The conventional wisdom is that the Knicks will not let Jeremy Lin go this summer.
The point guard is a restricted free agent who can get up to $5 million in his next deal and he will — partially for his on-the-court skills as a guard but also because he is a marketing gold mine for teams. While the Knicks have some tricky salary cap issues to dance around, keeping Lin was never supposed to be in question.
But Lin’s agent hasn’t heard that.
Here is what the agent told the New York Post.Roger Montgomery, in a rare interview, told The Post nothing is assured regarding Lin’s Knicks future, despite interim coach Mike Woodson’s declaration the global phenom — who becomes a restricted free agent on July 1 — would “absolutely’’ return.
When asked if he expects the Knicks negotiation to be cut-and-dried, Montgomery forewarned: “I don’t expect that. We’re not anticipating that’s going to happen. We don’t have assurances of anything. I know history shows most restricted free agents go back to their team, but I’m not going to assume anything. We’re waiting to see what happens.’’
What is an agent’s job? To get as much money as he can for his client. That is what is going on here, he is making sure his client gets the max $5 million he can by trying to create some leverage.
They are not talking to Montgomery, but the Knicks hold the cards here, they can match any offer and no offer can be more than the $5 million the Knicks can put on the table. Woodson was right about Lin.
The only question is how much that impacts the chase for Steve Nash and others.