Montgomery Sports Group, which lists Gary Payton (Bay Area product!) as Director of Business Operations, has signed Jeremy Lin as a client. Montgomery’s clientele includes Maurice Evans of the Atlanta Hawks, Sonny Weems of the Toronto Raptors, and Desmond Mason, who was most recently waived by the Sacramento Kings.

Check Montgomery’s client list at: HoopsHype – NBA Agents – Roger Montgomery

“He’s a guy that I think intrigued a lot of scouts,” said NBA Assistant Director of Scouting Ryan Blake (pictured) [of Jeremy Lin]. “He wasn’t the top scorer, wasn’t the top assists leader, but he did all the right things, and I think that’s a plus, especially when you get into an environment like that.” This is what The Harvard Crimson’s staff writer Dennis Zheng wrote in his article (linked below).

“I talked to the players before the tournament and said this to all of them, ‘Listen, these teams know you can score, they want to know if you can play basketball’—and I think he proved that this week,” Blake added.

“I really like him, I think he has an opportunity, but we also had a lot of strong point guards in this tournament,” Blake said. “Could we see him in the NBA? Yes, absolutely I could see him in the NBA at some point…Will he get drafted? I don’t know…We have so many players that it’s such a fine line between making it and not making it.”

read more from "Portsmouth prospecting: what they said about Jeremy Lin"

At last, an underclassman point guard has decided to return to school instead of declare for this June’s NBA Draft. That means the mathematical odds of Jeremy Lin getting drafted have not dropped, for once.

6′3″ junior Malcolm Lee is heading back to UCLA. Good for him. From a pure basketball skills standpoint, he needs it. He also needs to bulk up.

He’s like a smaller, poor man’s version of Michigan’s Manny Harris.

From an NBA business perspective, I don’t think he would’ve been drafted if he declared this year. At this point he’s not physical enough to handle the NBA on defense, especially in comparison to the other point guards that are available.

Read the news at: Malcolm Lee says he’s returning next year – UCLA Blog – ESPN Los Angeles

Jeremy Lin’s mathematical chances of being drafted just got a bit more difficult. Armon Johnson (6′3″ 200) of Nevada just declared for the Draft. I saw him play in person when the Wolfpack paid a visit to San Jose State not too long ago.

The left-handed Johnson has a strong frame and does a decent job of getting past his man and attacking the rim.

However, I don’t think he’s as explosive as Jeremy. Johnson has more of a power, straightforward game. Rugged. Very suited to old-school Jeff Van Gundy New York Knicks.

Think Avery Johnson, but bigger and more athletic. There’s nothing all that spectacular to his game, but nothing all that glaring, either.

Coincidentally, both Johnsons (and Jeremy) don’t really have a good outside stroke, although Avery’s was atrocious — and wasn’t Avery left-handed, too?

Here’s what Nevada Coach David Carter had to say about Johnson’s decision to enter the Draft (excerpted, link is below)…

DC: “I don’t know if he’ll make an impact right away. He does have the athleticism, the size and the speed that NBA guys are looking for. The shooting part is the one that he really has to improve on. I think he’s probably a year or two away from being in that conversation where he can make an impact. But that’s most young men. I always think you can improve as a player and improve your maturity, but the NBA drafts a lot on potential, so you don’t have a lot of guys who are ready to make an impact right away.”

Read the whole article at: rgj.com | Reno, NV Wolf Pack Blog | The Reno Gazette-Journal

The good news is, Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress was impressed enough by Jeremy Lin last night that he didn’t mention Nic Wise. The bad news is, DraftExpress had some criticisms about Jeremy’s game that I don’t necessarily agree with.

Please note, I have the utmost respect for Givony and his expertise on the draft. The man has so many draft connections, European teams fly him into the Czech Republic so that he can give them feedback on players. He’s earned that. But that doesn’t mean I have to agree with him. After all, I know basketball from where I come from, too. It’s okay to disagree. You win some, you lose some.

For example, DraftExpress said that Jeremy “struggled at times to get by his man”. Well, maybe there are different plays I’m remembering.

There was one with the shotclock winding down, and Jeremy had the ball no more than 3 yards away from where I was sitting courtside, right baseline corner.

No one was cutting and the big man couldn’t post up, so he left the lane open for Jeremy. A quick jab right, show ball fake left and big right step later, he was two steps by the guy to the rim, then shielding the help big, and making the layup.

With what I’ve seen in the Jeremy highlight reels from this season, I also cannot agree with the statement that “his physical tools appear to be just average”. Did you watch Goran Dragic last night on ESPN? Is he “average” physically? Can you still be “average” and be a solid NBA rotation player, even with a spark of future leadership?

But as I’ve often said before, such definitions of “athleticism” amongst various draft boards as well as the general public need to be addressed in a separate rant.

Or is our expectation of Jeremy’s athleticism in question here? I’m sure someone could write a PhD thesis about this.

Here’s the full excerpt on Jeremy. The link is below the excerpt:

“Jeremy Lin had a solid first outing, showing his excellent feel for the game, unselfishness and court vision, particularly in transition finding teammates creatively. Lin struggled a bit at times to get by his man and finish around the basket, as his physical tools appear to be just average, but his size and playmaking ability were clearly evident. Lin didn’t score much, converting just 4-9 from the field to go along with his six assists, and might need to show more potential as a perimeter shooter after making just 34% of his 3-pointers this season. That might be easier said than done playing alongside the very ball dominant Aubrey Coleman though, as there were quite a few possessions where he was just standing around watching Coleman dribble.”

Read the whole article here: DraftExpress: Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, Day One

[NOTE: I put Givony's mug shot here not to put him up as a target or anything. Quite the contrary, he was gracious enough to meet me in person during my last visit to NYC, and he's a really nice guy and knows his business like the back of his hand. He is definitely a foremost expert on the NBA Draft, a subject I am now fascinated by.

I figured with the depth and breadth of Jeremy Lin posts here, I don't know about you, but I'm out of JL4 pictures to post, so each Jeremy post needs to show something different.

And yeah, it's better to have some kind of photo each time, since this blog directly links to Facebook and, well, you know their walled garden, it's all about their thumbnails!]