Jason Kidd looking forward to mentoring Jeremy Lin at the New York Knicks – NBA News
The New York Knicks introduced veterans Jason Kidd and Marcus Camby to the media on Thursday, but the only player on everybody’s mind was Jeremy Lin.
Even though the Knicks have not matched the offer by the Houston Rockets for Lin, veteran point guard Jason Kidd said that he is looking forward to mentoring Lin over the course of the upcoming NBA season.
Kidd was comfortable in conceding that while he feels he can still help the Knicks win games in crunch time, a part of his job is to mentor and train Lin into becoming a quality point guard.
“To have a chance to mentor a very good player in Jeremy -- be able to share my secrets or what I've learned in my 18 years -- for him hopefully to take it to another level, it's something I look forward to doing," said Kidd.
Asked about when the Knicks will match Lin’s offer, General Manager Glen Grunwald said that they are still waiting to receive the Houston Rockets offer sheet.
Kidd talked in detail about how he plans on coaching Lin, saying that the first thing he was going to teach Lin was to control his pace in the game.
“He just plays at one gear and that's a very high gear. We need to sit down and talk about trying to find that fourth and third gear so he has the energy to finish ballgames. We want him to play the whole season. If you have just one gear, it's hard to play 82 games,” said Kidd.
Kidd insisted that he was comfortable backing up Lin, and hinted that there was a chance that both he and Lin could play in the backcourt together to close out games.
Lin emerged as a sensational point guard this year after he was given the opportunity to start for the Knicks when injury depleted their backcourt. He was a the man who put the Knicks back on the playoffs track, but missed the final 17 games of the regular season as well as the playoffs after undergoing surgery to repair torn cartilage in his left knee.
He is set to return next season, and was offered a four year back loaded contract by the Houston Rockets, which the Knicks have repeatedly said they will match.
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