The 2014 NBA Free Agency Rumors & Predictions are starting to take shape after the big names have signed. Carmelo Anthony will still return to the Big Apple, but that doesn't say he gave us the runaround.

This is perhaps the biggest surprise-a month ago, if you say that LeBron would go back to Cleveland and Carmelo would stay in New York, you would be a laughing stock. But that's exactly what happened.

At least Anthony was able to grab a max contract-something Phil Jackson seemed reluctant to give as he kept on calling Anthony's word on taking a pay cut. Melo will have none of that in New York.

It seems like after the LA Lakers traded for Jeremy Lin, Carmelo Anthony narrowed down his choices to the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls. Previously the buzz was that Carmelo was down to the Knicks and Lakers.

What caused the shift? Was it Jeremy Lin?

Their names always crossed for different reasons. When Carmelo was in Houston, the Rockets showed a mural of Melo in a Rockets' jersey #7, which was Jeremy Lin's number. The former Rockets' guard called out the disrespectful gesture and was eventually traded to the Lakers. The reasoning of the Rockets was that Lin was on the way out whether Melo signs or not. Eventually neither player is now with Houston.

Carmelo and Jeremy Lin hardly interact nowadays, but when they were teammates, there was always friction between them, moreso when Linsanity exploded. Flashback to 2012, at the height of the Harvard alum's popularity,  Tim Keown of ESPN Magazine wrote:

"[Anthony's] not an alpha dog. He might think he is, but he's not," says a source close to the Knicks. "He needs to be around someone who is feared, someone who could tell him what to do. He just couldn't see Jeremy Lin that way. He could see Kobe and LeBron that way in the Olympics, sure, but not Jeremy Lin. Carmelo's whole thing is perception."

D'Antoni was an assistant coach on the Olympic team. His role? Design the offense. Let that sink in for a moment: Team USA's offense, the one in which Anthony set a single-game U.S. Olympic record with 37 points, was precisely the point-guard- dominated, fast-twitch scheme D'Antoni ran -- and Anthony rebelled against -- in New York."

Mike D'Antoni resigned from New York and Lin signed an offer sheet from the Houston Rockets that the Knicks couldn't (didn't) match. It should be noted that the wild stretch of Linsanity happened when Carmelo Anthony was injured and even then, critics were concerned of what will happen when Melo recovers. They thought Carmelo would not sit well with Lin being the focal point of the offense.

That's a concern Carmelo didn't want to have. While the Lin trade was quite a coup for the Lakers (Lin is an expiring contract and they got a first round draft pick from Houston to use their salary cap) it might have cost them the shot for Carmelo. There would be many factors (money, LeBron James going to Cleveland and opening up the Eastern Conference) that led Melo away from LA, but it's a big possibility that Lin was one of them.