by Anthony Puccio Dec 6, 2016, 2:42pm EST
Jeremy Lin has been out for the last 15 games with a hamstring injury. When the injury occurred on November 2nd, the Nets later announced that Lin would be re-evaluated in two weeks.
Two weeks went by and there was still no word on Lin’s return date. Now over a month later, there’s still no timetable for Lin. Sean Marks spoke to Sarah Kustok about Lin’s status, saying he’s “progressing” and that he suspects it’ll be “pretty soon.”
“Jeremy is one of the most competitive people I’ve ever seen, I don’t think he’ll mind me saying this, but he said, ‘I’m used to proving people wrong. It’s what I’ve done my whole life, so I’m going to prove people wrong with this injury.’ And I said, ‘look let’s just take your time.’
The performance team says, ‘you don’t need to prove them wrong by coming back too soon, so just take your time.’ You know you’ve got the right guy, the right fiber, when one of your elite players says something like this. I wanna prove people wrong, itching to get back. He’s so vocal, still at practice, in the locker room and has been from day one when he was out with his injury. He’s progressing well. I obviously don’t want to put a time limit or a day, but I suspect it pretty soon.”
It’s been frustrating for the Nets, who are 3-12 since Lin suffered the hamstring injury. Not to mention their fans. Although it was early in the season, the Nets were 2-3 with Lin and looked respectable. Now, at 5-15, they find themselves at the bottom of the standings for a second straight season — arguably because of similar point guard issues.
The Nets have a set way of handling injuries. No timetables, no rushing players back. As you read in Marks’ talk with Kustok, there is still zero commitment to a specific timetable, just as there wasn't with Caris LeVert.
You can look at this in two ways. It’s good because players don’t feel the need to rush back just because there’s a timetable set on them. It alleviates pressure off their backs.
Then, you can look at from a fans perspective. The Nets never said he would be back in two weeks, but they still haven’t provided any word regarding the depth of his injury. Is it worse than people expect? Or are they just sticking to their policy by keeping things quiet? Either way, the fans deserve something... anything! Keep in mind he IS a fan favorite among the Nets fan community and all around the globe.
Call it how you’d like, but between the constant losing and the injury to Lin (one of the few things that were keeping the Nets relevant), things are getting frustrating in the world of the Nets.
“The Process” has suddenly turned into “The Progress.”
Beyond Lin, much of what Marks told Kustok was in line with previous statements, but one comment did stand out. He was asked about whether he would prefer to build through free agency or the draft. He responded...
“I think it’s probably a combination of all of the above, we obviously have a strategy moving forward, but that strategy needs to remain fluid. So depending how this years free agent goes, and this years draft goes, we may take some little detours a long the way. But again, I think we know what we want, in the type of player that fits into this Nets identity, and into the Brooklyn culture here. We’ll use a combination of not only the draft, and free agency, but scouting Europe and the D-League.”
Marks didn’t further discuss what those detours might be.
