVert. “I came here having the same role. I don’t expect it to change,” Lin said. “If it does, it’ll be something we communicate over. But I’m not even thinking that far in advance. I’m thinking about my health, about moving properly. And I have full confidence if I’m doing that, everything will be [OK]. Everything will make up for lost time, and we’ll see what I’d envisioned my time in Brooklyn being.” Lin envisioned being a building block. Despite the first two seasons being disappointments — he played only 36 games last year and 25 minutes this time around — Lin says it’ll just make any Nets turnaround sweeter.
“It’s definitely disappointing,” Lin said. “I’ve never wavered in my motivation ... but if I achieve something or do something great with this team I’ll appreciate it more because of what I went through.”
Lin spent most of the season at Rick Celebrini’s Fortius Sport & Health in Vancouver. After Lin saw Celebrini’s work with Steve Nash while he was a Laker, he always wanted to work with the trainer. He had no idea it’d come this way, changing not just his shooting mechanics but all of his mechanics.
“It’s going to make me better. It’s going to make me faster, make me more efficient. The only hard part is I have to effectively undo 29 years of movement, that’s the hardest part,” Lin said. “So when I say I’m still on schedule with my knee, it’s exciting because I’m also tackling these other things at the same time.
“I’m not just looking at whether my knee will hold up. I’m looking at whether I’ve done enough to completely change preexisting movement patterns. Everything down to my shot, the way I run, defend, move, cut, accelerate, decelerate, it won’t look different to the eye, but it’ll be very different in terms of how I do it, where I move from, what muscles I’m using and what tendons and joints I’m not using.”
Even from afar, Lin could see the Nets need to get “nastier” on defense, and expects to help in that regard.
“One of the things I’m expecting of myself is to be the captain of the defense. I’m going to be talking nonstop, demanding a lot from the people around me, and they’re going to do the same to me. We’re going to be a good defensive team,” said Lin, who will stay in Brooklyn over the summer and should be cleared for contact in time to join the Nets’ pickup games.
“The next level is just contact. Once you get to contact, you’re there.”
➤ Unrestricted free agent Joe Harris said he and agent Mark Bartelstein let the Nets know he’d like to stay in Brooklyn.
“I’ve been in talks here — especially recently — a lot with my agent and I’ve reiterated that I’d like to be here. I told that to Kenny [Atkinson] and Sean [Marks],” Harris said. “There’s a lot of decisions that’re going to be made ... but I think everybody’s on the same line [of thinking].”