The Knicks are scary with Jeremy Lin.

You can see it in their faces in the interviews after these wins.  Amare Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler, they’re all smiles when taking questions on a guy no one knew a week ago, who’s getting all the attention during a big seven game winning streak.

Why not?  He seems to have prompted it. 

Lin scored more points in his first five starts than anyone since the merger.  Breaking that record as an un-drafted 4th string point guard out of Harvard is more than weird.  It’s a close encounter.

It definitely warrants some serious media hype.

But the story is that the Knicks are scary with Jeremy Lin.

The only question is how will Carmelo Anthony respond when he returns from injury.

It’s not a matter of Anthony being selfish, or unable to coexist with Lin.  I don’t think he believes in Lin.

Anthony said that Lin was playing “out of his mind, right now.” Which seemed to imply that Lin might be over-achieving.  Fuck, I sure hope so.

Not only because I’m a Bulls fan, but also because he’s been playing so well that if he’s not over-achieving, at least a little, then the NBA should be questioning everything they hold sacred.

I think both are true.  He’s overachieving a little, but that could mean he’s every bit as good as he appears to be.

The Knicks needed someone to score a lot of points with Amare and Carmelo out. They needed him to overachieve, and bring the team together. 

Lin knew it, and just went out and did it in record setting proportion.

It sounds simple but it’s not. That sort of will is rare.  It shows the guts and wisdom of a veteran… It’s a confidence that usually means you’re floating on an ocean of talent.

His shooting percentage is .500 in February.  It’s difficult to over-achieve in your shooting percentage that much, since he has taken well over a hundred shots this month.  It doesn’t look like he’s just a streaky shooter.

Lin makes scoring and getting into the paint look very easy… and he is primarily a true pass-first point guard and his court vision and IQ appears to be stellar.

To me, it seems obvious that Jeremy Lin is going to be one of the best point guards in the league. 

The skill set he has at this point in his career suggests he’s only going to get better and more consistent with every game.  His turnovers will drop off a bit eventually, and the three will fall more consistently (he may have the potential to shoot 40 to 50 percent from downtown, eventually.  Because I believe he’ll take fewer and when he does they’ll be wide open looks).  He may not score 25 every night, but I think he’ll average 17 points and 10 assists this season and 18 and 12 next season.  Maybe more.

In that same interview, I saw at ESPN.com, Carmelo also said he still wants to be the one taking the last shot of the game with Jeremy Lin in the lineup. 

Because… of course you try to go to Carmelo in that situation.  But there’s also no such things as having too many guys on the floor who can hit a shot with the game on the line.

Anthony is still sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop, in my opinion.  A bit of skepticism is natural… but Carmelo will learn to trust Lin when they’re on the court together and the wins keep piling up and Anthony’s getting a lot of great looks at the basket.

And he realizes that Lin is the piece of the puzzle that makes the New York Knicks a serious title contender.  Scary.