FRYE STEPPING FORWARD TO TAKE TAYLOR'S SPOT
By MARC BERMAN

November 2, 2005 -- BOSTON — With Maurice Taylor likely to miss tonight's opener because of a sprained right knee, it assures that Larry Brown will have to put rookie Channing Frye into a larger role against the Celtics.
Taylor's absence also means their other rookie, power forward David Lee, will be on the active roster. Lee was going to be one of three players on the inactive list for tonight, along with center Jackie Butler and Penny Hardaway.

"I don't know what his situation will be," Brown said yesterday of Taylor. "It doesn't look good right now. He hurt it [Monday], got some swelling."

Antonio Davis is expected to start at power forward. Frye has badly outplayed veteran Malik Rose during training camp and should be the first power forward off the bench. However, Brown keeps hinting the young kids won't play much until December.

Frye averaged 10.4 points in 19 minutes per game in preseason. The 6-11 Frye, whom Brown classified as a power forward early in camp, shot 50.8 percent from the field, grabbing 4.3 rebounds.

Brown still would not reveal his starting lineup, but Eddy Curry, Davis, Stephon Marbury and Jamal Crawford appear locks. The question is small forward, and it's a huge dilemma considering Boston's best player is veteran Paul Pierce on an otherwise young, rebuilding club that is not expected to make the playoffs.

With Quentin Richardson still not 100 percent because of a hamstring injury, the assignment could go to Trevor Ariza, who had a nice training camp and Brown believes he can turn into a good defender. Brown seems reluctant to start the unsung Matt Barnes, who missed practice yesterday due to personal reasons.



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Allan Houston made his first appearance at Knicks practice since he retired. Houston said he planned to still help out . . . Hardaway, horrible during preseason, said he was "a little shocked" about being inactive.

With 13 of their first 19 on the road, including two West Coast jaunts, the Knicks are faced with a rough November and December. "That's a tough schedule even if a team is prepared and have a lot of veterans," Davis said. "If we can manage to do it and still win in the process and get better, we'll come out on top."

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Knicks have put a limited amount of tickets on sale this morning for Friday's home opener, available at the Garden box office, Ticketmaster and nyknicks.com.

Isiah Thomas on Marbury's shift to shooting guard for a majority of possessions: "People make too much of being on or off. It's where you're most effective during a game. Everyone called me a point guard. I played off the ball a lot. You get penalized because you shoot the ball. The guys who can't shoot, they're real point guards. It's two different models. There's a Bob Cousy model and a Tiny Archibald model."

Yes they did.

i think this will be a blessnig for Fyre, we can put him on LaFrentz or Big Al, or even Blount.

They did say he was to get a good amount of playing time due to his skills and being a high draft pick.

I am thrilled with Fyre and hope they give him opportunities to score the ball, which will make him even more better on the defensive end, plus rebounding, which he seems to be getting better at

Posted by diderotn:

That's good...Can you believe this, Penny is shocked by the fact that he is not on the active roster...That guy is going to cause problems if we don't get rid of him.

Posted by Panos:

Yes they did.

A little patience is all you need. Given team history, there can be NO doubt about what the Knicks will do with Penny's expiring contract.

Frye's performance tonight will make it impossible for Brown not to play him heavy minutes every night. I look for his stat sheet to look very good. 12/8rbs/2ass/2blk

Good. I don't care who got hurt as long as Channing gets into the lineup for 25+ minutes. We won 30 games last year, Channing is the 8th pick in the draft--he played very well in pre-season--he needs to start playing big minutes from the get go. To me it is imperative that the team establishes a Curry Frye frontline for the long term. Other things will play out, but it really is your frontline that carries the load. those guys together can be a force--they may take some bumps and bruises, but its in OUR best interests.

if this organization is smart, then frye should be starting tonight. but it's the knicks we're talking about here...

Pierce's numbers tonight:

25 pts 8 reb 5 assts 1 blk 3 stls

Brown wants to start his veterans and then bring in the rookies, and i feel with AD here it will help Curry and Fyre alot

C-Curry/James/Butler
PF-Fyre/Butler/Lee

that is our front court right there