NBA round-up: Jeremy Lin joins Los Angeles Lakers in trade with Houston Rockets

Lin will make about US$15 million (Dh55m) this season in the last year of a deal that counts only $8m against the salary cap.

Jeremy Lin will not be wearing a Houston Rockets shirt next season. Aaron M Sprecher / EPA
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EL SEGUNDO, California // Jeremy Lin has joined the Los Angeles Lakers in a trade with Houston Rockets along with first- and second-round draft picks in 2015 for the rights to center Sergei Lishchuk.

The Lakers made the deal official on Sunday.

Lin will make about US$15 million (Dh55m) this season in the last year of a deal that counts only $8m against the salary cap. The Lakers have cap room to absorb Lin’s contract.

Lin averaged 12.5 points and 4.1 assists last season but lost his starting job. The Harvard player was born in Los Angeles and figures to be popular with the city’s large Asian community.

Lishchuk played for Valencia in Spain last season. He was drafted by Memphis in the 2004, dealt to the Rockets in 2008 and traded to Lakers in 2010.

Knicks re-sign All-Star Carmelo Anthony

High-scoring All-Star Carmelo Anthony has re-signed with the New York Knicks, the National Basketball Association team said on Sunday.

Terms of the deal were not announced for the seven-time NBA All-Star forward.

“After three months of questions around Carmelo Anthony’s return to the New York Knicks, we are now happy to know that we have the cornerstone of what we envision as a ‘team of excellence.’” Knicks president Phil Jackson said in a statement on the team website.

“[General manager] Steve Mills and I have assured Carmelo through our conversations, that we share the vision and the determination to build this team.”

Anthony, who averaged 27.4 points last season for the Knicks was the biggest free agent on the market following Friday’s decision by LeBron James to sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“I am a New York Knick at heart,” Anthony said. “I am looking forward to continue my career in Orange & Blue and to work with Phil Jackson, a champion who builds championship teams. Madison Square Garden is the Mecca of basketball and I am surrounded by the greatest fans in the world.”

Media reports indicated Anthony could sign a five-year contract for as much as $129m under NBA rules, but he may elect to take less in order to give the Knicks more room under the salary cap to improve the team by shopping for other free agents.

Anthony, 30, became a free agent by opting out of the final two years of a contract that would have paid him more than $23m next season.

He had been hotly pursued by several teams including the Chicago Bulls, who were only able to offer him four years and $75m due to their salary cap situation.

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