Unless something very surprising happens, Jeremy Lin is going to play for the Dallas Mavericks next season. However, it’s not going to happen without the Mavs doing some sort of sign-and-trade deal with the Los Angeles Lakers.

After signing Wesley Matthews and DeAndre Jordan while also extending J.J. Barea, the Mavericks don’t have enough money left for Lin. Not the amount he wants to be and will be paid. In order for the deal to go through, he’ll re-sign with the Lakers, who have their own set of cap space problems at the moment, trying to unload players in order to swallow the Roy Hibbert deal.

Can someone step in and snatch Lin away from the Mavs? Unlikely. The San Antonio Spurs seem to be done when it comes to their backcourt, not really minding Cory Joseph leaving them to the Toronto Raptors. The Chicago Bulls have been interested, but aren’t going to make a play for Lin, although they do need someone better than what they currently have (no one basically) to back up Derrick Rose.

This has been one of the ideal landing spots for Lin in this offseason and it seems that finally, with this time the control being in his hands, he seems to be landing on a team that should give him time with the ball, without a ball hogging shooting guard not to mention the kind of offense that suits his skills very well.

Remember, When he initially signed with the Houston Rockets things looked peachy. It was going to be his team to run. But then James Harden was signed and although Lin had some very nice moments with the Rockets during his two years in Houston, he was underused, wrongly used and eventually pushed out of the way by Kevin McHale, which “helped” the Rockets do such a terrible job in the first round of the 2014 NBA playoffs, despite home court advantage.

Lin isn’t getting a team for himself in Dallas. Dirk Nowitzki is still around and Chandler Parsons, if he stays healthy, is going to get a bigger role with more time as a ball handler compared to last season. But Lin isn’t going to be a guard that works off the ball and waits patiently for his shot. He’ll be a lot more active, a lot more important and probably a lot happier, which means better. But maybe anywhere but near Byron Scott and Kobe Bryant is an improvement.