Celtics Keep Their Eye on Lin

This week, Harvard guard Jeremy Lin will begin his quest to the NBA as he goes up against the nation’s best seniors at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament in Virginia.

Lin is currently viewed by scouts as a borderline late second-round pick. The Crimson star will need to improve his stock by a good margin in the next ten weeks if he is to get drafted.

One team that Lin has certainly drawn interest from is the local Boston Celtics. 14 NBA scouts reportedly attended the February 19th Harvard-Cornell game, as did Celtics GM Danny Ainge.

The Celtics make sense for Lin since he already has a fanbase in the Boston area. Additionally, the NBA's most storied franchise holds a pick late in the second round.

I've had the opportunity to speak with Celtics Assistant GM Mike Zarren on multiple occasions about Lin, and though he obviously could not indicate the team's draft plans, he admitted Lin was certainly somebody who was on their radar.  Zarren said he did not know who Cornell's Ryan Wittman was, indicating the team was there to scout Lin–and Lin only–at the Harvard-Cornell game.

ESPN's Chad Ford has Lin ranked 96th among his top prospects for the upcoming draft.  His scouting report describes Lin as "a quick point guard, a tenacious defender [with] a high basketball IQ, and a leader on the floor." His negatives are that he "doesn't play against great competition at Harvard, and is a bit of a tweener."

Lin was featured in Time Magazine and Sports Illustrated and on ESPN.com this season, with the focus of the articles revolving around his status as an Asian-American basketball star.  There are no current Asian-Americans in the NBA.

Thus, one thing Lin has strongly going for him is the possibility that teams could use him as a marketing ploy. He has a large Asian-American fan base; Lin's return to his native Bay Area earlier this season for a game against Santa Clara drew the Broncos' largest crowd ever for a non-conference game.  He has over 1,800 Facebook fans, more than bigger-school stars like DaSean Butler, Greg Monroe, and Luke Harangody.

Lin is a very good defensive point guard, ranking 15th in the country this past season with 2.50 steals per game.  He's also very athletic for a guard, as evidenced by his two highlight-reel dunks against Connecticut.  Though he is often able to create his own shot and get to the basket, he may have to change the form of his shot, which is not the picture-perfect style scouts typically look for in an NBA player.

But Lin has no worries about the challenge he'll face this coming week.

"[I just need to] stay true to myself and stay true to my game," Lin says.