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When Palo Alto's Jeremy Lin signed a three-year, $25 million offer sheet with the Houston Rockets this week, the word out of New York was the Knicks would absolutely match the offer and keep their restricted free-agent guard.

Not so fast. That may not happen after New York acquired guard Raymond Felton from the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday night in a sign-and-trade deal.

The Knicks now have two veteran point guards in Felton and Jason Kidd plus Argentine guard Pablo Prigioni, and Lin could be the odd man out.

The Knicks have until 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday to match the Rockets' offer sheet.

Kidd signed on for $9 million for three years and Felton reportedly will receive $10 for the same time period. Thus, New York already is heavily invested at point guard and Lin's reported $14.8 to $15 million for his third year might be the tipping point.

Making matters worse for a Lin return to New York was a comment by the Knicks' Carmelo Anthony, currently preparing for the Summer Olympics in London.

Asked about a possible Lin return to the Knicks, Anthony replied on Sunday: "It's not up to me. It's up to the organization to say they want to match that ridiculous contract that's out there."

Lin was expecting to stay with the Knicks, even after agreeing to the Rockets' offer sheet, and spent the past two weeks working out with Knicks assistant coach Kenny Atkinson, according to Lin's coach at Palo Alto High, Peter Diepenbrock.

Now, everything is pointing in the opposite direction for Lin, whose meteoric rise last season during a 35-game stretch (14.6 points and 6.2 assists) became a global story. Lin twice made the cover of Sports Illustrated, received a verbal high five from President Obama and had his jersey become one of the NBA's hottest sellers.

While New York has been adding players, the Rockets have been subtracting while trying to free up enough money to lure Dwight Howard to town. Former Houston point guards Kyle Lowry and Goran Dragic also are gone, which points to Lin taking over that job.

Based on the potential he showed while averaging 17.9 points in his final 27 games, and the marketing appeal he had as the NBA's first American-born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent, it was long expected the Knicks wouldn't let Lin leave.

New York also said that Kidd was acquired to mentor Lin, but Kidd was arrested on a drunken driving charge after crashing his SUV into a telephone pole Sunday in the Hamptons. The DWI charge carries the potential for up to a year in jail.

So, things change. One thing that won't however, is that Lin will receive $25 million from one of two teams this week.

— Palo Alto Online Sports/Associated Press

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