Arbitrator approves Bird rights for Knicks’ guard Jeremy Lin

The Lin-sanity may continue in New York next season. Arbitrator Kenneth Dam ruled on Friday that players like New York Knicks’ point guard Jeremy Lin who had been waived and signed by another team would be able to keep their Early Bird rights in order to re-sign with their current teams.

This ruling also affects Lin’s teammate Steve Novak, Chauncey Billups of the Los Angeles Clippers and J.J. Hickson of the Portland Trailblazers. Their teams are now allowed to go over the salary cap to resign them.

Clippers’ bench will have to come up big against Spurs

It had to be a heart-warming sight for Los Angeles Clippers’ coach Vinny Del Negro to see his bench carry the Clippers in their Game 7 road win versus the Memphis Grizzlies. Watching the Clippers over the course of the season they have had issues with their depth and things only got worse when they lost Chauncey Billups to a torn Achilles injury earlier in the season.

But the Clippers were able to address their depth issues by signing Kenyon Martin and trading for Nick Young from the Washington Wizards. They are also getting more meaningful minutes from Mo Williams, Eric Bledsoe and Reggie Evans.

Chauncey Billups is done with the Clippers

The Los Angeles Clippers are the seventh team Chauncey Billups has played with in his career (he played two separate stints in Denver) and may possibly be the last team he will ever play with after suffering a season-ending injury against the Orlando Magic on Monday night. He is done for the season with a torn Achilles but with the severity of the injury and his advanced age, he also may have played his very last game in the NBA.