Yes, moot.
But, I see this as being simple in the key elements involved (however you feel about Lin the player being totally moot), that effect management to players to coach, all current, which definitely isn't moot.
*Dolan officially assumed a permanent bent over position on all four for Melo. Over time, Dolan showed signs of going official all in on Melo. This culminated with the Lin decision.
*Melo doesn't like Lin. And our team mojo and chemistry has been a wreck with Melo.
*Melos boy, who happens to be our coaches boy, also doesn't like Lin.
*Melo and Smith both made UNPRECEDENTED public remarks about a player on their own team involved in contract negotiations.
This is possibly the most unsung, and unfathomable, situations that occurred throughout the Lin Decision.
*We told Lin to test the market and intentionally didn't give him an offer.
If anyone wants to know what test the market means, it means exactly what happened with Houston and Lin. Trust that even a billionaire bitch like Dolan knows what happens when you tell a dude to test the market and not give an official offer yourself.
Again, crazy to not even give a lowish offer, as a matter of good faith and seriousness. Which brings to:
*When Lin officially hit free agency, we weren't even amongst the top 3 teams to call him and his agent. Again, an extremely odd, odd thing. That flew in the face of what Lin, ans surely any executive who wants to show seriousness in resigning a player in such a spot.
*Woodson making public remarks that Lin would be resigned and we would match.
Again, a truly insane thing to happen.
Making no remarks about Lin being worth or not worth a donkeys flaccid dick:
*our franchise, from owner, to start players, to coach, made EXTREMELY odd public statements and decisions, from the time Lin officially became an FA. And odd is putting it very mildly.
Odd, moronic, unprecedented, contradictory is a good description.
Finally, the cop out of it being some logical, financial decision just holds no salt. First off, if we had a price in mind for Lin, and wanted to keep Lin, we would have made him a ****ing offer. And created an opportunity to get a "hometown" style discount, and simply wrap **** up by making a big sales pitch to him.
NYK brass almost took every deliberate step one would take, to have a Houston situation occur. To say nothing of player and coach remarks, which is a seperate (but in regards to Melo) connected situation.
But let's throw out what already flies totally in the face of the NYK ever having a true intention to resign Lin (again, we can go back to their actions even in the minutes Lin hit FA officially):
The Houston situation occurs, NYK then say, essentially: thanks for testing FA, Jeremy, but it's too much dough for us.
Okay. Fair enough. Idiotic to let happen (especially if you believe the Melo Knicks ever really wanted in back), but okay, let's take it on face value:
Lin did not get a crazy offer. Particularly, the 2nd Houston offer compared to the first. Allow me to explain:
The so called Poison Pill, a gargantuan number surely to attract the instinctive grimaces of fans everywhere, was not a bad thing. In fact it was a good thing.
Lin revolved around two things. His opportunity to make the franchise tons of money (undeniable), his ability to lead the NYK from the point and be worth the type of bones being thrown his way (debatable).
And this is why the Houston contract is actually quite a favorable and flexible one. It essentially let's you maintain Linsanity and Lin, for truly bargain numbers at first, while giving you the following, key flexibility in his final year:
To decide, after reality has already given you the ultimate information to make an informed decisions, whether Lin is worth resigning long term. Or, whether you can aggressively trade a fantastic 1yr contract in a trade to an NBA team.
Eddie ****ing Curry was an asset to us in his final year.
I will not get into what happens and what has been done if the other side of the debatable point comes to fruition, and Lin is not EFC.
But in the game of risk and reward to fielding a winning team, to us having management capable of being true winners, to the very star players we have being....star players, the Lin decision was this, in poker hand analogy:
We got dealt a couple kings preflop, flashed one card to the table while fumbling around with our chips, limped, let 7 players come along, and when the flop came:
A 5 8, and we faced a single bet, folded, while telling ourselves we had to do it because an ace hit the flop.