Rautins to the Mavericks, generating a trade exception for Dallas. Ronny Turiaf and $3 million in cash considerations were sent to the Wizards to complete the three-way trade. The Knicks also obtained the draft rights to Ahmad Nivins and Georgios Printezis from Dallas. In order to fit Chandler under the salary cap, Chauncey Billups was earlier waived under the amnesty clause of the new collective bargaining agreement. To replace Billups at point guard, the Knicks signed Mike Bibby to a one-year, veteran minimum contract. The Knicks also signed veteran point guard Baron Davis on December 19 to a one-year contract. At the time, Davis had suffered a herniated disk and was not expected to compete for about 6–8 weeks, leaving Toney Douglas as the team's starting point guard. The Knicks struggled early in the season because Douglas and Bibby struggled to facilitate the offense and subsequently, it became stagnated. Subsequently, rookie Iman Shumpert was thrust into the role as the starting point guard after Douglas was relegated to the bench due to his struggles. In addition, head coach D'Antoni also decided to use Carmelo Anthony as a point forward to help generate a more up-tempo offense; however, there were concerns Anthony was holding the ball for too long, thus contributing to the stagnation of the Knicks' offense. "Linsanity" With the Knicks struggling to an 8–15 record, D'Antoni inserted third-string point guard Jeremy Lin into the rotation against the New Jersey Nets on February 4, 2012. Lin, who had been claimed off waivers on December 27 following an injury to Iman Shumpert, scored 25 points and had seven assists en route to a Knicks win. Lin was praised for his ability to facilitate the offense, something the Knicks had struggled to do for the first 23 games of the season. Lin, exceeding expectations, was named the starter for the Knicks following a game against the Utah Jazz. Lin guided the Knicks to a seven-game winning streak, despite being without Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire for five games due to a groin injury and a death in the family respectively, that brought the team back to a .500 winning percentage. The surge of positive play by the Knicks accompanied by the performance of Lin caused extensive national and worldwide media coverage that was referred to as 'Linsanity'. To bolster their depth and perimeter shooting percentage, the Knicks signed J. R. Smith on February