Jeremy Lin didn't exactly light the NBA world on fire after he was signed by the Warriors. However, Lin didn't deserve a lot of the criticism which he received. He did everything he was supposed to do, and was a good player considering his spot on the rotation.
Jeremy Lin wasn't paid to start. He was paid to be a backup guard and fill in whenever the situation required it. That's exactly what he did, contributing about half a win to the Warriors. For an end of the bench player, that's not bad, especially on a rookie minimum contract. Consider the Warriors' "major" free agent acquisition, Louis Amundson. He was expected to be a solid contributor off the bench. Instead, he was grossly overpaid for producing 0.6 wins. His PER also dropped to a ghastly 11.3 compared to Lin's 14.8, which is close to the league average of 15.0.
In addition, here's how Lin's salary compares to other players' salary using Win Shares (which is imperfect, but it still gives a good idea of what a player contributed to his team). It shows how cost-effective a player's contract was.
Player | Salary | Win Shares | Amount paid per Win Share |
Reggie Williams | 762,195 | 3.7 | 205,999 |
Stephen Curry | 2,913,040 | 6.6 | 441,370 |
Dorell Wright | 3,500,000 | 5.8 | 603,448 |
Jeremy Lin | 473,604 | 0.5 | 947,208 |
Acie Law | 668,757 | 0.7 | 955,367 |
Al Thornton | 295,040 | 0.3 | 983,467 |
Rodney Carney | 345,988 | 0.3 | 1,153,293 |
Jeff Adrien | $254,446 | 0.2 | 1,272,230 |
David Lee | 10,800,000 | 6 | 1,800,000 |
Monta Ellis | 11,000,000 | 6 | 1,833,333 |
Vlad Rad | 6,883,800 | 2.1 | 3,278,000 |
Andris Biedrins | 9,000,000 | 2.6 | 3,461,538 |
Louis Amundson | 2,225,000 | 0.6 | 3,708,333 |
Ekpe Udoh | 3,065,040 | 0.7 | 4,378,629 |
Troy Murphy | 11,968,253 | 0 | infinity |
Charlie Bell | 3,844,000 | -0.1 | paid to lose games |
Notice how most of the cheaper contracts are at the top.
Moral of the chart: it is hard to not live up to a minimum contract. Players at the end of the bench are expected to sop up minutes and not trip over their own feet. Most players in the NBA could do that. What puts Jeremy Lin over the top is that he is cheap. A good 12th man not only sops ups minutes, but is also cheap and therefore cost-effective. Jeremy Lin was all of that.
Another thing to take from this chart: Reggie, Steph and Dorell are all due big raises. Generally, cheaper contracts should be at the top while more expensive contracts should be at the bottom, which makes Steph's and Dorell's contracts stand out. Reggie was paid absurdly little per win he contributed.
Note: I am not a Jeremy Lin homer. Nevertheless, for an undrafted rookie on a minimum contract, he has gotten absurdly too much flak. What can anyone realistically expect from an undrafted rookie on a minimum contract? Jeremy Lin got a disproportionate amount of media attention, which raised expectations too high. Unless he is completely awful and prevents the Warriors from winning games, he's a nice cheap 11th or 12th man. If anyone was wrong, it's the Warriors for hyping him up when they didn't even expect to play him big minutes.