What underused player could be the next Jeremy Lin?

[LooseCannon]

OK, so we see a ton of Lin threads.  Stop the Linsanity!!!  Last season, Lin was an undrafted rookie who played on 29 games for the losing Golden State Warriors and averaged a bit under 10 minutes a game and had un-spectacular statistics when he did play.

So, my challenge is this.  Can you think of a young player who has limited minutes on a bad team and isn't putting up stellar numbers that you think could be at least a solid rotational player on a good team if given the opportunity?  Let's rule out obvious projects who are on the team because of long-term potential and are being brought along slowly.  The key to this challenge is that you have to pick a player who doesn't have good statistics.  Since I don't watch college basketball, I have little chance of coming up with a good candidate, but I was wondering if anyone else had ideas.

[florida dodger]

Am I allowed to select Rudy Fernandez?

[Lucky17]

Byron Mullens went from racking up DNP-CDs in OKC to starting for the Bobcats this season. A similar obscurity-to-relevance story to Lin's.

Mullens seems to have fallen back to earth lately, after a two-week stretch in the first half of January where he posted some nice points and rebound totals.

[Who]

Joey Dorsey

[slamtheking]

JuJuan Johnson

[33_Larry Legend_33]

Austin Daye of the Pistons.  They seem to have a love-hate affair with him.  In one start this year he lit it up, but then was relegated back to the bench.

And, since Darren Daye was one of my favorite bench players from back in 1987, I'd love to see his son play here too...

[Redz]

Scal?

[Chief]

I wonder what would of happened if Steamer would have continued to start. He seemed very confident in that one game and I wish he would have gotten the chance to grow as a starter. Sometimes, it's all about getting some confidence. Look what a confident Lin is doing for the Knicks.

[nickagneta]

After barely hanging on with the heat fro a couple years didn't Earl Barron play for the Knicks at the end of one season and absolutely go off for about 15 games or so. I seem to remember a couple 20/20 games and him averaging like 15/11 over the end of that year.

Then he has done nothing since for any other team.

Before declaring Lin the next coming of Derrick Rose/Chris Paul/etc, maybe we should see him play significant minutes in a system for more than 4 games. Think maybe that's a good idea? I do!

[Change]

Jajuan Johnson future allstar.

[PosImpos]

Nikola Vucevic.


BTW, hardly anybody has noticed, but after hardly playing last year, Nikola Pekovic has been playing very, very well for the T-Wolves in extended minutes this year.  Definitely taken Darko's spot in the rotation.

[GrandTheftRondo]

One more vote for Jujuan Johnson.

[KG_ended_Bias]

Gerald Green! Perfect teams for his game are: The Orlando Magic, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns, Toronto Raptors,Sacremento Kings, Charlotte Bobcats & a Carmelo less Knicks team. He could be a premier 20plus scorer on those sqauds. And yes I extremely serious! He needs a green light wherever he goes, and those teams would give him that option.

[LarBrd33]

literally anyone.  If you feed tons of minutes to a complete unknown, they have a shot of throwing up some huge games before teams adjust.  If you're in the NBA, you're probably one of the few hundred best players in the entire world.  That alone means you have the capacity to shock some teams if they don't know your tendencies.

The Lakers aren't a very good team (they barely beat us)... a day after playing Rondo and leaving him wide open, they go against Lin.  Messed with their heads.  Lin doesn't do that twice against them.

[fairweatherfan]

Before this year I'd've said Marreese Speights, but he's got a role now in Memphis and is doing pretty well. 

Now I guess I'd go with Jeremy Evans on Utah.  I don't think he's quite ready yet, but he'll surprise some people if he can get out from behind Hayward, Miles, and Howard.