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October 27, 2014

Jeremy Lin to start in Lakers’ season opener Tuesday

Last year, Kobe Bryant, right, made a shooting guard out of Steve Nash, one of the best point guard in NBA history. It will be interesting to see if Jeremy Lin can succeed in a similar role alongside Kobe this season. (AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Paul Rodriguez)

Jeremy Lin will start as the Los Angeles Lakers’ point guard on Tuesday’s season opener against his former team, the Houston Rockets.

Apparently, he doesn’t feel entirely sure that the Lakers are ready for the regular season.

When asked about it after last Sunday’s practice, he sighed and said, “we don’t have a choice to be.”

The Lakers have already lost injury prone veteran Steve Nash after a season ending injury and with Ronnie Price questionable with a bone bruise, Lin inevitably becomes the starter.

It’s hard to imagine that Lin doesn’t have some off court motivations to win Tuesday after being relegated to Houston’s second string and then being subjected to giant Carmelo Anthony banners in a Rockets’ jersey with Lin’s number seven while teams were wooing free agents during the offseason.

Despite the perfect setup, Lin assured reporters that it’s not quite that big of a deal.

“Let’s not make this game any bigger than it is. The headline’s ‘Kobe versus Dwight’– all right?” Lin said jokingly.

In fact, it seems like he’s more than happy to start and be on the court with his former teammates.

“I have such a great relationship with so many of the guys over there,” Lin said.

Lin has been known to excel the most when he controls possessions and functions as a primary scorer as displayed during his tenure with the New York Knicks in lieu of an injured Carmelo Anthony, but Lin is confident that he is opening up his skill set outside of this identity.

“Kobe’s going to demand a lot of attention… so being able to be better off the ball, cutting, being more active and knocking down shots is going to help the team a lot ” Lin said. “I learned so much in Houston to be a more multi-dimensional player.”

If those skills transfer over to the current roster and Byron Scott’s coaching style, L.A. may be seeing a lot more of Lin throughout the regular season.