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

Today's Burning Question: How much credit should go to Mike D'Antoni's offensive system for Jeremy Lin's sudden success?

Almost exactly two years ago, then Hornets backup point guard Darren Collison (now the Pacers' starter) burst on to the scene when Chris Paul went down with a right knee injury. Before that happened, Collison had only been averaging 6.6 points and 2.9 assists per game from Oct. 2009 through Jan. 2010. Then in the month of February, when Collison was called up to replace CP3, his stats shot up to 21.6 ppg and 8.3 apg, and he played at a high level for the rest of the season.

In recent memory, Collison, a 2009 late first-round pick, is the best example of a player who defied draft projections. Now, that's Lin. The difference with Lin is that his sudden rise is on a global scale because of what he accomplished in four starts as an undrafted player, scoring 109 points -- the most out of any NBA player since the 1976 NBA-ABA merger. Of course, the fact that he's an average-looking Asian-American, not the larger-than-life Yao Ming, who stood at 7-6, has a lot to do with his popularity. More regular people can relate to Lin, just like they did with the 6-0 Allen Iverson.

But you also have to factor in where Lin is playing and who he's playing for. The Knicks in New York City, the media capital of the world, gives him international exposure. And Mike D'Antoni gives him flexibility, especially in the absence of Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire.

One NBA talent evaluator had this to say about Lin: "What the guy's doing -- and I don't mean to minimize it -- but I'm afraid it's being blown up a little bit. Obviously the game against the Lakers was pretty amazing for him to do that, [in which he scored 38 points]. I'm a little cautious. We don't necessarily have the next Steve Nash on our hands. But I don't know what we do have. He probably was better than some people gave him credit, but on the other hand, this may have been the system he needed to get into to be good. I don't think it's a stretch to suggest he would not have had the success in more traditional offense schemes."

Lin has definitely benefited from D'Antoni's offensive style, which is point guard-friendly. Another talent evaluator believes if Lin was playing in an Eddie Jordan Princeton-like system, where offensive schemes are more enigmatic and complicated, he would've never have played so well last week.

That person said, "One of the downfalls of Jordan's offense is it really takes some time to learn it, which makes it hard for teams running that offense to make in-season trades because guys have to really get up to speed and realistically they don't until the following year. D'Antoni's system is a little more free-flowing, a little more in transition. It's a little easier to transition to on the fly."

What was interesting about Collison's ability to step right in is that he did it in an off-the-ball screen and ball movement-heavy offense. When Jeff Bower replaced Byron Scott as head coach in 2009-10, he didn't make the point guard the focal point of the offense because the Hornets' offense had struggled with Chris Paul being too much of the focus. But Collision still flourished in Bower's new schemes.

For that reason, you could make the argument that Collison's individual adjustment alone was a little more impressive than Lin's, because he didn't have the ball in his hands as much as Paul, and the offense also went through Marcus Thornton (now with the Kings). In New York, Lin has been pretty much on his own without a true secondary scorer. Options have been more limitless. For example, against Minnesota Saturday night, he scored 20 points, but did it on 8-for-24 shooting.

On the other hand, not only is Lin leading the Knicks to consecutive victories, which Collison struggled to do that season consistently, he's proving he has talent and can score in a variety of ways. The Timberwolves game demonstrated that, once again.

Lin's able to get into the lane, hang in the air, absorb contact from players twice his size and still make the off-balanced fallaway. He's been a terror in transition and even showed he can side-step in traffic (a la Dwyane Wade) to finish at the rim. He's taking defenders off the dribble in one-on-one situations, like when he froze Timberwolves shooting guard Luke Ridnour with a ridiculous reverse crossover into a jumpshot. And, even after the doubts pointing to his biggest weakness, he's knocking shots down from midrange and three.

Collison, who's averaging 11.4 points and 5.5 assists, is still under his rookie contract scale, which is now at $1.5 million in his third NBA season. But once that's up in 2013, he'll be a hot commodity in free agency. If Lin, currently a restricted free agent, continues to keep it up this season, especially when Anthony and Stoudemire return, he can expect the same kind of value. The question is: What percentage of his next salary should go to D'Antoni?

How much credit do you think should go to D'Antoni's offensive system for Lin's sudden success? Leave us your comments below.

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