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ESPN paneled a group of 215 NBA reporters, analysts and editors, and asked them to forecast the future of all 30 NBA teams.

The rankings were based on the teams' outlook over the next three seasons.

The consensus on the Knicks? Not so good.

The panel ranked New York 25th out of 30 NBA teams.

That's a dire assessment for a team that finished with the second best record in the Eastern Conference in 2012-13.

The rankings were based on the following five categories: roster (current players and future projections), management (including ownership, the front office and coaching), money (salary cap situation and willingness to spend over the luxury tax), the market's appeal to free agents and the team's future draft picks.

Do you agree with the bleak assessment of the Knicks' future? Or do you think New York's future is bright?

Let's take a look at the factors listed above:

ROSTER: As Kevin Pelton notes in his assessment of the Knicks, for the future forecast, New York probably won't have much opportunity to add a major free agent in the next two years because it is projected to be a luxury-tax payer. As a result, the panel ranked the Knicks' roster 18th out of 30 teams.

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Elsa/Getty Images Don't look up now, Melo. The Knicks' future doesn't look bright.

The books clear in 2015-16 though, when just Raymond Felton and Steve Novak are under contract. So the Knicks will have an opportunity to completely reshape the roster in the summer of 2015.

Prior to that, there may not be much opportunity for Glen Grunwald to wheel and deal unless he swings a major trade to clear cap space.

MANAGEMENT: The panel ranked Knicks management 21st, but I think that's a little low. Owner James Dolan has made many, many missteps during his tenure, but he deserves credit for ruling in favor of the trade for Carmelo Anthony, and for making a push to sign J.R. Smith. He also made the right call when the Knicks decided not to match the Houston Rockets' offer for Jeremy Lin.

Grunwald has had hits and misses but deserves a higher ranking for building a team that won 54 games. He added players that complemented Anthony well. One other plus for Grunwald? The Knicks should be -- at the very least -- competitive for the next two seasons.

Mike Woodson made his fair share of errors in the postseason, but deserves kudos for the way he navigated through injuries this season to lead the Knicks to a division crown and their first playoff series win since 2000.

MONEY: As stated above, the Knicks' financial situation is less than ideal. The contracts of Anthony, Tyson Chandler and Amar'e Stoudemire have left them little wiggle room.

They are expected to be tax payers for the next two years, so they're unlikely to add any big-money free agents. The new CBA carries a heavy penalty for repeat tax players. So they will have to improve through the draft and by attracting lower-tier free agents to New York. The panel ranks the Knicks' money situation 30th out of 30 teams.

MARKET: New York will always be a city that attracts free agents. Between the marketing opportunities, nightlife and media exposure, the Big Apple is a big draw for the biggest stars in sports. But the days of athletes needing to be in a big market to get national recognition are over, so New York has lost a little luster in that regard.

The panel ranks the Knicks' market third, which seems fair to us.

DRAFT: The panel ranked the Knicks' 30th in this category, and rightfully so. The Knicks undoubtedly have the lowest potential to improve through the draft over the next three years of any NBA team.

New York has a first-round pick this year, but has no second-round pick (it's Washington's, via the Chandler sign-and-trade). They have traded their first-round pick in 2014 (to Denver in the Anthony trade) and their second-round pick (to Houston in the Marcus Camby deal). They are slated to receive Oklahoma City's second-round pick in 2014, and there's a small chance they get Sacramento's as well. They have a first-round pick in 2015, but no second-round pick (it went to Houston in the Camby trade). Taking it a step further, Denver has the right to swap first-round picks with the Knicks in 2016 via the Anthony trade and their second-round pick will go to Portland if it falls outside of the first seven selections, a result of the Raymond Felton sign-and-trade.

QUESTION: Given all of the factors above, what do you think of the Knicks' future? Is it bleak or bright?

You can follow Ian Begley on Twitter.

Ex-Knick Jeremy Lin believes his race played a role in why he wasn’t given a Division I basketball scholarship or drafted by an NBA team.

"Well, I think the obvious thing in my mind is that I was Asian-American, which, you know, is a whole different issue but ... I think that was a barrier," Lin told Charlie Rose in a "60 Minutes" interview that will air Sunday night.

"I mean ... it's a stereotype."

Read the full news story here.

Wasn't there supposed to be drama between Carmelo Anthony and Jeremy Lin last year?
If so, nobody told Melo's son, Kiyan, who sure seemed happy to see Lin at All-Star Saturday night, greeting the Rockets guard with a big hug.

A year ago Monday, Jeremy Lin came off the end of the Knicks' bench to lead the team to a win over the then-New Jersey Nets.

We all know what happened next: Lin spurred the Knicks to seven straight wins, almost single-handedly saving what, to that point, was a lost season. He became an international phenomenon in the process.

Of course, a lot has changed in the past year -- for both Lin and the Knicks.

New York beat Detroit on Monday night to improve to 31-15 and move within a half-game of the Miami Heat for the top spot in the East. Lin is in Houston, adjusting to life with James Harden as the Rockets fight for a playoff spot in the West.

The Knicks declined to match Houston's offer to Lin over the summer, opting to bring in a veteran cast to complement Carmelo Anthony. Anthony was asked on Monday about the difference between last year's team during Linsanity and this year's squad.

"Right now, the way we’re playing as a team, what we’ve been doing for the whole season so far, we’re doing a great job," said Anthony, who's in the midseason conversation for MVP. "Playing offense, playing defense, but the most important thing is that we trust one another, we believe in one another. We hold each other to high standards. We know what to expect from one another."

He added of Linsanity: "I don’t think we will see that again for a long time, how much that took off."

Anthony was reportedly put off last year when people questioned whether he could fit in to the Knicks' Lin-led offense. Anthony and Lin, though, have both denied there was a rift.

With Lin in Houston, the Knicks this season have relied on Raymond Felton, Jason Kidd and Pablo Prigioni to run an offense equal parts pick-and-rolls, post play and isolation sets.

Tyson Chandler believes New York is better prepared for a deep playoff run this season than it was last year under Lin.

"That was an exciting year and it was an exciting moment, but we didn't have the type of cast that we have now," Chandler said when asked to reflect on Lin's run. "That was just like a period in time. This team has the chance to do something special. [It] has the chance to do something that hasn't been done in a long time. That's the biggest difference."

You can follow Ian Begley on Twitter.

Tyson Chandler may have etched his name in the Knicks' record books on Monday with his third straight 20-rebound game, but it wasn't all good for the Knicks' center.

Chandler, a 49ers fan, lost a bet with Carmelo Anthony, a Baltimore Ravens fan, after Baltimore beat San Francisco in Super Bowl XLVII on Sunday.

The result? Chandler had to wear a Ravens hat during postgame interviews on Monday.

"This is not my team, this is Carmelo's team. But they won, so congratulations to the Ravens and all their fans," Chandler begrudgingly said at the begging of his post-game interview.

"That made my day, you just don't know," Anthony said. "That made my day."

ANNIVERSARY OF LIN: A year ago Monday, Jeremy Lin emerged off the end of the Knicks' bench to lead them to a win over the Nets, beginning a phenomenon known as Linsanity.

Players were asked about the difference between that run and this year's team, which is 31-15.

"I don't think we'll see that again for a long time, how much that took off," Anthony said. "Right now, the way we’re playing as a team, what we’ve been doing for the whole season so far, we’re doing a great job."

AMAR'E SAYS FORGET ABOUT LAST YEAR: Amar'e Stoudemire wants to put an asterisk on last season. He came into the year with added muscle on his frame after injuring his back and struggled throughout the year, averaging just 17.5 points and 7.8 rebounds a game, near career-lows in both categories.

Stoudemire feels like a different player this year since coming back from arthroscopic knee surgery on Jan. 1.

"I feel great, I feel (like I did) the first year I was here," Stoudemire said. "I feel healthy, I feel strong."

Stoudemire's strong play continued on Monday.

He had 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting and three rebounds against Detroit. He has scored in double figures in 11 straight games.

NEW YORK -- Jeremy Lin is still must-see TV in New York.

Lin's first trip back to New York since signing with the Houston Rockets resulted in MSG Network's highest-rated Knicks game of the season, according to the network.

The Rockets' 109-96 victory Monday drew a 4.77 rating, MSG said Tuesday. That's well above the 3.41 average rating for the first 18 games of the season.

Lin had 22 points and eight assists. The undrafted guard from Harvard helped the Knicks earn huge ratings locally and in Asia last season during his memorable first few weeks as a starting point.

Every weekday throughout the season, ESPNNewYork.com will tackle a burning question about the Knicks in our "Opening Tip" segment.

Today's Burning Question: Are you, as a Knicks fan, now ready to move on from all things Jeremy Lin?

Lin showed the NBA world on Monday night that he can play, disregarding his low season averages. Against the Knicks, he went off for 22 points and eight assists, and he'll continue to put up numbers like that every now and then this season. Eventually, he'll likely be putting up consistent numbers like that. That's fact.

But the Knicks have Raymond Felton and a strong supporting cast that will get even stronger when Amar'e Stoudemire and Iman Shumpert return soon. That's fact, too. So Knicks fans should be, at this point, finally closing the door on Lin for at least this season -- a season that could put the Knicks right up against the Heat in a playoff series.

Excitement is back in the Garden in new ways. A winning team, a defensive culture (even through its recent struggles), seasoned point guards, ideal role players, a star in Carmelo Anthony and enough 3-point shooters to put away any team on any night.

Before the Rockets game, Mike Woodson finally spoke at length about Lin -- which he hardly does about any topic -- appearing to want to put Linsanity to bed.

"We wanted Jeremy back and I made that publicly back in the summer," he started off. "We were going through the recruitment process, but things changed from a business standpoint. And Jeremy decided to take the Houston deal. He has every right to do that. I think as an organization, we've moved on.

"I mean, we were able to go out and field guys like Kidd, Pablo and Raymond, and we're excited about those three guys that we fielded, because they've come in here and they put us in this position in terms of our (18-6) record, and sitting at the top of our division. It's no knock against Jeremy; he did what he had to do making his decision and we've done what we had to do, and we wish him nothing but the best until he plays the Knicks. And that's it."

With a response like that, that should make many Knicks fans feel the same way.

But do you? Leave us your comments below.

You can follow Jared Zwerling on Twitter.

On Sunday, Jeremy Lin said he just wanted to get his first trip to Madison Square Garden out of the way.

But it sure looked like he had a good time on the Garden floor Monday night.

Lin hurt the Knicks with an efficient 22 points and eight assists in Houston's win. It was a little like Linsanity all over again.

"For me, it was great to be back. It was a lot of fun playing on the court again," Lin said after the Rockets handed the Knicks their first home loss of the season.

Lin was pleasantly surprised to see fans dressed in his Knicks jersey in the Garden crowd. He was also thankful for the ovation he got during player introductions.

"It was actually a lot better than I thought," he said.

Once the ball went up, Lin and James Harden went out and torched the Knicks.

Lin helped Houston build a 14-point lead at halftime. He had his fingerprints all over the Rockets' decisive 15-0 third-quarter run with four points and three assists in a 2:09 span to help Houston go up by 20.

"He had a good game, plain and simple," Raymond Felton said of Lin.

Before the game, Lin begrudgingly rehashed his take on what happened over the summer, saying he initially expected to be back in New York.

The Knicks, remember, were poised to re-sign Lin as a restricted free agent. Mike Woodson even said publicly that Lin would be the Knicks' starting point guard shortly after the Rockets' first offer sheet was reported. But Houston then changed the terms of the deal to include a $14.9 million poison pill in the third year.

"We wanted Jeremy back," Mike Woodson. "I made that publicly [known] back in the summer when we were going through the recruitment process. But things changed from a business standpoint and Jeremy decided to take the Houston deal. He has every right to do that. As an organization, we’ve moved on."

Lin has, as well.

He's in the midst of what he called an "up-and-down" season in his first year with Houston.

But he turned in a highlight performance on Monday to improve to 2-0 against his former team.

Someone asked Lin after the game about trying to recreate Linsanity this season in Houston. He quickly downplayed the idea.

"Not really. I'm in a very different place now," Lin said. "I've moved on, they've moved on, and we have good memories, but at the same time, we're all in a different place now.

"The easy part for me is to make sure that I don't try to live up to that," he added. "As long as I do that, I'm not really worried too much about anything else."

TYSON SAYS IT WASN'T A FLAGRANT: Tyson Chandler thought the refs made the wrong call when they whistled him for a flagrant foul on Lin in the second quarter. Chandler hit Lin hard on the ex-Knick's drive to the rim.

"I don't think it was a flagrant foul," Chandler said. "It was a hard foul, a foul that prevented him from making a layup, but he walked to the free throw line. It wasn't that hard of a foul."

It was Chandler's second flagrant of the season -- and his second against the Rockets. Chandler's first flagrant came in late November in Houston when he elbowed Omer Asik in the throat.

Lin and Chandler talked after the game, and there was no ill intent on Chandler's behalf.

"We know it's competition," Lin said. "At the end of the day, I totally understand when someone comes in your lane, you want to make sure they think twice about coming back. It was just fun, it was friendly; it wasn't malicious."

COPE-ING MECHANISM: One bright spot for the Knicks on Monday was Chris Copeland. Filling in for Carmelo Anthony (left ankle), the rookie had a career-high 29 points on 11-for-19 shooting.

He had nine points early in the third to help cut a 14-point Rockets lead to five. But Houston reeled off 15 straight points to regain control.

"Copeland can score the ball, that's what he does," Woodson said. "He was one of the bright spots in the game tonight."

Pablo Prigioni also had a season-high 14 points.

TEAM MOTTO: Each Knick had a printout on his chair in the locker room before the game. It had "WIN" printed in bold letters on top with the phrase "We don't predict the future; we create it" across the middle.

It was branded with "Knickstape" -- a popular phrase among the team -- across the bottom.

Jeremy Lin has put a unique stamp on the Knicks. Last season, it was Linsanity. This season, it's a 2-0 record against the Knicks, the best mark of any of their opponents, and causing them to lose their first game at the Garden, dropping them to 10-1.

Monday night's 109-96 loss validates something they Knicks have been doing well all season and paints a picture of where they should improve.

First, the Knicks need continue to take care of the ball, a big credit to Raymond Felton and Jason Kidd. Entering Monday night, the Knicks were averaging an NBA-best 10.6 turnovers per game. But in the first quarter, Felton had three mishaps and Kidd had one, which resulted in 11 fast-break points, led by Lin and James Harden.

"We had a couple turnovers early in the game, and they were able to get out in transition, get some easy buckets," Felton said. "It's tough. That's how we play. We get teams to turn it over and we get it going in transition. It's hard to guard, so we got a little taste of our own medicine tonight."

The Knicks kept it close after the first quarter, leading 31-29, but their defensive lapses carried over to guarding isolations and pick-and-rolls. While the effort and quick rotations the Knicks have demonstrated so well this season to contest shots were clearly not there -- Felton admitted they were a "little flat at times" -- it's much more than that.

The Knicks have not been guarding isolations and pick-and-rolls well this season. In fact, entering Monday night, they had the worst isolation defense in the league, allowing 0.924 points per isolation play, and they were 16th in overall defensive efficiency. For further proof of their struggles, the Rockets were actually 28th in isolation offense, but Lin, Harden and Co. had their way with the Knicks at the Garden. They got in the lane with ease off the dribble, just like they did in their first win on Nov. 23.

"We gave up too many shots at the rim," Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. "That's a no-no in our system. When teams are scoring constantly in the paint, it takes some of the air out of defense."

The Knicks started the season tops in the league in defense, holding opponents to less than 90 points per game. But now they're at 96.6, dropping them to 11th-best. Their biggest problem stemming from their poor defensive schemes comes from not stopping quick, penetrating guards like Lin and Harden.

"It's tough to guard, especially with James," Felton said. "James draws so much attention and guys like Jeremy and (Chandler) Parsons, they feed off that. When James gets it going, he demands double teams sometimes. When you kick it to those guys, they can get to the basket just as well as he can."

The Knicks have, at times, found a way to compensate for their lack of isolation and pick-and-roll defense. They're 2-0 against the Heat, featuring LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, because they kept their turnovers down and capitalized on open looks. That's what the Rockets did Monday night, shooting 51.3 percent, compared to the Knicks' 43.3.

The Knicks' perimeter defense stands to improve when Iman Shumpert returns from a knee injury. Shumpert, Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire all missed Monday's game.

"They're missing various key guys. I think right at the top of the list is Shump," Lin said. "He's definitely a difference-maker, and obviously Carmelo and Amar'e."

You can follow Jared Zwerling on Twitter.

WHAT IT MEANS: Apparently, some things never change.

Jeremy Lin played his best basketball with the Knicks last year when Carmelo Anthony was out.

It was no different on Monday in his return to the Garden.

Lin made it look like "Linsanity" all over again at MSG, pouring in 22 points and handing out eight assists to help Houston to a 109-96 win over the Knicks. James Harden added 28 points and 10 rebounds for the Rockets, who beat the Knicks without Anthony, missing his second game due to a left ankle injury.

The Knicks' loss was their first at home. They'd started the season 10-0 at Madison Square Garden.

JUST LINSANE: The day before his return to the Garden, Lin told reporters that he wanted to get his one and only game in New York over with.

But he sure looked like he enjoyed himself Monday.

Lin got off to a hot start with 16 points and four assists in the first half as Houston took a 56-42 lead after two quarters.

The Knicks, thanks to 11 points from Chris Copeland, got within five points midway through the third, but that's when Lin made his presence felt again.

He had four assists and two baskets as the Rockets reeled off 15 unanswered points to build a 23-point lead heading into the fourth.

Harden had three straight baskets in the run, including two 3-pointers.

The Knicks tried to chip away in the fourth, but Lin's layup with five minutes to go gave Houston a 20-point lead.

LIN CHEERED, BOOED: Lin received a warm ovation from the Garden faithful, which drowned out a small smattering of boos. He was then booed repeatedly during the game as he and the Rockets began torching the Knicks.

Lin was also drilled by Tyson Chandler, one of his buddies on the Knicks, in the second quarter on a hit that refs ruled a flagrant foul. It's Chandler's second flagrant of the season, both coming against the Rockets.

BETTER THAN FELTON: Lin badly outplayed Knicks point guard Raymond Felton. Felton finished with 14 points on 7-for-18 shooting. Felton had three assists and four turnovers. Jason Kidd also struggled, with five points on 2-for-9 shooting to go along with an uncharacteristic three turnovers.

The rookie Copeland led the Knicks with a career-high 29 points on 11-for-19 shooting.

WHAT'S NEXT: The Knicks will take on the Brooklyn Nets at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Jeremy Lin was the last Rocket called during the Rockets' pregame introductions. And he was announced to a loud, cheerful crowd at the Garden on Monday night.

Lin is making his return to MSG tonight for the first time since last season, when Linsanity was heard around the world.

On the first Rockets' offensive possession, he faked Raymond Felton out to the baseline and then cut backdoor for the reverse layup.

You can follow Jared Zwerling on Twitter.

Some thought the Knicks were making a big business mistake when they let Jeremy Lin leave for Houston over the summer.

He’s only been gone for about five months, so some analysts say that it’s too early to tell if Lin’s departure will have any impact on the Knicks’ -- or Madison Square Garden’s -- business pursuits.

But thus far, Lin leaving hasn’t much of an impact -- if any -- on the either entity’s bottom line.

The Madison Square Garden stock price fell from $38.91 on July 3 to $34.73 on July 23. The stock then rebounded and climbed over $44 a share in December.

Madison Square Garden also generated $204 million in revenue in the first quarter of the fiscal year (since Oct. 1), a 15% increase over the last year.

The bump in stock price is best measured, however, against market performance as a whole, according to Richard Tullo, the director of research at the Wall Street firm Albert Fried & Company.

The Dow Jones Industrial, for example, has increased by seven percent over that same time frame.

So, in essence, since Lin left, Madison Square Garden has thoroughly outperformed the market.

But that's had little to do with the point guard.

Here's a breakdown of some of the factors at play:

RENOVATION: The Garden is in the final stages of a three-year renovation, which has created new seating configurations in the arena. The new seating allowed the Knicks to raise season ticket prices by an average of 49 percent after the 2010-11 season.

The renovation also gave MSG an opportunity to generate revenue from new advertising opportunities and re-vamp its luxury boxes, thereby increasing the prices for said luxury boxes.

"This is all a significant increase in revenue," Tullo says.

GOOD TIME FOR SPORTS ON TV: External factors in the sports cable industry market have also helped MSG’s value, according to Peter Lawrence, a senior analyst at Thesis Fund Management.

Time Warner Cable, according to various reports, recently paid $3 billion for rights to air Lakers games.

"The fact that they were able to do that was a positive indicator for regional sports networks," Lawrence said.

Also, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation reportedly valued the Yankees' YES Network at $3.4 billion.

This has all had a positive effect on the value of the Madison Square Garden Network, which airs Knicks and Rangers games.

One area, though, where Lin had a more direct impact on the Knicks was in their negotiations with Time Warner.

MSG and Time Warner were engaged in a contract dispute last winter which caused a blackout of the broadcast for many local teams, including the Knicks. The blackout lasted 48 days. Thirty seven days into the dispute, Lin became the starting point guard for the Knicks.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said at the time of the settlement that Lin’s presence increased the pressure on both sides to strike a deal.

Another impact of Lin’s departure -- albeit a small one -- is on the Knicks' television ratings.

Last season, MSG’s telecasts of Knicks games averaged a 3.30 Nielsen household rating, making it the highest-rated regular season ever on MSG.

The Knicks-Nets telecast on Feb. 20, 2011 generated a record 7.34 household rating, the highest rating for a regular season event in the network’s 24 years of broadcasting.

This season, so far, Knicks games are averaging a 3.28 Nielsen household rating, down 0.02 percent from last season’s average. But, the ratings are up nearly 75% from the same time period (pre-Linsanity) of last season.

"They knew if they put a good team on the floor, (Lin’s departure) wasn’t going to affect them significantly," Tullo says.

JERSEY SALES/TICKET SALES: Due to the breakdown of profits per the current collective bargaining agreement, the Knicks' financial benefit from Jeremy Lin jersey sales, particularly those sold outside of the Garden, was minimal.

According to the team and figures released by the NBA, jersey sales remain strong.

The Knicks jersey was top selling jersey in the league from April 2012 through Nov. 26, 2012.

There's no doubt that the team took a hit in t-shirt sales and other Lin-related paraphernalia, but that data was unavailable.

As far as ticket sales are concerned, the Garden says that season tickets for this year sold out and the season ticket renewal rate was over 95%.

Had the Knicks resigned Lin, they would have had to pay upwards of $40 million in luxury tax penalties in 2014-15. Instead, they obtained Raymond Feton and Jason Kidd, two of the driving forces behind their 18-5 start.

"The cap hit was a bridge too far," Tullo says, "The overall business decision to let Lin walk was a good one."

A familiar face, Jeremy Lin, returns to MSG on Monday night. More importantly, a winnable game is on deck for the Knicks, who have an NBA-best 10-0 home record.

Tipoff will be at 7:30 p.m. Here is what the Knicks need to do:

1. Dominate with their pick and roll. With Carmelo Anthony being a game-time decision, Raymond Felton/Jason Kidd and Tyson Chandler in the two-man game will be the main offensive priority. This month, they've taken the pick and roll to new heights, especially Chandler, who has been averaging 15.1 points and 11.3 rebounds per game, while shooting 73.8 percent. Felton has noticed the difference.

"He's learning how to finish in many ways," he said. "He's not only just looking for a lob. He can catch a bounce pass and finish, he can catch the ball in traffic and go up and get and-ones. I think he has a lot of that this year, so he's added a lot to his game. He's really worked this summer, he's really worked at his game. Tyson's been big for us this year, very big."

2. Defend the Rockets' isolations and 3-point looks better. In their first matchup on Nov. 23, in which the Rockets won by putting up a season-high 131 points, they shot 14-for-25 (56.0 percent) from downtown. James Harden, Daequan Cook and former Knick Toney Douglas each had three 3s. Chandler Parsons had four. Harden's playmaking in isolation and off the pick and roll really allowed the Rockets to get open looks. He finished with nine assists, to go along with a team-high 33 points.

The Rockets ran isolations on 12.2 percent of their plays that night -- one of the highest percentages by a Knicks opponent this season -- and they were very efficient, scoring 1.21 points per isolation. What's more critical is how the Knicks defend Harden. Expect more double teams, especially after Kyrie Irving lit up the Garden for a career-high 41 points on Saturday night. After the game, Mike Woodson said, "I didn't make the adjustments. We should've ran Tyson at him more with Kidd to try to get the ball out of (Irivng's) hands."

3. Reduce the Rockets' transition and inside games. On the season, they're averaging a fifth-best 16.8 fast-break points per game. Lin and Harden like to push the ball and look for quick penetration into the lane. Harden, especially, loves to take 3-pointers in transition. The Rockets' starting backcourt also makes plays when they pick up the pace because their teammates run the lanes and are great shooters. That's a credit to their youth, being the youngest team in the league with an average age of 23.9. On the flip side, the Knicks are the oldest at 31.2.

Inside, the Knicks will have to worry about Omer Asik. He gave Chandler and the Knicks fits in the paint the first time they played, as he went off for 18 points and 14 rebounds. While he's about the same height as Chandler, he has 15 pounds on him. He's also skilled. Without Rasheed Wallace (sore left foot) and Marcus Camby, that could present a red flag. Chandler can't get caught up in foul trouble. He needs to be effective throughout the entire game, especially if Anthony doesn't play.

You can follow Jared Zwerling on Twitter.

The heat of "Linsanity" seems like a long time ago.

Those were days when Jeremy Lin was on the cover of every New York paper, when people waited at stores for the No. 17 jerseys to arrive, when the greatest out-of-nowhere sports story forced Time Warner's hand to carry Knicks games in its New York City homes after months and months of negotiating tension, and when seven trademarks were filed for "Linsanity," including one by Lin himself.

It's early but, as Jeremy Lin makes his way back to Madison Square Garden on Monday for the first time since he left, the fall is pretty astonishing.

The guy who ignited water-cooler talk across the nation last winter has all but disappeared from the national discussion.

In February, Google Trends had Lin's search volume at 100 out of 100, which is what the search engine calls the peak of a certain individual's search volume

This month, the search volume for Lin is at a 6 on that same scale.

Nine months ago, there were more than 20,000 Lin items on eBay at the same time, more than any other NBA player. Today, that total has been halved and the prices have deflated.

It doesn't help that those most interested in him have easily been able to move on now that the Knicks are 18-5 with the likes of Jason Kidd and Raymond Felton. It doesn't help that Lin's Rockets are playing under-.500 ball.

But the greatest factor in Lin's decline as a marketing icon is not that the Knicks decided not to sign him. Being in the biggest market certainly helps, but it's not everything. His problem now is that he's not breaking through the clutter like he used to. He's not a regular on SportsCenter's nightly highlights. He hasn't yet justified the three-year, $25.1 million contract Rockets general manager Daryl Morey gave him.

"Linsanity" didn't end when Lin got traded to the Rockets, but what was understood is that he'd somehow have to continue to have those incredible games we got so used to. In his first 22 games with the Rockets, he has scored 15 points on four occassions. In his first 22 starts with the Knicks, he surpassed the 15-point mark 15 times.

Lin is still, and will always be, marketable in Asia. No matter what happens here, his hero status there has been cemented, which has to be one of the reason why he still has a shot to be voted into the All-Star Game, which happens to be in Houston. But he has quickly fallen off the radar in this country, meaning any new deals that come to him from multinational companies likely won't pay him significant dollars for a U.S. campaign.

Perhaps that doesn't matter to him. He's making $61,000 a game, up from about $9,000 last season. And we presume he's not sleeping on a couch anymore.

On Monday night, Jeremy Lin returns to Madison Square Garden for the first time this season.

And like many Knicks fans who have already moved on from Linsanity, the Rockets point guard doesn't want to make a big ado about the reunion.

Speaking to the Houston Chronicle on Sunday, Lin said there will be "a little nostalgia or reminiscing," but he added, "I'm definitely ready to get it over with."

That's likely because of how Lin feels he's been playing lately.

"Terrible," he said. "I'm not doing close to what I'm capable of doing. It's a matter of figuring out how to play more like myself within the system. I'll be my harshest critic, but I'm doing terrible."

Lin has scored less than 10 points four times this month, and for the season he's averaging only 11.0 points per game on below 40 percent shooting. On the flip side, Raymond Felton, who replaced Lin in New York, is averaging 16.3 points and 6.8 assists per game, helping lead the Knicks to an Eastern Conference-best 18-5 record. The Rockets are 11-12.

In addition to Lin, Toney Douglas, who was named the Knicks' starting point guard last December after Chauncey Billups was amnestied, will be returning to the Garden tomorrow night. Douglas was included in a sign-and-trade for Marcus Camby during the offseason, which also sent Josh Harrellson and Jerome Jordan to Houston.

As Lin's backup, Douglas has been averaging 8.1 points in 19 minutes per game. This month, he's been really heating up from 3-point territory, shooting 18-for-33 (54.5 percent). That has been the Rockets' offensive recipe, just like the Knicks. While the Knicks are averaging an NBA-high 12 downtown makes per game, the Rockets are second at 9.7.

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