I got the Lin-fever in the last few days, yes, Jeremy Lin. I searched a lot about him and watch and re-watched his games. There are still a lot more to be seen from him, whether he can keep up and continue his amazing rise. But based on what I see, here is my opinion and prediction of Lin.

The strongest quality of Lin is his confidence and focus on the game. Maybe being a devoted Christian helped, maybe it is just his personality and genes. After all, his dad has a PhD in engineering, which takes a lot of focus and hard work to get. This is not just from the game winning shot he made against the Raptors, but also evident from how he competed against stereotypes all his basketball life. No Division I scholarship out of high school, not drafted, waived twice, but keep on playing. If he wanted a mellow and ok life, he could get it from his Harvard economic degree. No need to play at the bottom of the NBA. He overcame all these because his confidence in himself and certain passion of the game. There is a Youtube Video of his high school coach saw him as the leader on the floor. That was after he joined Golden State. I don't think even him saw Lin becoming a starter for a NBA team in two years. But the fact in high school Lin was already the leader of the team, shows that this is not a fluke, not something he pretend to be. He really like to take charge, which is hard to find in today's NBA. The only other player had the confidence was Michael Jordan. I still remember how MJ was disappointed by the young players at Wizards. MJ said something like those 20 year old's showed less desire to win than this 40 year old. Sure, no one can be the same as MJ, but the lack of energy is evident in many NBA teams. There are many great players, just not a lot of people really want to win and want to lead the team to win. Koby wants to win, but just for himself. I watched a few games of LaBron James, he is good, probably equal to MJ in skills, but I did not see the spark that can ignite a whole team. This is where Lin is good at.

He is a smart player. He learns and understands what's going on. He does not let his emotion take over his brain. That's something rare. And this also helps with his confidence. With his intelligence and confidence, he make the team feel they can always find a way out no matter how back a game started.

I have to say, physical skill wise Lin is not close to the top players in NBA. He is ok and good. If he continue to play like this, he will be great. But he has his shortcomings and if cannot over come them, his skill probably put him around the middle range of players. May have a few good seasons but hard to see him lead the team into the final based on his skills. But he could overcome this by maximize his strong traits above, and lucky enough to stay in a good team.

What I see is that Lin is in a good team that fits him. From the few Nicks games I watched, I can see Amare and Melo are very strong players. They both want to win, but they lack what Lin had. Certainly, Lin plays a different position, but Lin can help the coach best use Amare and Melo. I think Amare and Melo are still going to be bigger stars, no matter how hot Lin is now, at the end of the day, he is not a flashy player. He is not going do things just to look good, but to win.

If Lin can be trusted by both the coach and players on the floor, he would be key to Nicks winning games. I don't know where Lin is going, but like someone on the NBA Tuesday show said, let's just enjoy what Lin's doing one game at a time. So far, he has been great.

Peter Diepenbrock, Jeremy's high school coach:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOdINo9PmOs